The body therapist

12/01/2026

Oh yes..!

Great bodywork doesn’t come from trying
harder.
It comes from listening better.

Not more effort.
Not more techniques.
Not more performance.

The real shift happens when you stop imposing
and start responding.

When you listen to what the body is asking for,
it tells you exactly where to go.

kineticwellnessmfr.com

12/01/2026

This is Grief

Grief has a way of changing how the body moves through the world. Not all at once, not dramatically, but quietly. You notice it in your breath before you notice it in your thoughts. In the way your shoulders sit a little differently. In how familiar spaces suddenly feel unfamiliar. I’ve come to trust these subtle shifts, because they’re often the body’s first language of loss.

The world keeps moving, conversations continue, time does what it always does, and inside you are standing very still.

I know that moment. I’ve lived it. I’ve felt it settle into my chest and my hands and the quiet spaces of the body that don’t have language. It feels like standing in a doorway, unable to return to the life that existed before, and not yet knowing how to step into whatever comes next.

When someone we love is gone, the body understands before the mind can make sense of it. Our breath shifts, muscles hold differently, and our fascia tightens and softens in waves that don’t follow logic. The nervous system is trying to orient to a world that suddenly feels unfamiliar. Nothing is wrong when this happens. It is the body doing exactly what it was designed to do when something precious has been lost.

I’ve watched this unfold time and time again in my work. People worry they are stuck, that they should be further along, that something about their grief isn’t moving as it should. But grief is not a straight line, and the body doesn’t rush adaptation. It pauses. It remembers. It holds love in the only way it knows how until it learns a new way to carry it.

That in-between space can feel unbearable at times. Memories surface without warning. Sensations move through the body like echoes. There is an awareness that life is still asking you to participate, even when your heart feels unsure how. But this isn’t limbo. It’s a threshold, a place where the body is quietly reorganizing around absence.

In my work, I’ve learned that this space deserves tenderness, not fixing. Just like tissue won’t release when it’s forced, grief doesn’t soften when it’s rushed. The nervous system settles when it feels safe enough to do so. Healing comes through permission, not pressure.

If you are there right now, I want you to know this. You are not failing at grief. You are not behind. You are not broken. Your body is doing something incredibly intelligent. It is learning how to live in a world where love remains, even though the person does not.

You don’t have to know what comes next. You don’t have to find meaning yet. Breathing is enough. Resting is enough. Being exactly where you are is enough.

And one day, likely without realizing when it happened, you will notice that you are moving again. Not because the grief left, but because your body learned how to carry it.

That moment doesn’t announce itself; it simply arrives, quietly, the way most true things do.

09/01/2026

A dentist taught me this one. Wiggle your toes to help you relax next time you’re there and see if you notice the difference!

Write diffrently From birth, your tongue is actually connected to your toes through an intricate network of connective tissue known as fascia.

If your tongue is not resting correctly in your mouth due to mouth breathing, things can get out of alignment in your mouth and the rest of your body.

Tongue posture can lead to a foot imbalance and vice versa because the tongue guides all myofascial continuity structures that run from the inner arch of the foot up through the middle of the body to the tongue and jaw muscles.

When the tongue sits on top of the palate, it seals the oral cavity and holds the throat open like a tent. These muscles support the neck, keep your posture straight, help you breathe, and maintain your posture upright.

Your tongue also acts as a rudder and support system through a fascial line, and when the tongue is down, we breathe through our mouth, and the head falls forward due to lack of support, which leads to poor posture and increased energy expenditure.

For better core support and spinal, hip, and leg strength, you need to work on your tongue posture!

👅 Try these swallowing exercises:
1. Extend your tongue to the bumpy part on the top of your mouth right behind your teeth.
2. Then curl your tongue toward the back of your mouth as far as possible.
3. Hold for a few seconds.
4. Repeat five times.

Credit:

05/01/2026

Friday Appointments Available -

These don’t appear on the online calendar so please message or email me if you would like one. It’ll be great to see you!

22/12/2025

The importance of being seen….

There I was again in the ER, violently ill, knowing in my bones that something was wrong. Like clockwork, every six months my body brought me back to this same place. The doctor walked in with a kind smile and a clipboard, delivering the words meant to reassure. “Great news! All of our testing came back normal. You are the picture of health!”

Inside, it felt like a nightmare. Because when your body is in distress and the chart says everything is fine, you are left holding the pain alone. I knew something deeper was happening, even if it didn’t yet have a name or a number attached to it. The body is a master compensator, and that is both its greatest gift and its quiet burden.

What I learned through my own journey is that there are entire stories labs cannot tell. They did not reveal the chronic pain that taught my body to brace, or the trauma still living in my nervous system long after the moment had passed. They cannot measure heartache, grief, or how long a body has been holding its breath just to make it through the day. These stories live in fascia, in breath, in tone, and in the way a body guards itself like a faithful sentinel.

This is where a witness matters. Someone willing to look beyond the chart and listen to what the body has been carrying. Bodywork became that language for me, a way of understanding what my body had been trying to say all along. And now, it is how I help others. Sometimes healing begins with being seen, believed, and gently guided back into safety.

If this story feels familiar, let this be your reminder. You are not imagining your experience. Your body has been doing its best to protect you, and you do not have to carry it alone.

20/12/2025

This is John F Barnes, who passed away yesterday. I never had the privilege of learning directly with him but it is his work that I share in every treatment with you. That work has been utterly life changing for me and if it has had any beneficial influence on you then both he and I have fulfilled our purpose. My thanks also to the generous teachers who have shared his work here in the UK.
His presence will be missed by many. His work continues.

16/12/2025

I love the sphenoid bone, it sits right in the middle of your head and is so beautiful.
(From this post, for today, PT read MFR - I prefer to share from source than edit to make it look like my own. This way I acknowledge the work someone else has done and you have more places to go to find useful knowledge if you wish)

The sphenoid and pelvis mirror each other more than most people realize.

Both have a central ‘body’ with wing-like expansions, both function as structural keystones, and both anchor major myofascial and ligamentous systems.

Because their shapes — and roles — parallel each other, rotation or tension in one region can echo through the dural, fascial, and CNS pathways to influence the other.

In PT, we don’t just treat what hurts. We treat the patterns — and these two structures often share the same story.

11/12/2025

When you receive MFR treatment it’s common for old emotions to surface. And all too easy to dislike the feeling and swallow them down again. Allow yourself to feel them though and notice the power and freedom that follows, not to mention the release of tension they’ve had you gripping onto

07/12/2025

Are You (Pet) Hair-Free?! -

You may have noticed news of more people having allergies and intolerances or simply becoming highly sensitive to the environment around them. You might be one of them. Or rather, ‘one of us’ as I have experienced severe allergies nearly 60 years.

20/11/2025

This may seem technical but it’s the simplest way to explain some of what’s happening when I put my hands on you and use the fascia to help regulate your nervous system. A deep privilege for me ☺️ and often a profound experience for you 🤞
💕✨

Mechanoreceptors are a remarkable part of the fascial system. They are the microscopic sensory “listening stations” embedded throughout fascia that constantly read pressure, stretch, tension, vibration, and movement. They allow the body to feel itself from the inside. Without mechanoreceptors, movement would be clumsy, uncoordinated, and disconnected. With them, movement becomes fluid, responsive, and intelligent.

Fascia is loaded with various types of mechanoreceptors, each communicating with the nervous system in its own unique way. Ruffini endings respond to slow, sustained pressure and create a parasympathetic calming effect. Pacinian corpuscles respond to vibration and rapid changes in pressure, helping the body coordinate sudden movements. Interstitial receptors monitor subtle stretches, tensions, and internal shifts; they comprise nearly eighty percent of fascial sensory input and directly influence pain perception. Golgi receptors, found near ligaments and tendon insertions, respond to deep stretch and help down-regulate muscular tension.

When a bodyworker touches fascia, these receptors are the very first structures to respond. Slow, sustained contact helps melt hypertonicity because Ruffini endings signal to the nervous system, “It’s safe to soften.” Deep or directional stretch activates Golgi receptors, signaling muscles to lengthen. Gentle vibration or oscillation stimulates Pacinian receptors, enhancing proprioception and enabling joints to move with greater confidence. Even the quietest technique, a still fascial hold, stimulates interstitial receptors, which can modulate pain and reduce sympathetic overdrive.

Altogether, mechanoreceptors weave the sensory intelligence of fascia. They are the reason the body can adapt, coordinate, stabilize, and move with fluid grace rather than mechanical force. They turn every subtle change in tension into information the brain uses to refine posture, balance, and movement patterns.

So when we work with fascia, we’re not just stretching tissue. We’re communicating with an enormous sensory network that shapes how someone moves, feels, and inhabits their body. Mechanoreceptors are part of the reason fascia is both biomechanical and deeply emotional.

17/09/2025

This is really important to remember. Please rest; honour the work you’re doing, there’s no rush

28/08/2025

Of course… it’s all about the vibration!

In a surprising breakthrough, scientists have discovered that human cells can actually hear sound and respond to it. Research shows that certain cells detect vibrations and convert them into biological signals, influencing their behaviour and function.

This groundbreaking finding challenges previous assumptions that cells operate independently of auditory cues, revealing a previously unknown layer of communication within the body. Cells exposed to specific sound frequencies demonstrated changes in gene expression, growth patterns, and even signalling pathways, suggesting sound could one day be used to influence health at a cellular level.

The discovery opens exciting possibilities for medicine and biotechnology. Future therapies could harness sound waves to promote healing, improve cellular function, or even target diseases with unprecedented precision. Scientists are now exploring how different types of sound affect various cell types and how this knowledge could lead to non-invasive treatments.

Understanding that our cells can “hear” may revolutionise the way we approach health and disease, offering innovative tools for therapies and preventive medicine. The human body may be more attuned to its environment than we ever imagined.