Intuitive Bodywork and Massage LLC

28/07/2025

Motivational Monday!

28/07/2025

If you have pelvic issues whether its lower back pain or a hip imbalance/weakness, I always check the jaw, temporal and sphenoid bones to see their relationship to it!

Most people don’t realize your jaw and pelvis are linked. Not just through posture or movement habits, but through your developmental blueprint.

Around day 15 of embryonic development, two critical areas begin to form: the oropharyngeal membrane, which becomes the mouth, and the cloacal membrane, which becomes the openings of the digestive, urinary, and reproductive systems.

The spine grows between them establishing a physical and neurological connection that lasts your entire life.
This connection continues through fascia and the central nervous system. The dural tube, which surrounds and protects the spinal cord, creates a continuous communication pathway from your jaw down to your sacrum.

When there’s tension or misalignment in the jaw whether from clenching, TMJ dysfunction, or altered bite it changes head posture. Your body compensates to keep balance, often by tilting the pelvis or shifting your weight.

Over time, these small changes can show up as chronic hip pain, pelvic instability, or forward head posture.
There’s also a functional link: the jaw and pelvic floor are both involved in how your body stabilizes the spine. They’re part of your core system.

If your jaw is clenched, chances are your pelvic floor is either overactive or not firing properly. This affects posture, breath control, and how your nervous system regulates tension.

Posture isn’t just a matter of standing tall. It’s a full-body coordination between systems that started forming before you were even born.

Read our full blog jaw and body are connected, link in bio ☝🏻




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26/07/2025

💔🌀 When Trauma Blocks the Flow

How Emotional Wounds Create Physical Stagnation in Your Lymphatic System

(This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your health regimen.)

“Our biography becomes our biology.” — Dr. Gabor Maté

What if your swollen nodes, chronic puffiness, or lymphatic congestion aren’t just physical…
What if they are echoes of unspoken pain?

The truth is, trauma doesn’t just live in your memory. It embeds itself in the tissues of your body — tightening fascia, freezing breath, gripping muscles, and quietly clogging your lymphatic system.

This is the science of emotional stagnation — and the healing potential that’s unlocked when your lymph starts to flow again.

🧠💧 The Forgotten Link: Emotions + Lymph

Your lymphatic system is the silent river of your body — it carries toxins, waste, immune cells, and inflammatory messengers. But it doesn’t have a heart to pump it.

Instead, it relies on movement, breath, relaxed fascia, and neurological safety to flow.

And this is where trauma steps in.

When the body is trapped in a chronic fight-flight-freeze state — whether from abuse, grief, surgery, illness, or stress — your nervous system stays alert. Shoulders rise. The breath shallows. The diaphragm stiffens. Fascia contracts.

And the lymph slows.

🔒 Fascia: Where Trauma Hides

Your fascia — the connective tissue that wraps every muscle, organ, and lymphatic vessel — holds somatic memory. Emotional trauma causes fascial rigidity, particularly in:
• The neck & jaw (where the vagus nerve and deep cervical nodes sit)
• The gut (where trauma often somatizes and lymph collects)
• The pelvis (home to lymphatic cisterns and stored grief/violation)

Research in biotensegrity and somatic release confirms that emotional experiences change fascial tone, impeding fluid flow and lymphatic movement【Scarr, G. Biotensegrity】.

🧬 The Vagus Nerve & Lymph Flow

Your vagus nerve is the body’s brake pedal. When it’s toned and calm, your body feels safe — digestion flows, breath deepens, and lymphatic rhythm returns.

But trauma often leads to vagal shutdown or overload, impairing:
• Gut-lymph circulation
• Neuro-lymphatic drainage in the brain
• Immune balance and inflammation

That’s why so many trauma survivors develop autoimmunity, swelling, or chronic fatigue.

😭 When You Cry, You Drain

This may sound poetic, but it’s physiologically true:
When you weep, sigh, exhale deeply, or shake, you’re moving lymph.

Emotional release techniques — like somatic therapy, breathwork, craniosacral therapy, and MLD — often trigger “emotional detox” symptoms. This isn’t a setback. It’s a sacred reset.

🌿 What Can You Do to Heal?

Healing trauma-driven lymph stagnation is about more than drainage. It’s about creating safety in your nervous system so your body can finally let go.

💆‍♀️ Therapeutic Tools:
• Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD): Gently moves fluid & rewires safety into touch
• Fascial Release & Craniosacral Therapy: Frees old holding patterns in the body
• Vagus Nerve Stimulation: Cold exposure, humming, gargling, breathwork
• Castor Oil Packs: Anti-inflammatory, grounding, and somatically soothing
• Somatic Therapy: Releases stored trauma through body awareness and movement
• Gentle Movement & Emotional Expression: Dancing, weeping, sighing, praying

🧘🏻‍♀️ Real Healing Happens When…

The body feels safe enough to surrender.
The fascia softens.
The breath deepens.
The lymph begins to flow.

And the soul finally exhales.

This isn’t just lymphatic therapy.
This is sacred restoration of a body that’s been carrying too much for too long.

📚 Supporting Research:
• Van der Kolk B. The Body Keeps the Score — trauma’s impact on physiology and memory
• Scarr G. “Biotensegrity and the Fascia System”
• Carter J, et al. Brain Behav Immun. 2016 — trauma, inflammation, and immune dysregulation
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2016.10.019

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26/07/2025

Self Care Saturday!

26/07/2025

Massage helps move lymph throughout your system, thus helping your immune system! Let us help you heal you!

The 4 Stages of Lymphatic Congestion: From Silent Stagnation to Full-Body Fatigue

Most people don’t think twice about their lymphatic system—until things go wrong. But did you know that lymphatic congestion doesn’t happen all at once? It develops in stages, often quietly, until it begins to affect every corner of your health.

Let’s dive into the 4 stages of lymphatic congestion and how this invisible traffic jam inside your body can snowball if left unchecked.

🔹 Stage 1: Silent Stagnation

What’s happening:
At this stage, your lymphatic system slows down, but there are no obvious symptoms yet. Lymphatic fluid begins to stagnate due to poor movement, dehydration, toxin exposure, or chronic stress.

Signs to watch for:
• Occasional morning puffiness
• Cold hands and feet
• Sluggish digestion
• Brain fog that comes and goes

Why it matters:
This is your body’s whisper, asking for help. Lymph fluid isn’t draining efficiently, meaning immune cells, waste products, and inflammation are starting to build up quietly in the background.

🔸 Stage 2: Surface Swelling & Immune Stress

What’s happening:
Now, congestion becomes visible. Lymph nodes might swell slightly in the neck, armpits, or groin, and your immune system begins to strain. Inflammatory signals rise.

Signs to watch for:
• Mild facial or limb swelling
• Allergies or histamine reactions
• Feeling “heavy” or water-retentive
• Recurring sinus pressure or ear congestion
• Catching colds more easily

Why it matters:
Lymph is your drainage system, but also your immunity highway. If toxins, bacteria, or waste can’t clear efficiently, your immune response becomes hyperactive—or exhausted.

🔴 Stage 3: Tissue Inflammation & Systemic Load

What’s happening:
Now the body starts showing signs of chronic inflammation. The sluggish lymph is no longer just a local issue—it’s system-wide. You may notice lymphatic resistance when you try detoxing or exercising.

Signs to watch for:
• Tenderness in lymph node areas
• Stubborn fluid retention in arms, legs, or abdomen
• Joint stiffness or pain
• Hormonal imbalance
• Fatigue that sleep doesn’t fix

Why it matters:
This is where lymphatic stagnation starts affecting your organs, especially the liver, gut, and skin. Without lymph flow, your body’s ability to cleanse and regenerate breaks down.

⚠️ Stage 4: Chronic Congestion & Cellular Burnout

What’s happening:
At this final stage, the lymphatic system is deeply congested. Chronic illness may begin to show its face: autoimmune conditions, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, even lipo-lymphoedema. The body’s drainage, defense, and detox systems are now all compromised.

Signs to watch for:
• Hard, fibrotic tissues (especially in legs, arms, abdomen)
• Constant lymph node swelling
• Skin issues like eczema, cystic acne, or rashes
• Chronic infections or immune suppression
• Swelling worsens with heat, travel, or inactivity

Why it matters:
You’re not just dealing with lymph congestion anymore—you’re dealing with lymphatic burnout. At this point, the body is overloaded with inflammation, metabolic waste, and immune confusion. Healing requires deep, multi-system support.

🌿 Can You Reverse It? Yes, But the Sooner the Better.

The beauty of the lymphatic system is that it responds quickly to care. With gentle stimulation, detox strategies, hydration, movement, and professional lymphatic therapy, you can shift back through the stages—from burnout to flow.

Here’s how:
• Manual Lymph Drainage (MLD)
• Rebounding (if tolerated) or vibration plates
• Deep diaphragmatic breathing
• Anti-inflammatory nutrition
• Fascia and vagus nerve support
• Castor oil packs and contrast hydrotherapy
• Reducing toxic load (emotional and chemical)

🔄 The Stages Are a Cycle—Not a Sentence

You can move in and out of these stages depending on life stressors, hormones, illness, or trauma. The key is to stay aware, listen to your body’s whispers before it screams, and nurture your lymph with daily care.

Because when your lymph flows, you heal. 🌊

📚 Want to Read More?

Here are a few research articles that support the role of lymphatic congestion in systemic inflammation and chronic disease:
• Kataru, R. P., et al. (2019). “Lymphatic dysfunction in chronic inflammatory diseases.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13939
• Rockson, S. G. (2021). “The lymphatic system: fundamental roles in immunity and disease.” Journal of Clinical Investigation. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI142614
• Alitalo, K. (2011). “The lymphatic vasculature in disease.” Nature Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2545

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26/07/2025

Have a wonderful weekend!

Thank you to every one of our clients that travel anywhere from 5 minutes to 3hrs away to come see us! We are so grateful you chose us to help you heal you!

26/07/2025

According to a recent study, forward head position and blood flow to the brain are clinically observable by taking the carotid pulses and can lead to debilitating symptoms within the brain.

The carotid pulses are weaker when the head is in a forward position; however, the carotid pulses are stronger when the head is over the spine.

When the head is forward over the spine, the brain may not receive sufficient blood flow and oxygen due to compression of the carotid arteries. If this compression is severe enough, it can result in cerebral ischemia (CNS dysfunction). Clinically, we see disturbed sleeping patterns, increased anxiety, and mental sluggishness.

The March 2000 Mayo Clinic reported that prolonged FHP also leads to myospasm, disc herniations, arthritis, and pinched nerves.

Dr. Alf Breig, a Swedish neurosurgeon and Nobel Prize recipient, describes how the loss of a normal cervical lordotic curve creates dysfunction and disease.

Through cadaver studies, Dr. Breig demonstrated that neck flexion could stretch the spinal cord 5-7 cm causing tensioning of the meninges (covering of the brain and spinal cord) and elicit measurable pressure on brainstem nuclei (nerve control centers) which control all basic life functions. (Breig, Alf. Adverse Mechanical Tension in the Central Nervous System: An Analysis of Cause and Effect. 1978. Almqvuist & Wiksell International, Stockholm, Sweden. Pg. 177.)

New studies show that correction of cervical lordosis may be associated with an immediate increase in cerebral blood flow.

subscribe to Posturepro+ for links of studies 👆




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24/07/2025

Neuromuscular Therapy was the first modalities Ashley and Susan learned in massage school.
It includes a thorough assessment protocol and trigger point therapy that helps relieve pain, compensation, weakness and instability.

24/07/2025

Ashley and Susan are booked today, but Susan has some openings available just in time for the weekend!

23/07/2025

Wellness Wednesday!

Please consider massage more often for your pain relief, injury recovery, stress management and self care regime!