We offer a variety of courses, centered around these physiology principles:
SOMATIC BODYWORK
The human mind and body interact in intricate and intriguing ways. Our thoughts and emotions connect directly with our muscle tone, which reflect our perceptions directly and immediately. This connection offers bodyworkers access to our clients’ neuromuscular and myofascial organization. Our breath is an immediate and direct effect of our thoughts and emotions, moment to moment. In ‘Somatic Bodywork’ we will explore techniques and concepts that can be applied in a massage session with the intention of softening and expanding the mechanisms of breathing, facilitating parasympathetic responses. A goal here is to expand the effect achieved during a bodywork session to the client’s everyday management of worry and anxiety.
“...our bodies telegraph us when our minds have missed the cues….the physiological stress response is a more accurate gauge of the organism’s real experience than either conscious awareness or observed behavior.” from Gabor Maté’s book,
When The Body Says No- The Cost Of Hidden Stress
Based on Deane Juhan’s book Job’s Body, A Handbook for Bodywork. This lecture/discussion course focuses on chapters 2-9: skin, connective tissue, muscle tone, and proprioception. As we see the body and mind merge into ‘bodymind’, the physiology of tissues in the process of functioning becomes organized and governed by feelings and emotions, enabled through proprioception. Since our emotions play out within our own physiology, this class explores how we connect our values through our body.
All joints are normally under compression from muscle tone. Joints can be put in temporary traction by pulling on them. There is a fine space where a joint is between the two – no compression nor traction forces. Here the joint is ‘floating’, and powerful self-correcting responses can readily be elicited from the clients’ homeostatic reflexes. This is a very subtle technique that has virtually no contraindications.
Problematic patterns in the body ‘play out’ in its tensegrity-organized forces. Chronic patterns involve the entire body while also having local phenomena. While every body is organized uniquely, there are commonalities to these forces & patterns on the principles of a tensegrity-based structure. In this class commonalities are discussed, and technique principles are presented for organizing effective work quickly and efficiently, working deeply into tissues without heavy pressure.
Inefficient healing of scar tissue after surgery or injury can seriously affect quality of life and increase health costs. The ability to influence the scar tissue matrix’ organization is key to achieving maximum range of motion and neuro-muscular function. This class will provide participants with an overview of Scar Tissue massage techniques and practices. Lectures will focus on the connective tissue processes of wound healing, post-surgery and post–injury, including the energy dynamics of bot
Chuck LaFrano’s SportsMassage course is the result of his 7 seasons as head of the massage team for the Chicago Bears as well as his many client-athletes, plus over 30 years of teaching Sports Massage. You will learn: the critical role for athletes of the sacro-iliac joints and the tibia-fibula relationship, injury-solving and -preventing theories and techniques, pre-event techniques that improve cardio-pulmonary efficiency with clear contraindications, and detailed approaches to shoulder work.
“Energy follows intention” is a LaFrano Massage Dynamics tenet. In order to focus intention ‘presence’ is required. One of the sweetest feelings humans have for one another is compassion, although it has some surprising characteristics, and pitfalls, when its dynamics are examined. What are we responsible for as bodyworkers? How can we support clients experiencing emotional responses to a session? This class includes lecture & discussion, practical experiences & exercises.
“Disease is nothing else but an attempt on the part of the body to rid itself of morbific matter.” Dr. Thomas Sydenham (the ‘English Hippocrates’) 1624-89. The quote becomes intriguing to massage therapists when viewed within the context of hypertonicity’s effect on the interstitial space and its ability to flow toxins away from cells. This dynamic is explored and connected to joint proprioception (which is the “heart” of the matter) that 'hold' or 'remember' somatic experiences.
Chuck has been a full-time massage therapist for over 35 years. In an industry where most 'burn out' within 5 years, Chuck has developed a system of self-care and body mechanics that allow practitioners to function as aggressive structural bodyworkers for their entire lives. The human body is as young as its joints move and as old as they don’t. Based on proprioceptive neuro-reflex principles blended with band work and Mentastics-style movement, this system is helpful for career longevity.
$33 per hour Continuing Education
$25 per hour Client Consult
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