janine mccarthy ortho-bionomy

// the path to natural pain relief //

Make an Appointment
Self Care Classes
Practitioner Training

Pain relief sessions on Zoom

by Leave a Comment

During the CO-VID19 pandemic I can’t offer in-person Ortho-Bionomy bodywork sessions to help you relieve pain and stress.

But I’m determined to continue helping all my clients as much as I can.

So during the lockdown you can meet with me for pain relief sessions on Zoom for 30 or 60 minutes.

During these sessions we can:

  • examine the pain, discomfort or reduced functionality you experience,
  • consider the impact your daily activities (e.g. working from home) are having on your body
  • explore how your current postural habits are contributing to your pain/discomfort/reduced mobility
  • discuss pain relief techniques, movements and positioning you can use to improve your daily experience in your body
  • develop new habits of posture and movement to help you create a new relationship with your body and support your transition to sustainable, authentic wellbeing

Your body is always trying return to its primal state of wellbeing. It has enormous resources for self-healing and regeneration. Physical tension and emotional/mental stress create resistance that blocks your natural healing processes. Relaxation and ease are the keys to release this resistance and allow your cells to return to their natural state of vitality.

So now you don’t have to miss out on the benefits of Ortho-Bionomy sessions due to our forced social isolation. Book your appointment online HERE  or contact me by SMS on 0422 266 190 or email janine@ortho-bionomymelbourne.com

Here’s what some of my clients are saying about the video consultations:

“I worked with Janine online and it was a really useful session: we were able to review progress and add some new strategies to the mix. Working this way underlines the ‘teamwork’ aspect of her treatment and succeeds because Janine is so clear in her understanding and perceptive about the feedback she is receiving. It can also be helpful to address issues in the home environment where from day to day we move, live and work.” EM

“I booked a video session with Janine after feeling pain in my lower back and shoulders. This session was very helpful as Janine demonstrated the movements, showing me in great detail and with patience how to apply a range of exercises to ease the pain. I have had better posture since, which is very helpful considering all the time spent in front of the computer working from home.” MA

“Last year I started working with Janine to reduce my neck and shoulder pain and associated headaches and this had been so effective going from 3 or 4 headaches a week to now only once or twice a month. But my neck and shoulders got really jammed up just after the (COVID-19) shutdown and I got a headache that had persisted for a few days. So I asked Janine for an online session. It was really effective, we released the neck and shoulder pain and the headache went away. I felt so much better. I was so relieved that I could still work with Janine from home, I don’t know what I would do without this. I am going to keep doing regular online sessions with Janine to manage my headaches, yay!” SB

“I booked a video session with Janine because I’d sustained an injury right at a part of my body that I’ve been working with her for many months. There was also a bit of unresolved tension in that area still, and stress had been affecting my ability to listen to my body. During the session Janine recommended techniques I could use at home and gave me support and encouragement to apply them for myself reminding me that just because my body isn’t yelling at me (with pain) that it doesn’t mean I should stop listening to it. Since that session, I have been using the practices every day. Not only do they help physically relieve pain, but also I’m giving attention to my body in calming, conscious and intentional ways, which really helps to relieve stress and feel nurtured.” MK

 

Woman sitting on a bed working with a laptop
Video consultations from home

How to feel better in December

by Leave a Comment

Do you need to feel better in December? It feels like time speeds up at this time of year, doesn’t it? Things are supposed to be slowing down and coming to an end but somehow that means the to-do list is doubled because everything (illogically) MUST be done before Xmas.

It can be a great time of celebration, time with family and friends. But many of us also feel stress, worry, sadness and pain during this time of the year.

If that’s you, I hope this simple technique will help turn down the volume in your body from freaked out to chilled out.

Firstly, give yourself this first Xmas gift : set aside 15 minutes each day (more if you want to be even kinder to yourself). Lie down on the floor on your back in front of a chair or sofa. Lay a blanket on the floor first if it’s hard or cold. Then put your legs up on the seat of the chair/sofa, with your knees bent. See the photo with this post for the right positioning. If the chair is hard, put a pillow on it first, then rest your legs on the pillow. You can use a pillow for your head too, if you want one, and cover yourself with a blanket if needed.

Now rest your hands on your belly and close your eyes. Let your breathing slow down. Let your thoughts drift through your mind. You can meditate or listen to music or just rest quietly.

Inverting your body like this takes all the weight off your back, hips, legs and feet, allowing them to stop resisting gravity for a while. This releases tension from the muscles, connective tissues and joints. Breathing slowly with your eyes closed communicates a message of safety through your nervous system and brain. This message of safety reminds your brain that you are not under attack. Your brain begins to reduce the pain signals it sends to the body and to reduce feelings of worry and stress. After 15 minutes your whole nervous system will be calmer and you’ll get up feeling better, ready to go on with your day. Used every day, this technique can help reduce back pain and stress.

Try it through this silly season and let me know how it goes in the comments below. As always, if you need more support at this time for pain or stress, please seek help from your health practitioner.

If you need more help for back pain, an Ortho-Bionomy session can help. Read more about my practice here and learn about the unique approach to pain relief with Ortho-Bionomy here.

Posture: does it matter?

by

Does posture matter? Can it be changed, even after many years of poor posture?

The answer, from my perspective, is a resounding YES to both these questions. Posture is at the core of our wellbeing. Correct alignment of our skeletal structure allows EVERYTHING in our bodies to work as it should. Circulation is unimpeded, electrical signals from our brains to the rest of the body via the nervous system are transmitted efficiently, organs and glands function optimally, mood is improved, digestion is effective, sleep is restorative – in short, we are well!

Many clients have presented at my studio lately with obvious posture issues – but in fact, almost all conditions people arrive with a associated with posture problems. Poor posture is becoming endemic in our society, but not for the reasons we commonly believe. There is much literature and discussion currently about how we have bad posture because we sit too much (I was guilty of this one too, in one of my recent posts) or because we are too sedentary, with many of us sitting at computers for hours every day. Yes, these do cause problems, but I am now convinced that the problem is more HOW we sit, bend, stand, not just that we do them so much.

I have learned from Esther Gokhale’s excellent book and website (www.gokhalemethod.com and see my Resources page) that much of what we are told today about posture is wrong.

Have you been told to

  • tuck your pelvis,
  • support your lumbar curve,
  • maintain an ‘S’ curve in your spine, or
  • sit up straight by pulling your shoulders back?

All of these are actually incorrect because they oppose our natural or ‘primal’ posture, as Esther Gokhale calls it. This fits with everything I know about our bodies’ natural alignment from my years of Ortho-Bionomy work. In fact our spines should be mostly straight except for a sharp angle at L5/S1, where our butt should stick out behind us forming a ‘J’ curve with the straight spine above it. This structure is common amongst children, non-industrialised populations and our ancestors (up to 100 years ago). In the populations where this primal posture is common, there is little or no back pain.

Our loss of this primal posture is responsible for the epidemic of back pain (and hip, neck, knee pain etc) in our society. Fortunately, we can restore our posture to its original alignment if we are prepared to leave our old habits behind and use some simple exercises. Ortho-Bionomy provides the perfect combination with these exercises by quickly and effectively releasing the pain and tension in the musculature from our poor posture habits, leaving us free to create new habits using the Gokhale Method exercises.

View this video of Esther’s presentation for an in-depth understanding of primal posture (56 mins):

http://youtu.be/mtQ1VqGGU74

If you don’t have 56mins (but I urge you to make the time soon!), watch this 6min Ted Talk given by Esther, to get a quick tip for sitting correctly to improve your spine health:

http://youtu.be/k1luKAS_Xcg

If you would like help with undoing your old posture habits and creating new ones, book an Ortho-Bionomy session today. I also have copies of Esther’s excellent and practical book for sale at my studio.

Menstrual pain and hormonal symptoms relieved naturally

by Leave a Comment

So many women and girls suffer from menstrual pain, cycle irregularity, ovulation pain, emotional discomfort and other symptoms of hormonal imbalance. Conventional medicine offers pain medication or hormonal medications (e.g. the Pill) which many women are keen to avoid using long-term. Natural medicine can help, especially Homoeopathy, but most people don’t realise that the disruption to the hormonal cycle can in fact be caused by structural imbalance of the pelvis. This can result from:

  • Hips shifting slightly from their natural positions with forward or backward rotation,
  • reduced range of movement caused by tension in pelvic muscles,
  • lack of movement or exercise, too much sitting down
  • chronic stress that contracts the psoas muscle, pelvic floor and other muscle tissues in the pelvis.

These can cause tension around the ovaries and hormone production can be affected, resulting in a wide variety of unpleasant symptoms labelled as PMS, in addition to low back, hip and pelvic pain.

Ortho-Bionomy offers a gentle but very effective approach to all these symptoms. We work to balance the structure of the pelvis to make sure the bones are sitting in their joints naturally, which relieves undue tension in the pelvic musculature. This process can then bring balance to the pelvic organs and the hormones produced during a woman’s cycle. Many clients report a dramatic reduction in their menstrual symptoms as well improved comfort in the pelvis and throughout the body.

Here’s what one client had to say:

“Before having Ortho-Bionomy sessions with Janine I was suffering from strong period pain every month. I was seeing Janine for ongoing neck tension and I was really surprised when she said Ortho-Bionomy could help with period pain and PMS. Then I came to see her once when I was in real pain with my period and I was delighted by the immediate results of her gentle work. After feeling these amazing benefits I decided to see Janine regularly to help reduce the imbalance responsible for my pain and after a few sessions I can now enjoy pain-free cycles!”
MG