janine mccarthy ortho-bionomy

// the path to natural pain relief //

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Pain relief sessions on Zoom

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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

Posture: does it matter?

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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.