What Fascia Decompression and "Block Therapy" Did For Me

How Addressing Fascial Health and Body Memories Helped Me

Introduction

Over on my Parkinson’s oriented website, I recently published a Guest Article by Deanna Hansen, founder of Fluid Isometrics and Block Therapy, author of the books Fascia Decompression: The Missing Link in Self-Care & Unblock Your Body: How Decompressing Your Fascia is the Missing Link in Healing.

In that article, I included a detailed narrative testimonial of my own experiences in engaging with what Deanna teaches, and thought it was worth sharing this a post here too.

For background on fascia, as well as what Deanna writes in her guest article, see my post:

Book Review: "Fascia: What it is and Why it Matters" 2nd Edition

Initial Experiences

I started using Block Therapy just over three years ago. I noticed immediate benefits, including the resolution of any constipation, and the raising of my body temperature. I hadn’t realized how cold my body was, and the impacts this was having on symptoms, so the initial “hot flushes” which the Block Therapy “belly position” induced was a surprise, and a revelation. I also hadn’t realized how frozen my diaphragm was, and how disconnected I was from it. I could neither sense my diaphragm, nor move it voluntarily. I can now, perhaps for the first time in my life, breath diaphragmatically, and feel, sense, and move my diaphragm.

Here is an example video so you can what Block Therapy looks like in action:

I initially found I could only tolerate small amounts of fascia decompression per day, just two or three positions of the Block Therapy work. One thing that fascia decompression can do is release toxins that have become stored and sequestered in the body.

As someone who is stuck in the freeze stress response, my body was a very poor eliminator of toxins such as heavy metals - as confirmed by a mineral analysis of my hair - because I wasn’t able to spend enough time in the calm and relaxed states that is required for detoxification to take place. So, by the time I started practicing fascia decompression, my body was very toxified according to the hair mineral test. Since my system could not detoxify, all it could do was sequester the toxins away in my fascia for safe keeping, preventing harm to the organs.

Thus, I found if I do too much Block Therapy per day, it releases too many toxins into my body at once, faster than I can eliminate and excrete them. This overwhelm is called a “healing crisis” by Deanna. For me it manifests as a temporary increase in symptoms, especially pain. As time has gone on, and I have released and eliminated a great deal of the toxins, I am able to tolerate doing more and more fascia decompression a day, and so the process is continually accelerating.

Year 1 - Neck and Shoulder Dystonia

At the time of starting the practice, by far my worst and most debilitating symptom was the dystonia - high level of pain, stiffness, rigidity - in my right neck and shoulder, which would come back every time a dose of drugs wore off. When this happened, I couldn’t stand up for long, as it felt like I was being crushed to the ground, as if someone had turned up the gravity. I couldn’t sit down for long either, because when in the seated positions, the constrictions in my neck felt like the blood supply to my brain was being cut off, which made me feel like a zombie, and made me panic.  

Due to the debilitating pain and neck issues, each time the drugs wore off was very frightening and traumatic. All I could do was lay on the bed with my head propped up so much that my chin was on my chest, as this was the only position which brought some modicum of relief. At that time, this wear-off was occurring about 6 times a day, lasting one to two hours or more each time.

Since the neck and shoulder issues were so problematic, I suspected that some serious problem with the fascia in that area had developed over time, or it had been damaged somehow. As I could only manage two or three Block Therapy positions a day, without incurring a healing crisis, I concentrated my fire there, and mainly just blocked the side of my neck, sternum, and clavicle region. The images below show the photo record of my progress of doing this consistently across the first year of my fascia decompression practice. I think these images speak for themselves.

In the photo records from the side, you can see the vast improvement in my posture, but especially the space that opens in my neck. See how my chin was initially below the levels of my shoulders. The relaxation and the relief in my shoulders is also visceral and tangible in the images from the back. It was also very noticeable internally by me, in terms of a marked decrease in the pain and dystonia in my neck. The effect was noticeable by other people too. For example, during this time, one person I saw daily asked me “are you getting taller?”

Year 2 - Adding Manual Work

In the second year, I added in some more positions, which bought additional relief, including the side of the torso under the armpit, and the outside of the deltoid. I added in blocking the back of my neck and the back of shoulders, which allowed me to begin to be able to lie down without having to prop up my head so much that my chin was on my chest, yet not feel like the oxygen supply to my brain was being cut off.

I began to also supplement the Block Therapy with my hands, applying pressure with my fingers, and moving in small, slow spirals like Deanna teaches. Indeed, I found that using the fingers this way is a great self-assessment tool. When starting to apply fascia decompression to a new area, initially the skin will not move with the fingers, but is stuck down firmly to the underling bone. As you progress, the skin begins to become free from the bone, and starts to glide smoothly with fingers as you make the spiral movements, so the results are tangible and measurable.

In particular, the hands-on approach was for me the safest and gentlest way to release my rib cage. Initially the skin was utterly stuck down on to the ribs, but now it glides nicely and can be pulled or pinched away from the ribs completely.

Year 3 - Freeing the Scalp and Lower Legs

In the third year of my practice, Deanna released a “hair health” class, which is designed to release the scalp from the skull, through a combination of applying the spiralling pressure via the finger tips, and gentle pulling and twisting of the hair.

Using the finger test on my head, I realized that the skin of the scalp was completely stuck down like superglue to my skull, with no movement whatsoever, and was also extremely tight. I realized that the profound constriction this was causing could be feeding into my neurological issues.

I began to do the hair health class daily, and indeed noticed an acceleration in my symptom reduction, especially in regard to brain fog, and improvements in mood and sleep. There is still some way to go, and hence more gains to be had, in releasing my scalp, due to the profound, and possibly life long, stuckness here, and the large surface area which needs to be released, but the skin is starting to free up and glide nicely in places.

As an aside, I suspect that so called “male pattern baldness” is actually caused by this restricted, tight scalp phenomena. If this is correct, the prediction is I will eventually start seeing hair re-growth of my bald spot!

I also began to be able access the lower legs, feet and calves. As Deanna points out, these are the most frozen places, and for me seem to be where a lot of toxins are stored. Initially, any attempt to apply fascia decompression to them would result in a healing crisis and overwhelm, so I was exiled from working on them.

As I have had made more space, and addressed some of the other places where major problems were apparent, I have slowly been able to begin to work on these areas. I am now seeing benefits in the reduction of not only the stiffness of my legs, but also further up the chain as Deanna suggests would be the case.

Also, as for many folks with chronic conditions, my lower legs had gone hairless and bald. Again, I believe this is due to restrictive tightness in that region. In this case, I have indeed already seen noticeable hair re-growth in this area, which supports my prediction that male pattern baldness is also related to fascial restriction of the scalp.

Combining with HOPE shortcut Therapy

More recently, I have combined my fascia decompression practices with a form of talking therapy via my therapist

Lilian Sjøberg

of

The HOPE shortcut

, who addresses and releases body memories. Body memories are unprocessed stressful episodes in life which get written into the body and fascia. You can listen to an actual therapy session I had with Lilian here:

Small repeated body memories can add up to a huge pain causing trauma

These two modalities combined have allowed significant progressive symptom reduction, especially in regards to pain and dystonia, very much more than anything else I've tried. Very recently, I have noticed that on good days, that most debilitating symptom of severe dystonia in my right neck and shoulder doesn’t bother me.

Based on these real life successes, recently, Lilian and I have combined our knowledge and experience into an pragmatic and actionable online course “Body Memories and Fascia”, aimed at helping others ease the suffering, stress and pain of chronic illness and trauma. The focus is on ways to reduce psychological and physiological symptoms. It brings together my knowledge of fascia and connective tissue, with Lilian’s concepts and work on body memories.

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