Disease Cannot Live in a Body that Is Aligned Well

What brings most people into my office is either pain or a sense that their bodies are not thriving. In my thirty years of practice, I have noticed that the patients who work hard at maintaining good posture, strength, and flexibility on a routine basis are the healthiest. For them, our sessions are part of a healthy routine. It is my belief that those of us who live in a structurally sound body live longest and are healthiest. In a long body in which the joints are aligned well, gravity passes through without interference. This allows our organs to function optimally and our nerves to reach fully without impingement so that all the senses are intact. We can experience the world with all we have. Once again, I believe that disease can not live in a body that is aligned well. In other words, when your joints stack properly, you live a longer and healthier life.

How is this done? In a series of sessions beginning with the outer layers of connective tissue—the body's "glue"—we unwrap and release tight layers so that you move with ease. Combining deep structural bodywork with movement that encourages proper biomechanics, our bodies begin to reach toward balance, like a flower reaching its petals toward the sun. This is not random work; our sessions have purpose, each building on the next—bodywork combined with corresponding yoga postures and movement—so that you carry forth and live in your daily life what you have received in our sessions. As the series progresses, it will feel bad to revert to old patterns.

Generally, we structure the first sessions using the loosely designed series created first by Ida Rolf and carried further by Joseph Heller. This is a beautifully designed series that touches and releases all held tension so our bodies can function with ease and at their best. It goes something like this:

• Session 1: Outer layers of shoulder girdle, diaphragm, ribs
  
• Session 2: Outer layers of hips, legs, feet
  
• Session 3: Outer layers of arms, sides of ribs, thighs
  
• Session 4: Inner core, beginning with the inner arches of the feet, legs, thighs
  
• Session 5: Inner core, hip flexors that attach to the lower spine
  
• Session 6: All the muscles of the back, including backs of legs, thighs, muscles of the spine
  
• Session 7: Deep muscles of the neck, skull, inside the mouth
  
• Sessions 8 & 9: Upper and lower body release
  
• Sessions 10 & 11: All joints

This is a complete and comprehensive series, resulting in a sense of ease in your body and the physical and emotional tools for maintaining great posture. In my over thirty years of practice, I keep going back to this series, because it works so well and so completely. At the end, follow-up sessions continue on a schedule that fits the individual.

Risa and her hands are amazing. If you need body work, for general health or a specific problem, THIS is the doctor you want to work on you. —Patient testimonial