TMJ fascial workshop

Those of you that I have seen and worked with are probably very bored of me talking on and on about Fascia, but I find the subject fascinating. It is even more fun to work with, especially using the techniques taught by the lovely people of Myofascial UK who ran the course I attended on the Tempro Mandibular Joint (TMJ) back in February. I have used the techniques and information that I mention here with a number of people all with great success in relieving pain around the jaw area.

The TMJ is where the jawbone meets the skull and can be an area we hold a lot of tension in and this can lead to a number of issues including chronic sinus pain (as I personally have suffered from), head aches, jaw misalignment and TMJ Dysfunction (TMJD).

There are four main muscles that work in this area are the:

• masseter, temporalis, and medial pterygoid, which closes the jaw
• lateral pterygoid, which is the only muscle that opens the jaw.

The day started off with introductions within the small group and assessments of each others jaws.  Apparently my jaw was slightly swollen on the right side, and moved to the left and had a couple of popping noises as it closed (which caused some squeamishness from one of the follow attendees)

The fascial techniques are all very slow and seemingly gentle, though they can take you through some very tender moments as you reach, release and move through binds and adhesions.  It was a great group to work with, though trying to keep a straight face and not laugh when someone was working on you sometimes proved harder.

The intra-oral (inside the mouth) work on the pterygoids was a case in point, I found it very hard not to laugh nervously as my partner for approached snapping on a pair of latex gloves.  The laughter did not last very long as once her finger was working on releasing my pterygoid muscles the pain took over (this is, in my humble opinion, one of the most painful techniques I know) The basic technique was something we’d learnt on the Level 3 iMFT course, but with some added techniques to work with the sphenoid at the same time.

The other most peculiar thing that day, which followed the rules of the John Barnes style of Myofascial Release of following where the body leads, was having my hair pulled to release something because my forehead had flushed with a red flare that is one of the signs we look for, it felt weird but much better afterwards.

At the end of the day, my jaw felt much looser and was better positioned.  Though I did have some rather unusual red marks around my face from some of the techniques. The marks have now faded (thankfully) but the relief and freedom is still here 3 months on and that feels great.

Next up for me is the Spine & Sacrum and Abdominal Scarring workshops in June. I really can't wait

Musings after a visit to an Office

I had a different, and great lunchtime this week: I visited the office of a well known International Charity (not sure if I can mention them, but you really will have heard of them) with some of my fellow practitioners from Clerkenwell and Islington Chiropractic Clinics. We were there as part of the clinic's Workplace Wellness offer where some of the therapists will come and provide tasters in the office, and that is what the charity had done as part of their own internal "Well-being Week". So along we went: Shaheeda, Francesca & Leila (Chiropractors offering Spinal Screenings), Juliette (Acupuncturist offering ear needling), Annie (Yoga teacher doing chair yoga), and Charlotte and I were offering Massage.

We were really pleased as we were shown to two large rooms with plenty of natural light.  I have done this sort of thing in a dark basement meeting room before now, but this was some much nicer.  This was definitely a nice place to work.  Charlotte and I set up the chairs in the same room as the Chiropractors, with the yoga and acupuncture in the adjacent room.

It didn't take long for the first people came in (there had been such a great demand that they had been allocated 10 minute slots) and after the initially awkward "everyone is looking at me" stage things get off to a great start.  It is strange to start massaging someone in a meeting room: there is always the feeling of everyone is staring at me (for both me and the person I'm working on), is my boss going to walk in?  This vanishes fairly soon after the back rub starts.

Most of the people had tight shoulders as they spend far too much time stuck working on a computer, and a number of ladies had one shoulder significantly tighter than the other because of their handbags and these were straight forward to work with and all were surprised at how quickly things relaxed.  Phrases such as  "Can I stay here all day" or "Can you do this all afternoon?" or "When are you coming back?" were heard a number of times from the people that Charlotte and I were working on.

A couple of the people had particular issues, such as a shoulder hurt in a fall or a bad hip. We weren't able to really get to work on these issues in the short amount of time we had, however we could show that improvements could be made.

Nearly everyone I worked on had been spoken to by one of the chiropractors so they knew that they were "wonky" or "compressed" in one area or another.  It was fun to then show them which muscles were involved and that these could actually let go (albeit only briefly) and trying to get them to imagine what a proper treatment would be like.

In the few spare moments I had (everybody wants a massage) I could see the relaxed expressions on the people who had experienced the ear needling, and a few people exclaiming how much they could feel (and that the needles were not as painful/scarey as they were expecting).

The people who had done the yoga class also had a rather blissed out expression on their faces (I didn't have a chance to see what they were actually doing, but it really seemed to work)

I do enjoy doing these sorts of events, but at the same time I prefer to spend a bit longer with each of my clients and really get to know and understand their bodies, the way that they use them and also working with them to correct and change what can be done.

I know that the clinic strongly believe that people should be encouraged to look after themselves. So if you have an office in the City/Clerkenwell/Islington areas of London and you'd like to encourage  and if you'd like them to come and visit then please get in contact with them:

Website: clerkenwellislingtonclinics.co.uk
Phone: 020 7490 4042

More information on what they offer as part of their Workplace Wellness approach can be found here