Biography
I
moved to Northampton in 1987 to attend Leeds Design Workshops, a custom
furniture making and design school located in a large brick mill
building at One Cottage St Easthampton, MA. The Leeds Design curriculum stressed making furniture by hand using traditional tools such as hand saws, planes and chisels. The design process also utilized hand drawing and drafting techniques, a process now replaced by computers and CAD software.
During the late 80's One Cottage St. was an amazing, creative place filled with a wide variety of crafts people and artists. Several floors at one end of the building was full of woodworkers and furniture making studios, another end was full of book binders, designers and visual artist studios. The building had a wonderful collaborative spirit, a place where people shared tools, materials, techniques and processes and inspiration.
After Leeds Design I spent the next 12+ years working for Bruce Volz making custom
furniture and architectural components for the art furniture market,
architects and interior designers. Every project and piece of furniture was unique and often very challenging to build, some individual pieces took several months to complete. I was responsible for every phase of the fabrication process from working drawings, wood selection, machine tooling, hand joinery and finishing. Budgets and deadlines were often tight which meant every minute of the day had to be productively used in an efficient, accurate and expeditious manner.
Many of the same skills I utililized making custom
furniture: manual skills,
visual and conceptual problem solving, patience and discipline, I use everyday
in my therapy practice. I have a unique understanding of form and function, structure and ergonomics. Manual labor is demanding on the body. My success as a maker meant keeping my body healthy and avoiding injuries. I learned a lot about ergonomics, proper lifting and safe movement. Our society has been shifting away from manual labor for a long time. I often teach clients how to use tools like shovels and rakes. Fall and winter brings us back in touch with seasonal physical labor.
Integrated Muscular Therapy
I started Integrated Muscular Therapy in the spring of 2000 after graduating from the Stillpoint/GCC School of Massage Therapy in Greenfield, MA. While attending massage school I enrolled in the St. John Neuromuscular Therapy training and was a certified neuromuscular therapist soon after graduating from massage school. The concept of integration, of combining parts into a whole has a broad conceptual application. My work involves the integration of various techniques like massage, exercise and movement awareness. The therapeutic process can also viewed as a form of integration since injuries and pain often fragment how the body functions.
Exercise & Fitness
I have always enjoyed exercise and mind-body disciplines such as yoga, cycling, running, weight training, outdoor recreation and fitness. Regular exercise has helped me overcome occupational and sports injuries while providing a disciplined mental environment conducive to personal growth. In June of 2001 I became a certified personal trainer through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) so that I could combine my interests in sports and fitness with my therapeutic skills. Exercise is active therapy for the whole person. It mobilizes personal resources and engages one’s will power for self healing. It can also have a profound, positive impact on our outlook about ourselves and life in general. Personal training also reinforces my role as coach, educator and motivator for positive lifestyle changes.
Presently in the exercise and fitness field there is a merging and cross pollination of sport performance training, sports medicine, mind-body disciplines and injury rehabilitation information. Functional exercise, stability balls and balance training devices are available in most gyms now when several years ago they were used only by a handful of physical therapists. This merging of ideas and techniques represents a dramatic shift in health maintenance, injury prevention, rehabilitation and sport performance training.
These ideas and techniques have dramatically changed my approach and scope of practice. Instead of focusing solely on symptom alleviation (which is the primary focus of many therapeutic modalities) I try to see the bigger picture and address why the symptoms are being presented. Healthy joints need healthy muscles capable of maintaining posture and performing appropriately when asked to move the body. Understanding how the body works through functional anatomy, kinesiology and biomechanics plays a central role in my treatment process.
Parenting
In 2003 my son Jack was born. Beginning with the first
moments of his life onward I've witnessed how a child
breathes, grows, moves, reaches, crawls, walks, throws a ball and runs.
He became a living experiment for me in how a child learns to organize their
body and psyche in the physical world. As an infant I gave him massages,
pulled on his legs and arms, while he pushed and pulled back (muscle
activation techniques). I would position toys so he would have to
crawl or reach to get them. When he could sit I would toss him a ball to the
front and side, first slow then faster, sometimes bouncing the ball then rolling it straight - testing eye hand coordination and reaction ability. We
played games that included balance and coordination of right/left sides
of the body. The same techniques used with adult athletes to improve
athletic performance I employed with Jack in a very playful, age
appropriate manner. As a result of this "play" Jack has developed a
strong connection to his body, becoming a kinesthetic learner - he can
watch an athlete or dancer and mimic their posture and movement style.
To him (and most children) thinking, feeling and moving are all one activity. Often movement and athletics are taught from the outside in. Through our play time together Jack has learned to move from the inside out . "Finding the groove" is a term he and I use to describe the process of finding the grace, flow and rhythm of an athletic activity.
