Align For Life An 11-Week Journey into Hellerwork Structural Integration

Get ready to experience a deep journey into your own body, mind and spirit.

Explore and learn about your fascia and how your body as a tensegrity structure creates your unique structural and functional patterns. You will also learn why your posture, habits and patterns directly influence your emotions and your mental state.

We will look deeply into the principles of structural integration, your nervous system, your brain, the poly vagal theory and deep mindfulness inquiry work, weaving together a beautiful tapestry for alignment and healing to take place on all levels within your system.

Each week we will journey into your own alignment patterns and learn how to move with more ease and less tension. We will deeply explore these patterns using Hellerwork and Rolf Movement, yoga, foam rolling, self-massage balls, meditation, journaling and inquiry.

Melissa will bring in aspects of her deep knowledge of structural integration, the nervous system and the poly vagal theory, somatic movement, somatic meditation and present moment awareness.

 

Weekly Teachings

Each week we will explore the Principles and Themes of Hellerwork Structural Integration, Fascia, The Nervous System, Poly Vagal Theory, Somatic Meditations and Inquiry work.

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The Sleeve Series 1-3

Open up your Superficial Fascia

Week 1

Inspiration/Vitality

  • Opening and connecting to your Breath. Working with your diaphragm and breathing patterns.
  • Connect deeply to your Vitality, Joy and Your reason for being alive.
  • Invoking your Spirit. We will plant the seeds that we will nurture through this entire process together!
  • Learn how to sit and and stand again.
  • Reconnect to times in your life that have brought you this connection to your most authentic self.
  • Deepen into your Ventral Vagal State.
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

Week 2

Grounding/Standing on your Own Two Feet

  • Explore your feet and legs. Learn about the 3 arches of your feet and how they support you. Aligning and opening the feet and learning how to walk again.
  • Exploring the edges of self support and support in your life. Learn how to ground yourself and to feel your feet once again.
  • Embodying your roots and connection to your body, life and soul.
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

Week 3

Boundaries

  • Lengthen and open your side body. Learn how to breath into your lateral ribcage.
  • Align and track your shoulder girdle. Learn how your arms are meant to hang.
  • Explore your arms and side body and how you relate to boundaries. Are you comfortable with giving or receiving? Do you reach out when you need help or push away?
  • What are some of the expressions that you use with your arms to communicate how you feel? Looking at gestures and patterns of movements. Using the arms to help us connect with our body in movement and using physical gestures to establish and feel our boundaries.
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

The Core Series 4-7

Align & Lengthen the Front and Back Body

Week 4

Surrender and Control

  • Working with the Pelvic Floor and Inner Legs (Adductors) Aligning the legs under the pelvis.
  • Explore areas around this topic of control and surrender, feeling how this is held in your body.
  • Feeling deeply into your pelvic floor and exploring emotional patterns and feelings that may be held here.
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

Week 5

Intuition and Inner Knowing

  • Explore areas in your guts, specifically working with your Psoas. Lengthening the front core of your body.
  • We will learn how the Psoas is connected to our Autonomic Nervous System and how we can learn to release and feel when we are triggered.
  • Connecting with the Dorsal Vagal Brach of Your Nervous System.
  • Our guts are a place of deeper knowing and also a place where we can hold shame and guilt.
  • We will feel into these areas to access your deeper knowing and inner wisdom. Allowing for the process of relaxing and unwinding to take place here.
  • Deeply going in and connecting with this inner knowing and powerful resource that you have in your guts!
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

Week 6

Holding Back and Moving Forward/Past, Present and Future

  • Exploring the back side of your body and your spine. Lengthening the backside of your body and working with your spinal curves.
  • Exploring undulations and spinal movement to open and lengthen the areas that may not be moving.
  • Inquiring into: What holds you back from your best self? What are your beliefs around your personal power. How to use your heart as a guide.
  • Look into how you may hold back in your life and ways to move forward into your present and future self.
  • Connecting with the Sympathetic Branch of Your Nervous System.
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

Week 7

Moving from your Head to your Heart

  • Working with the head, neck, face and jaw and upper body. Aligning the head on-top of your body, especially working with forward head posture.
  • Explore how your mind takes you out of our heart-space What is life like when we drop from our heads into our hearts.
  • Working with your face and jaw and head. Connecting with this Ventral Vagal part of Social Engagement.
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

Integration Series 8-11

Working with Rotational Patterns & Integrating both Superficial and Deep Fascia

Week 8

Mother Earth Feminine Yin Energy

  • Exploring the Pelvis down to your feet. Specifically looking at rotations and patterns in this area.
  • We will be feeling into your rotations and ways to unwind them to bring you into a deeper alignment.
  • Explore your connection to this powerful feminine energy.
  • How does the this energy show up in your body and your life. What is your relationship with this powerful energy?
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

Week 9

Father Sky, Masculine Yang Energy

  • Exploring the Pelvis to your head and rotational patterns in this area. We will be feeling into your rotations and ways to unwind them to bring you into a deeper alignment Explore your connection with the Masculine Energy.
  • How does this energy show up in your body and your life. What is your relationship with this powerful energy?
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

Week 10

Integration

  • Starting from your feet and moving up to your head.
  • We will Align and horizontalize all of your joints, and creating space within our joints.
  • We will spend time connecting with your superficial and deep fascia.
  • Explore themes of the Integration Process, Looking at all aspects of your body, mind and spirit. Inquiring into all parts of yourself that have shown up during this series and allowing all of these parts of you to integrate into the whole of your being. Now we have opened up and made space for all of you to be here now.
  • Self Massage, Somatic Practices, Exercises, Meditations and Functional Movements involved.

Week 11

Rebirth & Reflection

  • Review all of the functional movement from session 1-10.
  • Connecting with your old patterns and connecting with your new patterns seeing your growth.
  • Organizing what is next in your life.
  • Questions.

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