How I Found Myofascial Release

I have fallen in love with Myofascial Release. I found Myofascial Release while in a conservatory-style graduate school for Acting. I was cast in a show for which I wore a corset. I rehearsed in a corset and then performed in a corset for nearly two months. During that time, two physical irritants that had been lingering in my body two years prior to the show were exacerbated; a rib that would very painfully move and harm other tissues, and also my jaw, which would open, dislocate, and lock up. My jaw even locked open during a very emotional scene in performance. I froze and breathed until it released and I could continue the scene. It was frightening and frustrating.

Naturally, I sought help. I went to doctors: One who told me my rib was “Tietze Syndrome” and the best she could offer was that I should stop wearing wire bras that may irritate me (I had already stopped wearing wire bras altogether out of my own regard for comfort over appearance), and the other doctor, a TMJ specialist, told me I would need surgery and adult braces (I’d already had them in adolescence) to fix my jaw issues. I wept at these responses. They seemed extreme and unhelpful. I saw a massage therapist. The massages felt good, but my rib and jaw weren’t changing. They would just revert.

Luckily, the same school that pushed me further into these physical problems also embraced more non-traditional and gentler healing practices and one of my movement professors recommended me to a Myofascial Release Therapist. I have now been seeing this same therapist for many years and she has become my mentor in bodywork. She and the work are incredible. My rib and jaw still act up at times (this is the way with a living body), but they have made incredible progress, and I am so much better off physically and emotionally and now have a much better understanding of what can trigger my pain and malalignment, I have someone I see monthly who helps me release my physical and emotional trauma, I have tools that I can use on my own at home to continue releasing and maintain care, and I have even been able to work through abuse I suffered in my teens and early twenties that has always been incredibly challenging for me to voice. Myofascial Release has empowered me to understand and care for myself, to truly love myself, and to enjoy my life. I so look forward to sharing Myofascial Release with you. And, truly, the only way to really understand and benefit from Myofasical Release is to feel it for yourself in your own body.