TMJ is the culprit

Tempero-mandibular joint to give it its full name - what and where and then why?

it it the joint located just in fron on the ear where the lower jaw ( mandible) articulates with the upper jaw ( maxilla).  Now why?  well we do like to eat but how it functions is deemed as some to be as stated 300 years ago while other maintain that due to strides in understading that it should be seen within the model of tensegrity; offering a more elegant and thorough ( in my mind) explanation of its function and how it has such a major impact on our whole system.

Having diagnosed and attended all treatments of a TMJ dysfunction for a family member this has attracted my attention over the last few years. It has been a salutory lesson in how one piece can disable the whole with serious repercussions.  I am thrilled to have been able to learn so much as I have watched Dr Granville Langly-Smith assess and treat this dysfunction with a keen eye for detail and care for the whole person.  As a result I have found that there is some one offering this care nearer to home but for my family this knowledge came too late.  As a result of this experience I have become more aware of the impact of this joint in our daily lives. I am still in the process of learning so much and working with an holistic Dentist is allowing me to learn more and make use of that knowledge in my own practice.

babies & birth and a boy

I am constantly amazed how any of us make it through the tough process of birth without suffering more damage - we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Recently a friend of mine had a baby and I was welcomed to have a cuddle and give a cranio-sacral treatment while I was there.  He was just 3 days old and my over-riding last thought as I handed him back to his Mum was how blessed I am to do this work and get to cuddle babies!  As I worked around the solar plexus he yelled, but gradually calmed down.  I continued around the system and then left.  He has been sleeping well and feeding well thus far, and having seen him again it was noticeable how calm his system felt in comparison to just after his birth, which was a c-section.

then . . .I have also worked with a little boy 5/6 yrs old who had a traumatic birth as he got stuck and his delivery became more of a feat of engineering.  His system is highly charged and running too fast; causing anxiety and poor sleeping patterns.  During the first treatment his speech was poor and indistinct and I was reliant on Mum to interpret for me.  I was astonished the second time he came and felt I had to check with Mum that my hearing was ok; his speech was so clear I could not understand why I had found him so hard to understand the previous week.  She agreed with me and commented that his grandparents had also noticed the sudden improvement..  His school had requested Speech and language therapy for him but now do not consider that he has noticeable problem.

Again, I feel like the learner, the student in all this . . .  we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

What is biodynamic massage ?

I had hunch years ago that the body was capable of recallibrating and that the traditional method of squeezing, standing on and forcing it into a place where we thought it should be was disrespectful and rash. I had an idea growing in me that the body has more to it than biology had taken into account, something that more tangible evidence was overlooking. Its taken decades for me and the world to allign ideas and find a practice that I'm passionate about and has allow these hunchs, theories and ideas to bear fruits.

In this article by Gill Westland some of the ideas and practices of biodynamic massage are laid out. Its not a short read but it does lay out what the general approach and principles of the massage.