Touch seems to be as essential as sunlight ~ Diane Ackerman
What Is It?
Bodywork is the art of working with the physical tissues of the body to facilitate health and wellness. It can relieve pain patterns, free the body's flow of energy, enhance circulation and promote tissue repair. Many people also find that regular bodywork can help maintain a more relaxed and stress-free life. Integrative Bodywork is the creative blending of different styles of bodywork. Styles such as Swedish, Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT), Soft Tissue Release, stress-reduction, Shiatsu, and energy medicine, are combined and tailored to enhance each other in order to achieve optimal results.
Contemporary Western Massage/Relaxation Massage/Swedish Massage
This is what many people think of when they think of massage. The whole body is addressed using long, gliding strokes with oil, or using gentle kneading and compressive techniques through clothing. The goal is to trigger the relaxation response and nurture the comfort of the moment by way of the interaction between the skin and the central nervous system.
Neuromuscular Therapy
Neuromuscular therapy (NMT) focuses on identifying muscles and other soft tissue that are causing pain and dysfunction, and then intervening on these tissues to allow them to return to a normal, healthy state. This work is often guided by an assessment of the imbalances in the client’s body alignment. This approach is sometimes called trigger point therapy, or deep tissue, although a good NMT practitioner will never use more pressure or depth than is necessary. More information....
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Charlotte Walker
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Soft Tissue Release
Uses light pressure with stretching to reduce the pain and stiffness. It is useful in promoting the healing of new injury, old injury, and repetitive injuries such as carpal tunnel sysdrome and tendonitis.
Pregnancy and Postpartum Massage
Uses a gentle touch, this sidelying massage caters to the special needs of pregnant and postpartum women. This technique promotes relaxation, reduces extremity swelling, eases low back and ligament pain, and helps speed recovery time after giving birth.
Craniosacral Therapy
Using light touch, the rhythm of the craniosacral system is detected for potential restrictions and imbalances. Delicate manual techniques are used to release and relieve pressure on the brain or spinal cord. It is effective for TMJ (tempor-mandibular joint discorder recurrent headaches and recurrent ear infections.
Zero Balancing
Hands-on bodywork designed to balance our energy body with our physical structure. The focus is on the interface between the structure of the bone, joints and soft tissue and the energy flowing through the skeletal system. This technique promotes relaxation and is effective for relief of stress, headaches, neck and shoulder pain, low back dysfunction and many other physical symptoms.
What is Energy Medicine?
Energy Medicine is based on the concept that human beings are infused a subtle form of energy. This is easy to see; living tissue has movement and purpose – an energy we recognize as “aliveness.” This vital energy or life force is known as ‘Qi’ in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), ‘Ki’ in Japanese Shiatsu, and ‘Prana’ in Ayurvedic Medicine. Therapies which work with, cultivate, and manipulate this vital energy include acupuncture, acupressure, moxibustion, cupping, Shiatsu, Qigong, Healing Touch, Therapeutic Massage, Reiki, Yoga, breathwork, meditation, homeopathy, dietary practices, and intercessory prayer. Energy Medicine has been in existence for thousands of years through these therapies in many different cultures all over the world. Energy Medicine Modalities at the NorthShore Integrative Medicine Program include Hawaiian Energetics, Reiki, and Shiatsu.
Hawaiian Energetics
Gentle energy work to facilitate our innate healing capacities. The practitioner uses the elemental energies in the environment to re-establish freedom of movement and interplay between the energies of the physical, energetic, and spiritual aspects of life.
Reiki
Hands-on Japanese technique to promote stress reduction, relaxation and healing, based on the concept that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us. If one's "life force energy" is low or disrupted, we are more likely to get sick or feel stress. The Reiki session infuses the body with healing energies, with the practitioner using light touch or holding the hands inches away from the patient’s body to direct energy where it is needed.
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Polly Liontis
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Shiatsu
Shiatsu literally means finger-pressure and is a form of bodywork that combines acupressure (gentle compression on acupressure points), partner stretching, joint rotation and abdominal massage to stimulate the body's own natural healing response and increase the flow of energy, bringing the body into balance and optimal health. Shiatsu comes from a 2,000 year old tradition in Chinese healing arts, philosophies and practices that view the individual as a whole being. Shiatsu is a form of deeply centering touch, which provides an energy-balancing experience.
The benefits include:
- Increased energy-flow
- Improved circulation
- Stress relief
- Greater range of motion in the joints
- Deep relaxation
Shiatsu is especially helpful for low back pain, sciatica, neck pain, and headaches. Shiatsu promotes relaxation, rejuvenation and a greater sense of well-being.
Healing Touch
Healing touch is energy based therapeutic approach to healing using touch to influence the energy system, thus affecting physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and healing. The goal is to restore balance and harmony in the energy system to help the individual self heal.
For an appointment call 847.657.3540
Note: A physician referral is not required for any Integrative Medicine treatments, including a physician consultation.
Paulette Brody - Medical Exercise and Aquatic Exercise
John Chamness - Soft Tissue Release, Neuromuscular Therapy, Swedish, Hawaiian Energetics
Earon Davis- Balancing Body & Reiki Energy Work, Neuromuscular Therapy, Swedish Relaxation Massage
Edgar Lim - Neuromuscular Therapy, Swedish Massage
Polly Liontis - Shiatsu, Swedish Massage
Charlotte Walker - Neuromuscular Therapy, Pregnancy and Postpartum Massage, and Swedish Massage