Personalized Movement Re-patterning | Asheville Pain & Performance

My office is open and online scheduling is available again 🙂

Whether you are recovering from pain and injury, or trying to prevent them. Looking to jump to the next level in your physical endeavors, or “simply” want to move with grace and ease: a personalized therapeutic movement practice is your best bet for long term, pain-free mobility.

I am available for sessions in person, and via video call.

To watch video examples of my approach, click here

What I’d love to help you with: being really comfortable in your own skin, eliminating pain and increasing your range of controlled motion, restoring structural integrity and neutral alignment, longevity, resiliency, aliveness, vitality, repatterning your body and mind, increasing ease and efficiency of movement.

What kind of movement training is right for you?

you don’t need to know that yet. We just need to figure out where your body is at now, which tells us the direction to move in combined with your interests, and how much time, attention, and effort you are willing to put in. I list some examples below, just so that you have an idea of what our options are.

Progressing out of pain and injury:

Bodywork and movement are flip sides of the same coin, but they are not equal…

To be honest, my experience is that during acute pain, inflammation, and early stages of recovery, passive therapies such as bodywork, acupuncture, chiropractic, dry needling, etc. are much quicker at pain relief than more active types of movement/exercise therapies, yoga, weight training ,qi gong, etc….

As one progresses through recovery that relationship switches, and for long term health and vitality, an active therapeutic practice becomes more important than passive therapies.

Is movement repatterning right for me?

*Would you like to regain elasticity and vitality?

*Would you like to have the tools to move beyond pain and into feeling fantastic every day?

*Would you be willing to do a few exercises every day to feel your best?

*Do you already have a practice/sport/exercise program but want an experienced eye on how to amend it to your body’s needs?

*Would you like to be able to stop relying on your bodyworker for relief from nagging pain and injuries?

*Do you need an antidote for your repetitive and/or asymmetrical work patterns?

Areas of focus may include:

Healing injuries

increase controlled range of motion

regain elasticity around each joint and throughout your body

rebalance and realign the structure

Qi gong/breathwork/ deep-embodiment

Stretching/releasing/body-wringing

Building Strength/stability to maintain structure

Fine-tuning your current practice/routine

Standing and walking practice

Specific therapeutic exercises

Ancestral movement patterns

Kinetic shapes/foundational movement patterns

Balance/proprioception/coordination

Fluid movement

My story

I have been pain free for several years now, for the first time since my early 20’s when I first injured my back. I compensated for it like a champ for 15 years, with chronic pain and injury constantly in the background. I would stretch for 2 hours each morning just to be pain free for the day, until it returned each night. I had to hit “bottom” when my disk bulged into my spinal chord, rendering me incapacitated for several months. And this was after decades of movement training and practicing bodywork, yet I had been unable to heal my previous injuries and prevent them from worsening.

I had to systematically re-evaluate everything I thought I knew about the body, movement, and healing. As embarrassing and frustrating as this

was, it really paid off when I started to heal injuries which had been locked in for decades.

I certainly received a lot of help in my recovery, but the most critical factor in healing beyond just “ok” was in finding and practicing the specific physical antidotes for my injuries and stuck patterns.

Personalized movement repatterning sessions are designed to create a practice specific for your needs, goals, interests and challenges.

My background and philosophy

The perspective I bring comes from 30+years of movement and martial arts, 25 years of qi gong and internal embodiment arts, 20 + years bodywork and anatomy/biomechanical studies.

What this means is that I study the body from the inside and out, how it works and how it doesn’t, and apply it to both myself and to others.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can we do movement repatterning in the same session as bodywork? yes, absolutely. Sometimes I do strictly movement sessions with people, sometimes we combine movement and bodywork, and sometimes we just do bodywork. The problem is that I am a softie, and if you lay down on my table I’m not going to insist that you get up and work, unless you tell me that you want to. So if you are interested in movement repatterning please let me know!

What should I wear? Comfortable, loose fitting clothing that you can move in. if you would like to combine movement and bodywork, please bring shorts and a sports bra if applicable.

What I’m not so helpful with: weightloss, dramatically increasing muscle mass, fancy tricks or impressing people, isolated strength training (except for therapeutic purposes), pushing you till you puke, increasing your endurance and high cardiovascular workouts (which can be highly valuable and I often recommend them, we just won’t run a marathon around my office), one size fits all routines, or pure aesthetics- except as it relates to my sense of symmetry and balance…some of these items may be side benefits of working with me, but they aren’t a primary focus.

Are you a personal trainer? Not exactly, but there is a significant overlap.

My background in Chinese medicine and Asian physical science gives me a different perspective and approach from most, as well as my personal history of helping people (including myself) eliminate pain and regain mobility. My approach is more of a teacher/guide than a trainer…I am more concerned with expanding your range of comfort and ease than on classical strength training and conditioning.

Are you a physical therapist?

No. for starters, that is a specific education and degree which I don’t have.

Physical therapists can do so many different things that it is hard to directly compare, but some of them meet this description as well “I will evaluate your body, situation, needs and goals, and use my knowledge of the body to help you progress in the direction you want”