Chronic left SI joint pain that doesn't budge is humbling. This patient had done everything right, good body awareness, great yoga practice, excellent care before arriving at my door, and still the pain persisted. So we started where we always start: listening. Over our first few sessions, the right thoracolumbar junction kept speaking up, and we kept following it. Things were moving, the relationship was deepening, even if the symptoms weren't shifting much yet.

Then came the flare. She could barely walk. I was finishing up my own urgent care visit when she reached out, and I saw her that same day. I had no idea what I was going to find or what I'd do with it. What happened in that session, starting with the diaphragm, moving into the liver, following fascial tension down the right leg, dropping her into an altered state and cutting her pain in half, is what this post is really about. And what came after, a three-way collaboration with her PT that neither of us planned, has been some of the most satisfying work I've done.

I have been seeing more and more folks coming into the clinic with either a diagnosis of dysautonomia or a symptom set that fits the dysautonomia picture. Dysautonomia is not a “medical diagnosis”, it is a grouping of symptoms that indicates underlying autonomic nervous system disorder. The actual cause may remain a mystery but treatment can follow the specific presentation of each individual case. This is where our skills as bodyworkers can be supportive for those with these symptoms. 

We have had a bit of vagal system extravaganza at MMI lately. I have been inspired by some dissection stuff during my class with Gil Hedley to re-look at vagal system anatomy. Dissection is messy business, and while we saw the vagus in the wild, as Gil likes to say, it was difficult to get the impressions of it that I wanted.