Therapeutics for Low-Back Pain
For people experiencing chronic low-back pain that comes and goes or comes to stay, limiting your ability to live life to the fullest, this six-class series starts with personalized pain-reducing and alignment techniques and then moves into gentle core exercises for daily stability.
Slower than Pilates and gentler than yoga, the sensations of your body are your guide to what is right.
New students get a 30-minute one-on-one clinical assessment with Tobin at Healdsburg Integrative Medicine. Tobin specializes in the non-surgical treatment of chronic pain.
Six-Class Series
Thursdays 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Sep. 7 - Oct. 12
At Felta School (Yoga On Center)
1043 Felta Road, Healdsburg
$180 for the series and clinical assessment
Movement
Essential Movement: Gentle repatterning for ease
Falling Up: A neuromuscular progression for dancers and seriously playful people
Breath
The Relaxing Breath: Moving meditation for resting softly in awareness
Life’s Breath: Invigorating Yogic breathwork
Awareness
Dream Yoga: Lucid dreaming practices
Finding the Yes: Somatic sources for motivation and living with anxiety
Hands-on
The Glorious Backrub: Massage for friends and family
Somatic Education: Middleway Method practitioner training
Therapeutic Exercise and Self-Treatment for Low-Back Pain
For people experiencing chronic low-back pain that comes and goes or comes to stay, limiting your ability to live life to the fullest, this six-class series starts with personalized pain-reducing and alignment techniques and then moves into gentle core exercises for daily stability.
Slower than Pilates and gentler than Yoga, the sensations of your body are your guide to what is right. The exercises are complementary to Physical Therapy and can improve outcomes by increasing your quality of movement.
By the end of the series, you’ll have practiced and embodied personalized techniques for reducing pain, improving alignment, and activating your stability with a 15 minute at-home practice.
Falling Up – A neuromuscular progression for dancers and seriously playful people.
Starting flat on our backs, we unwind upward through a spiral progression to standing, and then back to the floor. By attentively deconstructing and then reconstructing our movements, we connect and activate the kinetic chain. In addition to being a fluid progression that’s fun to play with, the repatterning process opens up nuanced choices, and highlights the more that comes from a less-is-more approach.
The Relaxing Breath – Moving meditation for resting softly in awareness.
The relaxing breath is that sweet, natural breath that happens when your body decides to relax. Almost like a yawn, it starts with a rich and spontaneous inhale in that inspired moment just before the exhale of letting go. Then it spills over into a relieving, open exhale that marks the turning point between stress and relaxation. You may have breathed a relaxing breath just reading about it here. The moving meditation practice is also spontaneous, guided by the sensations of your body as you move from one position of comfort and relief to the next, settling in and then settling in again. The Relaxing Breath is a restful and refreshing self-care practice, and it is also the fundamental practice of Middleway Method Somatic Education.
Essential Movement - Gentle repatterning for ease.
Essential Movement (neuromuscular repatterning from the lineage of Moshe Feldenkrais) offers us the opportunity to gently and easily increase range of motion, improve balance, reduce pain and inflammation, improve posture, and activate dormant muscles. Essential Movement never hurts. People use Essential Movement when Yoga and Pilates are too intense, and when pain and injuries limit movement. Athletes, dancers, and physically active people use Essential Movement to increase efficiency and grace. The study of Essential Movement is fundamental to training as a Somatic Educator.
Life’s Breath – Invigorating and purifying breath practice from the Yoga tradition
In contrast to the gentle Relaxing Breath practice, the Life’s Breath practice is intense and focused. On the physical level, it oxygenates the blood, expands lung capacity, stimulates digestion, and activates the spinal muscles. Using a combination of breathing techniques, including breath holding in specific sequences, coupled with strong meridian tapping and mulabanda (similar to Kegel exercises), the Kriya Pranayam practice clears the mind and leads to profound moments of lucid wakefulness. Middleway Method Somatic Bodywork uses simplified practices from Kryia Pranayam to invigorate, inspire, and transform procrastination into intrinsic motivation.
Finding the Yes – Somatic sources for motivation and living with anxiety
A somatic yes is that precious moment when clarity arrives, and we know, beyond doubt, what we must do. It is something we feel in our bodies and in our minds. It arrives like a wave, or a settling, or an insight. How do we find it? How do we cultivate it? And most importantly, what do we do the rest of the time when anxiety, over-thinking, doubt and fear flood us with adrenaline? Finding the Yes is an easy, enjoyable, and relaxing practice that builds our capacity over time so that our periods of anxiety are weaker and our moments of clarity are more frequent.
Dream Yoga – Lucid dreaming practices from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition
I’ve been a natural lucid dreamer for my whole life, so when I discovered the Dream Yoga practices from Tibetan Buddhism almost thirty years ago, I immediately started doing them. Unlike dream analysis or interpretation, Dream Yoga seeks to use the consciousness during lucidity to meditate, ultimately dissolving the dream to rest in pure lucidity. Ultimately, Dream Yoga is a practice that allows us to maintain the continuity of consciousness through the transition of death. Speaking from experience, I can report from the land of dreams that the Dream Yoga practices are real, sensible, and achievable. Meditating while simultaneously conscious and asleep is fascinating and insightful. Over the years, I’ve noticed that there aren’t many people teaching these practices based on direct experience and ongoing practice. I’m sharing what I’ve learned because I think the practices are wonderful, rare, and valuable. The series of classes I’ve developed includes practices to increase the occurrence of lucid dreams, practices to do while dreaming, and the philosophical exploration of consciousness, reality, and death. Please read this article for an introduction.
The Glorious Backrub – Massage for friends and family.
These delightful one-day workshops teach caring, sensitive massage done with the client fully clothed, laying on the floor - no equipment needed. The focus is on pleasure, relaxation, and connection. We also cover hygiene, safety, and body mechanics for the giver so you don’t hurt your hands.
Somatic Education – Middleway Method practitioner training.
Middleway Method Somatic Education practitioner training is for Massage Therapists, Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physicians, Chiropractors, and anyone who feels called to care for others. Learn the principles and practices of neuromuscular repatterning, autonomic self-regulation and co-regulation, proprioceptive activation and positional release, postural redefinition, somatic insight, and clinical treatments for common conditions.