Learn About Anatomy Trains Structural Integration
Understand the effective methods with Anatomy Trains Structural Integration and learn about the unique origin of how this physical therapy massage came to be.What is Anatomy Trains Structural Integration?
Anatomy Trains Structural Integration (KMI) sessions can be used to resolve particular problems, as a “tonic” for your posture, movement, and what used to be called “carriage” – how you carry yourself through the world. KMI structural integration can be seen as an extended course in reacquainting yourself with your body in motion, whether you are a finely-tuned athlete, or a computer-bound couch potato.
By combining Anatomy Trains protocols with the long-founded understanding of Structural Integration, ATSI brands itself with the benefit of deep, lasting, and significant work that clients can experience. With Anatomical precision, patients will experience a transcending process where their bodies are not only treated and healed but also guided to re-learn their natural full movement in a structured healthy manner.
Who Is Ali Walkup?
Ali has been involved in the yoga and massage therapy world since 2007, teaching Anusara Yoga under John Friend. Ali instantly became hooked on Structural Integration (SI) when her mentor Osteopath Dr. William R. Taylor suggested she read Anatomy Trains by Tom Myers. After graduating from The Central Florida School of Massage Therapy, Ali studied with Dr. Taylor immersing herself in cranial sacral bodywork and learning the Anatomy Train lines. Ali graduated from ATSI in 2017 and brings over 1,500 hours of hands-on manual manipulation training, plus countless hours of structural analysis education into each of her sessions. Her extensive training includes many hours of interactive cadaver lab fascial dissection work with Dr. Todd Garcia and Tom Meyers. In 2021, Ali will become the second practicing advanced ATSI practitioner in the state of Colorado.
So much of chronic pain has to do with posture acquired from daily functional use patterns that include the way we hold ourselves (muscle memory), injuries (new and old), as well as our emotional and psychological experiences. We develop patterns of use and function that live in the “fascial systems,” fascia is a vast, dynamic, interconnected living fabric within our bodies. My work is to support you and your unique body by accessing the facial systems, I follow the facial lines to unwind and release old patterns which creates space, expands movement and ultimately frees your body from chronic pain and tension.
Anatomy Trains Structural Integration Is For…
Common Strain
Those who suffer from the chronic pains that come from daily routines and lifestyles. Common strain patterns come from just about everything from poorly designed seats, desks, vehicles, entertainment devices – things that we commonly use every day.
Individual Strain
Individual strain patterns are formed from our past experiences; when we were younger where we experienced injury, surgery, or birth. The trauma that is left behind from these events is unique to each individual and presents a personalized challenge the body must overcome.
How Involved Is Trains Structural Integration Therapy?
How Many Sessions Will I Need?
This process happens over a series of sessions. Ali Walkup prefers to keep sessions at an extended period of time which averages about one and a half hours. The Anatomy Trains Structural Integration process has 12 separate and progressive sessions, although the actual number you need may vary. To begin these sessions, your practitioner will talk over your history and help you set realistic goals for the process. He or she may take pictures of your body posture to have a record of where you started or may just examine your postural pattern with you in front of a mirror.
Is Each Session Different?
The sessions progress through the body: the first four sessions are generally more superficial, freeing the tissues on the front, back, and sides of the body and freeing the shoulders and arms from any binding to the trunk. The middle four sessions address the “core” of your body, working into the central stabilization muscles closer to the spine. The last four sessions integrate “core” and “sleeve” into your habitual movement (and address specific problems you bring to the table), leaving you with a lasting and progressive change that will echo throughout the rest of your life.
How is Work Done During The Session?
Most structural integration sessions are done in underwear or a bathing suit. Your comfort is paramount, but we need to get directly to the tissues that are restricting the free flow of movement. Much of the session work is done on a treatment table, though some moves are done on a stool or even standing.
The practitioner will contact tissues and ask you to move, thus freeing old restrictions and encouraging the tissues back to a freer place called for by your body’s inherent design. You and your practitioner can work out how deep or how gentle you want the progression to be.
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