update-
Emily is in week 6 of the program and is experiencing her hand as relatively normal and RELAXED!
She also told me she just wrote legibly for the first time in nearly 7 years and her hand did not hurt at all!
I am
So excited to share her experience with others who may be suffering from focal dystonia and not getting these kind of results through hand therapy or other common treatment.
She will be sharing on an IG live and an episode of the podcast about this ground breaking and transformational experience!
------
SO PLEASED to announce that Emily Rieker has just joined the Winter round of Radiance!
After her transformational experience at the Somatic Awakening Retreat in September, Emily felt what was possible in her body and consciousness. She knew that dedicating some serious time to building somatic connection with herself and releasing the stress, trauma and tension that was held her body is the key to addressing a frustrating and uncommon challenge she;'s been living with: Focal Dystonia.
For a several years now, Emily has been dealing with limited use of her right hand. Her writing has been impaired and her confidence in herself has waned. As an experienced and effective R.N. this has been annoying and difficult to say the least. She has been working with a hand therapist, but has noticed that many approaches out there suggest more holistic work in treating this muscular disorder.
The fact that Hanna Somatics targets the motor cortex and the re-training of the muscles to release their contractions makes this a powerful modality for reprogramming her system over time. My father, William Davis has been experiencing ongoing and life-changing success with another client who was born with serious Focal Dystonia in both hands. When he met her she could not do basic things such as pick up and hold a sandwich to eat or carrying a cup or bowl with spilling it. Now, her most recent accomplishment is being able to handle the delicate task of clasping and un-clapsing a necklace! Additionally, she has experienced such an incredible awakening and since of peace and confidence in this work, making her more able to do anything she sets her heart to in this life.
Hopefully, she will consider being interviewed, since her story is so wonderfully inspirational. Needless to say, on the subject of Focal Dystonia, I was quite certain that I could help Emily, although the "guarantee" would come from her will and participation in the work! Radiance is focused not only on releasing tension, stress, emotions, pain and patterns stuck in your muscular system/body, it's about helping you to build a personal, daily somatic movement practice that will support you and keep the changes you've made for the rest of your life.
Building a new habit of something can be hard. It personally took me a long time to build a daily practice. That's part of WHY I felt called to create this program. Releasing our muscular stress should be like brushing our teeth: we need to do it everyday to prevent buildup. Yoga, Seated Meditation and other forms of exercise etc, are WONDERFUL and yet they do not do what Hanna Somatics does, they don't get your brain to reset the muscle's tension specifically. In fact, if you're already wound up in certain areas, you may find that your body hurts during meditation, yoga, exercise or that your tighter in your problem areas after the fact. This phenomenon is, in part, why we explore the neurophysiology of movement in month three of Radiance. So that you understand why this has been happening and how you can apply somatic principles to other forms of exercise.
Emily's problem area has been her hand, and most her focus had been on trying fix it or make it better. However, during the retreat, she felt her whole body soften and relax and began to release how much she was holding in other areas, not just her hand. In many ways, we tend to focus on the areas that give us the most grief but forget how connected our body is and how in letting go in one area, we can initiate letting go in another areas as well.
Beautifully, Emily feels very motivated and knows that if she has support in building a practice, she can make it happen. And perhaps she will experience the miracle she's been hoping for: a way out of her hand prison of Focal Dystonia. I have complete confidence that this will be the case if all the factors align as they could and I am thrilled to be part of her healing and awakening journey on all levels: as the "cause" of her focal dystonia is still not fully known, but is most likely a combination of genetics, environmental and psychosomatic conditions.
Stay tuned for updates on Emily's progress and check out the Radiance Program to learn more about how this incredible method can work to address a multitude of issues and create the life, in your body, you have been dreaming of!
Next Round Starts Nov. 4th 2023!
Comments