Fascia & Bones: Unpacking the Mystery

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In Season 3, Episode 2 I am back with Lauren Rose, PT. We are having a discussion on heart-isms. Stories, and lectures on the heart and how to treat the heart from a manual osteopathic lens. Lauren brings her years of experience and passion for the heart in the discussion inviting in metaphor and challenging how we think about the heart in our practice as manual practitioners.

I am excited to share this intimate and joyful discussion with you.

Thanks for taking the time to listen and learn on Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery. Please rate us on the podcast provider you listen too.

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I thought I would share a story I wrote for my Structural Integration cohort. This was designed as a somatic exercise. Have a journal or piece of paper ready to write on afterwards. 

If you can, find a cozy place to lay down. Snuggle under a blanket. As you settle in notice your breathing, the support of the earth underneath your body. Notice the air moving touching your skin. Now I will begin the story.

Before Skin

Let me add a small piece of wood on the fire that keeps us warm. I want to share a story of our beginning. This story is small and yet it has largeness. It can be so small it fits inside a sewing thimble where the fairies hide. Yet it is so large it does not fit inside this room so it has to live in the deep forest with all the other magical creatures. Where the unicorns nibble sweet blades of grass. Yet here we are inside her, protected by the womb. They say I first came here on a journey from her ovum. I slipped out in the night so you could not see me along with several of my sisters. Each sister disappeared and became follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) so that I could stick and not disappear with them. 

As I floated down the fallopian tube, I felt warm and bathed in fluid. Then I arrived at a precipice where I decided to jump into the abyss. As I fell, I entered the dark cave called uterus. There was no light and I swam through a dark liquid, then as I tired I floated…sensing the space around me. Slightly curious and a little miffed that no one had made me breakfast. Then in a spark, others were arriving with big heads and long tails, swimming and laughing. They had come to dance with me and gently placed their noses on my outerness. We made the shape of the Matahari, the sun. Me large in the center. Them centering around me with their tails and heads carrying DNA. We danced for several hours.

Something was changing inside of me as the nutritional lining around me was falling away. One of these fishy creatures called Sparky was dancing patiently, with kindness, and had more spark about them. My system felt gooey inside and I asked them if they would like to come inside me to dance. Sparky waited patiently and reflected on if they wanted to dance. Then they consented and I made space for them by opening up my edges. Sparky came inside and we started to fuse together while letting go of half our DNA. Then we reformed into half of each. Becoming a new whole and form. We were now a consensual conceptus. 

Not quite human. More like a small fluid rock. Here we would begin to divide in a cellular continuity of sameness, filling up the protective shell with many cells. Now we changed our name to Morula. Still floating in the protective womb, slightly unsure if our journey would stop here. 

After a while, we continued to change. We were no longer like a small rock, but like a plant expressing outward growth. Seeking to begin to root. However, the womb was unsure. The womb was deciding if it could make space for us. 

Meanwhile, I felt a pulse, and the cells started to migrate to one side, creating space for fluid. I sensed myself floating backwards toward the lining of the uterus. I felt a bolt of lightning in my center.  I looked down and started to fold over into myself. Then something strange happened. I started to grow a tail that reached out and connected to the womb. A little like tying off a small boat to the dock. Here I rested a while as I was a little surprised by this attachment. From the connection stalk, I would find myself floating in flexion and extension. Pulsing back and forth with growth.

All of a sudden, I felt a thump and another thump. Oh my, I have a heart! A rhythmic beating drum calling me into this world with a steady beat. Thump thump thump. The surprise caused me to turn around and stand up inside of myself toward my mother. I am human after all.

I laid down in the mossy womb to rest, while I slept, I kept growing bigger, larger until one day I was too big for the womb, and I peeked outside of my cozy cave to enter the great outdoors.

The End or is it the beginning?

***

Take the time to free write on what you notice in your soma from this experience of where you come from.

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Welcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery. In this episode, I am sharing some ideas around punctive, duration, palliative care, and dying. First of all, I want to wish you all a summer solstice blessing, as these days are long and full of sunlight. A time to mark seasonal changes in one’s life.

I would like to start with a wink and a nod to Dr. Helen Paris for introducing me to a word in her Next Chapter workshop in La Roanne, France. The word is punctive, a verb that describes an action that occurs at a single, specific point in time or is instantaneous (e.g., to pop, to pounce, to kick). Helen introduced this word to a group of women over 40 who attended her creative writing retreat. As we read each other’s work, we would notice the somatic response to each other’s writings. The moment something catches us, like a pivot or switch in our somatic resonance. In contrast, there are durative verbs, which indicate duration over time (e.g., to walk, to think). Which is even more curious as Dr. Raegan Truax, the assistant teacher, works deeply in duration work with Creative Body Institute (https://www.creativebody.org/), of whom she is a founder. These two women are bringing amazing work to our world, and I look forward to sharing more in the future. What strikes me today as we move into summer solstice is how both the punctive and durational work lands in this time.

My research and practice have cultivated around trauma, both physical and psychosomatic work. This is like weaving ideas in the trauma culture with manual medicine. Much of what I have learned is through my experience in practice and in my personal life. So today, I am blowing up a doorway to share some recent experiences in hopes of helping others prepare for similar experiences.

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Welcome back to Fascia and Bones…

In Season 2, Episode 12 I am interviewing Lauren Rose, PT who is a fabulous practitioner and teacher of visceral, neural, vascular and energetics in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She began her career as an artist/jeweler and discovered Polarity work, then her training in massage therapy, which inspired her to get her Master’s in Physical Therapy. After working in hospital settings for four years, she went into private practice. She continued her education studying and assisting with Jean-Pierre Barral, DO. Lauren Rose has set an example of how women develop, create and stay curious in manual therapy. Her compassion, zest and curiosity shine through this interview. Her website is https://www.physicaltherapynm.com/. Lauren and I plan to meet again in a month to discuss specific techniques. I am very excited to share and honor a great teacher in this episode.

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In Season 2, Episode 11 I am sharing some thoughts based on my clinical research and upcoming book on how to support trauma, especially with regards to how popular discussing this conversations has become  in the last few months in social media. This is invitation to reframe how we talk about trauma.

There’s a phrase that has become incredibly popular in trauma culture:

“The body keeps the score.”

And while I understand why this idea resonates with so many people, I want to invite a deeper and more nuanced conversation. These are ideas that are presented in my upcoming book to be release in the end of 2026 entitled Somatic Touch: An integrative approach to physical and psychosomatic trauma.

Because I don’t actually believe trauma is “stored” in the body in the simplistic way it is often talked about.

I don’t think trauma sits trapped in the tissues like a toxin waiting to be released.

What I think is happening is far more complex, relational, and honestly, far more fascinating.

What we call trauma is often an adaptive neurobiological pattern.

A learned survival physiology.

A predictive response shaped by environment, attachment, development, physiology, and relationship.

And yes — it absolutely shows up in the body.

But that is different than saying trauma is physically stored there like an object.

This distinction matters.

Especially for practitioners.

Especially for neurodivergent folks.

Especially for anyone who has felt harmed, overwhelmed, or pathologized by certain trauma narratives.

Because many people have come to believe they are carrying hidden trauma trapped inside them that must somehow be excavated, discharged, or released through shaking, catharsis, or emotional excavation.

And I want to question that framework.

Not to dismiss trauma.

Not to dismiss suffering.

But to invite us into a more holistic and embryological understanding of how human beings actually develop and regulate.

From an osteopathic and embryological lens, the body is never just tissue.

For more go to my Substack for full text.

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Welcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am a practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights into the fields I practice.

In Season 2, Episode 10, I am with Kieran Schumaker (they/them), ATSI, BCSI instructor Neurovascular Release Courses who is coming to teach their classes in September and November of 2026. We are following up our discussion from Season 2 Episode 6 where we are talking about curiosity and mentioned metaphor. Here we are diving deeper into many ways we teach with metaphor as well as how this supports our clients on becoming more embodied.

Kier wrote Why we use metaphors:

1. To help us feel tissue, finding the right touch or the right layer

• nodule the size of a pea to describe how to feel for the C2,3 nerve roots
• kidney covered in its fat pad feels like a bar of soap

2. To help us understand spatial relationships in a complex system

• glide planes
• stacking the bones
• tensegrity network

3. To describe presence or movement quality

• feels like butter
• fluid movement

4. To help others see what we see

• Rolfing traditionally uses geometric metaphors, such as cylinders
• hourglass figure

5. To name what is frustrating or challenging

• dropped, collapsed, or fallen arches
• blocky vastus lateralis
• jacked up nervous system

Some metaphors we discuss (In no particular order):

• Imagination—to help us sense, touch, feel, and be present with bodies
• Rooted—firmly established, deeply felt
• Back Body—bend, support, not the front
• Fluid (movement)—like water
• Stable or Stability—to stand
• Glide Plane (for intermuscular septum)—relationship between two tissue layers, but not like two plates sliding.
• Grapefruit Sections—muscle compartments in the thigh
• Nerve roots 
• Artery branches
• Upstream—closer to the Central Nervous System or central vascular system.
• Beet root analogy—when talking with clients and students about dural restrictions.

And now for the podcast discussion with Kier.

Class Registration Links:

Manual NVR™ Part 1: Head, Neck, and "Roots of Arms" - September 18-20, 2026, Taos, New Mexico (USA) https://learn.neurovascular-release.online/courses/manual-nvr-part-1-sept-2026-taos

Manual Neurovascular Release Part 2: Lower Thorax, Pelvis, and Hips

November 13-15, 2026 https://learn.neurovascular-release.online/courses/manual-nvr-part-2-november-2026-taos

November 16, 2026 Integration and Practice https://learn.neurovascular-release.online/courses/manual-nvr-masterclass-nov-16-2026-taos

Somatic Touch © 2023 by Kirstie Segarra is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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Welcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am a practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights into the fields I practice.

In Season 2, Episode 9, I am sharing some thoughts around “turning up the volume”, Zohran Mamdani, changing paradigm of trauma theory, feminism, patriarchy, colonization, non-binary and queer politics. I have been reflecting as women how we hold each other up, support each other, and continue to melt the patriarchal messages, including within us, to help offer healing and change in the systems we live in.
 
 I thought I would share an excerpt from my book I am writing and the chapter is entitled “How trauma shows up in the body or does it?”

 “In resonance, all fluid systems are united. I say that no matter where in the galaxy they may be, all fluid systems function as basically one body or organ of intelligence.” — Emilie Conrad

Go to Substack for full post.

Meanwhile, thank you for listening to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery and please review the podcast on the platform you listen to.

Somatic Touch © 2023 by Kirstie Segarra is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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In Season 2, Episode 8, I am interviewing Dr. Helen Frances Paris, an extraordinary performance artist, writer, and professor who brings a deep experience with the body, feminism, as well as queer politics. She began her performance artist career in the 90’s in London. Dr. Helen and I speak about how she incorporates the body in her performance art and her writing. We speak about the hyoid bone as a way of reclaiming authenticity, how women are often not heard/listen too. Dr. Helen supports her students to rediscover, claim, and explore the next chapter in our lives within creativity and much, much, more. She is leading a women’s retreat for in creative writing in April of 2026 in the south of France. Which I plan to attend. You can learn more about it at https://www.creativebody.org/nextchapter. Her website is curiousperformance.com and on Instagram at Helen Frances Paris.

Another wonderful podcast with Dr. Helen at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/best-book-forward/id1709327980?i=1000740333751.

   Now for the interview with Dr. Helen.

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Welcome back to Fascia and Bones…

I have become her, or becoming her, that late 50’s invisible woman standing amongst the sagebrush of Taos, New Mexico, in the dark with a strand of solar Christmas lights, untangling the knots of the string as I drop the strands over the sagebrush in honor of the winter solstice nights. It is a period of time with longer nights, as we approach the time at that very moment on the winter solstice where the moments of darkness begin to be filled with new light.

This is the time of the ancient goddess, the Caillach Bheur of the Highlands, who shaped the mountains, protected wells and springs, and was a guardian of the deer. She is the daughter of the Winter Sun during these short days. So much lore surrounds her, and it seems she isn’t just from ancient Scotland and Ireland, but also possibly among the ancient Britons before the Celts over 4,000 years ago. The Caillach is woven in the invisible landscape of winter. If you have not been taught her mythology then you might not notice her influence and wrath as she throws rocks at you to wake you up.

I first heard the term “invisible woman” in reading my friend’s novel, The Invisible Women’s Club, by Dr. Helen Paris. I am not a big reader of fiction anymore, and somehow Dr. Helen’s book pulled me in with her sense of the body, humor, and character development. One of the lead characters had a way of knowing plants, their Latin terms, medicinal properties, and a heartfelt vigilante nature to help save the community garden, finding friendship and, dare I say, love. I am looking forward to interviewing Helen next week for the podcast.

My academic semester of teaching craniosacral therapy has just finished, and I will be taking the spring term off from teaching to continue working on my book entitled Somatic Touch:

An Integrative Approach to Healing from Physical and Psychosomatic Trauma. This book is a culmination of my teaching an osteopathic approach to the cranial field and sharing what I practice. I cover concepts from my second doctorate thesis in the art of listening, embodiment as an indigenous way of knowing, as well as specific craniosacral and visceral techniques, as well as osteopathic manual therapies of treatment. More importantly, I am offering a reframe of trauma theory and questioning some of the profound assumptions that are brought forth in narratives in our culture. Suffice it to say, it is a work in progress and I hope to have it completed by the end of 2026 for the publisher.

Another big change on the horizon is that I am in the process of reclaiming my mother’s maiden name as my own. The surname I carry now is shared with my daughter from my previous marriage and one that doesn’t belong to me. I would love to have a surname that is the first in my matriarchal line. With all the ancestry deep dives I have done, the names always belong to the husband. I filed the legal paperwork to change my surnames to MacDonald Scott today! This is a beautiful way to enter the new year and next chapter of my life.

I am wishing you and yours a beautiful Winter Solstice and see you soon on Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery. If you have been listening and would like to leave a review, that would be most appreciated.

Dr. Kirstie

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In Episode 6 of Season 2, I am interviewing a friend and colleague, Kieran Schumaker (they/them), Board Certified Structural Integrator and instructor of Neurovascular Release work they developed. Kier started practicing in massage therapy in 1998 and trained with Anatomy Trains in 2005. Before transitioning to bodywork, she trained in environmental science at The Evergreen State College. They are skilled in a gentle approach to supporting the body via the nerves as well as osteopathic methods of treatment. Kier is an experienced instructor of structural integration and has a wonderful way of sharing with metaphor and clear descriptions of the anatomy involved with the techniques they are teaching. One of the things I love about Kier is their choices of words. They are careful and articulate in how they describe and share their thoughts.

In this podcast, we discuss several topics in our fields around integrating nerves in our work, how we learned to explore and be curious as we learn and creative as children, neurodivergence, and our love of our field.

Kier’s website is via AgileBody Integrative Learning at https://learn.neurovascular-release.online/ and now for the conversation with Kier. They will be teaching here in Taos, New Mexico in September 18-20 and November 13-16 of 2026.