Melissa is a black belt BJJ athlete, registered nurse, osteopath, and now a newly minted PhD holder (we discuss her latest research in this interview).

I wanted to speak with Melissa because of how embarrassingly ignorant I am about concussion rehabilitation. Nearly everyone has bonked their head at some point in their life (I ask everyone who comes in to see me…). While not all bonks lead to concussion, many small-medium bonks over the decades can still create appreciable brain and body symptoms. Ask me how I know…

I met Melissa in Toronto when we both shared clinic space. I’ve seen first hand Melissa’s dedication to studying and treating concussions and seen the positive results she has with her patients.

Whether you’ve had a concussion or not, you probably know someone who’s had one. Maybe you want to understand more about how to make your brain and body more resilient to the inevitability of bonking your head on that cupboard 1000 times a day. Or maybe you work with athletes who are at risk of concussion and you’re curious about the standard of care. Like, is the advice to not go to sleep still what’s recommended? And what are some red flags to watch for?

In our conversation, Melissa and I discuss:

* Melissa’s story about sleep medication leading to dementia-like symptoms and inspiring her to learn about the brain

* What constitutes an “ideal” recovery from concussion

* How many Gs of force it takes to create a concussion

* The challenges of concussion diagnosis due to its subjective nature, and what are the diagnostic criteria for concussion

* How to help your body and brain become resilient to concussions, especially if you are an athlete

* The important role of a movement practice focusing on spine and neck mobility, alignment, and decelerative capacity (strength) for concussion prevention

* How hormonal status in females at time of injury is important

* How sub-concussive symptoms are worth considering, and how craniosacral therapy, neck and spine mobility, and eye movement tracking/exercises can help

* The vestibular-occular motor screen Melissa mentions you can use to check your vestibular system health: Vestibular and Ocular Motor Screening

* What dietary strategies are shown to aid brain health and concussion recovery

* Melissa’s recent PhD research on the use of virtual reality as part of concussion rehab

And much more.

I learned a lot in our conversation and, as a craniosacral therapist who touches skulls for a living, I was validated to hear Melissa mention how helpful CST is in the treatment process.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Dr. Melissa Biscardi.

Where to find Melissa online:

Melissa’s Website: www.concussionrehab.ca

Instagram: @concussionrehab.ca

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@concussionrehabBrain Toolkit App: braintoolkit.ca

Here’s a little more about Dr. Melissa Biscardi

Melissa Biscardi, RN, PhDc is a concussion clinician, educator and tech innovator.

She has been a registered nurse since 2006 and has remained a student of the majestic brain ever since, adding various degrees and letter to her name. Melissa maintains a curiosity for the road less travelled.

In her clinic, appropriately called “Concussion Rehab”, in Toronto Canada, she has maintained a brain-wise practice for over 10 years. Beyond patient care, Melissa is a dedicated mentor, guiding new clinicians to adopt best practices in concussion management (education.concussionrehab.ca).

Melissa has training from the Carrick Institute, completed a Master of Science that focused on women specific outcomes after concussion and recently completed her PhD on eye movement interventions in VR for adults after concussion (fun!)….officially making her Dr. Brainy.

Melissa has published 4 book chapters and numerous research articles which are all linked on her website (www.concussionrehab.ca/)

As an advocate for integrating accessible technology into rehabilitation, Melissa developed the Brain Tool Kit app for Android and iPhone (www.braintoolkit.ca). This accessible app is a one stop shop for eye movements, reaction time, balance and cognitive assessment and training.

When not tied up being as Brainy as she can be, Melissa love hiking and climbing in the mountains and spending time with her family and 3-legged cat.

Awards:

* Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Scholarship (2024 and 2025)

* Brain Injury ISIG Deborah Lee Price Girls & Women with ABI Task Force Poster Award (2024)

* Scholar in Women’s Brain Health Award (3 year award) from Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network (2021-2024)

* Mitacs 3 year Fellowship in collaboration with NeuroFlex (2022 to 2025)

* 2nd Degree Black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and previous world champion (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013)

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Ajna is a South-African born bodyworker who I originally bonded with due to our eerily similar life-paths: We both studied dance, moved to Toronto, danced professionally, got injured, stopped dancing and started studying Thai massage, realized there was more to helping bodies out of pain than working on muscles, and discovered the joy of studying anatomy, movement, and the mind-body connection as a way to help others.

We both studied Neurokinetic Therapy, Anatomy in Motion, and other continuing education courses together, and have collaborated on working with experimental bodywork “protocols” together that blend our love of exploring mind-body healing.

I wanted to speak with Ajna because of how well she is able to articulate her understanding of how our psyche affects our bodies. How unconscious beliefs, agreements, and behavioural patterns can be factors that cause and perpetuate our pain symptoms. Factors that aren’t always addressed in conventional manual and movement based approaches.

In my 20s I was very resistant to the notion that my emotional state- The ways I might be lying to myself, and my beliefs about myself and the world around me could have anything to do with my back pain. But in hindsight, though I credited my explorations of “healthy movement” as the primary thing that resolved my pain, I now see that it was through the journey of exploring movement and manual therapies that I indirectly began to encounter the ways in which my psychological conflicts were perpetuating my symptoms. 10 years later, I now see that, while movement helped reduce the mechanical strain on my body, the resolution of much of my body pain truly happened when I was able to move through these psychological conflicts and live in a state of less burden due to cognitive dissonance and unconscious emotional stress.

Ajna is dedicated to studying how the body, nervous system, and psyche impact on one another through her training in PDTR, manual therapy, and her work with the Dhyan Vimal Institute.

In 2022 when I was having foot problems I got immense benefit from enlisting Ajna as one of my trusted practitioners. She helped me to understand the unconscicous patterns and beliefs that were a component of what was keeping me in pain, and helped me to understand the changes I needed to make in my world to resolve it.

I think this interview will be beneficial for you if you are interested in somatic-based approaches to working with chronic pain that acknowledge that there is more going on than joint compression, muscle tension, and “bad” posture (though these are real considerations, too).

In our discussion, Ajna provides some background into the work she does and how it works. She also shares a lot of real life stories from her practice, and gives some practical tools you can use whether you are a practitioner or simply looking for tools to feel better in your own body.

In our conversation, Ajna and I discuss:

* Do emotions always have a role in physical pain?

* How pain is an “alarm system” alerting us to larger patterns in our lives that need attention.

* How our symptoms may be manifestations of many broad, uninvestigated themes in our lives: Belief system, damaging values, lack of authenticity, and agreements we didn't know we made.

* Ajna’s discovery of the Dhyan Vimal Institute for Higher Learning, and how implementing the knowledge she’s gained through her studies with him have informed her personal and professional practice.

* The ABC meditation, which she feels to be one of the most effective, foundational ways to begin to build awareness of our reality an become less affected by external triggers.

* How our bodies need truth for well-being, and how she uses muscle testing to understand whether someone’s body is working from a state of “honesty” or “corruption”.

And much more.

While I understand this conversation might fly under the woo woo banner for some folks, I strongly believe in what I’ve learned from Ajna and the information she shares connecting the psyche with our physical experience.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Ajna Samadhi and come away with some practical tools and insights for working with your body, and with others.

Where to find Ajna online:

Ajna’s Website: www.ajnasamadhi.com

Instagram: @ajna.samadhi

Dhyan Vimal Institute: DV Institute for Higher Learning

Here’s a little more about Ajna Samadhi:

Ajna started studying Thai Massage in 2008 and opened her practice in 2009.

She has studied many different modalities including NeuroKinetic Therapy (NKT) Anatomy in Motion (AiM), and Proprioceptive Deep Tendon Reflex (P-DTR).

She combines different techniques based on neuroscience, biomechanics, anatomy, and more subtle techniques to bring the body into a more balanced state. Her work helps restore the inherent integrity back into the system.

Her approach to the body is founded in the work of Dhyan Vimal, and her practice is constantly evolving as her learning continues.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Hello Movement Friends! The video in this post is a lesson I filmed wayyyy back during COVID times for my online community, Movement Detective School (which no longer exists, but all the videos still live in an archive!). As a follow up to my latest interview with Helen Hall, last week I thought it would be nice for you to experience a tidbit of what we discussed.

In this movement exploration video, I take you through a bit of theory and exercises to experience the developmental movement patterns associated with a few select spine movement reflexes- The early movements that would develop your spinal mobility and body functions related to the spine’s movement capability.

What functions might those be? Healthy development of spinal movement is associated with:

* Digestive function

* Vestibular system function

* Visual field

* Core musculature development

* Circulation of cerebral spinal fluid

* Scoliosis

* Autonomic nervous system adaptability (switching from sympathetic to parasympathetic back and forth as needed)

And more!

This exploration focuses primarily on movements in the sagittal plane, i.e. forward and backwards movements: Flexion and extension of the spine. I filmed a part 2 which focuses on rotation and lateral flexion of the spine as well. Perhaps I shall share that one too if enough of you reading this ask nicely ;)

What might have interfered with little you’s spine movement development? A lot of things, including:

* Bonks on the head and concussion

* Birth challenges such as C-sections, suction or forceps deliveries, cord around the neck, etc

* Any sensory motor deprivation, such as being confined in the NICU, or an early injury requiring immobilization

* Premature birth

* Lack of crawling

* Illness and use of antibiotics in infancy

And more!

In essence, anything that might have disrupted your malleable, adaptive, little body/mind/brain system to a point beyond which return back to homeostasis was challenged and this required a new coping strategy that changed your movement potential.

These spinal movements I guide in the lesson are a response that we, as infants, would have made to our environment for survival and physical development of the brain and body. The environmental stimuli that cue us to move in a particular pattern involve all our senses- Touch, hearing, visual stimuli, and proprioception (change of position).

In spite of possible disruption to these early movement patterns, we can re-train them at any age to the point that they become a part of our system again, and create the foundation for all upright movement we do as adults, like walking, running, and higher level sports and activities.

I hope you enjoy this lesson! If you are interested in learning more, please get in touch! It is such a fascinating world, and this work has helped me a lot.

If you have a history of spine mobility trouble, pain, or other issues you suspect could be linked to spine mobility and early movement development of the spine, I think you’ll really get a lot out of this movement lesson :)

To learn more about the source of these movement patterns, see the MNRI website (where I’ve studied this work): Svetlana Masgutova Educational Institute

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Helen Hall is best known as a movement coach specializing in helping people improve their running efficiency, but I know her as a movement detective extraordinaire.

Helen has a vast toolkit that allows her to observe peoples’ movement problems over the spectrum of their entire movement lifespan. She’s come to understand that our early movement development has a massive, yet underestimated implication in many pain and movement problems that persist in spite of trying everything. Everything, that is, except considering what insults to their systems may even have happened before even leaving the comfort of the womb…

Helen has helped me tremendously with my own body. We met in 2019 in London when I was there for an Anatomy in Motion course. She invited me to come over to her clinic in the country side to have an assessment with her new, high-tech motion analysis treadmill X-ray device (Doris). The impact of that one session was transformative for me (and its a story I describe to Helen in this interview).

She asked me a question that truly changed the course of my personal and professional movement explorations: “Did you crawl as an infant?”. This led me down a fascinating path of studying infant reflexes, or, as Helen prefers to describe it, early movement development.

Helen inspired me to learn more about the impact that infant reflex development has on our options for movement as adults. Understanding our early movement development can help to make sense of why people get stuck in chronic pain cycles that don’t resolve in a linear way, in spite of doing everything that logic suggests should help.

In our conversation, Helen and I discuss:

* What are some tell tale signs that investigating early movement development might be a missing link?

* Hussein Bolt’s interesting movement habits that Helen wishes she could test

* The impact of not crawling on movement patterns

* How Helen uses the most advanced motion sensing technology currently available in her clinic to help athletes with in depth movement analysis

* Why concussions can negatively affect movement patterns

* Importance of testing reflexive foot movements as hypo or hyper-responsive and how this can impact on gait (an why you might wear a hole in the big toe of all your socks)

* So many stories of peoples’ mysterious pains understood through Helen’s holistic, movement based approach

* Helen’s “Lego block” analogy for understanding early movement development

* Is there a link between early movement development and ADHD, and how could retraining specific movement patterns help our sensitive nervous systems?

And much more.

I barely scratched the surface of my list of topics to discuss with Helen, so hopefully I’ll get to have a chat number two with her in 2026.

My favourite part of this interview was when Helen validated my goal in life to be average, as she states (and I paraphrase), “The best we can hope for for our child at birth is average. Not exceptional, but average”. Why? Because it sets them up for the best possible set of options, not limited by being exceptional on either end of the developmental spectrum.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this interview with Helen Hall.

Where to find Helen online:

Helen’s book: Even With Your Shoes On

Instagram: @helenhallpfm

Youtube: @ThePFMWay

Website: www.helen-hall.co.uk

Helen’s courses on Thinkific: Rethinking Movement Efficiency The PFM Way

Here’s a little more about Helen Hall:

I have a lifelong habit of both enjoying movement and of analysing it, and I use my passion to help those stuck in chronic pain and injury patterns. I believe bodies are amazing and capable of Perpetual Forward Motion, - PFM - and I apply all my movement understanding to our innate movement patterns of walking and running.

Using the most advanced motion analysis technology in the world, I combine objective clarity with over 4 decades of experience and study in the field, to seek out root causes of chronic pain and injury that seem resistant to standard treatment protocols.

I call it The PFM Way to Movement Efficiency; I’ve written a book called ‘Even With Your Shoes On – Discover your Natural Path to Smooth, Efficient, Enjoyable Running’.

I was presented with the Sash of Honour at the Queen’s Annual Royal Air Force Awards, 1982 and following over 6 years serving in the Royal Air Force as an Air Traffic Control Officer, retrained as a fitness instructor and remedial massage therapist.

Continuing therapist training evolved into a specialisation in vascular and lymphatic circulations through Dr Vodder Manual Lymph Drainage and Professor Leduc Medical Lymph.

Working with lymphoedema patients then athletes led to progressing my already long-term focus on Efficient Movement – particularly in the context of walking and running – to the road and triathlon cyclist.

This resulted in founding both Ten-Point: The Efficient Running & Cycling Studio and Perpetual Forward Motion Ltd – The PFM Way to Movement Efficiency.

Ten-Point taught bike-fitting to UK and European bike-fitters using the most advanced bike-fitting tool in the world – the GURU bike-fitting system.

The PFM Way rethinks conventional wisdom surrounding movement, pain and injury, approaching the problems of chronic pain and injury from ‘non-standard perspectives’ and enabling “lost causes” — those who have tried ‘everything’ — to find a way to break their pain/injury cycle. Supported by objective data provided by the most advanced gait analysis tech in the world and the first of its kind in the UK, I have created online courses – PFM PILOT – to share this knowledge, because I feel passionately that these ‘non-standard perspectives’ should be standard, conventional and widespread.

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In this (solo) episode of the Movement Detectivery podcast I wanted to share a few cases I got to work with recently that I thought were pretty cool examples of how restrictions in the hard palate and cranial bones can have a whole body impact.

I share two cases: JJ who had a primary complaint of eye strain and shoulder pain, and Elizabeth, who had left hip pain.

In both JJ and Elizabeth’s case history were indications that at an early age they’d had something significant causing restriction of the movement of the bones in their cranium. And in both cases we could trace these early insults to their mouth to the development of their current complaints in a completely different part of the their bodies.

JJ had a worn a maxillary denture for decades, after smashing her face and losing all but one of her front teeth as a child.

Elizabeth had worn a palate expander as a kid due to crowding of her teeth and never felt that it was comfortable.

I love cases like this because it really allows me to use my two main tools: Craniosacral therapy and Anatomy in Motion, to make sense of how the whole body can adapt over decades to a small restriction of the motion of the facial bones.

I hope you enjoy this short episode! I’d love to hear if you have any personal experience with wearing a dental appliance or have had dental history that you suspect had an impact on how things feel in your body- symptoms or movement limitations, today. Please shoot me an email or message if you’d like to chat!

Here are a few things I referenced in this podcast:

The image below is a great cross section of cranial anatomy, showing the connection of the maxilla, vomer, and sphenoid bones. Notice how the sphenoid connects with the occiput, which connects to the neck, which connects to the spine, etc… Showing us how movement restriction within the cranium can have an impact on the body below if allowed enough time for the body to adapt.

Cast partial maxillary denture: The image below is a decent representation of what JJ was wearing- A metal cast of her hard palate with partial denture. Although hers included more metal coverage of the surface of her upper palate.

Palate Expander: I don’t know the exact variety that Elizabeth wore, but the photo below is the essence of where it sits in the hard palate, so you can visualize it.

Barral Institute Listening Technique: The video below is from a presentation by osteopath Ron Mariotti, speaking about what listening technique is.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thanks for reading Movement Detectivery! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Margy Verba is a Californian computer nerd turned pilates instructor who now identifies as a rehabilitative movement specialist. You’re in for a treat because Margy is one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve met in the world of human movement.

Margy works with folks in-person in her local community (the small village of Mono City), and online to help them with movement and pain related problems. She is a huge believer in giving people tools to help themselves through better understanding how their body’s are set up to move.

She teaches for Anatomy in Motion as well as teaching her own movement workshops for non-movement professionals. Her attention to detail and ever-questioning mind makes her an incredible movement educator. Her desire to understand anatomy, and her commitment to exploring movement to support her own body continues to impress me, and is why I wanted to interview. her.

Whenever I have a biomechanics question, Margy’s the first person I think of to ask because I know she’ll be able to answer in the level of detail of a PHd, even if her conclusion is “I don’t know”.

Margy and I have collaborated on some teaching projects online and in-person for the AiM community, and I’ve also had the pleasure of spending quality time with Margy as a guest at her home (although she did once make me sleep outside in her unheated caravan in October in the freezing cold…).

Margy has witnessed me getting the worst, most embarrassing sun-burn of my life. She took my pilates reformer virginity, helped me a lot with my foot pain back in 2022 when I couldn’t walk, and she’s taken me on some of the most breathtaking hikes in the Sierra-Nevada and Yosemite park. I’ve been inspired watching her as a role model of a woman who takes care of her body and, into her 60s, still can hike mountains in minimalist footwear.

In our conversation, Margy and I discuss:

* What is massage therapy good for?

* Her experience with a total knee replacement.

* What makes knee replacements so challenging to recover from compared to other joints?

* Switching from “muscle-centric” to “bone-centric” thinking

* Marg’s transition from the computer world to pilates and movement

* How to start taking ownership of your body’s needs if you’re on a budget

And so much more.

I really enjoyed speaking to Margy, and I hope you do too.

Where to find Margy online:

Instagram: @flowmotioneducation

Youtube: FlowMotion Education - YouTube

Website: www.flowmotioneducation.com

Here’s a little more about Margy Verba:

I am fascinated by movement and the body’s capacity to heal. Always a mover, I grew up studying dance, playing sports, and backpacking as much as possible. While in college, in the mid-1970s, I started teaching dance and fitness classes (remember leg warmers and shiny leotards?). In the early 1990s, I discovered Pilates, and went on to complete internationally acclaimed Madeline Black’s teacher training. Madeline first introduced me to therapeutically oriented Pilates, and I have never looked back. Continuing my education in a therapeutic orientation, I have a diverse range of training with world renowned instructors/researchers (see education below).

In 2005 I was hired by the U.S. Men’s and Women’s U.S. Ski Teams to develop a custom Pilates program. Today my clients are primarily people in chronic pain and athletes who are stymied by injuries. I offer both private appointments, as well as a series of self-care courses for pain alleviation and prevention. The focus of my practice is knowledge and awareness, achieved through biomechanics education and movement exploration. This focus empowers my clients to practice self-care and be informed consumers of healthcare. In short, I enable my clients to take ownership of and actively participate in, their own healing process.

The primary influence on my practice is Anatomy in Motion (read more about AiM here). I have studied extensively with AiM founder Gary Ward, author of “What the Foot”, and as of 2021 I am an official AiM Instructor. AiM is based on the premise that gait (AKA walking) uses every joint in the body in all three dimensions. By analyzing gait and its component motions, we can address non-optimal movement at both a global (full body) and focal (individual joints) level. I have also been focusing my studies on pelvic floor and breathing dysfunctions (hint: they are not unrelated!). My clients get individualized corrective exercise programs, which provide lasting results, rather than simply providing symptomatic relief.

Olivia Michalak is a dance educator in Boston MA. She works primarily in public and private schools, in addition to dance studios.

I wanted to speak with Olivia because of her own experience of movement detectivery, conducting investigations with her own body. Olivia epitomizes what it means to engage in a process of deeply connecting with her body with the goal of understanding how things got the way they are (i.e. not feeling so great…).

Her desire to make connections and understand how her body moves has been inspiring for me to witness, and I know she has a lot of stories to share that we can all learn from. My goal was to pick apart her n=1 experience navigating the ups and downs of figuring out her physical restrictions and symptoms to find insights that might be of use to anyone hoping to understand how to help themselves. What worked, what didn’t, and what has she learned along the way?

In this conversation we discussed:

* Being diagnosed with Mosaic-Turner syndrome

* The role of self-acceptance in resolving pain

* Her movement journey- what movement modalities and approaches helped the most

* Discovering how neck and jaw alignment were influencing her foot mechanics, and other biomechanical “mysteries” solved

* Impact of forceps/suction induced deliveries on the development of the body over time

* Honest movement

* Deciding to study Anatomy in Motion at a professional level

* What makes a good therapist

I think this episode is really relatable and I really resonated with a lot that she said about learning to accept her body being a huge part of her process, and a part that will probably be ongoing. Me too…

I hope you enjoy this conversation!

Here’s a Little More About Olivia Michalak:

Olivia is an experienced dance educator in public and private schools, in addition to dance studios. Another passion is designing choreography for musical productions. Her movement teaching career began in 2014 while studying at London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where she earned an MA in Movement Teaching and Directing.

Want to get in touch with Olivia?

Follow Olivia on Instagram: @olivia.michalak

Corey Hess is a a structural integrator and movement educator in the Seattle area. Corey spent his twenties doing intense internal healing and embodiment work in a zen monastery in Japan, and came back to the US with unique insights to share about healing, pain, meditation, movement, and the internal energetic process.

Originally trained as a Structural Integrator, Corey went on to study SourcePoint Therapy®, Craniosacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation. These advanced modalities allow him to effectively treat a broad spectrum of issues

While in university, Corey first encountered Non-Directive Body Movement, a practice that I stumbled into in 2019 without knowing what it was.

I was so excited to talk to Corey because of his work teaching NDBM because I had years of questions pent up with no-one to bounce them off of. By far, NDBM has been a movement “practice” that has been the most effective, respectful, and honest way to deeply connect with my body and being, in motion.

In our conversation, Corey and I discuss:

* His time studying in Japan

* His relationship with Marilyn Beech, (NDBM teacher and (author of “Unexpected Results”)

* Dr. Marvin Solit and the origins of Non-Directed Body Movement

* What is NDBM, what can it do for you, and what is a class like?

* The parallels between craniosacral therapy, osteopathic techniques, and NDBM

* What is the role of deliberate exercises and stretching and where does NDBM fit into a movement practice?

* How to consider working with traumas from the birth process, like C-sections, etc.

* Is NDBM a form of meditation?

And so much more.

By the end of our conversation I felt inspired, like I’d met a kindred soul, and I was ready to book a flight to Seattle to hang out with Corey and have an in-person experience of one of his movement classes, which blend various other movement forms with NDBM.

If you enjoy what Corey as to say and want to explore NDBM, get in touch with him and ask about his classes. He teaches 5x/week on Zoom and has a really wonderful global community of curious movement explorers.

Want to get in touch with Corey?

For info about Corey’s classes and retreats, GO HERE

Follow Corey on Substack HERE

Follow Corey in Instagram: @corehess

See Corey’s Youtube channel HERE

To contact Corey directly:

[email protected]

http://coreyhessbodytherapy.com

Here’s a Little More About Corey Hess:

I live on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, with my wife and three daughters, where I teach Meditation/Qigong and see clients for manual therapy.

After fifteen years ripening and learning to communicate these insights through hands on touch therapy, teaching movement, and discussion, I now offer classes, workshops and private sessions, including classes in Qigong, Zhan Zhuang, non-directed body movement, and meditation instruction. I also run The Energy Collective, an International online group of committed practitioners. Most Importantly, I am a husband and a father to three beautiful daughters.

Jordan Terry is a licenced massage therapist in Santa Cruz CA, but just don’t call him a massage therapist… He prefers “Human Helper, Movement Detective, Body Listener and eternal Student”.

Jordan blends multiple modalities such as craniosacral therapy, PDTR, NKT, Anatomy in Motion, Polarity Therapy, and more to work with a wide variety of clients experiencing pain. Jordan also teaches his own course, Adaptable Polarity, bringing all of these fields of study together to systematize his unique way of working with the human body’s structure, function, and energetic systems.

Jordan has SO much to share and I barely touched the top of my list of questions for him. In our conversation we discussed:

* How fascia touches everything

* Alternating joint theory

* Potential problems with Neurolink from a craniosacral perspective

* Power vs. Force, and Richard Dawkins’ “scale of empowerment”, and how different emotions affect fascia

* How the cranium and our spine move with our breath

* How Jordan’s jaw injury and scar was affecting his hip pain

* Injury Recall Technique

* Paired bones and “reactors”, and what is the mechanism behind them

And so much more.

On a sad note, our internet connection was a little shaky, and there is a whole 20 minute chunk I had to omit because the audio wasn’t usable. Apologies. Hopefully, with my excellent editing skills, you won’t even notice the awkward transition I had to cut (but if you can tell me which minute it’s at, you win a prize!).

As you’ll hear, Jordan clearly has a lot of insight into the workings of the human body, and I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Here’s a bit more about Jordan:

Human Helper, Movement Detective, Body Listener and eternal Student & Teacher, Jordan has developed, synthesized and teaches the Adaptable Polarity Series.

Formally trained as an architect at the University of Maryland, it was a relatively easy switch from the structure and flow of buildings to that of the human body.

Jordan earned his licensure to touch through Santa Barbara Body Therapy Institute where he began his teaching career under the study, tutelage and mentorship of John Harris, local legend to Santa Barbara and author of Fix Pain, as well as, one of Jordan’s all-time favorite instructors.

He has since accumulated hundreds of hours of continuing education and pursued countless hours of personal study that ultimately led to the formation and continual adaptation of Adaptable Polarity. Everything has its place and space, and it is our duty as therapists to adapt to the client before us.

Find him online:

Website: www.adaptablepolarity.com

Instagram: @adaptable_polarity

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Today’s interview is with the incredible Dave Hedges: Coach , martial artist, and injury management specialist.

You can also listen here on Spotify:

One of the reasons I wanted to speak with Dave is because of his intimate, complex, and thoughtful relationship with movement, his body, and how he works with other bodies. Dave has such a broad scope of thoughts, ideas, opinions, practical skill sets, and experiences, and I loved discussing his story, his key learnings, and his philosophy for helping people improve their performance and chronic pain.

In this conversation we discuss:

* His early movement life and getting into karate

* The risk of identifying with a movement form

* Working with people vs working on people

* The importance of training both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and what meditation actually helps us with

* What it means to cultivate discipline and take responsibility for your body, and why these are so important for getting out of pain

* Dave’s experience with his back injury and how he worked with his own body to get through

* Dave’s experience with Anatomy in Motion

* Why injury prevention as a goal is unrealistic, and what to focus on instead

* Training your “human animal”

And more…

I really appreciate Dave’s depth and honesty, and I found myself nodding along, resonating with what he was saying and how uncannily parallel our journeys were.

I loved talking to Dave and can't wait for you to listen, too. Enjoy!

A little more about Dave:

Dave is a movement therapist and fitness / coach in Dungannon in the UK.

Dave is fascinated by the human body's resilience, it's potential for strength, mobility and endurance. It’s ability to respond and adapt to incredible circumstances and how it can heal and recover if allowed the right stimulus.

And that stimulus is usually movement

For the last 20 years Dave has helped innumerable people from all walks of life, from weekend warriors to semi-professional athletes, gym goers to full contact fighters, overcome injuries and realise their potential.

Dave places an importance on carefully assessing movement and mindset through the medium of Anatomy In Motion (AiM) to work out what the body needs and then giving you the exercises to heal yourself.

Through his adventures in martial arts, mountain sports and security work, he has walked the path of injury many times.

Through first hand experience Dave understands the only way to truly heal and keep moving forward is to take personal responsibility and control of your own health & wellbeing.

Find Dave here: https://www.davehedges.net/

And follow him on Instagram: @dave_hedges

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