Tensegrity Medicine
Tensegrity Medicine was developed by Kelly Clancy, OTR/L. I was in her first class after she developed this technique and it has created a new lens for me to base my treatment on and changed the way I practice bodywork. I learned to look at the person in a more holistic way evaluating movement and looking at the relationships between structures. This modality utilizes myofascial length testing to assess the mobility of the muscle and its surrounding fascia.
When I treat people using the tensegrity principles, I test their fascial system to see which structures are out of balance. The muscle that is restricted is held by a fascial sheath that is too tight for the muscle to fire to its full potential. The muscles that are not firing are not participating which causes other muscles to be overworked, creating soreness - often the source of pain that people come in for. The muscles that are restricted are often soft and therefore not drawing attention to needing to be massaged. Most of the effort in a traditional massage is spent treating the overworked muscles which are tight and sore, demanding relief. However, when the tight muscles get treated, the relief is often temporary as the restricted muscles are still not able to fire to their full potential, creating an imbalance in the system. Since the muscle is not firing due to the tension in the fascia, the treatment must be focused on the fascia to release the muscle.
The main goal of the treatment is to create balance 3 dimensionally, so that the pain patterns are alleviated for longer if not forever. A typical session will start with a fascial test followed by treating the tightest tissue. The testing drives the treatment and there are various ways that the fascial restrictions can be treated. The person may be encouraged to walk a bit to integrate the work and then another fascial test can be done to see the results and to guide further treatment for a balanced system. I can incorporate other bodywork modalities as well, including massage, Bowenwork, massage cupping, cranial sacral, intra oral, etcetera.
I would suggest a Tensegrity treatment if you are experiencing pain patterns that are chronic and not being relieved by other modalities or if you have injuries that happened a long time ago and have not been fully resolved. Often it can be a good fit for pain that has seemingly crept up out of nowhere as this can be the start of a body pattern that is not balanced.
