INTEGRATIVE PHYSICAL THERAPY 

What is Hellerwork?

Hellerwork is a powerful system of somatic education and structural bodywork, based on the inseparability of body, mind, and spirit. Following Ida Rolf’s lineage of Structural Integration bodywork, Joseph Heller incorporated movement education/awareness and body-centered human development processes creating Hellerwork.

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What should I expect?

Deep tissue bodywork combined with movement education and dialogue of the mind/body connection guides you to new options, both physically and emotionally. Hellerwork encourages you to make the connection between movement and body alignment. Hellerwork restores your body's natural balance from the inside out.

More on Cranial work

In a healthy system, there is constant motion throughout the body.  It is regular and has an expected direction and is involuntary.  We are familiar with this concept because of the heart beat.  There are other rhythms in the body that are less easily perceived, however, just as important.  Cranial work seeks to identify when this is aberrant or absent, through gentle hands on techniques, to reestablish it.  Though there are many opportunities for treatment in the head (thus the term cranial) but the approach In a healthy system, there is constant motion throughout the body.  It is regular and has an expected direction and is involuntary.  We are familiar with this concept because of the heart beat.  There are other rhythms in the body that are less easily perceived, however, just as important.  Cranial work seeks to identify when this is aberrant or absent, through gentle hands on techniques, to reestablish it.  Though there are many opportunities for treatment in the head (thus the term cranial) but the approach is not limited tothis region.  Because of the interconnections in the body, the effects are typically far reaching.  

Osteopathic Techniques

Traditionally, osteopathy is a form of drug free, noninvasive, hands on approach focusing on restoration of balance within the body.  One of the principles of osteopathic treatment is that we are all connected.  This means that if there is a problem in one area, other areas are influenced, therefore the source of a problem can be in a different area than where the symptom is.  Given this connection, there needs to be a system that is far reaching.  This is accomplished by a fluid delivery system which includes blood vessels and lymphatics.  Fluid flow is absolutely important for delivery of nutrients and transport of wastes.  This flow can be blocked by anything that creates compression or restriction.  If there is such a problem in the structure, it will eventually manifest in compromised function.  If structural blocks are removed, the body can do its job of self-healing.  At IPT, we use gentle, hands on osteopathic techniques to accomplish optimize restoration of a whole person so that he or she can let their system take over and continue self healing on its own.  In addition to the more active exercise and movement habit analysis, we use different types of soft tissue work, cranial work and visceral mobilization.

More on Visceral mobilization

 Structure and function among internal organs is at least as important as those of the musculoskeletal system.  Internal organs and their attachments and coverings are referred to as viscera.  In a healthy system, there is gliding and sliding with every twist, turn and bend of the body.  If there are adhesions or tensions, this cannot happen ideally and the body has to move around the restrictions creating compensatory patterns.  Visceral manipulation seeks to free these abnormal restrictions to thus restore movement towards optimum function.  This is done through very gentle hands on techniques.