My mission is to help women feel great about their bodies. That’s not necessarily helping you to change your body – often it’s helping you to change your thinking about your body.
There is no mind-body dichotomy. Each of us is one wonderful, delicious, unique and brilliant entity, made up of thoughts, feelings, hormones, memories, practices and a meat-suit.
When your body feels more comfortable and less restricted, or when pain and anxiety are reduced, you feel better overall.
That’s where massage comes in.
It’s primarily a physical practice but it’s also an energy exchange between two people. Before you think I’m too woo-woo, let me tell you that there’s no way it’s only the physical aspect of massage that leaves me utterly exhausted at the end of my clinic!
The magic of massage is particularly apparent in abdominal and c-section scar massage.
It’s an intimate practice that requires some vulnerability of the soul. It’s not easy to allow someone to touch you on any scar, let alone the scar that shows you birthed your baby. For me, it’s a privilege to be allowed to touch and assist.
Scars tell stories that can’t be seen. The seven layers of tissues that are cut in c-section surgery are only seen by a medical team and perhaps a birth partner, but they are felt by the woman who gave birth. Perhaps those tissues are happy; or perhaps they’re stuck to each other with tight scar tissue, causing discomfort or restrictions of movement.
We breathe with our tummies. Abdominal muscles are muscles of respiration. Is there anything more important to us than breathing? Massage improves breathing by allowing and encouraging muscles to move better, changing the most vital of bodily functions.
Twenty-first century culture encourages women to seek a certain aesthetic of tummy, one which few women meet but many chase. I believe learning to love your body is essential. Taking time to pay attention to your tummy and all its sensations is useful step.
What does a c-section scar massage do?
If your scar is tight with what we might call ‘adhesions’ (layers of tissue not moving as well as they might) you it might find the flesh of your tummy sticks out above the scar. Massage work can soften these tissues and loosen the adhesions.
Muscles need to relax. A lifetime – or a postnatal period – spent sucking in your tummy or holding tension in your core and pelvic floor can make your muscles overactive and unable to fully relax. Massage is great for this. This doesn’t leave you with a saggy tummy – on the contrary, it allows you to feel your muscles more, so you can engage them better when you need to.
If you have diastasis recti – where the tissues in your tummy up the middle of the ‘six pack’ have stretched – massage can release tightness which could be holding your tummy in that stretched position.
Are you speed-reading this, looking for the bit where I get to ‘will massage reduce my overhang and give me a flat tummy?’
Here you go. The answer is perhaps. There are many factors that influence the appearance of your tummy: hydration, nutrition, adipose tissue, alignment (posture), muscle strength. But there are very few c-section tummies that haven’t changed in appearance when I have worked on them.
The most common things I hear after a treatment are “my tummy feels softer” and “I can see it looks different already”.
If you’re thinking I’ve never worked on a tummy like yours, you’re probably wrong.
Whether you’re about form or function of your tummy, there’s no age limit or stage-limit on these treatments. We can always make a difference, 12 weeks or 20 years after babies. It also works if you’ve never had a baby, or have other abdominal scars like hysterectomy. The size of your tummy is irrelevant.
Tummy treatments can be transformative. Massage is magic. It can be a step towards healing body and soul.
You can book a Saturday morning massage with me here > > > Massage