From the Desk of Dennis Gibbons, LMT
December 2008
Happy Holidays to everyone! This is a great time to reflect on the past year and really be thankful for all the good things in our life. Here’s hoping you had a Happy Thanksgiving, a blessed and holy holiday season and may hope be our mantra for 2009, Happy New Year.
As we close out 2008 many exciting happenings were experienced by Chagrin Valley Wellness Center this year. One item I would like to share with everyone is some exciting news concerning Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh®. On August 19, 2008 the official registration of our Service Mark was recorded with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Registration Number 3,488,046. At this time we are awaiting official acceptance of our Service Mark for Functional Movement Pilates℠. The exclusivity of Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® and Functional Movement Pilates℠ to Chagrin Valley Wellness Center and the students and therapists that have gone through the certification process definitely defines the work being performed.
This has been an exciting year of growth and I personally have come full circle in the development of Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® and Functional Movement Pilates℠. In 1979 when Marge and I moved to Tucson, Arizona this pathway in our life was totally unseen. Shortly after moving there I developed a fever and was tested for the cause and there was none to be found. One day at the restaurant that Marge and I were partners in, Marge was talking to one of our customers and mentioned this ailment to him. He suggested that we go to Dr. Tom Maday, DC who used Applied Kinesiology to help diagnose individuals’ problems. He discovered that my lungs were purging themselves of the toxins I inhaled while working in the steel mills in Cleveland as a Pipefitter. Through muscle balancing and nutritional supplements the fever went away. It was during this time that Tom and I developed a relationship and he began to mentor me on this technique. He suggested I take a Touch for Health course to learn more about it. In 1981 Marge and I moved back to Cleveland and I went back to work in the Pipefitters, but I still continued to delve into how the muscular system had an overall effect on the human body. This in turn took me to Ohio College of Massotherapy where I completed the necessary course work and on July 11, 1986 became licensed with the State of Ohio Medical Board as a Massage Therapist. With continued encouragement from Marge, we eventually opened up our business in Solon where our office was for twenty years.
The growth of Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® started immediately as I found that people were coming to the office no longer for a relaxing massage but in a holistic attempt to feel better. This encouraged me to start studying some of the leaders in Muscle Therapy and see how they addressed the many problems that people would come with. The experience gained from working with the professional dance population in Cleveland definitely helped me to understand the complexities of human-posture and the body’s dynamic ability to compensate and adapt for the many micro traumas that all of us experience on a daily basis. Along the way I met many professional health care providers that were also interested in the holistic approach. For this I was very fortunate. By incorporating my education on the muscular system and beginning to use the many techniques I picked up along the way, I realized that they became tools that addressed the symptoms that people came in with but did not address the individual that had the symptom. One story that I have told over and over is when I worked with Rudolph Nureyv and asked him what made him such a special dancer, his answer was “I dance to the energy of the audience, not to the music or choreography.” I realized at that time, this is what I needed to do, not just to address the symptom but the entire energy presented by the individual.
What has now grown over 22 years is a process that is called Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh®. This process literally addresses the entire connective, soft, skeletal and peripheral nervous systems. All of the work is performed by the therapist’s hands. The therapist skillfully moves throughout the body to find the different areas of distress and addresses them with the many tools that they have to rectify the situation that is literally at their hands. Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® is not so much a specific technique but a theory and a process that uses many techniques to accomplish a holistic wellness to the person being treated. What started out 28 years ago as an infatuation with how the muscular system affects the human body, has now developed into a process that addresses the many needs of the human body.
The process begins with the therapist evaluating the individual by taking a verbal history and assessing the body’s posture. By listening not only with the ears but with their eyes and most importantly their hands the therapist begins the journey with the individual to address the body’s energy and to bring about a natural balance to it. Once the posture is addressed and brought to a neutral balance, the second visit addresses some of the anatomical imbalances in the musculo-skeletal system and begins a more specific approach to this process of not only addressing a symptom but to the entire structure. The next visit will address some of the peripheral nerves that control the body’s structure and its ability to move within itself. A technique designed by Dr. Jean-Pierre Barral, D.O. that addresses the peripheral nerves is used. It gently finds the affected nerve structure and by manipulating the connective tissue, opens up the pathways to help them heal.
As in any attempt to correct a physical imbalance, the body needs a period of readjustment between sessions. I have found that it takes approximately seven days for the Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® to create and allow the body to adapt to its new environment. The therapist will direct the individual to make their follow up visits accordingly. As the process continues the therapist will suggest ways to help the individual empower themselves to take control of their own destiny on the journey to wellness.
As my journey in this new profession continued, I needed a piece to the puzzle that would empower people to address some of the muscular weaknesses that created the situation that was often found during their therapy. In 1997 I was invited to Las Vegas, Nevada to work and study with Dolly Kelepecz, a recently retired professional dancer and performer who was instructing at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in their dance department. Ms. Kelepecz understood the necessity of proper strengthening to help prolong a dancers’ career and studied the Pilates Method. Realizing also that she did not need to condition the already fine tuned dancer but to strengthen them became her priority. She studied Joseph Pilates’ theory more and more and redesigned her style to fit her clientele. I studied with Ms. Kelepecz for seven years and had the great opportunity to work with many of the professional dancers that were performing in Las Vegas. They included the cast from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Starlight Express”, members of the cast of Siegfried and Roy; Cirque du Soleil cast members, and other shows. In June of 2003 we opened the Chagrin Valley Wellness Center’s Pilates Studio.
The format that we encourage is Functional Movement Pilates℠ for many reasons. It is a gentle approach to re-educate and to re-pattern the body’s movement tendencies. It has been my experience over the last 22 years that most problems return because of improper movement patterns. That is why we encourage, as a part of the process, this format of re-patterned movement. Once the body suffers from the stress of trauma it compensates and therefore needs to access different muscle structures to move. The Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® addresses these imbalances and corrects them as they are found, what the Functional Movement Pilates℠ helps with is strengthening this new but old posture and helps to embrace it.
Unlike the traditional Pilates Method that most are accustomed to, Functional Movement Pilates℠ takes a slow methodical approach without all of the acrobatics that are often associated with Pilates. It creates a positive tensegral movement pattern where the muscles in their finite relationship to the bones, creates an organized pattern of movement that stays within that individuals parameters of its posture. The slow methodical movement allows the postural or slow twitch muscles to strengthen in their proper format. This strengthening is what continues the holistic journey to wellness that the individual has begun to travel. The individual is now in control of their own destination.
As life progresses, micro-traumas will almost always present themselves, but once the proper journey has begun, the process of maintaining becomes easier to control. Routine follow ups with your therapist will help you on this journey.
If you have never experienced Muscle Release Therapy, MRTh® or tried Functional Movement Pilates℠, please feel free to call us for a free consultation. If you would like a therapist or instructor to call you and answer your questions, just let us know. Together we can make 2009 a year of wellness for you. If you are ever in the neighborhood please stop in and observe a Functional Movement Pilates℠ class to see how it will help you.
From Marge and I and the entire staff of Chagrin Valley Wellness Center, have a blessed and very Happy New Year.
Dennis
