Hellerwork Structural Integration Client Handbook.pdf

Client’s Handbook

Hellerwork Structural Integration

Structural bodywork . . . lasting change.

Client’s Handbook

Written by

Joseph Heller & Jan Hanson

Contents

Welcome to Hellerwork Structural Integration .....................................................................................2

What is Hellerwork Structural Integration? ...........................................................................................2

What are connective tissue and fascia? ...............................................................................................3

The effect of gravity on alignment .......................................................................................................4

How did my body get this way? ...........................................................................................................4

The main components of Hellerwork ..................................................................................................5

The structure of the Hellerwork Series .................................................................................................6

Follow-up for the Hellerwork Series .....................................................................................................7

Your Hellerwork Practitioner .................................................................................................................8

Joseph Heller .......................................................................................................................................8

The Sections

Section One – Inspiration ………………………………………………………………………………… 10

Section Two – Standing on Your Own Two Feet ………………………………………………………… 12

Section Three – Reaching Out …………………………………………………………………………… 14

Section Four – Control and Surrender …………………………………………………………………… 16

Section Five – The Guts …………………………………………………………………………………… 18

Section Six – Holding Back ……………………………………………………………………………… 20

Section Seven – Losing Your Head ……………………………………………………………………… 22

Section Eight – The Feminine …………………………………………………………………………… 24

Section Nine – The Masculine …………………………………………………………………………… 26

Section Ten – Integration ………………………………………………………………………………… 28

Section Eleven – Coming Out …………………………………………………………………………… 30

More Information

Your Local Hellerwork Practitioner ……………………………………………………………………… 32

The Hellerwork Career Program ………………………………………………………………………… 32

Hellerwork Foundational Principles

We recognize the existence of a greater ﬁ eld in which we live, interact and express.

Our purpose is to enhance the individual’s awareness of and relationship to that ﬁ eld.

Within the context of a healing relationship, we work with structure, psyche and

movement to improve function and well-being.

Our process follows an ordered sequence organizing the body along the line of gravity

to induce change towards a more functional pattern.

Welcome to

Hellerwork Structural Integration

Welcome to the Hellerwork series. You have chosen to become more in touch with your body,

and to bring new alignment, ﬂ exibility and balance to it. The Hellerwork series is designed to be

an experience that will make a great difference in many aspects of your life. Through becoming

more in touch with your body, you will become more in touch with yourself. Congratulations on

initiating a new relationship with your body.

Your Hellerwork Practitioner has received the best possible training in Hellerwork and is certiﬁ ed

by Hellerwork International to provide the Hellerwork series.

The Client’s Handbook

The Client’s Handbook is designed to enrich and support your experience of the Hellerwork

Series. As an adjunct to the Hellerwork sessions, it is most effectively used with the assistance

of your Practitioner. Together, you will identify your body’s needs, limitations and possibilities.

After introductory and background information, the Handbook is organized by each section of

the Hellerwork series which can be done in one or more sessions depending on your individual

body. Reviewing the Handbook before each session will give you the opportunity to reﬂ ect

on your body’s needs and to participate more fully in the session. Each section within the

Handbook includes the following components:

Purpose:

The physical purpose of each section.

Theme:

The attitudes and emotions associated with the area of the body

being worked on.

Anatomy & Structure:

The anatomical focus and the structural goals of each section.

Movement:

The movement goal for the section and movement lesson(s) often

used by Practitioners. Please note that your Practitioner may use a different

movement lesson to suit your individual needs.

Between Sessions:

Activities and experiences which you can engage in between

sessions to enrich your personal development as related to the

series.

What is Hellerwork Structural Integration?

Hellerwork is a series of sessions of deep tissue bodywork and movement education designed

to realign the body and release chronic tension and stress. Dialogue is used to assist you in

becoming aware of emotional stresses that may be related to physical tension.

The series is organized into eleven sections, with each section taking one or more sessions to

accomplish the desired result. The actual number of sessions will vary from person to person

due to individual needs.

2 Client’s Handbook

Hellerwork is an integrated system designed to recondition the whole body. It is not a remedy

for illness; rather, it is a process in which people are moved from their current “average” state

to a more optimal state of health and well-being. This optimal state of health is the body’s

“normal” and natural condition.

Although Hellerwork may be effective for temporary pain or tension relief, we recognize that

pain and tension are usually the result of an overall pattern of imbalance occurring in the body.

Rather than treating the pain or tension “symptom” of this imbalance, Hellerwork focuses on

rebalancing the entire body, returning it to a more aligned, relaxed and youthful state.

To fully understand how Hellerwork works, you must learn about connective tissue, and how the

force of gravity impacts the connective tissue system of the body in such a way that it moves

from a “normal” into an “average” condition.

What Are Connective Tissue And Fascia?

Any tissue in the body that has a

connecting function is considered to be

connective tissue. Tendons, ligaments,

and even blood are connective tissue. The

form of connective tissue that Hellerwork

primarily affects is called fascia. Fascia

is a malleable tissue that wraps all of the

muscles, and all of the individual ﬁ bers and

bundles of individual ﬁ bers that become

muscle. Fascia comes together at the end

of the muscle and becomes the tendon,

which attaches the muscle to the bone, as

shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - Fascia covers all of the muscles, muscle

bundles and muscle ﬁ bers. Fascia also covers the

bones, organs and blood vessels.

The body’s fascial system can be seen as

a multi-layer body stocking, with fascial

sheaths wrapping the muscles and weaving

in layers throughout the body. Because of this, stress in any area of the body has an effect on

every other part of the body. For instance, tension in the connective

tissue of the leg pulls the tissue throughout the torso, as shown in

Figure 2.

In its optimal condition, fascia is a loose, moist tissue. When there is

continual loose movement and balance in the body, the fascial body

stocking stays loose and mobile, facilitating movement between

different parts of the body. However, under continual stress and lack

of movement, fascia becomes rigid and loses its ﬂ uidity. Layers of

fascia begin to stick to one another, causing the “knots” you may

have experienced in your back or neck. The sheaths of fascia stick

in a systematic way, based on your habitual patterns of movement,

or more correctly, lack of movement. Although people most often

associate tension and stiffness with their muscles, it is actually the

connective tissue that accumulates much of this stress.

Figure 2 – When the tissue of the connective tissue body stocking is

pulled, the stress is felt throughout the body.

Client’s Handbook 3

What Do Gravity And Alignment Have to Do With

Hellerwork Structural Integration?

Gravity is the force that pulls any two masses together, notably the earth and our human

bodies. We learn about this force early in life, but then get used to it, although the earth’s

gravitational force continually pulls on us. Alignment simply means that things are in a straight

line. If items are in a zig-zag pattern, we would say that they are out of alignment. In Hellerwork,

the main direction of alignment that we consider is vertical alignment - are the body’s segments

stacked in a straight line from the ground up, or are they at a tilt, or perhaps a zig-zag? Figure

3B illustrates a misalignment in the lumbar spine resulting in bulging discs. Note that the

appropriate alignment for the lumbar spine is a gentle curve, because that is the way the

vertebrae are shaped.

If a body or structure of any kind is vertically aligned, gravity is a benign and positive force

- it keeps us on the planet! It also supports

us in being balanced. An imbalanced body,

however, feels gravity as a stress. Consider the

two buildings in Figure 4. The balanced and

erect building has no problem with gravity. The

leaning tower of Pisa, however, is stressed by

gravity. Since it is already imbalanced, gravity

works to pull it down.

Figure 3 - A: Aligned lumbar vertebrae;

B: Misaligned vertebrae resulting in bulging discs

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It is the same with our bodies - if they

are aligned, gravity is supportive. If they

are out of alignment, gravity becomes a

primary force that is felt by our bodies as a

demand to tense up and hold on!

How Did My Body

Get This Way?

If you have lived even an hour, your body

has experienced the aging process. Most

of us have experienced years and years

of this process. There is nothing inherently wrong with the progression of years - many things

actually ripen with age. But what is it that causes people to physically shorten over time, that

makes people get twisted and compressed into postures that cannot change by themselves,

and that makes people move more and more slowly and with less and less comfort as they

age?

Connective tissue - speciﬁ cally fascia - holds our bodies in their contracted form, and

movement patterns determine the particular form in which they get stuck. There are three main

factors that cause our movement patterns to become unbalanced. They are:

§ repetitive, ongoing physical stresses,

§ ongoing attitudes and emotions and

§ incidents of physical trauma.

4 Client’s Handbook

Figure 4 – The effect of gravity on different structures.

A: Aligned structure; B: Unaligned structure.

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