Stretching the self
Patricia A. Murphy in A Career and Life Planning Guide for Women Survivors:, 2020
Abuse survivors know better than most people how to regard our bodies as things or objects because part of our abuse experience(s) has been the use of our bodies by others as things or objects. Therefore, it is my recommendation that survivors explore various bodywork techniques which increase body awareness, and, as a result, a deepening sense of respect and love for our bodies. There are many body awareness techniques which can range from walking daily to taking a Tai Chi class at your local community college or adult education center. If you feel fearful about the more personal bodywork processes such as massage, then start out with activities such as walking or swimming. You may wish to then involve yourself in group exercises such as aerobics, stretch, or yoga classes at your local YWCA or community recreation center. It is very important for all us abuse survivors to experience our bodies in the presence of others. This is because we have learned that being in our bodies in the presence of others is hurtful, shameful. Therefore we need to practice sweating, breathing, flushing, gasping where others can see us and smell us, and nothing bad happens.
Workplace physical activity
Joe Piggin, Louise Mansfield, Mike Weed in Routledge Handbook of Physical Activity Policy and Practice, 2018
In this chapter I’ve provided a summary of the changes in the purpose and role of workplace physical activity interventions, historically. I’ve suggested that over the last fifty years, socially-focused, collective leisure and sporting pursuits were replaced with a focus on the ‘project of the self’, a discursive and a material shift in the emergence of the language of health and fitness, wellness and the body as a target of interventions in (and outside of) the workplace. This shift has led to a greater emphasis being placed on healthy lifestyle improvement policies and practices being promoted by governments and, simultaneously, by a growing (commercial) wellness industry. However, whilst in theory the workplace is an ideal site for physical activity interventions to take place, in practice there is a need to recognise that pre-existing barriers to participation in non-work settings are equally, if not more, difficult to overcome. Individuals bring an existing subject position towards physical activity to their workplace and the evidence available suggests that there is some way to go before those employees most at risk from health-related diseases will view their workplace as a preferable setting for body work.
Clinical Applications of Massage Therapy in Pain Management
Mark V. Boswell, B. Eliot Cole in Weiner's Pain Management, 2005
From acupressure, neuromuscular therapy, and Swedish massage to Trager approach and Hellerwork, there are numerous forms and names of touch therapy on the market. Each incorporates its own special twist, technique, or theory and has its own following of practitioners who find that therapy to be most effective for specific disorders. From a practical standpoint all bodywork systems incorporate various techniques of massage in one form or another, and as such, massage represents one of the oldest known and most easily applied forms of healing. Utilization of massage ranges from massage therapists to nurses, physical therapists, and physicians and is one of the few therapies that can, in many cases, be safely and easily applied by a patient or family member.
Application of mindfulness-based stress reduction to a stress management intervention in a study of a mining sector company
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2018
Dorota Molek-Winiarska, Dorota Żołnierczyk-Zreda
Each session included a range of guided meditative practices, mainly of the following types: sitting meditation, involving directing the awareness in turn to one’s breathing, to the body as a whole, to sensations, thoughts and emotions, and also in a non-differentiating manner – to whatever is currently arising in awareness;body scanning, consisting of bringing awareness (in the form of good-natured, curious attention) to each part of the body in turn, from the toes to the head, and also to any sensations or feelings arising during the scanning exercise;mindful bodywork – adopting a sequence of hatha yoga-derived postures, designed to stretch and bring awareness to the body, particularly in the context of experiencing the bodily sensations, feelings and thoughts accompanying such an exploration of the boundaries of one’s physical capabilities. Each of the practices was preceded by detailed oral instructions, plus a follow-up process known as Enquiry in which participants were invited to express their experiences of the exercises, and to reflect, in a non-judgmental manner, upon these experiences and upon the fact that they had arisen. The program included daily homework exercises, including guided meditations. Participants were each given a set of audio recordings and were asked to practice using these for 20 min, 6 days/week. At each intervention session the participants were asked about the quality and quantity of their home practice.
The female orgasmic state and the different dimensions of the female sexual experience: lessons learned from expert interviews
Published in Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 2023
Anna-Lisa Julia Nemati, Katharina Weitkamp
To characterise the remaining sample a little further, while at the same time paying attention to protecting the anonymity of the study participants, we will give only a short summarised description: eight of the experts work therapeutically with women suffering from sexual functioning disorders. Their expertise ranges from sexological bodywork or body therapy (n = 4), sex coaching (n = 3), Sexocorporel (n = 3), systemic sexual therapy (n = 2) to Tantric massage techniques (n = 5). Most of them are trained in more than one approach. They reported between 2 to 16 years experience in the field. The experts were based in Germany, USA, Switzerland and Australia.
‘It takes time, but recovering makes it worthwhile’- A qualitative study of long-term users’ experiences of physiotherapy in primary health care
Published in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 2021
Anne Marit Mengshoel, Wenche Schrøder Bjorbækmo, Merja Sallinen, Astrid Klopstad Wahl
Theories of personal recovery have mainly been developed by social scientists (Antonovsky, 2000; Bury, 2005; Mattingly, 1998; Radley, 2004) or by people working within psychiatry (Ralph and Corrigan, 2002; Repper and Perkins, 2003; Roberts, Davenport, Holloway, and Tattan, 2006). Here, the role of the body in the recovery process is rarely discussed. Our study, however, reveals a recovery narrative that is closely linked with making sense of the ill body through performing movements that, in turn, helped the patients adjust daily activities. Obviously, this body work meant more than merely doing exercises as expressed by one of the participants, ‘I had to learn how to be in the world again’. In other words, the participants were creating coherence between themselves, their bodies and their lives through a concrete, practical way of moving in everyday life (i.e. a process of learning by doing). This kind of re-familiarization with the body contrasts with reports from a previous study that patients considered their body an unreliable enemy to which they had to surrender (Afrell, Biguet, and Rudebeck, 2007). Our findings are in accord, however, with prior studies showing that patients want PTs to explain and discuss their problems with them and to design individually tailored exercise programs (Bernhardsson, Larsson, Johansson, and Öberg, 2017; Calner, Isaksson, and Michaelson, 2017). However, our study adds to this notion by pointing out that exercises can be a ‘tool’ to reconnect with an unfamiliar body and subsequently create the potential to adjust daily life. We have seen earlier that such a connection may depend on PTs’ embodied ability to get in touch, communicate and interact with the unique person seeking help (Bjorbækmo and Mengshoel, 2016).
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