Whether you work on a computer all day or you’re just on it for a couple of hours at a time, finding a set up that keeps you comfortable is so important and can feel so elusive. When you’re thinking about desk ergonomics, it’s really important to remember that computers (and especially laptops) were not designed with human bodies in mind. We have to intentionally set up our desks to accommodate ourselves, not the computer. Let’s start from the floor and work our way up. You don’t need to be this very uncomfortable looking person hunched over a laptop. (Stock image) Note #1: I am not getting i ..read more

We all have habits in everything we do. They’re an essential part of being human. They allow our brains to not think through every single thing we do all day long. They’re a survival mechanism. However, it’s important to question them now and then to make sure they’re serving us well, and get curious about how we might change them if they aren’t. Yesterday I was working with a client, who I’ll call C. She has a long history of lower back and hip injuries that have compounded on each other over the years. C’s habit, her survival mechanism to keep moving, has been to dissociate from her left sid ..read more

You’ve probably heard that a solution to “computer neck” or “phone neck” is to tuck your chin. It’s taught regularly as a back of the neck stretch by physical therapists and chiropractors. However, it often gets so strongly encouraged that some people end up constantly having their chin tucked which causes a huge number of problems. “Computer neck” or “phone neck” refers to a posture of having your head forward of your torso, instead of balanced on top of it. The stress it puts on your spine causes pain and dysfunction in all kinds of places throughout your body, like in this photo on the lef ..read more

Did you know… There is a direct connection between your hands and your vision! Check this out - stare ahead and make tight fists with your hands, then relax your hands. Your peripheral vision is wider when your hands are relaxed. Your collarbones can move in 6 different directions! Forward, back, up, down, and they can twist up and down too. They’re a big reason why your arms can do all the cool things they can do. The bones and muscles of your feet create a tripod shape in standing and walking! Three points make the deepest contact for stability -the center of your heel, the ball of your foot ..read more

I had the pleasure of spending last weekend in a long-awaited Craniosacral (CST) continuing education workshop, put off for many months by the pandemic, and I got to learn some incredible tools that I’m very excited to bring into my practice. The work we did over the weekend was deeply profound, and left me reflecting on a few other deep places this work has taken me in just the past few months. I thought I’d share some of them here. In December, I got the rare opportunity to see a client the day after she was in a car accident. Pain takes a day or two to set in after a car accident, and hers ..read more

A few years ago, I wrote The Trouble with Belly Breathing which took off in readership over the past year and a half. I’ve gotten requests to write a follow-up article on ways to use more of your lung capacity, so here we are! If you have a hard time breathing into your chest, sides, or back, whether from long COVID, anxiety, or something else, this is for you. Before I give you things to try, I’d like to dispel a couple of breathing myths: “Belly breathing is good and chest breathing is bad.” Incorrect. Both are really important. They play different roles and send different signals to your ..read more

I’ve got bilateral hip dysplasia. I’ve written some about it here, and I’m very open about it with my clients. In early 2019, I decided to get pelvic x-rays taken for the first time since about 2004 for tracking purposes. Today I remembered to get a copy of the images for myself, and want to share a little about what they show and mean. Here is my 2019 x-ray, looking at the front of my pelvis and very strange hip joints. For those who don’t know what an average female pelvis x-ray looks like, or just want a reminder for comparison, here’s an example. Having hip dysplasia means I have shallow ..read more

I’ve been back in my office seeing clients in-person since August, and I’ve had a bunch of new clients. By the end of their first session, half of them have told me, “I should have done this years ago”. Those same words, over and over. I’ve heard them far more often in the past 2 months than I usually do. While I’m delighted to be able to help these people now, those words break my heart. These words come from people who have been in pain for years. They come from people who have been taught to ignore pain, or have been taught that being in pain is a normal thing. They come from people who kee ..read more

I deeply wish I could wave a magic wand and say, “My office is open, come see me in person!”, but we’re just not there yet and it’s not clear when we will be. I miss you all so much. In the meantime, I want to give a few examples of what online sessions look like and how they can be useful. My living room turned home office. M got in touch recently because her back was hurting. She was hoping for an in-person session, but since I didn’t have a timeline for that, she scheduled a 30 minute online session instead. I asked M a bunch of questions about when her back was hurting and what the caus ..read more

I spent Friday evening in a Feldenkrais workshop on presence - presence with yourself, presence with others, and being present with both at the same time while keeping boundaries clear. The original plan was for a full weekend workshop, but obviously that didn’t happen, so the trainer, Donna Blank, offered a short online version. In the beginning of Donna’s work, she asks you to close your eyes, feel your contact and support from your chair and the floor, and look for a “felt sense” of the experience of just being there - sensory cues that tell you how you are rather than thoughts or emotions ..read more