In recent years, I’ve noticed a real yearning from friends and acquaintances, people wanting to be “in their bodies.” Confused by the phrase, I have taken to ask friends, patients, writers, and even a Rabbi to explain to me their interpretation of what “in the body” means.  What I’ve discovered is that most people interpret being in the…

Recently, a new patient came in to see me at the Pilates Garage in Brooklyn with a list of complaints about her posture. She had been to a specialist who had lined her up against a wall painted with a grid, and explained her postural faults relative to the lines. I am in pain, she told…

Last week, I had the opportunity to discuss the function of the hips with the international Feldenkais community. Lately, I relish the opportunity to talk about the body in more artful terms.         Something that is so beautiful about our musculoskeletal system, that I think people of all walks of life can relate to, is that the…

All people who teach movement know the importance of attention. Whether teaching acrobatics or martial arts, personal training, or just trying to help someone break certain habits of tension in the body, the teacher’s main goal is to help clients be in the moment and figure it out. Teaching movement can be like a magnified version…

One evening, about 4 years ago, a patient came in for treatment and told me that her co-worker had been boasting about her chiropractic adjustments for weeks. “She kept telling me to see him, but it made me nervous.” Apparently, the night before, her friend’s chiropractor finally cracked her neck once too often, causing numbness in…

Years ago, we had a great 3 part series of experiential workshops at the Pilates Garage called The Power of the Hip, where I taught colleagues and community members how to find explosive power through movement. It was in the physicality of teaching that I really began to understand the relationship of the hip and back…

There are so many ways of addressing physical pain.  As a physical therapist, I’ve learned some things about how to categorize and make sense of pain through clinical decision making and differential diagnoses.  More generally, I have learned that pain is a messenger.  Some might even describe it as a survival mechanism- a note from above, telling…

Tai Chi is an internal martial art that improves one’s health, focus, strength, and balance. It covers every part of the body, and is known to ease tension of the mind. In the words of my teacher, Master Alex Dong, “Tai Chi and Qigong are also practices that can improve our way of living; the…

Those of us who work with people’s bodies know that it’s not just about the body, it’s about what a patient or client learns or understands about his or her own body. For as much as a true professional is constantly challenging herself to learn new concepts, and to advance her expertise; her knowledge is…

Not too long ago, I was watching a child on the subway platform walking with a pelvic torsion (that’s a ‘misalignment’ of the pelvis that injured adults walk with sometimes), and I thought- why would a normally functioning child walk with a pelvic torsion? I was looking from the lens of a manual therapist.  But, then…