WHAT TO EXPECT IN YOUR FIRST SESSION
Most services offer a blend of health education and therapeutic bodywork, but you may choose to select a service specific to one of these offerings. The choice is always yours.
THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTIONS
There are several primary interventions you can expect within a session. These include Touch, Breathing, Movement, and Education – all non-invasive methods to promote your sense of self-efficacy, because each intervention respects your brain’s ability to choose how to change yourself.
Touch – A session usually involves you receiving therapeutic touch, because touch with care is the most direct way to influence your nervous system in its process of healing. The only physical target is nerve and nerve physiology, not tissues.
Breathing – A session involves your engagement in breathing exercises, because when you learn how to breath mindfully, your mind is invited to relax and your body is invited to heal.
Movement – A session incorporates movement, because movement serves as a means of sensorimotor rehabilitation and progress evaluation.
Education – The foundation of every session is education – conscious and nonconscious – to empower your process of mindful embodiment. Primarily, we focus on teaching you principles of neurobiological health and well-being, while giving consideration to the nature of tension within your body.
Integration Therapy is a personal practice of mindful embodiment, so expectations and objectives within a session or a series of sessions will be unique to you. In general, our objective is to empower you through an educational experience that will serve your health and happiness for your lifetime.
Overall, it is our hope that you will learn how to embrace the joy within the work of integration – uniting your body, your mind, and yourself.
OUTLINE OF A CONSULTATION
Preparation: Prior to the first session, you will fill out a confidential health questionnaire.
Introduction: In the first session, we will begin with an introductory conversation, in which you express your intentions for the session/series and review your health history. I will listen to your condition(s), interest(s), and goal(s), answering your questions and offering you information about the practice of integration.
Pre-Bodywork Assessment: You will be asked to stand up and move around the space, allowing me to perform a visual assessment of your posture and movement patterns.
Bodywork: We will practice therapeutic bodywork in a quiet, heated room. The majority of the session will be performed on a bodywork table.
I will interact with you throughout the session, guiding you through the practice of interventions that are safe, systematic, and strategic to meet your personal needs. Generally, I will contact your body, with an attuned quality of touch, involving various degrees of pressure, ranging from light to deep; with hand-holds that are intentional, slow, intelligent, and responsive; with the aim to gently influence your inner process of self-regulation toward a greater sense of integrity.
You may be asked to stand or walk at various times for us to assess your sense of change. The bodywork portion of the session usually concludes with seated bench work.
Post-Bodywork Assessment: The session will end with another assessment to invite your awareness of the progress achieved. I will offer homework (i.e. embodiment exercises) to support your integration in daily life until our next session.
HOW TO DRESS FOR A SESSION
Wear light clothing that will keep you comfortable while laying down, standing, sitting, and walking, and be prepared to dress down to underwear to allow direct skin contact, if necessary.
Men – briefs or boxer briefs (typical), athletic apparel, swimsuit
Women – briefs and bra (typical), athletic apparel, swimsuit
The most important thing is that you are comfortable in what you wear, so you can be at ease in a therapeutic setting. The bodywork itself is adaptable to the attire that invites comfort within you.
CLIENT RESPONSIBILITY
In each session, our objective is to guide you within a practice mindful embodiment to affect sensorimotor transformation. As the client, you are expected to be present with "the mind within your body".
Personal responsibility is required to do the honest, tough work of listening, to instruction from Jackson and the intuition from yourself. This represents the constant work of ‘give and receive’ – giving your body direction and receiving its feedback – in order to learn how to grow a healthier relationship with yourself.
This is your process of personal transformation.