Entrainment Therapy
Entrainment Therapy is a fusion of chiropractic yoga, acupuncture, fascial release and mindfulness. It is a special form of bodywork that incorporates light, gentle touches to precise areas along the spine, primarily the upper neck, skull and the pelvis and sacrum.
Entrainments are an evolution from traditional chiropractic adjustments.
These light touches are very sophisticated, yet elegant in their simplicity.
The goal is to provide a gentle force to the human body, which allows the brain to discover patterns of tension that the body has been holding and release them.
In addition, these gentle cues to the spine can also engender two different waves, both of which have been studied to be reliable and reproducible. These waves were associated with significant wellness outcomes prompting major research at the University of California Irvine and the University of Southern California. To our knowledge, these findings have not been reproduced by any other technique system.
What was discovered was that when these light forces to the spine were applied in a specific and personalized way, they engendered not only somatic awareness, but also two unique self generated waves began to develop.
The first was a unique respiratory wave. The breathing itself would become profoundly deep and the act of breathing would begin to undulate internally massage the deepest parts of the spinal cord and its surrounding ligaments, discs, and musculature. It was as if the dramatically deeper breathing has a self regulatory effect on the spinal systems and the brain’s connection to and awareness of the spine.
This had profound and measurable effects on people's posture without an addition of postural exercises, or forced postural change.
This respiratory wave that happens during entrainment is so profound and can release tension and trauma that the body has been holding on to for years.
There was a second wave, in which the body would actually begin to gently undulate and move as if a wave was moving through the entire spine. This was associated with dramatic increases in a person's self reported well being.
We propose that these waves begin to transform and dissolve postural patterns that are associated with previous stress and trauma, and previous ways of holding oneself in defense. Brain Research has demonstrated that the entrainments enhance brain coherence and intra lobular communication by up to 1,000%.
Furthermore, entrainments, when done in conjunction with a regular yoga practice, can improve a person's self reported wellness by up to 66% (UC Irvine Research as published In the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine as well as the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research).
In addition, there are 12 specific breathing exercises that can be used with clients interchangeably during entrainment sessions.
Entrainments done at a yoga retreat dramatically enhance people's connection to themselves, their ability to release old patterns of stress and trauma and to powerfully deepen their yoga practice.