Freeing Emotions and Energy Through Myofascial Release – Noah Karrasch

Freeing Emotions and Energy Through Myofascial Release – Noah Karrasch – Review

19/11/2013

This book, aimed at the professional body therapist, offers a fairly balanced split between physical exercises, anatomy, and theory. There are definite parallels between the theory that Noah Karrasch expounds and Biodynamic theory, which makes the read of particular interest to us as Biodynamic therapists. While he includes massages and other types of physical manipulations to be used on (or with) clients, the main emphasis is on the personal development of the therapist - whatever our specialism.[i] With this in mind, there are regular sets of exercises at the end of each chapter as well as further exercises scattered throughout the text. The text is itself is full of challenges and questions which require us to pause for consideration. Explicitly and implicitly throughout this book, Karrasch makes it clear that he wants us to stretch our minds and bodies alike. He aims for us to shine light upon, and relax, our preconceptions and our habitual behaviours, as well as relax the habitual holdings of our physical body.

Interestingly - with such a technical-sounding title - Karrasch does not make a clear definition of “Myofascial Release”, or emotional release generally. I suppose he has reasons for leaving it open - presumably that the whole book is the definition. Or perhaps he assumes prior knowledge, or simply believes that this an area that does not benefit from discussion. One way or the other, I didn’t feel this lack of definition to be an issue for the reader… the question was only prompted for me by the book’s title!

At the end of reading, I looked up what Wikipedia has to offer:

The myofascial release approach is a form of soft tissue therapy used to treat somatic dysfunction and resulting pain and restriction of motion. It is a treatment described by Andrew Taylor Still, founder of osteopathy/osteopathic medicine, and his early students, which uses continual palpatory feedback to achieve release of myofascial tissues.* This is said to be accomplished by relaxing contracted muscles, increasing circulation and lymphatic drainage, and stimulating the stretch reflex of muscles and overlying fascia.**[ii]

From what I understand, Myofascial Release is a therapy developed from the ideas of Ida Rolf. Karrasch himself is trained to an advanced level as a Rolfer. However, he says, he has evolved his own method during his 25 years as a practitioner. His method is called “CORE Myofascial Release”.[iii] CORE stands for “Coax Order and Restore Energy”.[iv] (It is clear from general references in the book that Karrasch is inspired by John Pierrakos and his “CORE Energetics” system.[v]) Karrasch says this method is still in development because,

“While CORE Fascial Release is primarily about helping clients learn to recognize, pinpoint, challenge, and release physical or fascial tension or trauma, the longer I work the more aware I become that one can’t merely work ‘on’ a body: one must address the entire bodymindcore.” And “During this work I’m consistently mindful that much physical holding through the connective tissue has an emotional rooting that must also be acknowledged. The emotional issues truly are embedded in the physical tissues. As I coax release from clients, I therefore encourage them to release their held patterns, be they mental, physical, emotional, or energetic of whatever sort. Static energy must be moved!”[vi]

We see that Karrasch is very much talking from his own experience. With this book, he is explicating his own personal discoveries from his practice as a body therapist.

A reader with no prior experience or knowledge of the potential for emotional and energetic release from the connective tissue called “fascia” may wish for more explanation and evidence on this matter. The general idea that emotions and energy can be held in the body and subsequently freed by physical manipulations of the body does not get much discussion in this book. The idea, though still relatively unconventional, is intrinsic to the Biodynamic system developed by Gerda Boyesen in the 1960s. It is thus familiar to us as Biodynamic therapists, being the basis of much of our work and study. From our point of view, it would be interesting to see a deeper discussion from Karrasch that acknowledges the body of work produced by Biodynamic therapists. For more discussion of the issue of storing and releasing emotion, for those unfamiliar with it, a good place to start would be an article by Mona-Lisa Boyesen titled “The Startle-Reflex Pattern & Organic Equilibrium”.[vii] (Mona-Lisa Boyesen is the daughter of Gerda Boyesen.)

Naturally, when reading and considering how to review this book, there will be depths I have left unfathomed in terms of Myofascial Release and Rolfing / Structural Integration. However, learning from our digestion, as Kathrin Stauffer suggests we do,[viii] I have absorbed whatever I have found useful and not let the unfamiliar or (currently) indigestible parts put me off! In other words, I have been open to Karrasch, and respected him as an authority in his field. His approach is sympathetic. He advises us:

“What could be more foolish than allowing someone else to be your authority for your life, your decisions, and your body? It’s simply wrong to look exclusively to external authorities, and I’ve striven to not become anyone’s external authority…. And yet… what could be more foolish than not listening to and exposing yourself to different ideas, both common knowledge and common sense?”[ix]

And, I would add, “those that are not so common, too.”

A recurring theme of this book is to look at the body as machine: how to tune into the body as a collection of inter-connected “hinged” parts that can be “oiled”; how we can stretch between our joints in order to create space, like with a balloon prior to being blown up, or like an elastic band that needs to be held in two places in order to stretch. Karrasch defines “13 major hinges, or sets of hinges” of the body, and over the following 13 chapters, produces exercises for “creating length” between each of these hinges. He gives us exercises to create space in those places where there is compression. The exercises are physical and mental. The former are stretches which may be done individually or with a client, and physical manipulations to be used with a client; and the latter are “cues” for us to deeply connect with ourselves, rethink issues, make changes in our attitude, and ‘think’ release in the body. I feel Karrasch maintains a deep connection to the heart in his writing and there is a great depth to his approach. The book covers a lot of territory, much more than I will be able to cover in this review, and is very stimulating. I strongly recommend making your own reading, trying the exercises, and finding your own response.

With regard to the client, Biodynamic therapy is not prescriptive about what should happen and when – or even how. The approach is very individual and changes according to the particular client and therapist. It’s really what differentiates this therapy from many others. While I felt on some level a great deal of sympathy in this book to the Biodynamic Massage approach - taking a gentle approach to the client, allowing things to resolve in their own time, at the client’s pace – it didn’t seem so straightforward. Was it simply the parallels in the theory that allowed me to find room here for my own sympathy? Because I feel there is an urgency in this book, a sense that it is never too soon to take matters into our own hands and resolve our residual problems. There is an optimism that this is possible now, and indeed the sooner the better! Because, if we don’t behave decisively, the book implies, or perhaps asserts, we may continue to make things more difficult for ourselves. I feel on this practical point, that the theories may not accord. But otherwise, there are surprising similarities.

Karrasch describes us humans as commonly making counter-productive responses to certain stimuli. When we sense something that causes us to feel pain and fear, we resist and hold ourselves even tighter, going into a defensive mode that we then get stuck in. Of course, there are reasons why a person might be inclined to this counter-productive behaviour, and Karrasch alludes to these reasons without dealing with the subject in any depth. It is almost like he has a lack of interest in the complexity. I have a sense of this book as being a life craft in a stormy sea that can be leapt upon by those who are willing and able to save themselves. We’re not asking how we got into the sea in the first place; who cares now?! Here’s an opportunity for rescue, and let’s take it!

Well, perhaps…. But at any rate, I’ll talk a little more about my understanding of what Karrasch is getting at. By talking about what is basically a “holding response to fear” I assume Karrasch is talking about a failure to recover organic equilibrium after the startle reflex, as described by Mona-Lisa Boyesen.[x] The term “startle reflex” is not mentioned by Karrasch, so I cannot be sure, but it would seem to fit:

“After the shock reaction (the event passes and one is on neutral ground), the body should reassert the normal balance between flexors and extensors, and obtain a functional harmony between muscular response and respiratory rhythm. This only happens provided that the emotional expression takes place and serves as an outlet for the antagonistic action and adequate respiration. If, however, this release is prohibited, there will be an interruption in the biological rhythm; the organism will develop minimal startle-reflex patterns with concomitant muscular tensions, respiratory inhibition, and postural deformation.”

“…we get the following formula for an organic equilibrium:
Stimuli -- tension -- charge -- expression -- recuperation -- rehabilitation.” Mona-Lisa Boyesen, 1978 [xi]

I feel it is an oversight for Karrasch not to represent or refer to Mona-Lisa Boyesen’s work on this subject when it is so clearly in line with his own, and written over 30 years previously. I recommend anyone to investigate further if they haven’t already. However, I am aware that the body of Biodynamic work is unfortunately not widely or easily available in its entirety, currently.

To return to the work of Karrasch. To overcome this holding pattern that he alludes to, Karrasch says, “I suggest you encourage clients to allow their body’s weaknesses to betray them and tell them what they need instead of allowing them to strengthen everything around the problem to try to pretend nothing’s wrong”.[xii] I think this is great, but would raise an issue. The assumption he makes is that “These behaviours may no longer be necessary or useful, if the ground below us is stable.”[xiii] For many people, of course, knowing and acting on the fact that “the ground below is [now] stable” may have some deep inherent difficulty! It could take years to “know” this – even with excellent personal therapy. To let go of all holding and face - and embrace - the impending collapse may be a good objective choice - but the client really must feel safe in order to make this step, however objectively safe they are! With some clients, it may be necessary to do some extra work, I feel, on a non-physical level. However, these clients may be the ones who need to stay in the sea and await a more specialist life craft with a winch lift!! (The analogy is mine entirely.)

Karrasch, like Mona-Lisa Boyesen, implies that a coping mechanism is in play that is no longer working for us where we find certain tightening and restrictions in the body. As with Mona-Lisa Boyesen’s description of the startle reflex, it seems that, for Karrasch the fear is the holding. The startle response is only meant to be temporary, to focus our body to get itself out of immediate danger. After that, the response is a liability – we remain primed to fight/flee when the danger is eventually passed. Boyesen describes the reasons this is likely to happen in her article. A startle response gives us a spurt of power to deal with the problem (ie, massive tension and focusing of resources to enable us to efficiently fight or flee danger), which should be naturally followed by a letting go and relaxation of our body’s impulses (muscular / hormonal / respiratory) back to the normal state. The startle reflex has not evolved to help us cope with ongoing and repetitive insults to our person that need to be “coped with”[xiv]. Or with a permanent state of “fear”. Within Karrasch’s and the Biodynamic system, the fact that we are “coping” (ie, full of tension and imbalance) rather than living in soft and flexible bodies suggests that we are still in a state of fear, or as Boyesen might say: a state of “Startle”. Karrasch states: “Our coping mechanisms placate, dilute, and accommodate… instead of sorting, processing, and releasing…. Simply put, we lock our knees, tuck in our tails, and gird our loins to cope.” [xv] Regardless of terminology, by actually trying out his suggestions and exercises, I have found his sympathy with the subject matter very useful and instructive. For instance, he mentions the coccyx: “Like a puppy dog waiting to be punished, we’ve tucked and tightened our tail against the impending blow (which may have come and gone long ago)…. You’re surviving, and thriving! Wag your tail!”[xvi] And the theory is that, using Wilhelm Reich’s model, he says, “when we tighten our groin or tuck our tail for any reason, we’re slowing our total energy.”[xvii] To actually use this idea of “wagging [my] tail” seems helpful to me as a visualisation to use in daily practise.

Karrasch strongly suggests we find direction for ourselves and make a decision to behave differently. He says “I’ve realised that at some point you have to make up your mind to do anything you do, or it never gets done” and “If a choice feels uncomfortable, ask yourself why. Keep asking until you drill down to the answers that resolve your conflict.”[xviii] He encourages us to “challenge clients to inventory old coping patterns.”[xix]

So here we have some of the philosophy behind this book.

The exercises themselves are quite mixed in their ease of applicability, and he marks them as such “Easy, Medium, Difficult, Intriguing, and Imagine.” However, it is the titled “CORE fascial release” exercises - to be performed on a client - that I find most difficulty following. My difficulty following them makes me hesitate to request a volunteer to help me practice. I found the exercises that I could understand and do extremely useful, and I continue to practice them, in fact, as part of my daily practice. I was reminded of “The Way to Vibrant Health” by Alexander Lowen. Lowen also offered exercises which I have integrated into my daily practice. He is hardly mentioned in this book, and his particular method of exercising the body is not mentioned. His work colleague / partner John Pierrakos is credited rather more. I felt Alexander Lowen deserved more mention for what he has offered in this field; he does seem to have been a founding father of this kind of work. It would certainly be interesting to hear Karrasch discuss any differences/consistencies between his exercises and Lowen’s. I asked myself “why is Lowen being ignored? Is it possible Karrasch has not come across the work, or has not explored it…? Or does he feel Lowen is now irrelevant or not worth pointing to?” Either way, this seems a shame to me.

Many of Karrasch’s exercises are clear and excellent for normal daily practice. However, I found the terminology that Karrasch uses throughout his exercises and descriptions - “floordown” “skyup” “downlong” “forwardlongaway” etc - to be quite idiosyncratic and difficult to assimilate into my understanding. I often found myself thinking “I think it makes sense, but I’m not quite there with it yet”. However, my general feeling is that perseverance will pay off with this book. I have tried out quite a few of the exercises that have seemed fairly confusing on the first read, and have realised the sense in them having made the effort to try them. I presume the same can be said for everything in this book. At the same time, I couldn’t help feeling it might be very helpful to have a DVD provided with this book! Karrasch states that he deliberately keeps the anatomical diagrams vague so that we stay with our intuition[xx]. I imagine he has a similar method in mind when describing the physical exercises, too. I agree, it leaves a lot of room for the intuition… However, that won’t stop me complaining that I want to be told what to do in more detail!

Footnotes:
[i] “If you don’t do the work for yourself, you have no business doing the work to others.” p21 and “…I believe the model is less important than the intention.” P18. Karrasch only draws a distinction between “system[s] of health and healing” and “currently practiced medicine” siding himself with the first and saying the latter “supplements deficiencies with drugs which teach the body to become dependent and forget how to function on its own. It often further dampens, slows, or stops energy to relieve symptoms. Too often this doesn’t work. While they endeavour to improve health, too often medical practitioners stop energetic flow. Imagine taking your car to a mechanic when the ‘check engine’ light comes on… he won’t just put a piece of black tape over that light! Yet, too often, that’s how medicine views ‘helping’ patients, by masking their symptoms.” (p19)
[ii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myofascial_release 17/06/2013
* "Glossary of Osteopathic Terminology" (http://www.aacom.org/resources/bookstore/Documents/GOT2011ed.pdf). American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. April 2009. p. 28. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
** DiGiovanna, Eileen; Stanley Schiowitz, Dennis J. Dowling (2005) [1991]. "Myofascial (Soft Tissue) Techniques (Chapter 12)". An Osteopathic Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment (Third ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. pp. 80–82
[iii] p37
[iv] p20
[v] See p144
[vi] p20
[vii] “The Startle-Reflex Pattern & Organic Equilibrium” in “Energy & Character”, Vol.9 No. 2 1978
[viii] In Anatomy & Physiology for Psychotherapists: Connecting Body & Soul
[ix] pp17-18
[x] As defined by Mona-Lisa Boyesen’s article, note vii
[xi] Ibid. p145
[xii] p21
[xiii] p138
[xiv] See Stanley Keleman, Emotional Anatomy
[xv] p137
[xvi] p136
[xvii] p112
[xviii] p113
[xix] p137
[xx] p24

By Ruth Baigent. First published in the Biodynamic Massage Journal Volume 17 Issue no. 1, Spring 2015