Specialized Course Highlight: GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® Applications For Healing and Rejuvenating the Hands and Feet
Blog Content Education // July 30, 2016
The “GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® Applications for Rejuvenating the Hands and Feet” course is conducted by Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis Master Trainer Emma Kingston.
Emma Teaching at Center GYROTONC®
Emma Kingston
Owner, Center GYROTONIC®
www.centergyrotonic.com
spiralintocentergyrotonic@gmail.com
Tel: 971.279.2954
What inspired you to create this course?
When I was born, my feet were curled up like fists. The doctor told my mom that I would grow up to have feet and spine issues. Sure enough, around 7th grade, my spine started to show signs of scoliosis, eventually developing discomfort and peaking around age 18. This also happened to be around the same time that I found the Gyrotonic Method.
Up to then, along wtih having great difficulty in balancing and having many debilitating sprained ankles, the posture of my ribs led to a lot of strain in my upper body. I was a massage therapist and an artist and a musician, which all led to several repetitive stress injuries. Needless to say, I was a mess. When I stumbled upon the Gyrotonic Method, I immediately had a feeling that this was the way to find answers for my discomforts. After pursuing my own healing and practice, I went on to become a Gyrotonic trainer. Eventually, I continued on through the training process to become a Master Trainer. During this time, the system was beginning to include specialized subjects, and the therapeutic courses from Paul Horvath and the Golf course from David Rasmussen were the only ones available. So, I asked Juliu if the subject of healing and rejuvenating the hands and feet was a worthy subject to expand upon. He said yes!
Emma Teaching at Center GYROTONIC®
Who is this course intended for?
This course is intended as continuing education for certified Gyrotonic or Gyrokinesis instructors. It is intended to offer them tools for working with their clients. This is appropriate for teachers who either have clients with issues in their feet and/or hands, or if they themselves have these issues. More specifically, we will brush up on basic anatomy when we do our self massage, addressing the layers of tissue and joint structures in order to better understand how the joints should slide and glide easily in the movements. Using various hand or foot positions, coupled with some basic foundation movements, we get to develop new neurological pathways and gain dexterous movements that help to correct issues.
Some of the specific issues that I have seen addressed, either with long term clients or within the context of the course itself, are: Mortons Neuromas, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, repetitive stress injuries, scar tissue, fallen arches, arthritis management, healing sprained or strained injuries, issues with weight bearing in the arms/wrists, cross training for musicians or artists, and post surgery management and healing.
Client Testimonials
1. I had a woman attend one of my training courses who teaches the Gyrotonic Method and is also an engineer. She showed up with Mortons Neuroma, which is essentially an exposed and aggravated nerve that is in the ball of the foot, resulting in discomfort on many levels. Sometimes, it is numbness in the foot, sometimes it is shooting pain. After the three day course, she already showed signs of improvement, less discomfort, and had started to rebuild her transverse arch, showing signs of redeveloping some muscle tissue in her feet.
2. I have a long term client who is an OBGYN. She has a history of various kinds of repetitive stress injuries. We regularly work with the hand material to keep her arms from going numb and to keep her thumbs functioning so she can do the complex surgeries and deliveries she is called to do. She often stands all day and complains of discomfort in her feet. We regularly use the foot material to help her use her feet in a dexterous way, which then helps her to stand all day in more comfort. At one point, she had a medical table fall on her foot. Her shoe saved her foot from being shattered. We both felt that the work she had done, pre and post injury, made for a quicker recovery.
3. I had a client who had suffered a terrible injury called a Lisfranc Fracture, which is when the whole mid foot is torn and broken. He had not been able to return to work for two years. When I first met him, he was still in a lot of pain. We only had the chance to work together for about one year. We did a combination of manual work and using the Gyrotonic system. When he first came to me, his pain levels were between 5 and 8, depending on the day. He was not able to do basic tasks like grocery shopping for himself. Though I would have loved to have worked with him until he was healed entirely, he moved away and we did not get to continue working together. However, we managed to get his pain levels down to a 3, and he was able to start going out to take care of basic tasks for himself. He also redeveloped the ability to rise up onto the balls of his feet. I hope he has continued his work and continues to heal.
I find that this work can be extremely profound. A little can go a long way. A lot can go even further. This work is really great with chronic issues of any kind. It gives us something we can try. It is a great way to spritz up your basic teaching material and won’t over stress clients. There are a lot of homework options to offer people so they can be independent in their healing process.
For more informaiton about this course, including a list of currently offered times and locations for this course, please visit our Specialized Courses page.
To inquire about hosting this course at your studio please contact Emma Kingston at spiralintocentergyrotonic@gmail.com
