• Should my horse receive a session after a competitive event It is often a good idea for a horse to receive a session after an event, just to give him/her additional resources.
• How often should I or my horse receive a bodywork session? This really depends upon the condition being addressed. I have clients that I see once weekly initially, while they are in an acute phase of injury or recovery, and that will taper off to once every two-three weeks as they become more resourced and healthy. Some with ongoing conditions, I continue to see every other week. And others that are on more of a maintenance schedule and are relatively healthy, I see once every month to six months.
• What does it mean when you say “release?” A release is the release of energy from tension patterns and knots in the structure. The body will spontaneously self-correct, and a release is one way in which it exhibits its move toward self-correction. Not every response, i.e., sighs, blinking, etc. is a release, but rather a response to work.

• Can I or my horse receive other forms of bodywork while receiving an Ortho-Bionomy session? Yes, but it is best to not schedule them too close together, otherwise the body is working too hard to integrate too much information, which can also be conflicting information. Ortho-Bionomy works on the principle, “less is more.” While gentle, it is very powerful.
• What types of exercise are appropriate for injury recovery? Exercise will depend upon the ability of the individual and the type of condition being addressed.
• Is Ortho-Bionomy energetic or structural? My answer: “both.”

It is an important question to me because many times people think that a form of bodywork has to be one or the other. If you are doing a massage, then the work primarily involves musculature and fascia. If you are doing chiropractic, then you are working on the spine. If you do acupuncture, then you are working with “chi,” or life force and work on organs and specific conditions.

In each of these modalities and in Ortho-Bionomy structure is at the heart of the work. A system based on structure provides a road map to health.

To understand the body, not just one aspect of it, but to have an understanding of all its systems, grounds the practitioner in his or her work. Concurrently, there are many energetic things going on in bodies, as a result of accidents, trauma, emotional upsets, just life in general, so there is always an energetic aspect. The body holds the story, and bad memories or trauma may never be erased, but we can get it to where the trauma is not firing randomly or when certain things happen. There is a certain grace in this.

A client of mine just recently said, “I know I need a session because I can feel one leg is longer than the other and my shoulder is up near my ears.”

This person started two or three years ago not knowing that Ortho-Bionomy was any different than massage or chiropractic. He just knew he needed some help. Now his body knows what it is feeling and where, so it has become educated in a very basic way to guide him.