ABOUT RUSSELL
MY PHILOSOPHY
I’ve noticed that we take better care of our cars than we do of our bodies. We take our cars in for regular tune ups, but we wait for our bodies to break down before we seek help. I’ve developed a holistic treatment model that helps take care of the whole body, that keeps you in tune and able to perform at your best. When your musculoskeletal structural system is properly balanced, you feel better, you think better, you perform better.
The foundation of my practice is the Structural Integration model developed by Dr. Ida Rolf. I also integrate other healing arts I’ve studied in my practice. I most often work in the Ten Series developed by Dr. Rolf, a program of ten sessions that serves as a container for the healing work we’ll do together. Eastern medicine teaches that our bodies completely change every seven years. Generally I believe that each of us should do one cycle of the Ten Series for every seven-year period in our lives. As we repeat the process, the format changes. Sessions become more sophisticated, to introduce more complexity into your system. It’s ongoing, hands-on work to keep our bodies tuned up and us living and working at our best.
I also offer The Intensive, an advanced version of the Ten Series in which I travel to you and we do daily, concentrated work over a period of a week or more. The Intensive is designed for those who are healthy and active, with a strong commitment to personal evolution.
MY STORY
Do you pay regular visits to yourself?
Rumi
I have dedicated my life and my work to the healing arts.
I trained as a physical therapist and started working at New York University Medical Center. I was surprised by how much of traditional Physical Therapy was geared toward trauma, helping people after a hip replacement or knee surgery. That’s important work, but I found it cold and clinical. I wasn’t working with my hands. I wasn’t helping people with chronic conditions, or helping healthy people to improve the quality of their lives.
So I quit my job and started exploring other treatment methods. One day, intending to go to a workshop to learn about acupuncture, I mistakenly went to one that introduced me to Structural Integration, based on the work of Dr. Ida Rolf. And that providential mistake changed my life. Over several days, everyone in the workshop performed Structural Integration work on each other. After a 30 minute session, apparent disorders in a person’s structure were clearly improved. We’d see that a hip was better aligned, or the shoulders were more balanced. It was hands-on, it was helping people, and I’d found my calling.
I studied with Thomas Myers, who developed the Anatomy Trains model of Structural Integration. In 2001, I received my certification in Anatomy Trains Structural Integration, and I opened my practice. Since then, I’ve continued to explore different and deeper ways to help heal the body. In PT school, I’d read a book on craniosacral work by the Scottish osteopath Hugh Milne. Later, when I was studying Structural Integration, it was recommended that I learn craniosacral to enhance my work — and specifically that I learn from Hugh Milne. I was surprised by the synchronicity, and I took it as another sign. Over the next decade I studied craniosacral work with Hugh, an inspirational thinker and leader. I’ve long integrated craniosacral work, listening to the body and offering precise touches to help with alignment, into my practice.
In order to be a good practitioner, you have to be an active participant in the work. My journey has taken me through many other disciplines within the healing arts. I believe in hands-on learning. I explore different disciplines and get work done to me by leaders in the fields. I learn by touch. I’ve studied yoga, dance, movement, and breathwork. I’ve been a yoga teacher for more than twenty years, and both my personal yoga and meditation practices are pillars of my life. I’m now studying aspects of classical Chinese medicine with Master Jeffrey Yuen, an 88th generation Daoist doctor and priest.
When I work with clients, I bring all of these experiences to our sessions.
MEET KRAIG
Kraig Moultrie is my colleague at Ditchfield Hollistic Physical Therapy, applying the ideas I’ve developed to our clients, informed by his own experience.
Kraig began his career as a bodyworker and massage therapist after graduating in 2004 from the Swedish Institute of Massage Therapy and Acupuncture in New York. His studies there included Swedish massage and Japanese shiatsu, which has its foundation in traditional Chinese medicine. In 2007, he graduated from Essex County College with a degree as a Physical Therapy assistant.
I am mentoring Kraig and teaching him the practice of Structural Integration. He finds this approach to be the most consistently effective and satisfying in creating results for him and his clients. He enjoys giving and receiving deep bodywork because of the dramatic relief it can bring to chronic medical conditions, leading to profound energy shifts and releases and a new or recovered sense of wellbeing.
Kraig is also a practitioner of Reiki and Pranic healing.
MY BLOG
Coming soon
