Clyde Anderson, Therapist of the Week

Clyde Anderson joined The Teal Center at the Virginia Hospital Center in February 2011. He is an experienced bodyworker, well known and respected as both therapist and teacher by many in the metro D.C. area.  Clyde has been practicing since 2001 and has been on the faculty of Potomac Massage Training Institute since 2002.

Many athletes have benefited from Clyde’s skilled Sports Massage and Active Isolated Stretching.  Others who are recovering from various types of injury or experiencing muscular pain caused by stress, poor posture or repetitive movement also find Clyde’s work very effective.  In addition to Active Isolated Stretching Clyde incorporates Orthopedic Massage, Neuromuscular Therapy, and Myofascial Release to relieve pain and restore healthy movement.  His many loyal clients value his ability to listen carefully and be fully present while addressing a wide variety of soft tissue problems.

Clyde also has specialized training and years of experience working with people who are living with cancer.  With a thorough understanding of the special needs of oncology patients, Clyde incorporates appropriate techniques that contribute to his clients’ comfort and healing by reducing pain and anxiety, reducing scar tissue and increasing range of motion.

Clyde is available to see clients at The Teal Center at the Virginia Hospital Center on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons.

Winter

by Kate Quinn Stewart, Licensed Acupuncturist

Welcome, Winter!  Wait – what’s that you say?  It’s still Fall ’til December 21?  That’s one way of looking at it.  In Chinese tradition, however, the seasons are made up of the six weeks preceding the solstice or equinox and the 6 weeks following it.   Four transitional weeks between the seasons round out the year.  So from this perspective, October 26th through November 1st was our transitional week between Fall and Winter, and the season officially began on November 2nd.  For those of you who have a hard time with Winter, the bright side is that our transition into spring begins on February 1st.

Many people do report dreading Winter’s approach, and I find that my patients have an easier time with it when we explore the gifts and the purpose of Winter.  The ancient Chinese, living in an agrarian society where day to day activities depended on the conditions in the natural world around them, developed a deep understanding of the unique energy of each season.  They came to understand that the energy of each season manifests in the functioning of our bodies, minds, and spirits since we, too, belong to the natural world.  Additionally, each season is associated with a particular element, a color, a climatic force, an emotion, and a set of energy pathways, organs, and physiological functions in the body.

For the ancient Chinese, Winter meant uncertain times.  For nine months, they had planted, cultivated, harvested, stored up, and let go of what wasn’t needed.  Then it was necessary to survive through the Winter months by wisely managing the resources they had carefully conserved.  To that end, and in harmony with the shorter daylight hours and cold weather, Winter was a time to rest up by going to bed a bit earlier, sleeping a bit later, tending to the interior of the household, and avoiding over-exertion, except in cases of true emergency.  They observed the fauna and flora following the same impulse, as animals burrowed into their dens to hibernate and seeds germinated underground, quietly gathering power to fuel Springtime’s burst of activity.

Winter, the most yin of seasons, corresponds to Water, the most yin of elements.  The color associated with Winter is black and its climate is, naturally, cold.  Winter’s emotion is fear, which, when balanced and appropriate, is a gift that helps us survive by alerting us to danger and empowering us to fight or flee to save ourselves.  Within our bodies, the Kidneys and Bladder are the organs associated with the Winter.  These organs manage the storage and release of fluids and energy.  The adrenals, which sit atop the Kidneys, are key players in our fight-or-flight response.  The sense associated with Winter is hearing, which requires a certain amount of stillness on our part in order to listen closely and receive what arrives at our ears.

As Winter begins, this is a good time to examine whether the Water element is in balance within us and whether we are acting in harmony with the energy of the season.  When our Water is in balance, we have the wisdom to know what is urgent and therefore worthy of a significant expenditure of energy, and what is not so urgent.  We use all of our resources wisely – energy, power, possessions, money – knowing when to save up and when to spend.  We assess risks appropriately, recognizing and responding to true threats without living in constant anxiety or paranoia.  We are able to balance stillness and movement, generating the energy we need to be active with ample sleep, down time, and meditation.  Our energy level is steady, we are able to cool ourselves appropriately, we manage our fluids well, our Kidneys, adrenals, and Bladder function appropriately, our bones are strong, and our lower backs and knees are strong and pain-free.

If our Wintertime energy is out of balance, we may find that everything feels urgent and that we are constantly pushing ourselves to accomplish the whole to-do list and more, without prioritizing what tasks truly warrant the energy we are spending.  We may find that we have either frozen our own assets for fear of being without or frittered away what we had on things that do not serve us.  We may be constantly anxious and afraid, unable to let go of the fight-or-flight response and relax into rejuvenating stillness.  In terms of health issues, we may experience kidney stones, infections of the kidneys or bladder, hot flashes, night sweats, dryness, adrenal fatigue, exhaustion, mental and emotional burn-out, anxiety, paranoia, post-traumatic stress disorder, hearing problems, swollen feet or ankles, osteoporosis, bone spurs, or pain, tension, and weakness in our lower backs and knees.

If any of these issues sound familiar, have no fear – a combination of acupuncture, herbs, and self-care can go a long way in restoring the health of your Wintertime energy.  Make an appointment today for an acupuncture tune-up to address those Wintertime imbalances.  Then try these self-care tips to support your health by bringing yourself into harmony with the energy of the season.

1)  Recognize the importance of sleep and quiet time.  In a culture that is always on the go and seems only to value ambition, productivity, and constant accomplishment, we can forget how critical it is to rest and recharge.  If we do not restore our energy through plenty of rest, we will inevitably end up exhausted.  Think of your reserves of energy like a bank account; if you make too many withdrawals and not enough deposits, you will end up overdrawn.  Likewise if you are always active and seldom restful, you will end up exhausted and ill.  Ideally, you should be “depositing” a little more in your energy bank account than you withdraw so that you go to bed each day with a little energy left over.  That way you will have a reserve fund for when you really do have to make an all-out push to handle an emergency.  Make friends with the stillness of Winter and remember that it is what allows you the energy for new growth in the Spring and fun in the Summer.

2)  Drink plenty of water.  Water is our internal coolant and lubricant.  When we drink enough, we can regulate our temperature so that we don’t overheat, all our tissues are properly moistened, and our joints and muscles move fluidly.  How much water do you need?  Take your body weight in pounds and divide that number in half.  That’s the number of ounces your body needs per day.  If you’re not getting anywhere near that much, increase your intake gradually to give your body time to adjust.   Remember:  juices, sodas, and caffeinated beverages don’t count because sugar and caffeine actually dehydrate you.

4)  Avoid caffeine as an energy booster.  Caffeine may make you feel more alert, but it doesn’t actually give you any more energy or nourish you in any way.  Caffeine simply stimulates your body to scrape the bottom of the barrel to access the very last of your energy reserves.  Over time, it will leave you depleted and fatigued.  Instead, try something that actually adds to your body’s resources – some full, deep breaths, some water or non-caffeinated herbal tea, a healthy snack, a nap, or a short break from your work.

5)  Take time to prioritize.  When you find yourself harried and anxious, pause for a moment to evaluate what is really urgent and what can wait.  Spend your energy on the critical things and take a more relaxed approach to the little things.  Often we thoughtlessly drive ourselves into the ground trying to accomplish things that could be done at an easier pace.

6)  Practice some form of meditation or quiet mindfulness.  You don’t have to retreat to a monastery to take advantage of the benefits of meditation.  Simply tuning in and quietly paying attention to the sensation of your breath moving in and out of your body for a few moments can help calm anxiety and balance your nervous system.  While you’re breathing, release any tension you may feel in your body.  If you’d like to learn more, there are many wonderful books, recordings, videos, and classes on meditation techniques.  If meditating while sitting still sounds too difficult, look into chi gong, t’ai chi, or yoga, which are all forms of moving meditation.

7) Take a luxurious bath with candlelight and relaxing music.  Winter belongs to the Water element, and surrounding yourself with water helps you reconnect with that yin energy.  The low, gentle lighting and calming music help you settle into the stillness.

8)  Balance your social engagements and your down time.  This can be a tall order during the holidays, but it is critically important.  The warmth of our relationships and the coziness of gatherings by the fire can help us keep our internal joy and warmth alive through the cold winter.  Too much partying and too much energy spent on holiday preparations, however, prevent us from getting the full effect of Winter’s restfulness.  This, in turn, leaves us with less vim and vigor for the activity of Spring and Summer.

9)  Bundle up and go for a nature walk.  You’ll see how all the plants and animals are resting and gathering energy for the surge of growth in the Springtime.  If you can spend time near a natural body of water, all the better.

 

Family Friendly: Making Sense of Sensory Integration

Editor’s Note: This kicks off Family Friendly, a column by Teal Center practitioners to support the health and well-being of parents, children and families. In this issue, Nishanka Lahr, LMT, sheds light on sensory integration and what happens when a child’s senses are out of sync.

What is Sensory Integration?
Sensory integration starts before birth, when, for example, we hear music or voices in utero. How our senses perceive information and how our nervous system responds to that information is known as “sensory integration.”

What Is Sensory Integration Processing Disorder?
If there is glitch in receiving, orienting, interpreting or organizing information and we are unable to react or respond meaningfully, this is known as a sensory integration processing disorder.  For adults, an undiagnosed SIPD may lower self esteem or make social situations uncomfortable. Still, adults can adapt. If a noise is too loud or a pitch too high, I can adjust the volume, leave the room or put on headphones — not so for infants and toddlers.  All they know is that it feels overwhelming, and, therefore, may “tune out” or “rev-up.” These reactions don’t always end when the sensory invasion  does. For example, a teacher in a crowded classroom asks Johnny to join the group, he doesn’t respond. Is this really ADD or could Johnny be hypersensitive to sound and have intuitively “tuned out” for relief?

Get to Know the Senses 
Proximal (or close) senses are emphasized because they are primitive and primary; they dominate the child’s interactions with the world early in life.

• Vestibular senses are located in the inner ear and connected to the body’s entire physiology. They strongly influence gravity, muscle tone, and recovery of balance.
• Touch/tactile senses are received through the skin, registering light touch, pressure touch, hot, cold, and pain. (Hypersensitivity to light touch can often be accompanied by lack of sensitivity to hot, cold and pain).  These allow us to react appropriately to conditions in our environment, keeping us safe.
• Taste/oral senses are easily confused with the tactile sense, because they can happen simultaneously, however if a child is picky about hot, cold, or textures, it may fall in the tactile category, while if the child is responding to the intensity/spicy or blandness in a patterned way, it may be a Oral Sensory Disorder.
• Proprioceptive senses are activated when we engage, squeeze or stretch our muscles and joints.This muscular/joint input, gives us coordination to act appropriately physically for the task of movement or speech. It impacts how we feel ourselves in space; physically and emotionally. Heavy work, muscle engaging activities (lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying, jumping, running, dancing) can have a calming effect to any out-of-sync sense.

Distal (or far) senses become increasingly more dominant as the child matures.

• Hearing/auditory: processing and interpreting information received via hearing.  Difficulties can include auditory defensiveness or auditory processing disorder.
• Vision manifests in myriad forms, through visual discrimination, visual special relationships, visual sequential memory, visual memory, visual form constancy and visual figure ground.
• Smell/olfactory:  For thIose with hypersensitivity, this can cause nausea or vomiting or aversion to people or places based on smell. Hyposensitivity could manifest in not smelling food gone bad. In cases of hyposensitivity, smell may be used to orient to people, places or objects. One might use smell, instead of touch, to interact with objects or seek strong-smelling objects.  This sense can be connected with strong emotions and memory.

For more about each sense, click here http://www.helpinghandstherapy.net/SensoryIntegration.html

What Helps? 

Education and Early Intervention
If your child has unexplained habits, such as obsessive tendencies, can be easily distracted or made irritable and tired, or has low muscle tone, a sensory questionnaire is a good first step. If the checklist confirms your concerns, take it to your doctor and request an occupational therapy assessment, as a referral is required to see an occupational therapist.  Pediatric occupational therapists specializing in sensory integration are masters at identifying and supporting a child’s system and equipping parents with tools to support their child.
If your child is under 3, contact your county’s early intervention program to request a “developmental assessment.” An evaluator makes a home visit, and if your child is in need of therapy, the law (IDEA, part C) mandates it be provided within 45 days of a referral/or request by you. The services are on a sliding scale, and sometimes covered by insurance; they cannot be denied due to inability to pay. Don’t wait. Before age 5, neurology is most receptive to change. Early intervention and knowing your rights makes a difference.

Holistic Intervention  
Pediatric Craniosacral Therapy (CST) is gentle bodywork, catered to age, that supports  the central nervous system, can relieve structural restrictions and allow the senses to regulate and achieve balance. Where imbalance is held strong, CST can aid in self correction. When a child gains power of his behavior, the entire family can reap emotional rewards. CST can be effective on its own and can enhance occupational therapy, speech therapy and dietary interventions. It can also be combined with shoni shin,  a needle-free acupuncture technique for children.

Family-Friendly Links  

• Sensory processing checklist
• Insurance checklist: 
• Zero to Three nonprofit
• “Raising a Sensory Smart Child”

Early intervention programs  

• Arlington County
• Alexandria 
• Fairfax County

For more information, contact Teal Center practitioners:

Nishanka Lahr, LMT

 Kate Stewart-Quinn, MAc

Jennifer Bales MAc, TCM

Off to the Races? Get On a Massage Table!

With tiny water bottles and packs of energy goo hanging off their belts and looks of determination on their faces, runners are hitting the trails reminding us that race season is here. October is a busy month for roving packs of racers and tribes of triatheletes, ending with the area’s biggie: The Marine Corps Marathon. And that means a busy month for massage therapists too, as just about every marathon training program includes massage in its list of must-dos pre and post race .

Runner’s World magazine says Sports massage may be one of the most important parts of your training program.

Build massage into your training, at least once every two weeks(once or twice a week for elite athletes).Before a big race, get a massage early in the week, or at least before a light or recovery day so you won’t be sluggish for the main event.

Pre-race, massage can speed up recovery after a large training day, a race or a big block of training by increasing circulation — bringing more of what your muscles want: blood flood and taking away what they don’t: metabolic waste. Massage also serves as an early-warning system, helping the athlete discover areas of tightness and potential injuries when there’s still time to prevent them.

Massage therapists with specific training in stretching, such as Active Isolated Stretching,Muscle Activation Techniques, and KinesioTapingare great training partners.  And massage can help nervous athletes take a moment to relax, thank their bodies for all that hard work and face those pre-race jitters.

Post-race, get some hands on your body post-haste, says renown marathon coach and author Hal Higdon. Runner’s World cites an Australian study that showed that post-exercise massage lessened soreness 24 hours later.

Tip: Most races have therapists on site for a quick and targeted massage just to keep those juices pumping to avoid the soreness accompanied with the build-up of gunk. Get one. Schedule a more thorough session with your regular therapists within at least three days after the r

March Madness: Seasonal Shifts Rocking You Off Balance?

Spring is time for things that have been germinating and gestating, hidden and gathering power through the cold and quiet winter to burst forth form and assert themselves like college basketball fans willing to paint their naked torsos in school colors and caged gym-goers ready to trade the treadmills for the trails.

It’s also, according to classical Chinese medicine, the season of anger (Charlie Sheen, care to chime in?). This isn’t necessarily a bad thing — if you can harness that energy and adapt to change. However, if our springtime energy is out of balance, we may lack vision and focus or we may lack the decisiveness and firmness of purpose to achieve our vision. We may be thrown off by changes, obstacles and alarm clocks that now ring when it’s still dark outside (hint: Daylight Savings Time is this weekend!)

Physically, problems may show up along the energy pathways in the body associated with the wood element (Spring’s element) or in the liver and gallbladder organs. Physical symptoms of these issues may include tense muscles, especially in the shoulders, neck and jaw, grinding teeth, migraine headaches, ringing in the ears, vertigo, joint pain (particularly in the hips), hyper-mobility or hyper-rigidity of the joints, tics, tremors, muscle spasms, PMS moodiness and bloating, menstrual cramps, blurred vision and eye disorders, discomfort in the ribcage, acid reflux, gallstones, and other conditions affecting the liver and gallbladder organs. There may be symptoms that arise abruptly and then die down, or symptoms that move around the body affecting first one area, then another.

So what can you do about this, other than bark at the car in front of you or light up your Twitter feed with complaints? Acupuncture and herbs targeted at regulating the wood energy can help alleviate these symptoms and allow us to regain balance between our determination to meet our goals and our ability to go with the flow.

If any of these issues sound familiar to you, take this as an opportunity to bring your spring energy back into balance. Here are some ways to do it:

1. Find a new project or hobby that gets your creative juices flowing.
2. Get some exercise to keep the energy flowing smoothly throughout your body — walking, yoga, t’ai chi, qi gong, dance, martial arts, and competitive sports are all great choices.
3. Enjoy fresh seasonal produce, particularly the greens, which help clean out our livers after the heavier foods of winter. Sour foods like lemons, limes, low-sugar yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut also support our springtime energy when eaten in moderate amounts.
4. Bring more green into your life. You can eat greens, wear green (next week is St. Patrick’s Day, after all), decorate with green, go for a walk through a green landscape, bring houseplants into your home, arrange flowers, plant a tree or work in a garden.
5. If you find yourself getting angry or irritated, ask yourself, “What is it that I want to see change here? What can I do to promote that change?” By re-orienting yourself to your mission and finding an effective outlet, you will make much better use of the creative force behind your anger.
6. Take this season as an opportunity to examine what you would like to change in your life. Make a plan and start putting the steps in action.
7. Book an appointment with an licensed acupuncturist at The Teal Center, who unlike your NCAA Final Four brackets, is a sure bet when you need someone to listen and help restore balance.

 

Ballston Mauled? C’mon Over for a Massage

If you’ve been a loyal client of Natural Body Spa in the Ballston Mall or just ducked in there while your significant other was mainlining on wings and sports at Bailey’s Pub, then you’re probably wondering where you’re going to get a good massage in Ballston now that it has closed. Wonder — and wander –  no more. The Teal Center is less than two blocks away from Natural Body Spa’s now-empty space.

While we don’t offer spa services such as manicures, pedicures and facials, we do offer a greater variety of therapeutic bodywork, including deep tissue and Swedish work, sports and Thai massage, neuromuscular therapy, craniosacral massage, reflexology and acupuncture. And while “spa” may not be in our name (or in our nail-polish free supply closet), we promise a calming, quiet space that’s still as convenient as a mall locale, minus the scent of Auntie Annie’s pretzels wafting through the air and the sound of squealing tweens.

Speaking of convenience (and you tied up in knots like a pretzel), The Teal Center has just kicked off a Fellowship Program, which means more same-day appointments for you. When our regular (actually, they’re soooo much better than “regular”) therapists are booked, you can still get an appointment with a fellow, recent grads who share The Teal Center’s commitment to healing, client-centric bodywork, but just don’t have as many years under their massage-lotion holsters yet.  The two fellows are here on weekends and evenings, aka: those times when YOU NEED A MASSAGE AND NEED IT RIGHT NOW.

If you’re a Ballstonian (is that a word?), a Natural Body Spa refugee or just someone whose schedule isn’t conducive to advance booking, The Teal Center has what you knead need, where and when you need it.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss was the kind of doctor that practitioners of all kinds of medicine — Eastern, Western, allopathic, homeopathic, traditional, alternative, complementary and beyond — would gladly refer you to! (And we hope the insurance would cover your Seussical care.)

We all need a dose of laughter and humility and the good doctor was never in short supply of either. A University of Maryland study looked at laughter’s effect on the heart and found that laughing has the ability to reduce your chances of having a heart attack by 40 percent.

In honor of his birthday, we took inspiration from “Green Eggs and  Ham” and wrote a poem to remind to add The Teal Center to all “the places you’ll go!”

I will get a massage today
I will get one, somehow, someway
I will get out of this cubicle box
I will steal away like a fox
I will not go to my house
I will go to where it’s quiet as a mouse
I will go somewhere where they care
Say, Teal Center, you’re better than ANYWHERE!