New Possibilities for Old Scars
This September, Structural Integrators and Massage Therapists from across New England gathered in Lincoln, VT for a unique training taught by Sharon Wheeler: “ScarWork: Integrating Tissue into the Fascial Web.” Typically seen as permanent distorted tissue that needs to be ignored, broken up or removed, the training presented an alternative perspective to the way we perceive scar tissue.
Wheeler is a Structural Integrator who studied directly with Dr. Ida P. Rolf, the founder of Structural Integration (SI). Using slow sustained pressure to release connective tissue, SI is a systematic method of working with the body. Practitioners aim to bring balance and alignment allowing the body to move with less restriction and greater efficiency. Over forty years ago, Wheeler applied these principles in developing her techniques for working with scars and has been refining them ever since.
What do scars have to do with balance, alignment and posture? It comes down to connective tissue. Pervasive and versatile, connective tissue is one of the four general classes of animal tissue (the other three being epithelial, muscle, and nervous tissues). This abundant tissue functions to support, connect, and separate all of our organs,. It also plays a crucial roll in movement. Muscles don't act alone. It is muscle pulling on connective tissue (fascia, and tendons) that allows us to move around. The web of connective tissue holds us in the shape we are in. When we are injured or stressed, our body responds by contracting. This pulls on the fascial fabric, requiring it to shift, thicken, and glue itself to surrounding structures, forming adhesions.
Like fascial adhesions, scar tissue effects ease in movement. Adhesions, be them scar tissue or stuck fascia, are like pins holding the fabric of connective tissue in place preventing full expression of movement.
ScarWork is unique in that rather than treating scars as bad tissue and aiming to break up or remove the scar, it helps integrate the scar into a functional and fluid structure. “I don’t think of scar tissue as stuff to break up or material to get rid of,” Wheeler writes on her website. “I think scars are made up of the valuable stuff you want to liberate to become vital tissue again.”
Using light but profound techniques for reclaiming scars, ScarWork realigns the dense connective tissue of scars integrating them into the smooth resilient tissue of the surrounding areas. Useful on new and old scars, ScarWork essentially removes the pins from the fabric, allowing it to move more freely. In some cases ScarWork will even help sensation return to the injured tissue.
Currently, Wheeler is working with fascial researchers and the larger medical community to explore the broader implications of the effectiveness of these techniques. In one case study, sonograms were used by an independent party to evaluate the efficacy of ScarWork. After ScarWork, the scared tissue looked closer to type one collagen fiber (non-scared tissue) showing clearer striation and differentiation.
For those of you with scars, there are some things you can do on your own to help. A good starting place is your relationship to your scars. Rather than seeing them as bad tissue that needs to be removed, consider the idea that scars are useful tissue that was doing its job in healing a wound and now can use some help returning to it original state. Touching your scar and gently exploring its contours will start this process by giving your nervous system a reminder that your scars are part of you.
This Fall, I was honoured to attend Wheeler's class along with fellow Central Vermont Structural Integrator, Rebecca Riley. The potential for change using ScarWork is very exciting. Over the next few years, I hope to continue training with Sharon Wheeler working towards teaching this work to body workers around Vermont.
“One of the more interesting aspects of scar work” writes Wheeler “is observing the whole body changes that can result from it.” Often, clients describe the return of function and feeling reporting “my scar feels like me again.”
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Irvin Eisenberg is owner of Montpelier Structural Integration and a practitioner of ScarWork. Visit him at MontpelierSI.com.
This September, Structural Integrators and Massage Therapists from across New England gathered in Lincoln, VT for a unique training taught by Sharon Wheeler: “ScarWork: Integrating Tissue into the Fascial Web.” Typically seen as permanent distorted tissue that needs to be ignored, broken up or removed, the training presented an alternative perspective to the way we perceive scar tissue.
Wheeler is a Structural Integrator who studied directly with Dr. Ida P. Rolf, the founder of Structural Integration (SI). Using slow sustained pressure to release connective tissue, SI is a systematic method of working with the body. Practitioners aim to bring balance and alignment allowing the body to move with less restriction and greater efficiency. Over forty years ago, Wheeler applied these principles in developing her techniques for working with scars and has been refining them ever since.
What do scars have to do with balance, alignment and posture? It comes down to connective tissue. Pervasive and versatile, connective tissue is one of the four general classes of animal tissue (the other three being epithelial, muscle, and nervous tissues). This abundant tissue functions to support, connect, and separate all of our organs,. It also plays a crucial roll in movement. Muscles don't act alone. It is muscle pulling on connective tissue (fascia, and tendons) that allows us to move around. The web of connective tissue holds us in the shape we are in. When we are injured or stressed, our body responds by contracting. This pulls on the fascial fabric, requiring it to shift, thicken, and glue itself to surrounding structures, forming adhesions.
Like fascial adhesions, scar tissue effects ease in movement. Adhesions, be them scar tissue or stuck fascia, are like pins holding the fabric of connective tissue in place preventing full expression of movement.
ScarWork is unique in that rather than treating scars as bad tissue and aiming to break up or remove the scar, it helps integrate the scar into a functional and fluid structure. “I don’t think of scar tissue as stuff to break up or material to get rid of,” Wheeler writes on her website. “I think scars are made up of the valuable stuff you want to liberate to become vital tissue again.”
Using light but profound techniques for reclaiming scars, ScarWork realigns the dense connective tissue of scars integrating them into the smooth resilient tissue of the surrounding areas. Useful on new and old scars, ScarWork essentially removes the pins from the fabric, allowing it to move more freely. In some cases ScarWork will even help sensation return to the injured tissue.
Currently, Wheeler is working with fascial researchers and the larger medical community to explore the broader implications of the effectiveness of these techniques. In one case study, sonograms were used by an independent party to evaluate the efficacy of ScarWork. After ScarWork, the scared tissue looked closer to type one collagen fiber (non-scared tissue) showing clearer striation and differentiation.
For those of you with scars, there are some things you can do on your own to help. A good starting place is your relationship to your scars. Rather than seeing them as bad tissue that needs to be removed, consider the idea that scars are useful tissue that was doing its job in healing a wound and now can use some help returning to it original state. Touching your scar and gently exploring its contours will start this process by giving your nervous system a reminder that your scars are part of you.
This Fall, I was honoured to attend Wheeler's class along with fellow Central Vermont Structural Integrator, Rebecca Riley. The potential for change using ScarWork is very exciting. Over the next few years, I hope to continue training with Sharon Wheeler working towards teaching this work to body workers around Vermont.
“One of the more interesting aspects of scar work” writes Wheeler “is observing the whole body changes that can result from it.” Often, clients describe the return of function and feeling reporting “my scar feels like me again.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Irvin Eisenberg is owner of Montpelier Structural Integration and a practitioner of ScarWork. Visit him at MontpelierSI.com.
