"I Realised There Were Mental Health Benefits I Wasn't Expecting"

Every year, Angela goes to see her gynaecologist. Because Angela had experienced pain in her hip, she was given stretches to help with it last year. This year though, her doctor suggested she could do something different and see me instead.

“The pain was a nuisance. It didn’t stop me from doing anything, but it hurt. When I was going to sleep, it really hurt and I couldn’t sleep because it was painful. I tried to shift positions, but nothing really made much difference.

I read Alina’s website at the start and did general web searches. I decided to keep an open mind and see what it was, it was more like an exploration. I really didn’t have any fixed ideas but I thought it’d be a little bit like physiotherapy.

After the first session, my body felt nice and I was intrigued to see where it would go, and what else I could discover. Alina guided me through a hip-opening “exercise” that was effective.

I was thinking it would be more like physiotherapy and rehabilitation, but not quite hands-on. What I discovered though was that it was more like figuring stuff out for yourself, rather than going to a physio and they say “you need to do this to fix this muscle” or “do this stretch 10 times a day”. With Alina, it’s more about listening to your body and what works for you. She helped me learn how to figure it out and gave me the confidence to do that as well. It’s more empowering.

It took about a month before I noticed things were changing, 3 or 4 sessions. It was a combination of things: we talked about how a movement should be comfortable. Doing the hip opening exercise was good, but also not pushing myself into doing intense stretches. I quite like Pilates stretching, the feeling that comes with stretching, but probably I pushed it too far. And I got that knowledge, to listen to my body when it’s not good anymore, and when things don’t serve me. Even when I go for a walk, I’d be mindful of how I’m walking – not just clomping my feet down. I got more awareness and I am way gentler with myself.

I found our sessions really relaxing too. Almost like a meditation, quite a relaxing experience. Often during your day, you don’t have that time to focus on yourself and your body. Quite often you have wired periods when you are thinking ... I seem to be quite active in thinking about things, and it’s nice to have that time to focus on your body and get out of your head, focus on senses …”

While originally Angela came to see me for pain issues, during our time together she came to realise the mental health benefit of the work I offer, something she wasn’t expecting. Her psychologist mentioned that she recommended Feldenkrais® for pain management and she knew people were successful in getting off long-term pain medication using this approach. What Angela found was that our sessions were like meditation, but better: she got an instant tool to manage her anxiety. Also, her ideas about grounding have evolved and become more practical.

“I got quite close to being burnt out about 2 years ago. And coming back from that, I had to look at different things to do so that this doesn’t happen again. I’ve done yoga and meditation, but trying to go from thinking to meditating has always been quite hard. The sessions with Alina are good because it’s guided and you can focus on a certain area, so you don’t get lost. And then there are very specific questions like “is it different on the right side?” and it’s quite beneficial, you don’t drift away.

With meditation, I must catch that feeling early enough and do something to stop myself from sloping further into overthinking and getting more anxious. If I don’t catch it soon enough or am too stressed, then it’s not so effective – it’s bringing me into anxiety instead. And you can never THINK your way out of it, this is not how it works.

Alina’s sessions and questions, it anchors. If I get very anxious, it’s the body that needs to calm down first. And these sessions are excellent for it because of that focused guidance.

Also with yoga, they say “feel the ground” and I used to think: “Oh but I’m standing on the 2nd storey of my house, I am nowhere near the ground!” I didn’t get the connection, I couldn’t conceptualise it and never fully understood. But Alina suggested focusing on the skeleton and it made more sense. Then “grounding” is coming within you as opposed to the ground doing something.

You don’t get that concept of grounding from yoga or meditation … for me, thinking about the skeleton is a good way of grounding. I feel like I understand “grounding” a bit more now.”

The specific results we got?

“I definitely feel a lot better. I get 90% less pain than before. I can have occasional pain, but it’s nothing noticeable. I have more techniques to use. Experimenting with moving it in different ways really helped. My mental health has improved.

“Danger in me and safety in me” concepts that I learned with regard to how pain works were really helpful. I learned not to push through but to be nice to myself. I now adapt activities to myself rather than trying to fit myself into them.”

Angela is a busy business owner and she has young children too, which means she must be time-savvy. Learning to support yourself this way might sound like a time investment or even overwhelming, adding to your big to-do list. But Angela found that it’s incorporating what she learned during our sessions into her daily life worked the best. Unlike spending hours a week doing stretches and exercises:

“You don’t have to spend lots of time doing it. Just come back to going to the sessions and listening. And being willing to try different things. I don’t feel like it’s a big time commitment that overwhelms me … but you can do it in your daily life, and in some ways, it’s more achievable. Exercises and stretches you can get from a physio – it’s a massive time commitment if you do it all! You’d do them for the first two days and after that, you wouldn’t – this happened to my partner and my friends. It’s hard sometimes when someone tells you “You must do these stretches”, people are less inclined to do them. With Alina’s approach, it is more about listening to your body and trying to move in different ways that work.

But in general, we are conditioned to want a quick fix. You feel sick, you see the doctor, and you want to get better the quickest way possible. You feel pain and you want it to go away. So, you look for a quick solution. But I think the benefit of Alina’s work is that it is like programming yourself to move in ways that don’t cause pain in the first place. And just accept that sometimes there is no quick fix. Sometimes you need to be patient with yourself, life goes through different seasons and you don’t push against it, but rather go with it.

Time-wise - sometimes I did the audio lessons that Alina gave, but it was more about observing and getting more aware of what I do. All while I was doing other things. If I was standing cooking dinner - noticing how I was standing. Or if I am driving in the car or at work, I am thinking about how I am sitting. When I go to bed, I do light exercises like opening my hip up. But I didn’t schedule a time and say “For this hour I am going to do this”. Rather trying to incorporate it into whatever I was doing. Going for a walk and thinking “If I walk this way how does it feel? And if I change something?” I didn’t have a dedicated time but I became more mindful about what I was doing and it was more sustainable.

Something that I need to spend hours a week is not achievable for me now. I have to find ways to make everything in my life work together. I have to design my life to fit everything in. And that often means combining things. It works for me that I can incorporate this into my daily life.

Also, I found it quite complementary to the stuff I was doing with the psychologist and my personal trainer (half an hour weekly online), it all worked together well.”

I asked Angela how she would describe what we were doing to other people and whom she’d recommend it to.

“It’s teaching you to move in ways that are better for your body. How to move more effectively, in ways that are less likely to trigger pain for you. And relaxation comes with it too.

I’d definitely recommend it for people who have a lot of stress in their life. For people who care for children and carry children around a lot. People who have pain that doesn’t have any clear reason as such. People who have pelvic floor issues.

Our sessions helped me a lot. I have learned to trust my body and listen to it and chose activities that work for me, without pushing or fighting.”

Thank you, Angela, it has been a privilege for me to be your guide on this journey 😊