This past June we made our way over to the beautiful mountains and forests of Oklahoma, down near Broken Bow. We spent five days in a cute little cottage on a few acres, where birds and flowers and tall trees surrounded the meadows we would explore each dewey morning.
Raoul from Fascial Care would come to our cozy Airbnb cottage each morning, and spend dedicated time on each member of our family. Following our bodies lead to release any bodily tension, strain, or anything else he looks for, as the rest of the family would be playing, reading, exploring outside, or snacking.
Overall, it is a very gentle approach. As adults, we simply laid on his table as you would for an adjustment or massage, but with the kids, he wouldn’t force a thing. He’d follow their lead, would get on the ground with them when/if needed, and allowed plenty of time and space for the kids to feel comfortable for any of the physical therapy.
This therapy works, I’d say, in sync with regular nervous-system based chiropractic care. One difference between Fascial Care and chiropractic, is that it’s focus is the entire body’s fascia tissues; the webbing in our entire that holds stress, trauma, and so much else that honestly goes above my head… that once it’s released, it’s released. You can continue in care, but it isn’t a regular, weekly, type of care. It’s also, a long session per person, not just a few minutes.
There are so many benefits to Fascial Care therapy.
I had been following along with Chandler, from Haven Huis for years, and it was one whole year prior to us actually making this trip, that I’d decided it would be something we’d truly prioritize. I wanted to try and focus on figuring out how to make happen for our family. DJ was completely on board and agreed I nit becoming a priority, once he’d also read up on and learned more about this type of care, and the benefits that can come along with it on his own.
After watching and learning what they began to share more of on Instagram, I truly felt that it would be worth the investment and time to make happen. We had no clue at the time, that we would end up moving to the same state! What once felt like a far-off, unlikely possibility came to fruition and we are so incredibly thankful.
I’m sure I’ll get asked: what benefits have we already seen? To be completely transparent, I’m not willing to share much surrounding my children, as that would be sharing their personal details and private medical history. However! What I can share, is that for me personally, I have had the best pregnancy I have literally ever had, since going for this intensive.
I am typically in extreme discomfort and pain at this point (a few weeks from my third trimester). In this stage of my last pregnancy, I’d already had extreme SPD (pubic bone pain), sciatica, restless leg syndrome, and more. Since coming home, I’ve also begun a wellness plan, where I’m weekly seeing a nervous-system-focused, prenatal and family chiropractor. I am genuinely astounded at how good my body feels at this point, and I’m also fully convinced that there is no coincidence with the timing.
I really appreciated how patient, thorough, relaxed and gentle Raoul was throughout our entire time there. Kids were kids, who wanted to be done at times. He never once pressured them, or made them feel uncomfortable. We’d have moments where we’d go outside, walk around, touch the trees, and get our toes in the grass. Our kids still talk fondly about our time at the cottage, (and also our time with Raoul’s family, as we’d been Instagram pals, and got to turn into real life friends), and I truly believe it was a getaway retreat we all desperately needed.
Regarding “tongue-ties” and other overall typical dysfunctions we see have hyper-focus these days, here is an excerpt from one of their recent posts that is thought provoking and insightful:
We serve many families dealing with oral dysfunction, some become super fixated & dialed in on the “fruit” of oral dysfunction. They seemingly are spinning their tires trying to whacka-mole that dysfunction out of their family. What if the dysfunction is a clue, leading us on a journey to digging deeper than a whacka-mole game? What if we could seek a more sustainable pace & optimize for healing?
We encourage our families we serve to start digging deeper to do some detective work, what’s this dysfunctional “fruit” connected to? Look to the “root.” Our bodies function systemically. Oral dysfunction (or dysfunction of any kind) is not an island, it’s not disconnected from the rest of our environment & habits.
If the “soil” is not improved or “roots” strengthened, dysfunction may persist. It’s common to go down the rabbit hole seeking practitioners, procedures & information to resolve the “fruit” aka oral dysfunction, sometimes that helps incrementally. Sometimes (most times) it leads to more dysfunction further on — why might that be?
If we want to create a longterm sustainable improvement in the fruit, we have to dig deeper than the surface, strengthen “roots” & improve the “soil.” The body is resilient and able to heal given optimal conditions.
Fascial strain can be one contributing factor to oral dysfunction, one we value & are honored to help release. But even when fascial strain is released, if environment & habits aren’t in place to sustain release it may not hold. Families who pursue surgical releases often see this as well, they did everything “right” but the oral dysfunction remains…could it be their root system was not grown & strengthened to sustain a lasting change?
WHAT IS FASCIA?
Fascia is an anatomical system in the body. The care Raoul serves families with is not intangible, it’s functional self-led movement to release fascial strain. He feels and assesses the position/movement of the cranial & sacral bones. He recognizes & regards fascial strain then witnesses it’s release.
One of our heroes & pioneers of combining fascial release with craniosacral therapy is Dr. Barry Gillespie.
He writes: “Fascia is the tissue that supports and connects everything in the body.
It stores memory all of the body’s physical and emotional traumas back to conception. Fascial pressure has been measured at 2,000 pounds per square inch.
Picture a three-dimensional spider web from head to toe and finger to finger. It gives the body tensegrity to hold a unique shape.”
WHAT MIGHT FASCIAL CARE HELP OR IMPROVE FOR MY BABY?
• birth trauma
• asymmetrical head shape
• torticollis
• feeding issues
• reflux
• colic
• constipation
• chronic gas
• sleep issues
• general fussiness
• and more!
WHAT IS FASCIAL CARE?
Gentle, whole-body, self-driven movement for all ages. During fascial care sessions, the body leads the movement! Fascial strain is tightness and tension the body holds or stores during stress or trauma. Often by the end of a session, the entire fascial system is relaxed & released. (Our family did indeed experience this!)
WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE?
Visit Facial Care, and contact them via text directly for any personalized information, as well as how to look into it for your own family. Follow their page for lots of helpful information about overall fascia, and their specific physical therapy.
Chandler’s sister Jordan, also offers fascia care, called Soma Holistics. She and her husband work out of Kansas City, and you can find their work here.
Raoul also visits Our Wellhouse in Frisco, Texas one week a month.
HOW TO FIND SOMEONE NEAR YOU?
For Fascial Care, Chandler and Jordan are working to create a system to do just that (much like Dr. Courtney’s Nervous System Chiro directory).
We are incredibly thankful, and hope that sharing our story serves as an opportunity for you to also dig deeper for your own and your family’s overall wellness.
