Fascia & Bones: Unpacking the Mystery

Send us Fan MailIn Season 2, Episode 11 I am sharing some thoughts based on my clinical research and upcoming book on how to support trauma, especially with regards to how popular discussing this conversations has become  in the last few months in social media. This is invitation to reframe how we talk about trauma.There’s a phrase that has become incredibly popular in trauma culture:“The body keeps the score.”And while I understand why this idea resonates with so many people, I want to invite a deeper and more nuanced conversation. These are ideas that are presented in my upcoming book to be release in the end of 2026 entitled Somatic Touch: An integrative approach to physical and psychosomatic trauma.Because I don’t actually believe trauma is “stored” in the body in the simplistic way it is often talked about.I don’t think trauma sits trapped in the tissues like a toxin waiting to be released.What I think is happening is far more complex, relational, and honestly, far more fascinating.What we call trauma is often an adaptive neurobiological pattern.A learned survival physiology.A predictive response shaped by environment, attachment, development, physiology, and relationship.And yes — it absolutely shows up in the body.But that is different than saying trauma is physically stored there like an object.This distinction matters.Especially for practitioners.Especially for neurodivergent folks.Especially for anyone who has felt harmed, overwhelmed, or pathologized by certain trauma narratives.Because many people have come to believe they are carrying hidden trauma trapped inside them that must somehow be excavated, discharged, or released through shaking, catharsis, or emotional excavation.And I want to question that framework.Not to dismiss trauma.Not to dismiss suffering.But to invite us into a more holistic and embryological understanding of how human beings actually develop and regulate.From an osteopathic and embryological lens, the body is never just tissue.For more go to my Substack for full text.

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am a practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights into the fields I practice.In Season 2, Episode 10, I am with Kieran Schumaker (they/them), ATSI, BCSI instructor Neurovascular Release Courses who is coming to teach their classes in September and November of 2026. We are following up our discussion from Season 2 Episode 6 where we are talking about curiosity and mentioned metaphor. Here we are diving deeper into many ways we teach with metaphor as well as how this supports our clients on becoming more embodied.Kier wrote Why we use metaphors:1. To help us feel tissue, finding the right touch or the right layernodule the size of a pea to describe how to feel for the C2,3 nerve rootskidney covered in its fat pad feels like a bar of soap2. To help us understand spatial relationships in a complex systemglide planesstacking the bonestensegrity network3. To describe presence or movement qualityfeels like butterfluid movement4. To help others see what we seeRolfing traditionally uses geometric metaphors, such as cylindershourglass figure5. To name what is frustrating or challengingdropped, collapsed, or fallen archesblocky vastus lateralisjacked up nervous systemSome metaphors we discuss (In no particular order):Imagination—to help us sense, touch, feel, and be present with bodiesRooted—firmly established, deeply feltBack Body—bend, support, not the frontFluid (movement)—like waterStable or Stability—to standGlide Plane (for intermuscular septum)—relationship between two tissue layers, but not like two plates sliding.Grapefruit Sections—muscle compartments in the thighNerve roots Artery branchesUpstream—closer to the Central Nervous System or central vascular system.Beet root analogy—when talking with clients and students about dural restrictions.And now for the podcast discussion with Kier.Class Registration Links:Manual NVR™ Part 1: Head, Neck, and "Roots of Arms" - September 18-20, 2026, Taos, New Mexico (USA) https://learn.neurovascular-release.online/courses/manual-nvr-part-1-sept-2026-taosManual Neurovascular Release Part 2: Lower Thorax, Pelvis, and HipsNovember 13-15, 2026 https://learn.neurovascular-release.online/courses/manual-nvr-part-2-november-2026-taosNovember 16, 2026 Integration and Practice https://learn.neurovascular-release.online/courses/manual-nvr-masterclass-nov-16-2026-taosSomatic Touch © 2023 by Kirstie Segarra is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am a practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights into the fields I practice.In Season 2, Episode 9, I am sharing some thoughts around “turning up the volume”, Zohran Mamdani, changing paradigm of trauma theory, feminism, patriarchy, colonization, non-binary and queer politics. I have been reflecting as women how we hold each other up, support each other, and continue to melt the patriarchal messages, including within us, to help offer healing and change in the systems we live in.  I thought I would share an excerpt from my book I am writing and the chapter is entitled “How trauma shows up in the body or does it?” “In resonance, all fluid systems are united. I say that no matter where in the galaxy they may be, all fluid systems function as basically one body or organ of intelligence.” — Emilie ConradGo to Substack for full post.Meanwhile, thank you for listening to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery and please review the podcast on the platform you listen to.Somatic Touch © 2023 by Kirstie Segarra is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Send us Fan MailIn Season 2, Episode 8, I am interviewing Dr. Helen Frances Paris, an extraordinary performance artist, writer, and professor who brings a deep experience with the body, feminism, as well as queer politics. She began her performance artist career in the 90’s in London. Dr. Helen and I speak about how she incorporates the body in her performance art and her writing. We speak about the hyoid bone as a way of reclaiming authenticity, how women are often not heard/listen too. Dr. Helen supports her students to rediscover, claim, and explore the next chapter in our lives within creativity and much, much, more. She is leading a women’s retreat for in creative writing in April of 2026 in the south of France. Which I plan to attend. You can learn more about it at https://www.creativebody.org/nextchapter. Her website is curiousperformance.com and on Instagram at Helen Frances Paris.Another wonderful podcast with Dr. Helen at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/best-book-forward/id1709327980?i=1000740333751.   Now for the interview with Dr. Helen.

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones…I have become her, or becoming her, that late 50’s invisible woman standing amongst the sagebrush of Taos, New Mexico, in the dark with a strand of solar Christmas lights, untangling the knots of the string as I drop the strands over the sagebrush in honor of the winter solstice nights. It is a period of time with longer nights, as we approach the time at that very moment on the winter solstice where the moments of darkness begin to be filled with new light.This is the time of the ancient goddess, the Caillach Bheur of the Highlands, who shaped the mountains, protected wells and springs, and was a guardian of the deer. She is the daughter of the Winter Sun during these short days. So much lore surrounds her, and it seems she isn’t just from ancient Scotland and Ireland, but also possibly among the ancient Britons before the Celts over 4,000 years ago. The Caillach is woven in the invisible landscape of winter. If you have not been taught her mythology then you might not notice her influence and wrath as she throws rocks at you to wake you up.I first heard the term “invisible woman” in reading my friend’s novel, The Invisible Women’s Club, by Dr. Helen Paris. I am not a big reader of fiction anymore, and somehow Dr. Helen’s book pulled me in with her sense of the body, humor, and character development. One of the lead characters had a way of knowing plants, their Latin terms, medicinal properties, and a heartfelt vigilante nature to help save the community garden, finding friendship and, dare I say, love. I am looking forward to interviewing Helen next week for the podcast.My academic semester of teaching craniosacral therapy has just finished, and I will be taking the spring term off from teaching to continue working on my book entitled Somatic Touch:An Integrative Approach to Healing from Physical and Psychosomatic Trauma. This book is a culmination of my teaching an osteopathic approach to the cranial field and sharing what I practice. I cover concepts from my second doctorate thesis in the art of listening, embodiment as an indigenous way of knowing, as well as specific craniosacral and visceral techniques, as well as osteopathic manual therapies of treatment. More importantly, I am offering a reframe of trauma theory and questioning some of the profound assumptions that are brought forth in narratives in our culture. Suffice it to say, it is a work in progress and I hope to have it completed by the end of 2026 for the publisher.Another big change on the horizon is that I am in the process of reclaiming my mother’s maiden name as my own. The surname I carry now is shared with my daughter from my previous marriage and one that doesn’t belong to me. I would love to have a surname that is the first in my matriarchal line. With all the ancestry deep dives I have done, the names always belong to the husband. I filed the legal paperwork to change my surnames to MacDonald Scott today! This is a beautiful way to enter the new year and next chapter of my life.I am wishing you and yours a beautiful Winter Solstice and see you soon on Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery. If you have been listening and would like to leave a review, that would be most appreciated.Dr. Kirstie

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 6 of Season 2, I am interviewing a friend and colleague, Kieran Schumaker (they/them), Board Certified Structural Integrator and instructor of Neurovascular Release work they developed. Kier started practicing in massage therapy in 1998 and trained with Anatomy Trains in 2005. Before transitioning to bodywork, she trained in environmental science at The Evergreen State College. They are skilled in a gentle approach to supporting the body via the nerves as well as osteopathic methods of treatment. Kier is an experienced instructor of structural integration and has a wonderful way of sharing with metaphor and clear descriptions of the anatomy involved with the techniques they are teaching. One of the things I love about Kier is their choices of words. They are careful and articulate in how they describe and share their thoughts.In this podcast, we discuss several topics in our fields around integrating nerves in our work, how we learned to explore and be curious as we learn and creative as children, neurodivergence, and our love of our field.Kier’s website is via AgileBody Integrative Learning at https://learn.neurovascular-release.online/ and now for the conversation with Kier. They will be teaching here in Taos, New Mexico in September 18-20 and November 13-16 of 2026.

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am a practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights into the fields I practice.In Episode 5 of Season 2, I am interviewing a dear friend and colleague, Dr. Maria DeFranco. Maria and I met in 2005 working together in a café in Taos, New Mexico. She was just beginning her practice as a licensed massage therapist. We ended up starting a new spa at the Taos Ski Valley together. Dr. Maria left to Portland to attend chiropractic school. I love seeing how Dr. Maria has developed and grown her OM3 BODY practice that offers excellence in bodywork.  Dr. Maria has creatively combined chiropractic and massage therapy, offering a wide range of holistic boutique treatments in Fullshear, Texas, and Portland, Oregon. Some of her specialties include holistic pelvic care and TMJ care. Which she describes in her podcast with Dr. Julia Ward’s podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-functional-edge-with-dr-julia-ward/id1794557606?i=1000720918959.Topics we cover a wide and varied in this episode. We discuss pelvic diaphragm work, self-care for the practitioner, how we approach our work, Bali, and integrating our neurodivergence and how we became aware that we are both neurodivergent. I am very excited to share our love for how we listen and practice embodied presence within our work.Dr. Maria’s website is www.om3body.com/, and now for the conversation with Dr. Maria.Somatic Touch © 2023 by Kirstie Segarra is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Send us Fan MailFascia and Bones: Unpacking the MysterySeason 2 Episode 4With Dr. Kirstie SegarraOctober 17th, 2025Welcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am a practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights into the fields I practice.The Fall Equinox happened with a myriad of eclipses and full moon in Pisces, and more. It seemed like a challenging time in Taos as the weather was still presenting warm days as we moved into October. As I rode my bicycle, I watched the brown and tan tarantulas migrating across the high desert. Finding myself upset every time someone sped by in their car, oblivious as they killed another tarantula. Something about walking and cycling keeps the pace slow and more kindred to the connection to the land. This relationship supports a form of embodiment that is relational within presence. Through my years of study and work, I have found myself always returning to the land in which I cultivate and live. It looks over the mountains of Taos, where the land belongs to the Red Willow people of Taos Pueblo. Making offerings is a daily ritual. I have altars throughout my home and practice space as well as bones I have collected throughout my garden landscape. The bones remind me of the finite existence we embody as well as the vitality that runs through all living systems. I have a large quartz crystal buried by my front door that faces east, to anchor in healing of my biological family. It has been there for several years. I placed it during a period of estrangement for two years from my parents and sibling. I will never forget the level of grief I had to endure on my own without support. It is the ritual that held me. To this day, I separate my biological family from the quiescence of my inner life to protect me from the enduring abuse I grew up with. I do not believe there will be a reconciliation now that my mother has developed dementia along with other terminal illnesses, and my father passed away in 2019. So I return to the land as an opportunity to heal in my home here in Taos.

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am a practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights into the fields I practice.As you may have heard in the previous podcast with Lauren Christman, I have some musings around changing how we talk about anatomy and physiology. Primarily, this is influenced by my study in embryology—the motion of form and function. There is a felt sense and somatic response that happens within me when anatomy is taught from a reductionistic lens—and I am guilty of this too. It is challenging to find new language to describe the relationship between structures and how they were formed. What do I mean by this? For example, my latest obsession is the continued deep dive into neurobiology in the trauma field. If I begin describing the parts of the anatomy, I speak about the vagus nerve, amygdala, nucleus tractus solitarius, periaqueductal gray, and nucleus ambiguous. However, they all grow in relationship and formation to the whole system in the first few weeks of life in utero. When I wear the lens of embryology, the distinction between these processes is more relational. In this podcast, my hope is to unpack the relational lens of anatomy along some recent experiences that invited me to explore this further.Two recent experiences invited me to think within this lens. The first I experienced was with an anatomy teacher at the Fascia Research Congress, where they were quite combative in how they spoke and challenged the group. I am not sure if this is how they teach in their normal settings, as I haven’t experienced it. I had a visceral response to feeling quite uninvited to engage with the person. I tried to stay present, and I realized after an hour of feeling like the group was being berated, I did speak up in the group to invite a reframe, and the invitation was not received.The second experience was when I heard another anatomy teacher speaking about the body as if the muscles, insertions, and origins have a certainty to them. It really struck me that we as teachers are not helping move the field forward in a more holistic and embryological model of understanding. I have deeply pondered this, and I am challenging myself as a teacher to find more fluid and holistic models of teaching in my upcoming courses.

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am a practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights into the fields I practice.In Season 2 Episode 1, I am interviewing Lauren Christman, MFA LMT CCST CBSI ATSI, who is a long-time practitioner and teacher in the field of bodywork in Seattle, Washington. Lauren and I share many parallels with a love of craniosacral, visceral, and structural integration through the lens of osteopathy. I particularly appreciate Lauren’s thoughtfulness in how she languages and speaks about the work we do. You can learn more about Lauren’s courses at craftedtouch.com. In this episode, we share a deep conversation beginning with Lauren’s foyer into touch work in hospice care centered around supporting folks with AIDS. Exploring the idea of “touch without violence”. Exploring teaching anatomy that speaks to relationship from an embryological lens with clarity without being reductive. Exploring the idea of the work we do as a “living body of work”.Now for the interview with Lauren.

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights in the fields I practice.This episode is the first for Season 2 of Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery. My hope is to do a deeper dive in the next few podcasts in how we may work with a Somatic Touch lens in working with clients as well as going down some rabbit holes in craniosacral therapy. In Episode 1 of Season 2, I am getting on my soapbox about how neurodivergent bodies experience trauma release work and why common methodologies do not work for them. We will explore neurogenic tremors a.k.a. shaking and trauma release and weaving back to embryology as a more appropriate model for understanding Somatic Touch and supporting healing. As a person who is gifted and definitively has overlaps with Asperger’s now considered autism spectrum disorder (ASD), I have learned through my own experience how different types of somatic release in the trauma field did not seem to be effective with how my sensory experience processes. It is well known that folks that are ASD do not have the same level of pruning neurons in growth—this means the individual is prone to hypersensitivity in processing. Giftedness is often paired with overexcitabilities (OE), which maybe expressed in a variety of ways as sensitivity and responses to internal and external stimuli in 5 domains both psychological and physiological. Another way of saying this is our bodies/brains are different and as such experiencing sensing the world differently.I am heading to the Fascia Research Congress (FRC) in a week to present my research and learn from other researchers and clinicians. Stephen Porges, MD is a keynote speaker on his Polyvagal theory at the FRC.  He just did a podcast interview on the Thinking Practitioner (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-thinking-practitioner/id1492004207?i=1000718653827). I spent the time to listen to the podcast and one before it to see if they would address the embryological model as well as the neurobiology model I use in my work—they did not. What I continue to question is the use of the phylogenetic explanations by Dr. Porges as his why/how Polyvagal works. He states that the anatomical structures below the diaphragm have a different processing mechanism compared to structures above the diaphragm due to phylogenetics. Whereas phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relationships among organisms. My reasoning is due to embryological development of the nervous system with the precursor of the diaphragm—transversus septum as well as how the vagus nerve grows. The vagus nerve does not have a front, back, top nor bottom in embryological growth. I have been harping on this for several years in many different papers and writings. I was starting to think maybe I am missing something, why are folks not talking about this more? Thus, I went over to ChatGPT and asked what it thought about what I have been saying.

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 19, I am concluding Season 1 of Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery. Season 2 will start back in August of 2025. In this episode I will be sharing a range of information from Dr. Still, the impacts of the Vietnam War, fascia, dementia, cancer and gravity.  The last few months of my personal life has involved moving my mom to independent care after her health changed dramatically after receiving the flu and covid booster in the end of January. Her system was not able to integrate the vaccines, and she fell sick, and symptoms of dementia arrived with a screeching halt. She was no longer able to navigate simple tasks on her own. An MRI confirmed small vascular disease, which is one of the 5 different types of dementia. This has been a fast-track experience to integrating my own understandings of dementia and navigating some complex systems of “care” for the elderly. Fortunately, I was already aware of resources locally and able to navigate a new place for her to live, in home and medical support with nurses and PT. Then I searched online for tools to simplify daily tasks, such as a memory loss phone, tv clicker, radio, schedule charts and automatic medication dispensers. All of which were to help support her navigating these now confusing daily tasks. Because of how Medicare is structured they do not pay for on-going care and support of elders who have over $2,000 in assets. Thus, all care is out-of-pocket for the provider and/or patient. So, we are preparing my mom’s house to sell to pay for her care. Now if you live outside the United States, you may be shocked by this. Unfortunately, this is how our system is set up because we do not have social medicine. It is a tragedy and as a direct effect on future generations with loss of income, inheritance, financial growth and ultimately the true care of the aging.

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights in the fields I practice.In Episode 18, I am interviewing Jeffrey Burch, Rolfer and author of Assessment and Treatment Methods for Manual Therapists: The Most Effective and Efficient Treatment Every Time by Handspring Publishing. Jeffrey has an in-depth background training and teaching with Jean-Pierre Barral, DO. He has a Master’s Degree in in mental health where he focused on psychosomatic conditions. Jeffrey began his training Structural Integration training with Peter Melchoir back in the mid 1970s. He has developed several functional method trainings as well a course in the lungs, pulmonary and thorax. He has served with several SI institutions.In our conversation, I ask Jeffrey what is the difference between Structural Integration and Osteopathy? We also talk about fascia, adhesions, Vagus nerve and what Dr. Ida Rolf intended with SI trainings. I hope you enjoy the in-depth conversation with Jeffrey Burch.To learn more about training in somatic touch go to drkirstie.comSee you next time on Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery. 

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 17, I am interviewing Dr. Rebecca Pratt, professor of anatomy located in Rochester, Michigan and president of the Fascia Research Society. Dr. Pratt is a gross anatomist who has been training medical students and has worked training American osteopaths over the last 23 years. Dr. Pratt is also editor of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement by Elsevier, which is a pivotal journal for research in the fields of fascia and manual therapies. She is about to make some big changes in her career pathway, which I am excited about, and we discuss in the interview. In this interview I ask Rebecca “How you came to work with “fascia”? What is important for us to know about fascia from a gross anatomy perspective?” and we then discuss “I would love to deep dive into around how fascia is formed in embryology and how that may shift our perspective in how we understand what we see in the experience of dissection (I do have my own thoughts on this).”Furthermore, the Fascial Research Congress is happening in New Orleans August 10-14 and Rebecca, and I will be presenting as well as many others. To learn more, go to https://www.frscongress.org/. Finally, regardless of what hat you wear when you work in the field of fascia it is important to understand we are still learning about the mysteries of fascia and how to define it within our fields. Dr. Pratt co-authored with many other leaders from Carla Stecco, Robert Schleip and more and abstract entitled Towards a comprehensive definition of the human fascial system (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39814456/). The abstract begins with “The absence of a clear consensus on the definition and significance of fascia and the indiscriminate use of the term throughout the clinical and scientific literature has led to skepticism regarding its importance in the human body.”

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Episode 16, where I will be discussing Valentines Day, Red Women Moon Cycles and The Click.Today is Valentines Day, which seems to represent love, relationship and more in current culture. It was originally a fertility festival in honor of St. Valentine. We just went through the Leo full moon that carried a powerful energy force as it rose above the Sangre De Cristos here in Taos, New Mexico. I remember when I was younger that the full moon had much more charge on my soma, and I would struggle with sleep. Over the years this minimized and seem to be linked with my menses cycles or moon cycles as we like to call them. I learned in my twenties that there is a white moon and red moon pattern. Each pattern had a different emotional and energetic quality to it. White moon represented women who ovulated with the full moon as well as the quality of the maiden in the trinity of maiden, mother and crone. The experience is more around fertility, lightness, youthfulness and beauty. Whereas the red moon meant entering into the bleeding period of the menses cycle. The energy of women in this cycle was more depth, inquiry, emotional and exploring the artistic depths of culture liken to the crone phase. Every woman carries all three cycles of maiden, mother and crone in some form and may experience the different levels of energy within. In the culture I was raised men have lunar cycles too that are over 90 days with similar tidal patterns.

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights in the fields I practice. Today I have the honor of interviewing Cole Cottin (they/she), Structural Integrator trained Hellerwork, teacher of SI, craniosacral and somatic practitioner. You can learn more about Cole at colecottin.com. Cole shares her journey coming into SI from waffles to humble pie. We have several discussions from being a Midwest Mom, Esalen, finding their way to SI, the High Five of Hellerwork, how we weave the feminine into the work of Structural Integration. To learn more about training in somatic touch and advanced trainings in SI go to drkirstie.comSee you next time on Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery. 

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 14, I am discussing some of the ideas around bones, hormones and blood! I finally have arrived to talking about bones. As a manual osteopath, I have been trained to work with bones through a variety of techniques. The term “osteopathy” was coined by its founder Dr. Andrew Taylor Still. The root of “osteon” is bone from Greek. Also from Greek, “Pathos” is the root for “suffering”. Learning to treat bones flipped my manual therapy work literally inside out. It was the most freeing experience to seemingly graduate from tissues to treating bones—this does not mean bones aren’t tissue or fascia for that matter. So, why is it important to treat bones? To help understand, one needs to know how bones work within the biological system. How they support vitality and health in the body.

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 13, I am discussing some of the ideas around somatic touch and supporting PTSD/CPSTD in clients. On January 7, 2025, at 11 am Mountain time, I will be presenting the results of my research in The Efficacy of Somatic Touch in Female Bodied with PTSD/CPTSD. You can join the Fascial Research Society and the webinar at https://www.fasciaresearchsociety.org/frs_webinar_series_womens_fa.php. My curiosity was around unpacking whether or not fascial oriented therapies such as osteopathic manual therapy (OMT), structural integration (SI), and other types of treatments were effective in reducing the psychological symptomology of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (CPTSD). There are many studies that focus on the psychological aspects of treatment of PTSD/CPTSD and very little that addresses the field of bodywork as a valid means of treatment. I became interested in PTSD because I grew up with a father who was a Vietnam veteran who had untreated PTSD. As I have shared in previous podcasts, the effects of a parent with PTSD even preconception increases the likelihood of a child developing PTSD. Which is exactly what I experienced in the year following the birth of my child. 

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 12, I am interviewing Amy Bennett, BCSI discovering how she came to Structural Integration. Discussions around Anatomy Trains, IDA-SI and diving into somatic liberation, racial justice, the experience of othering. We also talk about assessment, power differential and how we may open up to more discussions within the field of SI. Amy is a Faculty in the UNM-Taos program https://taos.unm.edu/stin and she is part of the group who founded and is teaching in SI program in Portland, Oregon--Inner Dynamics Academy of Structural Integration. We had a couple of streaming glitches and I left them in, in service of not losing any material within the conversation. I wanted to spell out the meaning of somatic liberation. As Amy shares Chat GPT definition of somatic liberation core principles:Body awareness and connection.Trauma Informed practicesDecolonizing the body inclusive of racism, sexism and capitalism in culture.Integration of mind and body and collective healing. And now for the interview with Amy.

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 11, I will be diving into somatic liberation, racial justice, the experience of othering and more in preparation for my interview with Amy Bennett, BCSI ATSI LMT and coach in my next episode. To build on others work in the field of Structural Integration in unpacking somatic liberation, justice work and the history of racism in a Eurocentric ideology with the field of somatics and SI. 

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 10, I will be following up on pelvis, discussing traumas associated with the pelvis as well as integrative birth work, psilocybin, amygdala and flashbacks. I was inspired by my interview of Denise Foster Scott on her work around reclaiming the pelvis and the subject is important to continue to hold a deep inquiry and processing 

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 9, I am interviewing Denise Foster Scott, Board Certified Structural Integrator and Instructor within the field. She has been an advocate within the field volunteering with IASI and developed a vital curriculum on supporting the pelvis and associated experiences around integrating trauma experiences associated with the pelvis.  Denise’s course is external pelvic floor manual therapy and she will be teaching around the country in 2025. You can find out more at somavitality.com. If you are interested in joining the class next September 20-20. 2-25 here in Taos go to https://www.drkirstie.com/advanced and sign-up under the link. In this episode, Denise and I discuss ideas around pelvic floor manual work, integrating life experiences that are reflected within how we embody within the pelvis, and the new SI program in Portland, Oregon--Inner Dynamics Academy of Structural Integration. 

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 8, I will be discussing ideas around trauma, collective trauma, intergenerational and epigenetics. I was driving home yesterday, the day after the presidential election in 2024, through the canyon along the Rio Grande Gorge. There was a dusting of snow on the cliffs on the right, with mist and sprinkles of snow. The river looked full of water lined with golden cotton woods with sprinkled with snow. I imagined I was in the Scottish Highlands, the place my ancestors are from, it all feels so familiar to my soma, a deep knowing of belonging. I do believe the place I live found me and I found it. It is a home that deeply resonance with me, living with four seasons in the mountains in the high desert of Taos, New Mexico. There is definitively something similar between here and the Highlands. They are both remote places belonging to indigenous people.  Between the years of 1750 to 1860 is a period of time known as the Scottish Clearances, where the people were forced to move, often with brute force, from the lands they inhabited by generations before them. They left for Canada, USA, and Australia in large numbers. This is a deep part of my own ancestry. As I study the history of my people, I am reminded multiple times of how it resonates in my own bones and fascia as a deep memory of despair and grief. I also appreciated the resilience of the people I come from. Twenty Five percent of the Highlanders died in the potato famine of 1846 to roughly 1856. More were killed, robbed and raped during the clearances to make way for the British landowners and sheep, completely decimating a way of life and raising cattle. As with other cultures, who have experienced similar forms of occupation and genocide, these memories are carried in our epigenetics as a cultural trauma across multiple generations. I was brought to Highland games as a child in the Northwest of the USA. I saw Scottish folk dancing; log tossing and experienced the bagpipes—my grandfather even wore a kilt. What was not shared is how we ended up so far from the Highlands. It would be later in my adult years that I would return to study the history and gain a broader understanding of my people. One quarter of my lineages descends from enslaved afro-indigenous ancestry, which carries similar stories and are people of the diaspora. 

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 7, I will be discussing concepts around embodiment of pelvis, the anatomy, root chakra, and a sense of belonging.What does it mean to be rooted? Is it belonging to place with connection to earth and sky? Or is there a sense of inhabiting one’s roots or seat of your soul in your pelvis and sacrum? I would say that these are concepts and ideas I have explored for many years and later this month I am interviewing Denise Foster Scott, Soma Practitioner, Educator and BCSI. She will be sharing her insights on teaching work with the pelvis in our Structural Integration field as well as the exciting new program she will be teaching with in Portland, Oregon.Full transcript is available in Substack.

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 6, I will be discussing ideas around yin energy in the field of structural integration, embryology, craniosacral, energy work and how we meet our clients in the field with Carol Agneesens. Carol began her career in education in special education. She had heard of Rolfing in high school and didn’t directly come across until she was working in the North West. After receiving her first 10 series, she enrolled at the “Mystery School of Structural Integration” in Boulder and trained as a Rolfer. She then went on to become a lead instructor and Rolf Movement educator. She works independently in her practice in Aptos, California where she continues to be an elder and innovator in our field.

Send us Fan MailIn Episode 5, I will be discussing ideas around Flow States,  the importance of Rest as a practitioner, perceptual field and more with Suzanne Picard. Suzanne trained as a Rolfer in the field of structural integration. She came to Rolfing from a background in sculpture and visual arts with in MFA and taught in field. She was living in Boulder when she was exposed to Structural Integration for the first time and participated as a model in the classroom. She enrolled to train right at the get go. Suzanne became a practitioner, a lead instructor and chair of the movement program with the Doctor Ida Rolf Institute (DIRI). She now works independently in her practice in Boulder. 

Send us Fan MailPart 1In Episode 4, I will be discussing ideas around Empathy, Rest and Resistance. In July of 2024, Suzanne Picard and I co-taught and create a class in Living in Health, Cultivating Parasympathetic and Rest. I will be interviewing Suzanne, who is a Rolf Movement educator and practitioner of Structural Integration under the trademark known as a “Rolfer”. Some of the inspirations for this course came from the Nap Ministry’s founder Tricia Hersey. Tricia’s book is described as, “rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action and manifesto for those who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.”Part 2Empathy comes from Greek for “affection” or “in suffering”. To be empathic has taken on all kinds of meanings in modern culture. For those of us who work in therapeutic realms it is a necessary skill we have to cultivate and/or organize in our work. I say this because many folks who enter into therapeutic fields are natural empaths. Being a natural empath has its advantages and can lead to burnout in working with people. It becomes incredibly important to practice rest as an act of liberation and selfcare within therapeutic fields. Natural empaths are often neurodivergent and have other complexities they have to regulate.

Send us Fan MailPart 1The nights are drawing in earlier here in the mountains and the moon is shining brighter as we come on to the upcoming Hunter’s Moon. We were sleeping outside over 9,000 feet amongst the spruce, pine and golden orange red aspen trees. There is something about being in the mountains that is in my blood and bones. There was a femur bone in our camp site, maybe an elk. The next day we road our mountain bikes and stumbled on many tibia bones, most likely cow and found a juvenile male cow skull. The women of the Highlanders would spend their Summers in the mountains tending to the cows, caring for children and making cheese while the men went off hunting and raiding.Part 2There is something in being mirrored by a friend, teacher or practitioner that can be very powerful in the healing of all types of traumas. I have read all kinds of explanations by psychologists over the years into the biological, neuro, physiological and anatomical mechanisms at play. Maybe these don’t matter as we have a felt sense of when something is in resonance and feels “right” in our body. Our connective tissue or fascia has this knowingness about it. In Episode 2, I spoke of the sensory nerve endings (mechanoreceptors) that innervate the fascia as well as how they transfer information from the outside to the inside of our bodies via ANS. There are the endocannabinoids and hormone receptors in fascia too. This starts to paint a picture of the fascial complexity we have in our systems as well as a potential for plasticity or maybe what we can call “fascial-plasticity”. 

Send us Fan MailWelcome back to Fascia and Bones: Unpacking the Mystery.  Some things I love—fascia and bones with a detective mystery. I am practicing manual osteopath and structural integrator and love working with the connective tissue of the body and the holistic systems of the body. I am also a long-time educator in the field of bodywork and movement. My hope is to share some insights in the fields I practice.Part 1In Episode 2, I am taking a look at some recent research to helps us unpack how we may support fascia in our manual practices. As I mentioned in the previous podcast, fascia was first found in the literature in the 1700s during the time of Marie Antoinette by French physicians. It is in the last 20 years we have seen more growth in the research and the Fascial Research Society is a great resource for practitioners.Part 2In the second half of Episode 2, I am taking look new research in fascia and looping back to research over the last 5 years. I am highlighting a lot of research out of the Stecco Lab in this podcast. Some very interesting results and changes of understanding fascia from how hormones play a role in the viscosity of fascia, opening a new mapping of nerve roots to an idea of fasciatome. The role of endocannaboid receptors in fascia and fascia as a pain modulator. The results of treating with a myofascial approach for sacral iliac dysfunction and the expression of different roles of proprioception and pain in the gluteal and thoracolumbar fasciae.Part 3So, what does this mean in the manual application of the work we do?

Send us Fan MailIn this first part, I am introducing the content and series as it is related to fascia and bones in the fields of manual osteopathy, structural integration and movement therapy. In the new podcast I will begin with interviewing folks starting with the field of Structural Integration (SI). I want to unveil some sticky points in our field and take an honest look at some bias that has happened due to how the lineage was set up by Dr. Ida Rolf. In the future, I hope to interview a broader range of innovators in the field of fascia.