What is Neurokinetic Therapy and why would I need it?
Neurokinetic Therapy® (also known as NKT) is a natural body work therapy that focuses on reprogramming dysfunctional movement patterns and faulty muscle function on a motor control level. When the body has an injury, overuse, fatigue, or imbalance it will create a compensation pattern to support the loss of function that occurs. Over time this compensatory pattern becomes the new norm and is stored in the Motor Control Center (MCC) of the brain, which coordinates all movement in the body. This new pattern is not the optimal motor control pattern for proper function and instead creates tightness, weakness or discomfort in the body. Pain and possibly loss of range of motion results from muscles overworking for other muscles that are under working. Simply stretching and releasing the tight muscles will not change this neurologically programmed movement pattern.
Have you gone for a massage, felt better for a few days, only to have the same pain or dysfunction recur? Does this sound familiar? This very situation is exactly why I became interested in Neurokinetic Therapy®. The human body is an amazing compensator! Our survival instincts combined with our ability to ignore the signals our body gives us (tightness, pain, stiffness, discomforts) allows it to compensate in every way imaginable to keep us working, playing, exercising past our functional capabilities at times. We create compensation purposefully to keep moving and minimize our pain and fatigue, but this is also exactly how we create dysfunction with compensation upon compensation. Quite a circular issue!!
Using NKT protocol I can assess muscle function through specific muscle testing, evaluate the motor control patterns, and identify dysfunction to see which muscles are over active and which are under active. Through specific release and activation these dysfunctional patterns can be reprogrammed to have a lasting effect on the body’s function. Client participation and corrective movement is a key piece of creating a NEW functional movement pattern and to integrate it in the MCC.