What Can You Expect in Your Session?

There is no pre-set agenda for an Aston® session. Each session is individualized to the client’s specific needs, goals, and interests. Sessions include many components, including postural evaluation, massage, movement education and ergonomic/environmental modifications. Most session do, however, follow the basic five-step outline described below.

Step 1: History

By learning about the work you do, the sports you play, and when or where you feel fatigue or pain), Amanda can help you learn which patterns are interfering with your function, movement & comfort.

Step 2: Pre-testing

Pre-tests are a way for both of us to experience various aspects of your movements and their potential for improvement. Pre-tests usually involve basic activities such as walking, reaching, and bending. In a session focused on a particular activity, you may perform a portion of that activity as a pre-test. The pre-testing serves two major purposes: 1) To help you become more aware of how you are using your body in certain contexts. Later, after the bodywork or movement education, this part of the session will serve as a basis for comparison. 2) As a long-term reference tool, so that you and your practitioner can accurately chart improvements over time.

Step 3: Movement education and bodywork

Movement education and/or bodywork is included in virtually all sessions. The massage work consists of three different techniques: 1) Aston® Spiraling Massage, a non-compressive massage therapy based on Swedish massage, which utilizes a unique ‘three-dimensional touch’ to release both daily and accumulated tension, 2) Myo-kinetics, a specialized form of myofascial release which addresses deeply embedded structural holding patterns within the soft tissues, and 3) Arthro-kinetics, a massage form which attends to skeletal holding patterns, enabling releases at joints, tendon insertion points, and tissue-to-tissue adhesions. Movement education can range from active stretching on the massage table to work on gait patterns. Overall, the goal of this step is to release unnecessary tension to make your posture more balanced and relaxed, and your movement/activities easier and more efficient.

Steps 4 & 5: Post-testing and applications

In post-testing, you will repeat the pre-testing movements to see and feel the changes that have occurred during the session. The application phase of the session helps you integrate these changes into your daily life. Again, the work is tailored to the individual: if the session has been focused on arm and shoulder movements, you may apply the new movements to your tennis strokes or piano playing, to your keyboarding at the computer, or to the way you drive your car. Often, ergonomic adjustments are employed at this point, and you are taught how to adjust your environment to better support the changes achieved in your body. The lessons of the bodywork, movement, and ergonomic coaching can become integrated into your everyday body-experience with awareness and practice.