Network Care is something I was introduced to recently, through the book “The 12 Stages of Healing,” written by Dr. Donald Epstein, which I did a very brief review of a couple of days ago, and the experiences of a friend. In the book, Dr. Epstein describes the twelve stages associated with transformation through a process of somatic (body) awareness.

The book was very good, and immediately resonated both with my personal experiences with my own somatic awareness practice, and with experiences I’ve had with personal training and massage therapy clients over the years. His stages are very accurate, and the exercises simple and direct. Check out the book.

This entry, though, is about Network Care – the treatment side of Dr. Epstein’s work. I think this entry follows nicely on my previous post about trauma, and healing trauma.

Much of the process of healing that Peter Levine describes in Waking the Tiger is related to somatic awareness as a process, an ongoing relationship with yourself…what I call “physiology tracking.”

Network Care is another route to that relationship, another perspective on your physiology, composed of two parts – Network Spinal Analysis, which I’ll discuss here, and SomatoRespiratory Integration, which is the process of exercises from the 12 Stages book.

I went to my first NSA session yesterday, with Dr. Melanie Hernand, at the SoulWorks practice here in San Francisco. It was wonderful, and I’m going for my second visit tomorrow. Can’t wait.

The session begins with a detailed history of the traumas you’ve experienced in your life. You write them all out, and then discuss them with the practitioner.

After that, the practitioner does a brief postural analysis (standing and seated), and then does some therapy work with you. The therapy is very gentle, and mostly (at least this time) involves the use of breath to release musculature and free movement in different areas of your spine, pelvic and shoulder girdle.

The magic that happens is something else, and I won’t tell too much about it here. It would be like trying to explain the flavor of chocolate to you. You have to experience it for yourself.

From a physiological perspective, NSA works by helping to awaken the client to areas of their body that have shut down or lost nervous system robustness (what they call “sensorimotor amnesia”) due to trauma.

There is an entire science of the spinal column, sacrum, and cranium, which I am only vaguely familiar with through conversations with craniosacral practitioners in the massage world, and through the works by/on Dr. Robert Fulford (DO).

Essentially, however, you can meditate on these important facts (which I’ve been doing since yesterday afternoon more and more), and see if you can get a gist for what NSA does to the body:

• the spinal column supports your torso and head, and is “floating” between your sacrum and occiput, as such, it has a lot to do with your posture
• posture can be dictated by emotion (if you’re feeling really happy, your posture shows it)
• emotion can be dictated by posture (slump your shoulders and you’ll start to feel “down”)
• within the spinal column is the cord, and cerebrospinal fluid, which has its own rhythm
• all of the nerves for your body (except the nerves of the head and brain) pass through the openings on your spinal column
• if a nerve is impinged, it causes loss of function of the muscles it innervates, and/or pain

Well…enough said for now…go get a treatment!