Gwen MacLean, CSI, RMT

Gwen is Certified Structural Integrator and a Registered Massage Therapist graduating from Neuro Movement Integration, Navarre, Florida and D’Arcy Lane Institute in London, Ontario. She is a member of the Massage Therapists Association of Nova Scotia (MTANS) and spent nine years in good standing with the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario (CMTO) while practicing in Ontario. Gwen recently moved back to Nova Scotia and is looking forward to treating lots of Maritimers. 

Structural Integration is a unique three-fold approach where the practitioner uses a safe touch, the client performs safe movements throughout the session and simple repatterning homeworks cement the “new” functional movement patterns in place.

There has been an explosion of discoveries in pain science research related to fascia or connective tissue in recent years. Researchers have discovered that the brain decides if we feel pain because pain is a brain construct. This means we can have pain in our body with no tissue damage or we can have significant tissue damage with little to no pain. Our brain makes decisions on the messaging it receives from receptors in our connective tissue all over our body about pain, digestion, what hormones to make, if you are in danger and a plethora of other processes. Once the brain receives a message it has to send out accurate messages to the body about what it needs to do. 

Problems with the messaging system crop up when you ignore an injury or wait for it to heal on its own or do not get appropriate treatment to keep the messaging process accurate. We start moving in a compensatory way or we end up spending months or years in sedentary lifestyles and the brain messaging system gets reset to a dysfunctional setting. 

In the 10 series protocol, the whole body is treated. We tend to think of our body as bones with muscles attached to move those bones. In reality, the bones are floating in a “bag” of connective tissue that needs an optimal tension to have us move functionally through our day. Once we have injuries and traumas (even the ones as infants and children), the tension in the connective tissue changes which then creates dysfunctional movement and potentially chronic issues. The more areas of connective tissue that become too restricted or too lax, our problems compound. You may think, it’s just my shoulder but the whole body becomes involved because connective tissue “connects” the body together. Hence, the necessity to treat all of the connective tissue in the body to resolve your particular area of concern.

It is suggested that you have a 45-minute consult with Gwen before starting the 10 series to ensure it will be effective for your area of concern. 

To learn more about Gwen, please visit her website.