Why Feeding Therapy Needs a Whole-Body Lens

Whatever it is, we need to be looking at these patients through a whole body lens and we can address, we can do the body work all day long, but if they still have these oral habits, if we're not addressing bringing their awareness to that, to how they're breathing, to their resting, proper tongue, resting posture, that's going to continue to affect their nervous system.

Hi and welcome back to the Untethered Podcast. Today we have Alyssa Welch joining us. Alyssa is a physical therapist and founder of Southeast Fascial Therapy where she specializes in fascial therapy, craniosacral fascial therapy and oral function for bees, baby's children and adults. She graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2016 and began her career in a variety of traditional PT settings, nursing home, home health, school system and outpatient before discovering her passion for fascial and nervous system focused work. Over the past seven years, Alyssa has pursued advanced training in John Barnes myofascial, release, Dr. Barry Jeski's approach to craniosacral fascial therapy and myofunctional therapy. Her practice blends these modalities with her own expertise to create a holistic body led approach that addresses a wide range of concerns from breastfeeding and developmental challenges to sleep difficulties, headaches, chron pain, impaired mobility, nervous system regulation and deep root attention patterns. Alyssa serves families across Louisiana, Alabama, Texas and Mississippi through an in office care and traveling intensive model. Welcome to the Untethered Podcast. I am your host, Holly Balkan. I'm a certified myofunctional therapist, feeding specialist, podcaster, business owner and mentor. This podcast is all about getting your questions answered and collaborating with colleagues to bring you the most up to date information in the orofacial myofunctional therapy, airway tether, dural tissue and pediatric feeding therapy space. If you're new here, I challenge you to keep an open mind and join my mission to spread this message far and wide. If you've been around since June 2019, thanks for being a loyal listener. As we jump into today's episode, remember to listen with correct oral rest. Posture, tongue up, lips closed, teeth apart, breathe through your nose. Let's get started. Alyssa, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm excited to have you on. I know that you are a graduate of the MYO method and so it's always fun to have, you know, some of our own community on here, but I want to talk about you and focus on like your pathway, what you're doing and how you got there. So Will you start by telling our listeners, you know, how you went from that traditional physical therapy path to taking a more holistic approach?

Yeah, absolutely. And honestly. So I'm a physical therapist and I specialize in fascial therapy. And it is not a path at all that I thought I would be doing. I started out, I graduated PT school from UAB in 2016, and I started out working in nursing homes, home health, did some school system, and ultimately worked in an outpatient clinic. My boss there was trained in the John Barnes myofascial release method. Excellent manual. Manual therapist. Excellent physical therapist at manual therapy. So he sent me down to a training in Florida. John Barnes MYOFASCIAL RELEASE 19 and while I was at this training, I was introduced to the body's ability to unfold, unwind, and stored emotions, stored trauma. I was skeptical. I wasn't too sure. You know, they do not teach you that in PT school. They don't talk about stored emotions and trauma and fascia and how everything is connected. Anyways, I went home. I implemented some of the techniques at the clinic I was working at. But it was about two years later, in 2021, I was working on a client performing a myofascial release technique when she had this profound physical and emotional release right there on the table. The other PT came in, helped me with her, and after about 45 minutes, she sat up and looked at me and said, wow, all those years of therapy, I hate to say, what a waste, but she was like, basically what she just experienced was very vivid memories and emotions right there as we were working. And so this particular client was seeing me for neck pain radiating down her left arm. And I worked with her several more times. And each time I did, she would immediately go into this unwind and have an emotional release. Within a few sessions, her physical symptoms went away. And so I, at the time, went home to my husband. He was struggling with really bad migraines, neck pain, back pain. And he went the traditional route. He was seeing a neurosurgeon. He got steroid injections, and he just wasn't getting any relief. And so after working with her, I went home and I was like, look, I've got to start doing this with you. And it kind of like exploded from there. I will say my husband is four years pain free. And over the course of the next year, I learned so much from working on him. And he actually unwound a past traumatic accident. And I watched the PTSD that surrounded that accident also lift. His physical symptoms were going away. And so that just working with him throughout the course of the year just really opened my eyes to how everything is connected in the body, how our bodies tell a story and how everything we go through in life, whether it be physical or emotional trauma, how that is stored in our bodies, how it affects our nervous system and then how that affects our physical symptoms and tension. So in 2023, I found out about Dr. Barry Gillespie with his technique in craniosacral fascial therapy. And I went out to his training and it was just kind of an aha moment for me. I was like, well, you guys are doing exactly what I've been doing. And it just kind of put the language to what I was feeling and experiencing and gave me the confidence to then go back home and branch off from the traditional physical therapy model. And I opened up a cash based practice and this is what our main priority is.

So yay. Oh, congratulations. That is awesome. I know, it's, it's so interesting because more and more of like the practitioners that I talk to that have integrated one or both of these learnings in, into their. Whether they're doing cpft. No, sorry. Well, it's cft, right? There's cst. CPFT is like what we're creating. I can't even with the letters anyways, a cranial faithful sacral therapy, right. Because it's like cfst. I'm like, you see all. I see it in so many different ways. And it wasn't until like one of my friends took a course and she, Megan, my friend Megan. And she's like, you know, this is in like the Gillespie course. She's like, this is incredible. Like, this is so helpful. And we talk a lot, I feel like in pediatric feeding, even the MYO world, but like how these children that we're seeing tend to like kind of unwind and then they better. They're absolutely working on improve and then if they get kind of locked back up, the feeding skills go back to where they were. And it's more or less like, well, how do we integrate all of this holistic so that we can move both things forward? How do we say kind of keep the body unlocked and maintain the skills we're gaining. Right. And so it's been so cool to watch that. And so I mean, you probably understand better the whole like fascial tension and how it's impacting these, these little ones and well, babies, children and adults. Because you're working with. Absolutely, right. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. And so what actually led me into the myofunctional piece was I had a personal experience. I was working on a one year old who was on a. She had been on a feeding tube her entire life. She was, she had a very traumatic birth experience and she never did latch, she didn't nurse, couldn't bottle feed behind, you know, she wasn't babbling behind in speech and she was on a feeding tube her entire first year of her life. Mom had tried to introduce foods but she just didn't have the interest or the oral motor function or control. And so I did a two day intensive with her and actually honestly the oral component was not a focus of mine whatsoever. I was just doing the bodywork piece and we did a two day intensive and on the, at the end of the second day we were noticing big improvements in her gross motor skills, her trunk and head control. She was able to get up on all fours and hold her head up. But what really caught me off guard was probably the last 30 minutes I was working on her, she started sucking and drooling and moving her mouth and mom grabs her camera and she's videoing and she's like this just doesn't even look like my daughter. I don't know what's going on right now. And we're all excited. And so I asked the mom if she had a pacifier and she went and grabbed one and her baby latched and was sucking. So we were freaking out. And it was just incredible to me how as I released the tension full body, how that helped give her the tongue and jaw function and control. The next day her mom sent me a video and her baby ate her first baby wafer. And then two weeks later she ate a jar of baby food. She had progressed to an eight ounce bottle of milk. So that right there just. That really sent me into this spiral of how the tongue is truly connected all throughout the body.

Experiencing that that's, and that's incredible. It's really cool because we see, we see these things happen, you know, I mean I'm not doing 2D intensives, my team doesn't do that. But we do see that when everything starts to come together and you know as when, when the body is treated like it's actually a whole and not like siloed into pieces and.

Exactly, yeah.

Such improved progress. So that's really, really cool. Now do you also feel like, like in her case or just in cases in general we always talk about the nervous system. Right. So she also just like in that rest and digest state instead of like that fight or flight, like we kind of always talk about, like, you know, we like the rest and digest for, you know, feeding and everything. But do you feel like that was a piece of like, her journey, even as like, a little one?

Absolutely, I definitely do. And I think what even played into that was during these two days, I also worked on other family members and I worked on mom. And so I worked on mom the first day and her two siblings. And then the second day I worked on mom and dad in between her sessions. And I truly felt like once mom's nervous system shifted, baby's nervous system also shifted. And I felt like with that last session, after working on them, we were really able to make some more progress. So not only do I feel like she was in the rest and digest state, which made a difference, I would notice the CO regulation factor of the rest of the household and the environment.

It's so fascinating to me. I'm like, so like, in tune with nervous system and CO regulation. Like, I joke, I'm like, my dog sometimes will be like, running around. He'll come, like, lay down next to me. He always has to touch me, usually puts his, like, bottom to me. And as soon as, like, he's connected, he's like, regulates. I'm chill. He chills like, my children do it too. But it's so funny because I don't know that most people, like, actually stop to realize or like, pay attention to these little, like, signs, right. Of CO regulation actually happening or dysregulation happening. And I know we talk with the feeding families. Like, we know we have so many parents who that they just want their child to eat. And it's very stressful and, you know, not passing judgment, but it's like you come in really, really stressed out about it. Your child is literally feeding off of that energy. And so do you have, like, do you work with families even outside of, like, intensives or patients, Adult patients and kids on nervous system regulation as well?

Yes. Yeah. So I see babies through adults. I've seen babies as young as two days old. And specifically whenever, if a mom is bringing a baby to me and I don't feel like we'll make progress in a session, the baby will relax, things will improve. But if it seems like it's not holding, that's when I really start to have conversations with mom of, you know, the CO regulation factor. And sometimes I have, sometimes in one session, I'll work a little bit with baby, but then also work with mom in that same session. Because I do. I think that if we bring the baby to this rest and digest state. But then if mom is stuck in fight or flight, that, that it's absolutely going to affect their progress. And so I will combine the two into one session or sometimes I'll work on other family members also in. In a session. But yeah, it's fascinating.

That's great. I mean, so. And then I guess adults, maybe, not that it's easier to work on adults per se, but like, is it because you're not dealing with the child and the like, parent, you know, that caregiver dyad is just the one individual. Is it any easier to address this, like, with a singular adult patient that comes and sees you, or is it sometimes harder? Because adults have a lot to unpack.

So the nervous system component.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes. So we definitely have a lot more to unpack because I say, you know, we begin accumulating tension in utero in our fascial system in. In our mother's womb. And so your nervous system's connected with your mom's nervous system in the mother's womb. So you have, you know, positional strain in utero. You have generational factors. I see patterns of tension run in families. And then you also have any stress mom was under and then birth itself. So every single one of us is born with a degree of tension in our bodies, and some more than others, which is why you see some babies that have tight tongue ties, difficulty latching, colic, reflux, torticollis, constipation, it's all related to this tension in the body. And if we can unwind it, then we can make quicker progress. But adults, they have that, and then they have. What have you been through in life? Every physical and emotional trauma. You know, any. It could be. When we think trauma, we tend to think like something super severe. But from what I've witnessed with clients having emotional releases is it could be something as simple as a child and then parents fighting and they're at their, you know, in that moment, their bodies go into protective mode and they can't fully process it, and it's stored there. So when we go through things, our fascia, our bodies tense up as a protective mechanism. And then consciously we will move on, but subconsciously, it's like that pattern of tension is held there. And so we have a lot to unpack. We have, I always say our bodies are like peeling back the layers of an onion. There's a lot to unpack there. But however, a lot of people don't even realize that they're living in this chronic state of fight or flight. We live such busy lives. We're always on the go. We just. People will come in thinking that they're relaxed, but then once I'm able to shift them back to that parasympathetic state, it's like I didn't even realize how much I was carrying. Didn't even. We just don't realize how, how, how much we stay in this sympathetic dominant state.

Yeah, it's wild. It's wild. I feel like we hear like things like this with adults all the time where it's like, like after a tongue tie release, we've had like, you know, certain tension patterns released in adults that they can like talk about or even emotions released. Or they'll be like, oh my gosh, like my, my sleep was awful. I had no idea until I'm now sleeping. And I have a different lifestyle now that I can now compare to pre, you know, mayo or pre release or pre expansion or whatever it is they did. And it's so, it's always so interesting experience too as an adult. When I went through expansion, my first round of expansion a couple of years ago, and I had as a kid and everything too, but I also was like sleeping better. I had my nose surgery. I was like, I can breathe better, I'm sleeping better. I feel like I'm actually getting restful sleep and I have UARS leading up to all that. So. But that was my normal. Right. Like even being in this space, I didn't even realize how awful I felt until after the fact. And then I was like, this is what I'm missing out on, I tell me, you know, and so it's, it's just fascinating because these conversations we have with adults, sometimes it's like you don't know what you're missing out on until you do. Until you do. Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We live such fast paced lifestyles and I feel like moms especially, we tend to put all the focus on our children and we just kind of put ourselves on the back burner and don't prioritize ourselves. But I think we should because we're kind of the backbone of the family and if mom's not regulated, then that's going to reflect on our children. So we can put all this time and all this money into our kids. But I do feel like as parents we should be investing more into ourselves. I love that you did the palette expansion as an adult.

I'm in my second like, so now I'm doing the marpy with like the clear aligners. I don't have the liners in right now. But I'm like, my speech. If my gut. Little teeth. Little tiny space in my teeth. But it's all coming back together. And it's funny. Somebody was, like, commenting on a video on Instagram the other day, and they were like, you should really get all the chocolate out of your teeth before you speak. It's really distracting. And I was like, all right. I was like, who? And you're like, soup today. Like, calm down. There's nothing in my teeth. This is called spacing. Because I have adult expansion. And, like, the stuff doesn't bother me. I know a lot of people will be, like, really upset by it. But, yeah, like, I was like, oh, that's funny.

So the audacity.

And I was just like, nothing in my teeth. I'm good. I have an expansion in my. Because I was also kind of like. Like, I. A couple times stopped to, like, like, swallow. And you can't really suction your tongue up against your palate with this thing in your mouth. So anyways, it went viral, so it was definitely, like, going to people who, like, don't know me. Don't.

I did not see that. I did not see that.

Like, what?

Anyway, but also, why do we think we can say these things?

I know people are so brave, and on the Internet, I'm like, would you say that to my face if I met you on the street? Like, we probably wouldn't. So. Okay.

I have got to address this. I saw you addressing something on Instagram not too long ago. I can't remember the details of who it was with, but they were kind of, like, trying to debunk myofunctional therapy, basically. So I go to their page and I'm. I'm reading through comments as I'm just, like, interested at this point, and I see someone say, like, well, what about cft? Like, can it help my kids? And they basically responded with, it's a placebo effect. And I'm like, oh.

Like, now here talking about. And unfortunately, that account is full of a ton of misinformation and that under the guise of research, which it's not. And it's. It's really sad. And that kind of thing frustrates me to no end because that same person is very anti, like, tongue tie releases, except for in, like, nursing babies and, well, you know. And myofunctional therapy says it's, like, made up, not a thing. Like, just. Yeah, well, let's not help patients feel better. That makes.

Yeah, that's a resource that. That mom might be missing out on. I'm like, placebo effect. Maybe, maybe an adult can have a placebo effect, but a baby.

Well, and I think you're being kind because for me like my, I'm like this enneagram energy where if you mess with like not just me, but you mess with like other people that. And obviously I don't know that stranger that she said this to, but I like become like the protector of like integrity and truth and like want to make sure that like this person knows like the real information. Not that I'm going to DM people that someone else gave misinformation to. But then I go to my profile and I go and create a reel that basically delivers the truth and post or whatever. And it just, it fuels me because I'm just like, you are harming so many feeding dyads and children. And this is my opinion, it's unethical. Unethical for you to be saying that when we have so much evidence that this is a beneficial intervention, it's causing no harm. Like what? Yeah. Where are you coming off saying this? So anywho.

Well, I think with your line of work, with myofunctional work and with fascial work, whether it be MFR or cft, that's what people want to go back to. The, the evidence, the science based evidence, the articles. And they're quick to debunk it or call it, you know, it's not effective.

There's a ton of evidence. I mean Mayo for example, it's not new, been around for around years. There is a ton of evidence. It's not always in a speech language pathology journal. You have to like look beyond. And that's why I, I started my membership back in summer of 2020 to my membership where we review four articles every single month. And so we've had four articles per month for the past over five years now that anybody could go into our library and access these articles as research articles, all different various levels of research and have real information at their fingertips. So you know, we like kind of encourage people like go look at what's in there because there's all these people out here saying there's no research to support this. And look, no, maybe there's not a ton of Level 1 studies, but also that's not the end all be all and not everything be done at a level one. Yeah. So anywho. Yeah, yeah.

And same thing with fascial work now. Yeah, but same thing with fascial work. Like it's not mainstream but that doesn't mean it's not effective.

So feel like from so many of the people. And I know you. You had put this in your notes, too. But, like, so many of the people I've talked to about. Talk about how foundational it is. Like, these babies are born. Everybody should get somebody.

Absolutely.

Like, you just had a traumatic experience leaving the womb and going through the birth canal, and now you're in this really cold, mysterious world. It's, you know, and, yeah, like your mom. You know, the mom's voice is there and whatever else, but it's a traumatic experience. Even if you had a good birth story. So.

Yeah. And even if you had a good birth story again, you still. Every single one of us is born with tension in the body. It goes back to those things in the womb and, you know, whenever. So I had hospital births with my three boys, and it blows my mind. I didn't know then what I know now, but they all three, I remember in the hospital had a difficult time latching and nursing. And never did anybody say, hey, we'll let you know. Let's just see if. Let's check the tension in their body, like, or, hey, hold your baby's body like this to help them unwind. And let's look at their mouth. Let's do an oral assessment. Let's. Let's look at their tongue. I actually, for my last one, the lactation consultant came in. I was struggling to get him to latch, and she picked him up and just started putting sugar water in his mouth and said that, you know, you add a little bit of sweetness and it'll help them suck. And then. And then gave me my baby back. And I was just like, you just knew. Let's not get started on oral. Yeah. Microbiome.

I mean, I. I know you do that. If the baby has, like, if they're worried about the baby's blood sugars being low and they're, you know, they're texting every hour. But, like, randomly do that because baby's not latching. Like, that's the first. I've not heard that.

That's like a norm at least here in Louisiana, or at least where I am.

And it's with my first. Because most. My. Both my girls were hospital baby. Hospital birth as well. And the first one was induced. And I was like, never again. And she did not want to. She did not want to come out. It was a whole, long, whole long experience anyways. And I had, like, a little. I had some complications at the end. And we both ended up being fine. My goodness. Like she wouldn't latch. And then it just became 13 months of stressful, stressful and painful breastfeeding because I was just different. To change how I was feeding her. I mean, I tried to give her a bottle once we were home from the hospital, like a ready made bottle. She screamed bloody murder for three hours. I was like, never doing that again. And they were like, oh, it's probably milk proteins. Then wanted to give me her. Like, give her. She's like, that's similar. Like has three milk proteins. Here's Gerber. Good start. That only has one. I was like, yeah, I'm a little traumatized from last night. I. But I was like, sure, yeah, we'll pick that up. So my mom picks it up and we donated it. I just started like pumping to like get milk in a bottle to see like how much she maybe was taking. And you know, it's not. You don't need to feed them that much in the first couple days of life. But still I was like, no. Support hospital was not. They were not helpful. The ibclc, my pediatrician's office, not helpful. She was like, it's, you know, just take the baby's clothes off and blow on her face and put her in a football hold and she'll be fine. Meanwhile, this was a baby. Both my kids who could hold her head up at birth. Ding, ding, ding. Like, hello, red flag. Like little body tension. We think preferred one side over the other. Like I didn't know I was working with 12 months. Yeah, point. So I had no clue. And then with my second, I was like, more in the know. Was only two and a half years later, but I was like, more in the know. And now with pediatric feeding. Thank you, Lily. So my second, she's born, right? And so I at that point, I'm like, you know, I'm just not going to look in her mouth the first day. We're just going to, we're just going to ignore it and it'll be fine. We're going to feed. It'll be fine. I latch her. As soon as I latch her, I'm like, oh, there it is. I can feel it. This is like the first experience all over again. And it was interesting because lactation would not touch her, look in her mouth or anything until I said something. And then the pediatrician came and agreed with me. And so then they're like, oh, do you want the hospital surgeon to release it? And I was like, takes 10 steps back from my baby. Like, do this baby. I Was like, you cannot have my baby. Like, do not touch the baby. Leave the baby here. Put the baby down. So funny how we went from not even assessing or diagnosing to, oh, we can offer you a surgical procedure. Insurance. No, thank you. My oral surgeon is on speed dial. We'll be heading there on. And we went. We took her day five. Anyways, we ended up going to traditional pt, pediatric PT with her on and off for about eight months because she was, like, hitting her milestones but always on the tail end. And I was like, you know, I know she's got some tension. Can we work through some of that? Kind of get. Keep her on track, get her more on track. Just because I, like, knew too much. Right. So, yeah. Not waiting for this baby to fall behind. And anyways, then she went to, like, dragging her right leg behind her and, like, scooting very efficiently across the entire room. But it wasn't until I took her to osteopath and a craniosacral therapist within, and they both did manual therapy on her, like, a week apart. The next week, she got up, started, like, you know, scaling furniture, and then was starting to, like, walk. And the next week, she's crawling on all fours on the couch, which is a very unstable surface. And I'm, like, freaking out. And my husband's like, who cares? She can walk. I'm like, no, no, no. Everything's integrating. Like, you don't, like. This is to crawl. And so anywho, I'm like, she's crossing midline and she's doing this. And this is a baby who just was not. So anyways, it was fascinating. I'm like, eight months of pt, and all it took was. Yes, yes, yes. An osteopathic intervention.

Absolutely.

And, like, wild y.

Yes, yes, it is. And so it's foundational. It's absolutely foundational. And the fact that, I mean, we should. All mothers should have this resource immediately after birth for their babies and for them. And then when it comes to just releasing tension and unwinding, I feel like this is something we should all know about ourselves and as parents, be able to work on our children. You know, I didn't. I wasn't so into it. I didn't have the understanding I have now when my babies were little. They're seven, five and three and a half now. But when I tell you that we use it on them all the time. Growing pains, headaches, stomach aches, constipation, car sickness, whatever it is. They're like, unwind me, mom. And you literally so I've learned that pain is a signal. It's your body's way of communicating with you. And instead of avoiding or suppressing it, like we're taught, or like the traditional health model does, when you go to the pain in the body and you listen to what the body wants to do, the body can restore balance. It can process and release what's there and restore balance. And so my kids haven't. They haven't ever had, like, Tylenol and ibuprofen or. We stay away from medications because it's incredible. Our body's capacity to heal itself is absolutely incredible. And so I just. I just don't understand how we don't know this about ourselves and why it's not more widely accepted or talked about or the lactation consultant in the hospital. I mean, it would have been so much more impactful if she would have showed me, you know, just been like, here, let's work some tension out of your baby, and then let's help you to relax. Let's give these moms more support. I feel like moms could have a much better breastfeeding journey. My. My breastfeeding journey was painful. I think we think that's how it's supposed to be. You know, we just. But then, not only that, but here are these babies who are having trouble latching. Breastfeeding is painful. They. They still have this pattern of tension within their body that's not being addressed like yours until then. Once you did address it, then you. They were able to. They were more balanced and able to reach different developmental milestones. But look at how many people don't know that and don't have that resource. And so we still, like, as adults, we still have these patterns of tension in our bodies there from birth. You know, it's crazy.

It's crazy. It is. And so, like, I guess for a parent or even a therapist who might be listening, who's kind of like, well, how do I, like, know when to call you in? Like, obviously, we've talked about how it's foundational and so high as. As soon as possible.

Yeah, immediately.

Immediately, right now. But like, with babies, for example, are there certain, like, signs or symptoms that you would. You know, obviously it benefits everybody, but, like, certain signs and symptoms that you would say, oh, if you see this happening, if you see that happening, that's a great time to refer, you know, for craniosacral work.

Yeah, all of the things. So, I mean, difficulty latching your tongue, like, as you know, is literally connected through all the fascia down to your toes. So if you're noticing difficulty latching or painful breastfeeding, difficulty feeding with bottle, fisted hands, even in my adults, babies and adults, when we're constantly fisted hands, I.e. tension in the body nervous system in that sympathetic dominant state, colic, reflux, torticollis, plagiocephaly, it is literally all of those are signs of tension in the body. Yeah. So I mean it literally. And then as the baby gets older, noticing, you know, like you said, the way they're crawling, scooting, if they're not rolling front and back, I mean, just changes in their developmental milestones. So many things that kind of just get seen as normal. That's common. But yeah, the craniosacral work. So cst, cft, myofascial release, they just, it literally should be foundational. But not only that. So I mean, I think that speech therapists And P, like PTs, OTs, speech therapists, whoever, I feel like it needs to be. We all need to have that understanding of that body work component, you know, because it's gonn help speech therapy techniques integrate better. It's going to help PT progress. It's going to, you know, help OT work more smoothly. I just feel like as practitioners, if we all had this ability to incorporate this resource, this bodywork. I don't know.

No, I completely agree with you. It's funny. You're talking. I was like, I wanted to take the Gillespie course in the past and it just never made it there. And so I was like, you're talking. I'm here typing. I'm like, Gillespie near me. Like 20, 26. Okay, hold on.

I've got something better for you.

Okay, so tell me, what do you.

Have on that is like, my passion is to train other practitioners and to train parents or whoever. And so that is, it's in the, it's in the works. And I've had, I've had several clinics and other therapists reach out to me saying, hey, can you train us? And I keep putting it off, but this coming year I'm going to be doing that. I am going to be offering trainings. Now, the Gillespie approach training is great, but I will also be offering training to practitioners, so.

Amazing. So then tell us like a bit about your approach because I know you're very holistic and obviously you talked about how you kind of. You're combining the fascial therapy with, yeah, the myo and the oral, motor, sensory, all the, all the body stuff. So, like, what does that look like through, like, your Lens.

Okay, so honestly, like, let's think of like a traditional physical therapy lens. I was there for eight years. And when a patient comes into the clinic, we need to be immediately looking at how are they breathing, where is their tongue resting, what is their sleep like, what is we, we need to be assessing the nervous system and looking at the patterns of tension they hold in their body on everybody, on every single person that comes in there. Because if they're coming in there, the patients we would see, let's say chronic back pain, neck PA pain, sciatic pain, pain radiating down the arm, whatever it is, we need to be looking at these patients through a whole body lens. And you can't, we can address, we can do the body work all day long, but if they still have these oral habits, if we're not addressing, bringing their awareness to that, to how they're breathing, to their resting, proper tongue, resting posture, that's going to continue to affect their nervous system. Because if they're mouth breathing, that can puts you back in this, you know, that affects your nerve system state, puts you back in survival mode, fight or flight. So my technique is going to work just to encompass all of it, just to look at each patient in this whole body lens, which I feel like Dr. Barry Gillespie does a really great job at that, but mine. So I started out in John Barnes, but then as I was working on my husband and going back and working in the physical therapy clinic, I was realizing that the myofascial release technique, that skin to skin, steady hold, wasn't necessary. I can go to your head and neck, I can go to your arm, I can go to your leg, I can touch your body part. And as crazy as it sounds, when I put my hands on you, I can literally feel the way your body wants to unwind. Because our bodies are constantly trying to heal themselves. Whether you get a cut, break a bone, injure an organ, your body is at work to heal itself and wants to be in a state of homeostasis. And it is always working for you. And we have this just by God's design, this ability to tune in, unwind and bring our bodies back down to that parasympathetic state and process and release whatever's being stored there. We're just so disconnected from it, so. But we all have that ability. And so I'm super in tune with it. So when I come to you and put my hands on you, I could grab your leg to put you in a hamstring stretch. When I grab your leg, I can immediately feel, oh, you don't want to go into a hamstring stretch. Your leg wants to go out and it wants to go around, and it wants to go this way.

And.

And so I was noticing this before I found Dr. Barry Gillespie. That. And I would go to my PT I was working for. I'd be like, why, when I touch people, do I feel their body wants to move? Like, it's freaking me out. And so I just didn't understand because I wasn't having to do that. Myofascial release technique. So that, again, that's when I started hearing about Dr. Barry Gillespie a couple years into me doing this work. And my husband self unwinds, by the way. Yeah, he's got it down to a pack. He can. He can go lay down on the couch and, like, totally self unwind. And I feel like that is something that people aren't teaching, is that at the end of the day, this is literally how we are designed. And we all have this capability. We're just not being taught it. And so anyways, found Dr. Barry Gillespie, and then immediately in his course, I was like, y' all are literally doing what I'm like, this is what I've been doing. I just couldn't put the words to it. I just didn't know why. But. And in his technique, it teaches you go to these certain areas to tap into the craniosacral system. And then.

And.

But in mine, I found that you don't even necessarily have to do that. So anyways, it's. I've really struggled with saying, like, what I do is cft because I learned so much of it, like, just through my own expertise. However, that is the absolute closest thing to it. Like, we are all getting to the same goal. We are all working to get to the same goal, which is. This is literally just how our bodies are designed.

Yeah, no, it's really cool. I mean, I worked with. When I was in my first round of expansion using the DNA Vivos appliance, I worked with a pt. Who was he? He. He was trained by the PRI Postural Restoration Institute, but he had. He literally travels all over the world. He had, like, a bazillion trainings under his belt, and he was mentored by this other guy, Brian Tuckey, and he. I don't remember what he called it. They were gonna teach their system or whatever that they basically were doing, but he would do that same, like, come on your head. And he would just kind of just through touching, like, my head, he'd be like, okay, I know exactly what to do. And he would take. And I would be like, what, like what do you. Okay. I mean, but I'm telling you, like, he would barely touch me and I would feel like I had a full body massage and left there. And I'm like, this is some kind of voodoo magic. Let it work. And it's not voodoo, but it's like it was really cool because I started to understand as a patient, like how it felt to one have like that, all that release, you know, release. Fascial energy happening.

Yes.

He also was like, you know, he'd be like, can you feel that? Do you feel that pulse? Like he would go and like wherever he was on the body and I, I would, I would feel it. He's like only about like 30 ish percent of people or so can actually feel that. Like most people, people just aren't in tune or they just. Anyway, um, but he. And I don't know if he like made that up or if that was an actual number, but, but it was really, really eye opening because every time. And he, his business was like unlocking your body, which is kind of where I get that terminology from. But where, where I felt that it was like so critical was I could not turn my appliance and put it back into my mouth at like about 50% of the way through appliance therapy without seeing him. Because my body was locking up so much that there I was like, there's no way, there is absolutely no way that I can put this back in my mouth. I have to crank it back. And I would go see him and then all of a sudden everything's moving and flowing. Yeah, everything. And it was wild. It was really, really cool. So that definitely like opened my eyes up to just body work in general, but it gave me appreciation.

There are ways, if you knew how to self unwind, there are ways you could tune in and I would be curious if you're having trouble with your device that you were using. And then if you were able to lay down and self unwind, if you'd then be able to do it if you, if you knew about that.

I'd be curious. That one's long gone, so I'll never know. But. And this time now I've got the murpy in my mouth, which, which honestly has been such an easy experience for me. So, you know, I, I do feel like I'm way more in tune with my body now than I was even like two, three years ago. And so, and honestly, I think I had that when that I Probably had that appliance like four years ago at this point. But either way, like now I'm like, oh, I feel the tension here. I know where it is. Like most people are kind of like, ouch, my neck hurts or ouch, this. I'm never in pain pain. I'm just like, like, oh, that feels a little tight, a little tense. And I, I learned the whole accounter strain technique where like you release towards instead of away, which was something they taught me too. And so I've been able to do stuff like that with myself. And so I, I live a pain free life for the most part. Like I don't, I'm like, I, you know, I'm like once in a while a little bit of stress will get my like shoulders a little tightened. But you know, I'm hyper aware. Like I know it's there and I try to do what I can to kind of just like release it. I'm definitely, I definitely don't have all the tools and I'm sure that there's like, I could definitely learn a much more impactful strategy around this. So I'm excited for whatever it is that you're creating, but I think that'll be really cool if you're teaching people like how to like unwind themselves even. Yes, that would be so cool. Yeah.

My goal is not to see you forever. I truly want people to have this understanding about God's design of our bodies, about ourselves, and know just the body's capacity to heal itself, restore balance. And I don't want you to have to see me for two times a week for the rest of your life. Like, I want to give you long term relief. And you mentioned something earlier about the guy who, he would put his hands on you and know what to do. That reminded me. I can like, if you're laying down, if I go to the base of your skull and people who have tight tongue ties and just low tongue resting posture, when I go to the base of their skull and give a little bit of traction and just kind of unwind them a little bit, I feel a really deep pull all the way down their spine to their sacrum and in their pelvis. With every single one of them, it's just this like very tight line of tension all the way down to their pelvis. And then another thing I notice is that often those same people often have collapsed arches, you know, over pronate their feet, flat feet. Yeah. And so it's like, it's literally that's what I noticed in people are these same Patterns all the way connected all the way up to the tongue and the palate and the.

Yeah. So I have to figure out who I'm going to next because I've been referred to, like, some PTs, and I'm just so hesitant because of, like, how, like, holistic I am now. Like, I don't want to just go to any last person, but I fell on my tailbone, like, three years ago, and we were moving, and I had. It was like, a shopping bag on the floor of my hardwood floor. Like, we were in a rental, this, like, closet, and I missed the floor and slipped on the bag and went. And I had just had my nasal surgery, like, a month prior or. No. I mean, yeah, that was probably about a month or three weeks prior to this injury happening. So I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, my. Okay. I was so focused on, like, my face and making sure I didn't, like, injure myself there that I really didn't pay any attention. And now it's like, I cannot. I'm like, I don't know if I grew some bone spurs on the end of my tailbone. I cannot tease her off in Pilates anymore. Floor Pilates hurts. Like, I can't sit in, like, very hard seats or, like, certain airplane seats are uncomfortable. I mean, like, the car. It's like I have to, like, tilt myself a certain way comfortable. So I'm not putting pressure on that part of my butt. So it's real fun.

That could be corrected. That can be corrected. They. With you being in Florida, there is a. There is a great practitioner now there. She'd go, I can't. Her name is Dr. Amy. She's a physical therapist, and she goes by the Milestone Mentor, but she. She does the Gillespie approach, and so she hasn't worked on me personally, but I look for people down there. My grandma lives down there, and so I look for people down there often. But I do know she is there. And then we love Florida, and we were just there. But that tailbone could definitely be corrected.

I mean, it's. It's getting to the point where it's ridiculous because I've literally been living with it for, like, three years, and it's. It impacts me on a daily basis. So I'm like, I probably. I probably should do something about it, but it's not until it gets real. Like, okay, I guess it's time.

That's what we do, though. That's what we do. We shove everything down until we can anymore.

Oh, my goodness. I swear. I swear. Anyways, well, this has been amazing. Tell everybody where they can find you online.

So my business name is Southeast Fascial Therapy, so I primarily use Instagram @ SoutheastFascial Therapy. And then I'm also on Facebook and then my website is.

Www.Lafascial. amazing. And we'll make sure that they have access to all that as well in the show notes. And thank you so, so much for joining me today, Alyssa, for what you're about to bring to the.

World. Thanks. And Hallie, I forgot to mention, my home base is in northeast Louisiana in the West Monroe area, but I travel to Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. I'm licensed in four states. And so my husband, we have a little camper. My husband and kids travel with me and I travel to like six or seven locations. And so if anybody is in those locations, I do have office spaces there that I travel.

To. That's amazing. Very cool. Well, thank you for sharing that. And I, I was like on your website too, and I saw you have a ton of different, like spots where you. Are you in only one spot in Louisiana or do you have a number of.

Different. No. So my West Monroe at Bayou Bell Wellness is main location. I'm there three days a week and then once a month I go down to Lafayette, Louisiana and I also. It's not on my website. I also travel to the Hammond area as well. And then I travel in League City, Texas, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi, and Andalusia.

Alabama. So I saw all these and I was like, I was like, do you have. Okay, all.

Right. Yeah, we. My husband travels with me and we just. It's just there. This resource isn't widely accessible. So once you go to a location and then people start calling you out and goes from there.

So. Well, congratulations on all your success and I'm excited for your.

Course. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on, Haley. Appreciate.

It. Thank you for joining me. Quick disclaimer. All information, content and material of this podcast are the opinions of the speakers and is for the informational purpose only and not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnostic, diagnosis and or medical treatment of a qualified healthcare provider. Thanks for listening to this podcast. If you found value in this episode and want to hear more of these Myotots, airway and feeding related episodes, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode on your social media platforms. You can access free resources and all I offer@halibalkin.com or pop over to Hollybulcin on Instagram to get all the latest.