11-10-08

Preston Brings SOMA Neuro-Muscular Integration to Langdon

By Chuck Bingaman

            Few career choices hinge on being hit in the head by a falling bowling ball, a serious brain injury and a period of paralysis!

            But that accident in her freshman year at the University of Vermont led Louisa Preston through years of pain, loss of her athletic abilities, and exploration of many therapies to regain her sense of physical movement, control and energy.

            “I came from a family in New Jersey where we all played tennis, skied, and swam.  We were very physical and enjoyed it! But my accident ended nearly all of it until I discovered SOMA and it helped me put it back together!”

            In fact, SOMA Neuro-Muscular Integration was so successful for Preston that she took the 8-month course at the SOMA Institute outside Seattle and became a certified SOMA therapist in 1995. Then she launched a 13-year practice there until moving to this area where she continued her work at Okemo last year. 

            Now she’s opened a SOMA practice in a room at the Langdon Town Hall on Rt. 12A and is using her abilities to help people regain alignment flexibility and balance.’

            “The SOMA program is body work delivered in 10 sessions, each loosening and unwinding the body one area at a time,” explains Preston.  “Even though SOMA work is very physical and hand-delivered one on one on a table, it is different from ordinary massage.  With SOMA we change the structure of the body through the manipulation of fascia—tough connective tissue that envelops and isolates the muscles, providing structural support and protection—and the muscles  themselves.  The neurological work is done on both physiological as well as psychological levels.”

            By applying pressure to fascia and muscles, returning them to their free and flexible functions, “people find that their recurring bodily problems often go away,” says Preston.  “It gets the fascia  flexibility, and the changes in the body continue to evolve after the sessions are completed.”

             So,” she continues, “ it’s great for chronic pain in the back or neck, chronic shoulder and hip pain, fibromyolgia and even lack of energy.”

            The SOMA program is administered in ten sessions, each lasting one and a quarter to one and a half hours.  Preston takes pictures of her patients, front and back and in profile, before and after the first and last sessions so they can see actual changes in their posture as a result of the work.  In between sessions, clients are requested to complete logs describing how they felt before, during and after the sessions to make their emotional/psychological changes clear.  Sessions are usually given a week or two apart.

            While the benefits of the eleven-session regimen are more or less permanent, Preston said that she and other SOMA therapists do offer “a maintenance massage for their patients that is customized to their particular needs.”

            For further information or to discuss possible treatment, call Louisa Preston at 603-499-2017.  For information on SOMA, see www.SOMA-Insitute.org.

                                    --30—

[Sidebar]

Maybe There’s Something to This!

By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer

            Got to try this before writing about it, right?

            Well, I went to my first SOMA session not expecting a lot.  After seeing my photos, I wasn’t too inspired!  Uneven hips, crooked spine, dropping shoulders.  An iffy task for any body worker!

            Lying down on my side on a padded table with arms and head on padded squares and covered with warm blankets, at least it was comfortable.  Then Louisa Preston began applying pressure from her strong hands and forearms augmented by the firm leverage of leaning into the work. 

I felt muscles, bones, and nerves that I had never felt before!  While not exactly painful, I knew that serious pressure, serious work was going on deep inside.  From high on my neck to deep around my hip bones, she applied smooth, very firm pressure, while constantly moving along bones and muscles.  (Subsequent sessions deal with all other body regions from head to toe.)

I was feeling relaxed but also loosened up.  First on the right side and then on the left side as she took it up.

And then—90 minutes later—it was over. And you know what? My head and shoulders were realigned! My shoulders were not as hunched over. My chin was probably a half inch or more higher than before and my head more upright.  Muscles under my shoulder blades and extending around my shoulders had been pushed, stretched, released and returned to their natural length, allowing me to stand straighter than I had in years!

Wow!

                                    --30--

Lisa Preston at work in Langdon. Chuck Bingaman photo.