Samantha Gifford Therapy

13/11/2025

Major adhesions after pelvic/abdominal surgery, such as a 'tummy tuck', DIEP flap surgery, hemi-colectomy etc, may cause you to feel like this inside. This can manifest as altered posture as fascial restrictions develop internally, often creating a bent-over posture it feels impossible for you to counteract.

Sharon Wheeler's ScarWork is renowned for gently unravelling the tension in restricted fascia and affected muscles and organs, and for helping to free compressed nerves and blood vessels, usually helping clients to stand straight again as well as improve movement and function.

If you're feeling like this inside, don't give up hope. Find a therapist who does Sharon Wheeler's ScarWork and start to address the problem today.

If you are a therapist and have a client who is suffering, learn how to help them by training in this life-changing work.

Discover our range of upcoming courses, and get ready to make a real change!

https://www.bodyinharmony.org.uk/

05/11/2025

💪 Why Posture Is the Foundation of a Healthy Body

Posture isn’t just about standing up straight, it’s the foundation of how efficiently your body functions. Every movement you make begins with your posture. When alignment is off, stress is placed on muscles, joints, and connective tissues, forcing the body to compensate and eventually break down.

In my clinic, I’d estimate around 95% of the people I treat have poor posture as a root cause of their pain or dysfunction. It’s rarely just “tight muscles” — it’s often a chain reaction that begins with the way we sit, stand, or move.

For example:

🦋Knee pain is often linked to hip or pelvic misalignment or poor posture on a bike.

🦋Hip and lower back pain can result from poor running mechanics or a weak core.

🦋Neck and shoulder tension frequently stem from prolonged forward-head posture at a desk.

When posture deteriorates, several things happen physiologically:

🌺Muscles shorten or lengthen beyond their optimal range, reducing strength and stability.

🌺Fascia (the connective tissue web around muscles) becomes tight and restricted, limiting movement.

🌺Joint load increases, causing inflammation and premature wear.

🌺Breathing efficiency drops as the diaphragm becomes restricted by slumped posture.

Massage therapy helps by releasing fascial restrictions, restoring circulation, and retraining muscle balance, allowing the body to move back toward alignment. Combined with targeted strength work, especially in the core, glutes, and postural muscles, the results can be transformative.

The key is awareness. Every time you sit, stand, or move, your posture either supports healing or contributes to strain.

✨ Self-care tip: Take a “posture audit” throughout your day — check your screen height, uncross your legs, engage your core, and take a deep, diaphragmatic breath. Small corrections, repeated often, create lasting changes.

31/10/2025

🔈 WHY YOUR PSOAS MUSCLES STAY TIGHT DURING STRESS

Whether you run, cycle, practise yoga or sit all day — your psoas muscles are always working. They link your spine to your legs, help you walk, stabilise your posture and support your internal organs.

👩‍⚕️ ANATOMY
Your psoas major runs from T12–L5 (lower spine) through the pelvis to the femur, making it the only muscle connecting your upper and lower body. It flexes your hips and trunk — and when it’s tight or weak, it can cause low back, hip or pelvic pain.

💥 STRESS CONNECTION
The psoas is deeply connected to your diaphragm via fascia and ligaments. When you’re under stress, your body activates the fight-or-flight response, and the psoas contracts to prepare for action.
Chronic tension — from stress, long sitting, running, or sleeping curled up — keeps it shortened, affecting your breathing, posture and even emotional balance.

💡 HOW TO RELEASE IT
✔️ Take movement breaks if you sit often
✔️ Support your lower back when driving
✔️ Stretch regularly and practise deep breathing
✔️ Try osteopathic treatment or massage
✔️ Let go of stress — your body holds emotions too

🧘‍♀️ Quick Psoas Stretch:
Lie with a foam roller under your sacrum, pull one knee to your chest, keep the other leg extended, and reach the same arm overhead. Hold 30 seconds, breathe deeply, and switch sides.

Your psoas connects body, breath, and emotion — when it relaxes, you move and feel better.

29/10/2025

💧 The need to urinate after massage isn’t a cleansing effect — it’s a sign of the body’s systems returning to normal rhythm.

When stress keeps the nervous system alert, the bladder can’t fully relax, leading to frequent, incomplete emptying.

When calm returns, parasympathetic activity allows a full, comfortable release.
Touch helps create that calm.

Read the 👉NEW👈 full blog here - https://smto.co.uk/urination-massage-and-the-autonomic-nervous-system/

GCMT The General Council for Manual Therapies

29/10/2025

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29/10/2025

🔈 NECK, SHOULDER & BACK PAIN AS A RESULT OF CARRYING YOUR HANDBAG ON ONE SHOULDER

❄ WHY SHOULDN'T YOU CARRY YOUR HANDBAG THIS WAY?

Many women carry their handbags on one shoulder, and they tend to favor the dominant, stronger, or non-injured one. Even if the bag is empty and very light, the natural slope of the shoulder means they are going to have to elevate the scapula/shoulder girdle with contraction of the upper shoulders and neck to prevent the bag from sliding off. This isometric contraction overuses and abuses the muscles of the neck. If the bag is heavy, it's even worse because a more powerful muscular contraction is needed, and the strap of the bag digs into the musculature of the shoulder, causing direct physical irritation and cutting off local blood circulation.

❄ WHERE DOES THE PAIN COME FROM?

Due to your body’s efforts to redistribute the extra weight, your muscles tense more and as such become stiff. The trapezius muscle and the muscles that go from your shoulder to the base of your neck, which sits on top of your shoulders, may spasm and therefore tighten, resulting in a lot of stiffness in the upper back, shoulder area and neck. This may lead to pain when turning your head and the development of arthritis in the lower neck. Some may even develop tension headaches from constantly carrying heavy handbags. As the muscles in your shoulder and neck area spasm, it can result in pain from the back of your skull that radiates around to the front.

❄ ADVICE

It's better to either wear the bag across the body or to use a backpack.

29/10/2025

Many people suffer from chronic headaches without realising that the true source may lie in the neck. This type of pain is known as a cervicogenic headache — “cervico” meaning neck, and “genic” meaning origin.

Unlike migraines, cervicogenic headaches often begin at the base of the skull and radiate toward the forehead, temple, or even behind the eyes. The pain is usually one-sided but can spread across the head.

So, how does it happen?
👉 Poor posture, muscle imbalance, joint stiffness, or previous neck injuries can cause irritation of the upper cervical joints (especially between C1–C3).
👉 These joints share nerve pathways with areas of the head and face, which means pain in the neck can be “referred” to the head.
👉 Tight muscles — such as the suboccipitals, upper trapezius, and levator scapulae — can further compress nerves, creating a cycle of tension and discomfort.

Typical symptoms include:
▪Headache that starts in the neck or back of the head
▪Pain triggered by neck movement or prolonged posture
▪Stiffness or reduced neck mobility
▪Pain on one side of the head or face

💡 What can help?
Gentle mobility work, stretching, posture correction, and manual therapy (osteopathic, physiotherapy, or massage) can reduce joint irritation and muscle tension. In many cases, addressing these underlying issues provides more lasting relief than medication alone.

The key is to treat the source, not just the symptom.

29/10/2025

💆‍♀️🍂🍁 The Power of Letting Go

🍂During massage, I can always tell when a client starts to relax — a slow sigh, steadier breathing, softer limbs. It’s a sign the nervous system has shifted from tension to repair.

🍂We don’t just hold stress in our minds — it lives in our muscles and fascia too. When we finally let go, circulation improves, the body softens, and healing begins.

🍂Letting go is a vital form of self-care. It means releasing not just physical tightness, but the weight of the day. Massage, breathwork, quiet time in nature — all remind the body it’s safe to rest.

🍂🍁True wellbeing starts when we stop holding on so tightly.🍂🍁

What can you let go of today? 😊 If you are interested to delve more deeply into the art of letting go, you may like to read/listen to the book Letting Go, the Pathway of Surrender, by David R Hawkins.

29/10/2025

Brain-NS Continuity: “This is your brain. No, not just the yellow bulbous mass at the top of the image, but all of the tendrils that reach down and out to the very extremities of your body. It cannot be separated, but it can be forgotten and abused.

Exercise your brain by moving your body, move your brain by exercising your body.”

- Andri Hanekom Certified Rolfer

Art by Bryan Brandenburg

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http://www.secretlifeoffascia.com/

28/10/2025

28/10/2025

💪 A Strong Muscle is a Supple Muscle

If you’ve ever tried to stretch away tight hips, glutes, or piriformis pain — especially with sciatica — and wondered why it doesn’t last, or even gets worse, here’s why 👇

It’s often not about tightness… it’s about weakness🤓.

When a muscle isn’t strong enough, your body goes into protection mode — it tightens up to keep you safe. That’s why endless stretching can actually make things worse or only give temporary relief.

Think about gymnasts 🤸‍♀️ — they don’t force the splits by stretching harder. They’re strength-trained into flexibility. Their muscles are powerful, stable, and supported — that’s what allows deep movement safely.

So if your glutes or hips are always tight, try strength first: gentle bridges, clamshells, hip lifts, resistance bands. As your muscles grow stronger, they let go more easily — and your body starts to trust those movements again.

✨ Strength creates freedom of movement. ✨