Scars, Adhesions and the Biotensegral Body

Jan is the founder and director of the British Fascia Symposium.  She has been in healthcare since 1979, originally training as a State Registered Nurse in the Queen Alexandra Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC), working with patients on the wards and in the operating theatre; a superb if non-deliberate foundation for her future career. In 1988 Jan took time out to go travelling for three years, where her life was to dramatically change direction.  Being trained by a blind massage therapist to really ‘feel’ the body led to a lifetime passion for body work.  Jan was a massage volunteer at the Auckland Commonwealth Games where she learned from professionals from all modalities.  Her work now is the culmination of many years of training and experience in different disciplines. She has been in practice since 1992. Through her school, Body in Harmony Training, Jan runs a variety of light touch therapy courses including Sharon Wheeler’s ScarWork for which she was the first accredited tutor in the UK. Having had surgery in Great Ormond St. Hospital as a young child, resulting in major scarring, Jan was treated by Sharon Wheeler; this has given her an awareness of the effect of adhesions and empathy with her clients. Apart from a missionary zeal for spreading the word about the effects of scarring on the body, Jan’s passions are for travelling and for anything that gets her outdoors and moving.   Sharon Wheeler’s unconventional early schooling gave her a taste for the unusual. She found a welcome home at Esalen Institute and taught Esalen’s Massage program in the sixties. Sharon was fortunate enough to study with Dr. Ida Rolf, PhD, who trained her in Structural Integration in the summer of 1970. Further training in Rolf Movement and Advanced Structural Integration in the seventies consolidated her skills in this work. Her love of working with people and attempting the apparently impossible, combined with a particular skill in sensing disruptions to the body’s three-dimensional flow have combined to generate Sharon’s two ‘discoveries’: ScarWork and BoneWork. She teaches these new modalities in workshops around the world. She maintains a private practice in Structural Integration at home in Port Orchard, Washington, USA.

Foreword by Robert Schleip



Foreword by Carol M Davis



About the editors / About the authors / Acknowledgments / Preface



Introduction Joanne Avison



What lies beneath? Jan Trewartha



The adaptive body Jan Trewartha Contributions from Niall Galloway and Tracey Kiernan



Modeling the effect of scars and adhesions on the body Graham Scarr



The unreasonable effectiveness of light touch Leonid Blyum



A clinical anatomist’s experience of scars and adhesions in the cadaver John Sharkey



Scar tissue in movement Joanne Avison



Emotional aspects of scars Jan Trewartha Contribution from Katerina Steventon



A different approach to working with scars Sharon Wheeler Contribution from Wojciech Cacowsky



Assessing and treating your client Jan Trewartha



Case studies Jan Trewartha



Index