Located in historic Inglewood – Calgary, Alberta

Health Partnerships That Matter

by | Mar 6, 2025 | Health Goals

On the road-trip to health, you are the driver, but I’ll keep you on track (and bring snacks)!

 

In healthcare, you can often observe the relationship of the “all knowing expert” and the “passive patient”, a powerful dynamic which is often reinforced by factors like:

  1. Believing that the medical community has “all the answers” so any input from you is immaterial,
  2. Feeling intimidated by your (lack of) health literacy which might create further roadblocks to interpreting what’s happening to your body and/or finding helpful resources,
  3. Fearing a repeat of past experiences where your concerns were not taken seriously leaving you feeling frustrated and helpless, and/or
  4. Being fatigued or dealing with mental health struggles that distract or disengage you from keeping up with it all

However, I truly believe that my role in healthcare is first, to provide expert advice and treatment to my clients and second, motivate them in their own advocacy. In the hypothetical case of shoulder pain, no one expects you to know how your supraspinatus muscle should be worked on (that’s my job!) but your input should still be considered when you share insights collected from your own experience. By educating my clients on what I am doing, where I am working, and why it matters, my goal is to increase their self-awareness and engagement. I believe it benefits both me and my client when we are on the same page and using the same vocabulary as we navigate the challenges and triumphs in their health.

From your first time at Theralleve, and within every treatment thereafter, I consciously create an open dialogue where it is not uncommon for me to say,

“I know what I am feeling, but what do you feel?”

 

I certainly assess and create treatment that is informed by my examination, training, and experience, but I also value what my clients can contribute. Whether it is during RAPID or massage, I will ask you to notice how you are breathing, what your energy levels are like, where you might be feeling restriction and/or pain versus ease of movement, and in some cases, like those of you who suffer from migraines, I might even ask you to track your symptoms. By becoming more attune with the signals your body is sending, you not only begin to recognize both patterns and changes but also develop the ability to better articulate your evolving needs. When you know your own baseline, you can more easily take in information related to your health because you’re connecting dots rather than starting from scratch. From there, you can ask questions, give opinion, and apply both subjective and objective information to your situation to make more informed decisions with your partners in health.

A recent example of this ‘awareness in action’ was when a client of mine emailed to say that she was starting to piece together why her knees could be hurting and what she might be able to do outside of treatment to help. I literally was grinning from ear to ear as I read her deductive reasoning because I was witnessing my client discover what she needed, check in with me for guided feedback, and take informed action.

With so much “health” information buzzing around these days, including Dr. Google (just don’t), it is prudent to seek out the seasoned opinion of learned healthcare professionals but I encourage aligning yourself with those who want you to “talk back”. At the end of the day, you are the one living in your body and you need to be a part of the conversation!

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Why Diagnostic Imaging Isn’t Your Whole Story

by | Feb 18, 2025 | Fitness, Health Goals, Misconception

Breaking news: Diagnostics are not the ‘be all and end all’!

Sometimes your health journey can feel challenging. You may have been making progress but then somewhere along the way you hit a wall, and you start to wonder if all your efforts have been in vain. Instead of being able to look back and see how far you’ve come, you tend to look so far ahead that your path to recovery suddenly seems intimidating and unattainable. What can make those feelings of doubt and disappointment worse is when you receive results from diagnostic imaging and now you have even more proof that your body is “falling apart”.

Though diagnostic imaging has an important role to play in modern healthcare, using it as the only lens through which to understand the complexities of your health may be misleading or over-simplistic. Many medical and scientific journals note that imaging is not foolproof due to things like errors in the reading of data, getting false positives, and when any deviation in the body is assumed to correlate with a negative or definitive diagnosis.

For example, in ​an article published in the National Library of Medicine​, researchers looked at the lower-back health of 98 asymptomatic people, aged 20 to 80 years old. Within this test group, they found that “64% of these people without back pain had an intervertebral disc abnormality (i.e. bulge, protrusion and extrusion), and 38% had an abnormality at more than one level.” This demonstrates that although the imaging results warranted a high percentage of structural abnormality, the people with these abnormalities did not experience weakness, numbness, or pain because of it. Additionally, the article goes on to say that “athletically active young individuals, who were otherwise asymptomatic, had higher prevalence of disc degeneration and many other abnormalities in lumbar spine compared to normal individuals”. This again underscores how a singular piece of information like disc degeneration (observed from a high-tech machine) cannot define the complete outcome of a very complex system (your body).

When the nervous system gets ‘fired up’ during times of stress, the brain distributes a whole host of responses to various parts of the body. If we focus on capturing only one part of this equation, which may not even have relationship to the actual issue, we are not getting the whole story. It is therefore imperative that we seek to understand the interplay of physical, mental, and emotional factors in our health, integrating both objective data and subjective experience. This means acknowledging the lessening levels of pain you do feel, or the increase you’ve noticed in your mobility or movement, or the benefits you receive from new habits in your day-to-day life.

This may be the beginning of your story, or you might be in the middle of it, but putting together your puzzle of health is what we do best! ​Book in today​!

Speaking of journeys, today Theralleve toasts to being in business for 5 YEARS!! To celebrate, we will be donating a portion from every treatment booked in February to Fear is Not Love – a Calgary-based charity to which we have previously donated and that is close to our hearts. Thank you so much for your patronage.

Disc Degeneration in Lumbar Spine of Asymptomatic Young Adults: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study – https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9123103/
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Small Steps, Big Outcomes: It’s never too late to start

by | Jan 8, 2025 | Fitness, Health Goals, Misconception, Self-care

Growing old is inevitable, but choosing to “age well” is a choice you get to make every day.

Admittedly, as fundamental as good health is to your wellbeing, achieving and maintaining it can sometimes come with a host of challenging factors. Genetic predispositions, environmental influences, access to care, and societal pressures like believing self-care is “selfish” or everything is already “going downhill” makes it seem even more unattainable. Not only that but outdated medical information about pain and rehabilitation (example: the RICE Method for acute injuries) continues circulation rather than promoting efforts to understand and utilize viable, game-changing healthcare alternatives.

It is enough to do your head in but while these challenges may exist, there is still cause for optimism as there are still plenty of things you can do each day to shape your future health whether you are 20, 80, or somewhere in between!

By making the decision to act in small but consistent ways, you hold the power to move toward better health. Contrary to what you may have been told, you have the ability to be mindful of where you’re at and adopt healthier habits to start living from a more empowered place.

Prioritize Movement:

If the idea of “staying active” stresses you out, think of it as moving your body. You don’t have to own a gym membership (unless that’s your thing), you just need to find a way that gets you moving at least once a day, most days of the week. You can go on a walk or run, do a home workout (sitting or fully mobile), or just put on your favourite tunes and groove along in whatever capacity feels good.

Especially for those of you who have had a RAPID treatment with me, you know how much I champion movement because, when combined with drinking more water, it helps your brain more effectively process and release bodily pain to get you feeling better.

Whether it is a high or low impact activity, moving your body has been shown to help with maintaining or bettering mobility, increasing circulation, slowing bone density loss, and improving cardiovascular and cognitive health.

Speak Up:

One of my overarching goals in both RAPID and massage is to increase your body (self) awareness. Whether this awareness is developed during your assessment or treatments, or when you are away from my clinic, I want you to get into the habit of understanding what makes your body tick. Gone are the days when you were told not to complain when things hurt and instead brush the dirt off and get on with it. More recent wisdom recommends pausing when there is pain and then taking action. This involves staying up to date with medical screenings, check-ups, and preventive care, even if you feel well.

If you wait for things to disappear on their own or worry in solitude, you could be doing more harm than good. Addressing any health concerns early on can increase your chances of receiving the treatment you need and the advocacy you deserve from the health professionals you trust. If you ever need more support from me, [FIRST NAME GOES HERE], just ask!

Rest & Recovery:

Similar to knowing when to move, you also need to know when to rest. Creating good habits around sleeping are particularly important. For my generation and younger, we have a habit of “scrolling” our social media feeds late at night. Although it’s not always possible to be completely off your devices, consider taking breaks where you can and being firm on the difference between what is necessary and what will have negative consequence. Less screen-time overall does make a difference, especially before bed.

Alternate nostril breathing: Also known as Nadi Shodhana Pranayama, this exercise involves inhaling through one nostril and then exhaling through the other. (You can Google for detailed instructions). Said to improve lung function, lower heart rate, and reduce anxiety, this technique advices practicing on an empty stomach and avoiding if you’re congested or sick.

Mental & Emotional Wellness:

Treat challenges and setbacks as learning opportunities where possible. Participate in activities in social settings. Connect with people you like. Do puzzles, play cards or other games to keep your mind sharp and stimulated.

One of the best things to come out of 2024 for me has been volunteering as a reading mentor at my local library. Each week, I help my “buddy” not only grow his reading skills with the books we read, but also by playing word games that increase his literacy, vocabulary, and problem solving skills. We both have a lot of fun while learning.

Celebrate Progress, not Perfectionism:

Moving towards health is about taking intentional action which is not always perfect. It is about the act of doing/trying and knowing you get the chance to do it all again tomorrow. It is about being kind to yourself. It is about knowing that each time you choose to do something or not do something, you make an impact. In that case, the best thing is to imagine the best outcome you want and act on it.

And as a friendly treatment-related reminder: I know that sometimes it can feel frustrating or disappointing when where you are right now is not quite where you want to be. If this is the case, I always recommend you look back to where you started as opposed to looking too far ahead. That way you will more often see the progress you have made which can further your trust in the process as well as your momentum.

In the end, “aging well” is knowing that every stage of life offers its own unique opportunities for growth, well-being, and joy. Whether you are laying down the foundation for the future or maximizing the quality of your life now, it is never too late!

Get after your goals with our ongoing support: (re)claim your wellness today!

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