D.A.S.I.E.
‘James Earls
James Earls holds a BA in Psychology, certified in Structural Integration at KMI, and has
‘trained widely in other bodywork professions. He isthe founder/director of Ultimate Massage
Solutions and is on the faculty of Kinesis, Inc. and Kinesis UK, teaching Structural
Integration training and workshops. He teaches extensively throughout the UK, Ireland,
Europe and the USA. He lives in Belfast, North Ireland, and can be reached at +44
(0)2890 481267 or info@anatomstrains.co.tuk
‘There are many styles of touch: directive,
loving, nurturing, abusive, healing, calming,
patronizing and seductive. We can become
richer therapists by developing our abilities to
notice as wide a range of these as possible. Not
even necessarily omitting the “negative” as we
should have them in our vocabulary, if only so
that we can recognize them when they arise.
For most of us, in our profession, touch is
essential it's needed to refresh us, comfort us
and nurture us. Touch is required for most of
our work and as a necessary method of
communication as we make our way through the
world. Much has been written of the many types
of touch, much research carried out on its effects
‘but very little has gone into explaining the
process of our style of therapeutic touch,
‘The purpose of this article isto give a
framework, to look at how we touch, and put the
‘beginnings of a vocabulary onto what itis that we
do, not to add further technique. By naming a
phenomenon we can deepen the understanding
‘of it. It is my hope that by talking of how we
touch and by looking at the stages of therapeutic
touch we can create a framework through which
the communication of ideas is easier and thereby
‘we gain further understanding.
Montagu," in his classic text, wrote about
the nurturing effects of contact well documented
in the research literature and so well
summarized by him, but litle has been written
about the mechanics of our main method of
therapeutic input. Different authors and
teachers have emphasized various aspects of a
stroke depending on their own experience.
Chaitow talks of melting into the tissue,
Hungerford* warns us “not to drop the
connective tissue,” Myers talks about the three
“T's of invitation, intention and information but
few have managed to give a complete and
adaptive model or vocabulary to explain a
complete stroke or intervention.
1S Yearbook 2008
My hope is that by using a staged model, we
can begin to puta language together that can
facilitate discussion, let us use words to express
the various methods we employ and gradually
develop a forum through which we can become
‘more conversant not only with the tissue and its
wonderful variations but also with each other
and the many diverse backgrounds we emerge
from. The language that I find useful and
accessible is that of the Fascial Release
Technique (FRT)
‘Under the hands ofa skilled practitioner,
Fascial Release Technique is wonderfully
releasing and pleasurable. Even 50, it may be a
challenging experience. This tool, when wielded
bya novice, can also be painful and
uncomfortable. I have been ‘mauled’, not only
by neophytes but also by some supposedly
accomplished therapists. In order to avoid
twaumatizing your cients, I recommend
spending some time working through and
playing with the five stages below. Asa client
centered therapy it is incumbent upon us to stay
aware of the entirety ofthe person below our
hands rather than the collection of dysfunctional
tissue crying out for our saving, healing and
sometimes over eager touch,
“Much of this ive stage model is worded for
the novice practitioner. This is deliberate in
order that you can see where your style may
differ or what you may be leaving out, what
could/would you add to this idea that will clarify
for the benefit of the student or anyone trying
to, a8 Tiger Woods did not so long ago, break
down and rebuild their stroke.
‘The five stages, Development, Assessment,
Strategy, Intervention and Ending (DASIE) is
not my invention and I claim no authorship over
its use, Ihave merely redirected it from
counseling models into bodywork (Nelson-
Jones’).
Page 106Development
Many bodywork approaches talk of
“melting” into the tissue, “sinking through the
layers" and FRT is no different from that. Be
aware of the layers as you pass through them,
allowing the tissue to give way rather than
bulldozing your way. Allow your hands, fingers,
knuckles or whichever tool you are using to
mould to the shape of the body part being
initial force comes from your bodyweight coming
‘over the area. As you need to get to deeper levels
\crease your bodyweight by altering the angle of
your back foot, push from the back foot
(remembering to engage your core), stabilize
your shoulder girdle and arm, or gently lock
your elbow and wrist. Only as a last resort should
you push with your fingers as it will then be
likely to feel “pokey” and uncomfortable.
worked, using only
‘enough tension and DyELoPMENT Assessment
premie to getyouto So now that you've got
that first layer of *eiaamld “somewhere” you need to
resistance. Wait to be check two things: first, are
invited in you where you want to be?
7 Let's say you are trying to
In this stage you are | enonel
“developing fea /STRATEGY find Cm peroneals. Do you
rapport” with the tissue ‘now that you are really on
Itis the initial aren rem? Ifyou areon them,
engagement, the journey how do they feel? What
from being in their auric
field through each successive layer of tissue to
get to the target structure. But itis also more
than that; the process is mindful, sensitive to the
transfer of energy (of whichever and any and all
forms you're sensitive to), sensing that
relationship waiting for that invitation (Myers)
or the absorption into the sponge (an image
used by Maupin’).
‘Some schools teach that you can ask your
client to exhale as you melt in and I often find
this a useful addition in difficult or challenging
areas but occasionally overused and distracting
from the touch. Experiment with using your
exhale to sink your bodyweight into the tissue,
Having your centre of gravity high, keeping your
back heel raised may allow you to position
yourself over the area, exhaling (quietly!) and
dropping your centre of gravity (or sinking your
Hara) is much easier for the client to receive
than “pushing” into it. The tension necessary to
push will result in the client's tissue resisting and
‘set up a struggle that, however gentle, one of you
has to win,
Maintaining a relaxed point of contact,
avoids putting tension into the area being
worked but also keeps you much more sensitive
to variations in the myofascia. The less tension
you have in your working limb the better able
you are to sense the changes in your client.
‘Achieve this by getting as much of your
force from muscles as distant from the point of
contact as possible. For example, if you are using
‘your fingertips they should retain only the
tension needed to get through the layers, the
ASI Yearbook 2009
kind of work do they need;
‘what kind of tool should you choose? Would it
be better to use your fingers, knuckles or elbow?
This is the stage of questioning and
obtaining information. Using both active and
passive movement you can gain much of the
information you need. Ask your elient to
invert/evert the foot as you search for the
peroneals to help you differentiate them from
the soleus. Feel for the quality of the movement
and you can assess which parts of the muscle
open too much or not at al. In this way, you can
begin to find the areas you'll need to focus on
and also determine how to accomplish your
ick (1999, cited in Chaitow & Fritz 2006)
describes three tissue levels: surface, working and
rejection, each of them being subsequently
deeper than the next and they are not specific
layers of the body but dependent on the level of,
dysfunction or sensitivity in any given area. The
surface level mostly refers to the skin, the
working level is where most bodywork
interventions will take place and the rejection
level is where any resistance experienced is over-
ridden and pain is experienced. The practitioner
must decide at which of these levels they want or
need to work and, of course, ifitis within the
rejection level then it should be negotiated with
the client.
Strategy
‘You are now where you want to be and
you've found something that needs to be
‘worked. Now you have to decide how you're
Page 107going to do it. Which direction will best engage
that area? Which movement will you ask for?
Which tool (fingers, knuckles, forearm etc) will
best fit the area? In the words of every protective
parent: what exactly is your intention?
Practitioners often skip the stages of
Assessment and Strategy. These are not discrete
‘moments in time but merely part of an on-going,
thought process, a mindful decision-making
which ensures that your work is specific to the
needs of the client rather than a treatment by
rote. Of course, a certain amount of a recipe is
needed for beginning practitioners. Those of us
from a massage background were given a basic,
sequence to get through the early days of
practice but as we become more comfortable
with the techniques, more aware of their effects
‘on the variations of clients and their tissue, the
more we could adapt that template to suit the
presenting requirements. The use of FRT
requires this discretion with each and every
stroke.
‘These are also stages that will become
richer with experience. With each client and
every venture into tissue you build a wider
vocabulary in your fingers. Every time you
perform a stroke and reassess, you have a
palpatory picture of success or failure. You are
laying down foundations of understanding which
styles, strengths or other variations of touch will
work (or fail) on that type of sensation but the
speed at which you create this reference tool will
depend on how you proceed through the next
stage, intervention
Intervention
You have now reached the stage of doing
the work. You have allowed the tissue to let you
checked the area you're working on and
decided how to work it. Finally, you can allow
yourself to begin.
{As part of your strategy you've already
chosen which tool to use, you're locked into the
appropriate level and area and now you slowly
glide and/or ask the client to move. However,
for this stage it is not so much how you perform
the stroke but much more about the effct of that
stroke. The practitioner has to constantly
‘monitor what is happening below and around
the point of contact. Is the tissue releasing? Is the
right area being challenged with the movement?
Is the tissue lifting or moving? Is the client able
to receive and process the information you're
offering?
1S Yearbook 2009
Throughout the intervention, or stroke, you
set up a feedback loop assessing its effectiveness.
‘What changes can you make as you go through
to assist you in the goals set above? With each
‘change you have to re-evaluate.
‘With the feedback loop in place you are
truly istening to the client and their tissue;
you've set up what is sometimes referred to as a
“communication between two intelligent
systems.” With your strategy in mind you are
offering information to the client, asking their
tissue if it can change and asking if the work
rakes sense both to the tissue you are working
‘with as well a the entirety of the client. By
listening to the collection of systems under your
hands and keeping yourself open to the
messages coming back to you, you will be able to
reflect the abilities of the client's tissue in your
‘work. This is achieved by giving different options
to the tissue, keeping all of the range of tools
and variations of speed, pressure, depth etc.,
available and using them selectively to address
the issues within the target tissue. But, keep in
‘mind that you have to attune your ear to the
language their tissue uses to inform you in
response to your contact because it will talk back
10 you in response to your touch,
Schwind’ encourages us to use as many of
the other, non-working surfaces of the hands as
possible to aid this communication. Using the
supporting hand asa “mother-hand”, for a
nurturing contact or as a “listening” hand is
common among many bodywork traditions but it
is only of maximum benefit if it enters into part,
Of this conversation. It should not be there just
to provide passive comfort and ease.
is how to grow the vocabulary in your
touch, experimenting with all of the many
variables and “listening” for the changes that
take place. Schleip* has shown us the many types
of mechanoreceptors in the fascial tissue and
that each will respond to different forms of stress
in their surrounding fibres. We need to learn
how to talk to each of them, as they will have
different languages.
‘The same variation will occur between
clients and their own nervous system tuning.
‘There will be variations in the type of
dysfunction, in fascial layers or structures,
whether itis the regular or irregular dense tissue,
the areolar or even the adipose. Each of them
may have a different language, or maybe just a
slight accent, but the wider the range of touch
‘we can integrate into our toolbox then the
clearer our conversation will be.
Page 108,Ending
[As you begin, so should you finish.
‘My experience has been that therapists can
forget that they are working with a sensitive
human being. They are so relieved to reach the
end of a stroke that they jump out of the tissue.
Now, I'm not saying it’s wrong, just a little
impolite perhaps.
If you take all that time to take care of your
client, sinking into the tissue, feeling
condition, listening to itas you work, then give it
the same respect by coming out slowly. Take
your body weight back into your forward leg. A
‘mortal sin in my book is to push into the client
to jerk yourself up. Once you have your weight
back in your legs then you can lift yourself out of
the stroke allowing the tissue time to settle back
in rather than letting it snap back
‘Sometimes it can be more pleasant for the
client to spiral (Aston’) out of the contact, slowly
peeling your skin out of contact with theirs. This,
is especially true when you work in areas where
the skin may be more sensitive such as around
the armpit or the thigh adductors.
‘Remember, though, that this is just a style
and that the exit could be part of the intent. By
shocking the tissue you could be getting the
desired response also by cither allowing a recoil
effect or perhaps to increase tone and awareness
in the area. The important thing is that itis a
‘conscious decision and is coherent with your
intention to create change with the client.
Your client may be unaware of them but,
this accumulation of small, continuous,
attentions to detail makes a huge difference to
the experience. Fascial release can be a
challenging treatment and the more comfortable
we can make it for the client the better they will
be able to acceptit.
References
1 fully realine that the model may sce
formulaic for many practioner; this
deliberate, Asa teacher I've often relied 100
much on my ‘natural” or “intuitive” sense and
ability o touch. This skill ame quite naturally to
me and I expected others to discover their own
as well. Each of us must develop an awareness of
‘what mysteriously draws us to the “right” layer,
informs us of which direction to work and with
‘which tool. For me, itis the “intuition” that
comes of unconscious competence, that
heightened sensibility o respond to the needs of
the tissue through either an innate sympathy
with itor, like a chess player's exposure to 50
‘many openings, recognizing the patterns and
responding with almost automatic tuning. My
mind has become attuned to the language of the
tissue and have gone through these stages with
very litle conscious awareness on our part.
DASIE is, however, nota technique or even
a style of touch, but rather a way of describing
the process and what we should be considering
as we interact with our clients’ tissue. It isan
attempt to formulate a framework for a language
to facititate communication with students and
for reflecting on our own practice by asking how
much consideration we give to each stage. By
doing 50, [hope that we can bring even more
depth to the three dimensionality of our work.
Listening to the tissue at every stage and taking,
initially, a conscious direction to our work and
gradually, with growth of expertise, allowing that
to become a preconscious process but never an
unconscious treatment by rote. We should always
be aware of the entire person and their many
levels as we teat, being responsive to the needs
‘of each level and reacting in such a way as to
develop a three dimensional communication
through touch,
1 Montagu, A, 1986, Touch, The Human Significance ofthe Skin, New York, Harper & Collins
2 Chaitow LA Frit, 2006, A Massage Therapist’ Guide to Understanding, Locating and Twatng Myofascial Trigger
Points, Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone
‘3: Hungerford M, 1999, Lecture Notes
4 Myers T, 2001, Anatomy Trains, Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone
5 Nelsonjones R, 1995, The Theory and Practice of Counselling, New York, Cassell
6 Maupin F, 2005, A Dynamic relation to Gravity Vlune 1 The Elements of Structural Integration, Dawn Eve Press
17 Schwind P, 2006, Fascial and Membrane Technique. A manual for comprehensive treatment ofthe connective tissue system,
Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone
8 Schleip R, 2008, *Fascial Plasticity -a new neurobiological explanation: Parts 1 & 2", Journal of Bodywork and
‘Movement Therapies, Edinburgh, Elsevier, Jan;7(1) 11-19 and 2008 Apr;7(2) 104-116
Aston J, 2006, Lecture Notes
SI Yearbook 2009 Page 109Ending
As you begin, so should you finish.
My experience has been that therapists can
forget that they are working with a sensitive
human being. They are sorclieved to reach the
end ofa stroke that they jump out of the tissue,
Now, I'm not saying it’s wrong, just a litle
impolite perhaps.
Ifyou take all that time to take care of your
client, sinking into the tissue, feeling its
condition, listening to its you work, then give it
the same respect by coming out slowly. Take
your body weight back into your forward leg. A
‘moraa sin in my book is to push into the client
to jerk yourself up. Once you have your weight
back in your legs then you can lift yourself out of
the stroke allowing the tissue time to settle back
in rather than letting it snap back
Sometimes it ean be more pleasant for the
client to spiral (Aston*) out of the contact, slowly
peeling your skin out of contact with theirs. This
is especially true when you work in areas where
the skin may be more sensitive such as around
the armpit or the thigh adductors.
Remember, though, that this is just a style
and that the exit could be part of the intent. By
shocking the tissue you could be getting the
desired response also by either allowing a recoil
effect or pethaps to increase tone and awareness
in the area. The important thing is that itis a
conscious decision and is coherent with your
intention to create change with the client.
Your client may be unaware of them but,
this accumulation of small, continuous,
attentions to detail makes a huge difference to
the experience. Fascial release can be a
challenging treatment and the more comfortable
‘we can make it for the client the better they will
be able to accept it.
References
I fully realize that the model may seem
formulaic for many practitioners; this is
dcliberate. Asa teacher I've often relied t00
much on my “natural” or “intuitive” sense and
ability to touch, This kill ame quite naturally to
ime and I expected others to discover their own
as well, Each of us must develop an awareness of
‘what mysteriously draws us to the “right” layer,
informs us of which direction to work and with
which tool. For me, itis the “intuition” that
comes of unconscious competence, that
heightened sensibility to respond to the needs of
the tissue through either an innate sympathy
with it or, like a chess player's exposure to so
‘many openings, recognizing the patterns and
responding with almost automatic tuning. My
‘mind has become attuned to the language of the
tissue and have gone through these stages with
very litte conscious awareness on our part.
DASIE is, however, not a technique or even
a syle of touch, but rathera way of describing
the process and what we should be considering
as we interact with our clients’ tissue. It is an
attempt to formulate a framework for a language
to facilitate communication with students and
for reflecting on our own practice by asking how
much consideration we give to each stage. By
doing so, [hope that we can bring even more
depth to the three dimensionality of our work.
Listening to the tissue at every stage and taking,
initially, a conscious direction to our work and
gradually, with growth of expertise, allowing that
to become a preconscious process but never an
"unconscious treatment by rote. We should always
be aware ofthe entire person and their many
levels as we treat, being responsive to the needs
of each level and reacting in such a way as to
develop a three dimensional communication
through touch.
1 Montagu, A, 1986, Touch, The Human Significance ofthe Skin, New York, Harper & Collins
2 Chaitow L & Frit S, 2006, A Massage Therapists Guide to Understanding, Locating and Treating Myofascial Trigger
Points, Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone
3 Hungerford M, 1999, Lecture Notes
4 Myers T, 2001, Anatomy Trains, Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone
5 NelsonzJones R, 1995, The Theory and Practice of Counseling, New York, Cassell
{6 Maupin E, 2005, A Dynamic relation to Gravity Volume 1 ~ The Elements o Structural Integration, Davin Eve Press.
‘7 Schwiind P, 2006, Fascial and Membrane Technique. A manual for comprehensive treatment ofthe connective issue system,
Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone
8 Schleip R, 2008, "Fascial Plasticity ~a new neurobiological explanation: Parts 1 & 2", Jowmal of Bodywork and
‘Movement Therapies, Edinburgh, Elsevier, Jan:7(1) 11-19 and 2003 Apr:7(2) 104-116
Aston J, 2006, Lecture Notes
SI Yearbook 2009,
Page 109