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Body Cells Carry Emotional Memory
Body Cells Carry Emotional Memory
By Boris Prilutsky
I found the theory that body cells carry emotional memories to be a true one. During my 38 years of clinical experience, numerous times I have witnessed the emotional reactions of my patients/clients to soft tissue mobilization. To more clearly explain this phenomenon, I would like to share one of my most interesting clinical experiences with you that support the theory of emotional memory being carried body cells.
Over 20 years ago, I treated one of the world-renowned boxers of the time from a shoulder injury. The right shoulder had a severe sprain/strain case with suspicion of possible rotator cuff tear. As with all such cases, after 24 hours of cold application procedures (cold application must be applied no more than 10-15 minutes and must be repeated every two hours) we started intensive massage therapy on the unaffected side in order to awake vasomotor reflex that will express by increasing blood supply to the injured extremities. I began to follow the treatment protocol for the above-mentioned purposes, starting to mobilize all groups of rotator cuff muscles layer by layer, as well as the anterior, posterior, and middle part of the deltoid muscles. As he was receiving the massage therapy, suddenly this big, tough, extremely strong man started crying, vocalizing sounds like that of a little boy. He was confused and expressed his embarrassment at breaking down in tears.
Being familiar with the theory that body cells carry emotional memory, I suggested to him to cry out whatever this emotional memory was. The sport clinical psychologist was informed of the incident. During his evaluation, this professional athlete, with the help of the psychologist, recovered a memory from his deep subconscious of an event that happened to him when he was eight years old.
Briefly, the story was that the boy's grandfather (his mother's father) once interrupted the constant fight between the boy's father and alcoholic mother; his grandfather attacked his father with a hammer. Afterward, the father was delivered in critical condition to the hospital and the grandfather was arrested. During this period of time, the little boy future boxing champion fell, off his bicycle and hurt his left shoulder. Crying, he came to his mom who was screaming into the phone, and asked her to comfort him because of the pain in his shoulder. His mother reacted in anger, and took his pleas as just whining for attention and she hit him with the phone a few times on this painful shoulder. All these years, on a subconscious level, this man carried difficult baggage of these memories of events related to losing the most important people in his life; his grandfather and father; and related to rejection by his mother. This kind of crying, emotional release tremendously helped this athlete to get rid of this subconscious trauma. This heavy emotional baggage was terribly disturbing and robbed him of a lot of happiness all these years, without him even knowing it existed. My experience has taught me that usually these emotional releases happen with people at the time when we perform massage (including deep tissue mobilization) in the inhibitory regime. Please be aware that emotional release may not be expressed by crying. Many clients may report to you that they have trouble sleeping and experience worry, or they may start shaking during the massage. Some of them will report unusual emotional sensitivity. Please explain to your clients that all above-mentioned reactions are very positive reactions and within the next few days of going through these reactions, they will feel a great deal better. Regarding the boxer whose case I presented to you, he later reported to me that he never thought that this subconscious baggage could destroy the quality and happiness of his life so much. He told me that thanks to this innocent massage therapy on the healthy shoulder, he was able to find peace within himself.
It's reasonable to assume that the memory of the emotional experience is stored somewhere in the brain - the system that is specialized in memory handling and remained inaccessible, as many other memories a human being experiencing during the life. But the shoulder cells hold the bookmark or a memory address of where the actual memories of the incident were stored in the brain. Thus by activating the shoulder cell you triggered the process of loading the content of that remote memory in the active memory, causing the aforementioned reaction.
As you can see from this episode, clinical psychology approach alone wouldn't be sufficient, because of the emotional memories carried by the cells of his body. Presently, I receive professional referrals from clinical psychologists.
Dear colleagues, I would like to encourage you to contact clinical psychologists in your neighborhoods and to offer them your services to incorporate massage therapy in their treatments. The Latin word "doctor" means educator. After being involved in many cases,at US it is clear to me that we should educate not only our clients about the power and importance of massage therapy, but also other health care practitioners.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Christopher A. Moyer on
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There are so many misunderstandings on here. It is distressing to me.
Honest question, then, Laura - why do you read this? I'm just curious.
-CM
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Permalink Reply by Boris Prilutsky on
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Dear Laura.
Thanks for video link. It is funny.please enjoy Bushmill's, and this time I will have Grey Goose.maybe next time will mix.
Will start from Grey goose and will continue with Bushmill's.let's enjoy life.Have a great weekend.
Boris
Laura Allen said:
There are so many misunderstandings on here. It is distressing to me. I wish you could all come over to my house, I would share this 16-year old bottle of single malt Bushmill's that I am about to get into because all this arguing between my respected colleagues is driving me to drink, and we could laugh about our differences of opinion.
I will leave you with this video. Slainte!
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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Boris, thanks for the good advice. Fortunately, my instructors are all practicing MTs as well as instructors. The education is being provided, and I am working hard to learn it all--maintaining a 4.0 through three quarters. I can locate, test, palpate all the major muscles and many of the minor ones. Already I have experienced the gratification of knowing that I have helped several bodies to heal nagging, painful injuries of sometimes long duration. This next quarter I begin working in the school's clinic, working on whomever comes in the door. I can't wait!
Although. along with Raven and Christopher, my logical mind wants to reject Reiki, Reflexology, Polarity treatment, etc, I accept the fact that I don't know everything there is to know. I employ Reflexology on my own hands and feet, for instance, and however it works, I accept that it seems to aid my hearing and sinuses. And that, friend Boris, is all that matters to me. I hope I never become so arrogant that I close my mind to the unknown.
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Christoper said: "Gary, I haven't attacked Boris. I have challenged - attacked, if you like - some of the ideas he has posted. That's an important distinction. I think if you review this thread, and the earlier one that led to it, you will not find anywhere where I have attacked *him*. If I am wrong about that, please point it out."
Sure. What got me involved in this thread is your rather condescending statement that Boris had been condescending to Raven.
In his article, Boris clearly said that he did not know the mechanism of the disputed memory storage, adding that obviously the memories are in the mind, and somehow accessed via the cells touched during massage. Therefore, in no way was Boris's statements conflicting with the clinical certainty that memories cannot be "stored" in body cells. What is being argued here is semantics.
Like you, and Raven, I am skeptical of the efficacy of Reiki, Reflexology, Polarity-- the list of energy modalities is long. At this early stage of my education, I don't plan to seek advanced certification in any of the energy meridian treatments. I mean, which of the hundreds of available Reflexology charts is the proven one? Having said that, however, every night I massage the Reflexology points in my hands and feet that many charts say relates to back, sinuses and ears (my own problem areas). Does it help? A better question to ask might be, does it hurt anything to try it?
Back to the animosity toward Boris. He is an educator, and a skilled therapist: I have seen some of his videos. English is evidently his second language, so he is not as eloquent as you are, for instance. That doesn't negate the strength of his argument, nor the skills in his hands. Oops! Forgive me, Christopher, I realize that the skill set is stored in his brain. But, if that is strictly true, why is it practice--physical practice-- makes a quarterback a better passer? Therefore, to my way of thinking, muscles do in fact have, for lack of a better term, "memories". Ah...semantics again. You and Raven are arguing semantics, Boris is discussing a witnessed clinical experience. You aren't a trained, licensed massage therapist? No matter, except... I assure you that everyone who has gone through a 2-year course in TMB has witnessed a receiver having an emotional moment during a massage. Caused by repressed memories? or by the pure pleasure of a nonsexual human touch? Unless the receiver reveals the cause without prompting, the therapist cannot know the etiology. In the case Boris discusses in his article, the client himself remembered, and revealed to Boris, the reason for his emotional breakthrough.
Boris did not urge everyone --anyone, actually-- to probe the emotional centers of clients In the conclusion of his article, he urged fellow therapists to contact mental health practitioners, and offer their services. Because the healing power of nonsexual human touch should not be underestimated. In fact, there is a psychological treatment that employs a simplified form of massage to treat PTSD. My son in law, a veteran of Afghanistan, is undergoing treatments as we speak. If it helps, his wife and my grandchildren won't ask WHY or HOW; they'll merely be happy that it does.
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Permalink Reply by Ravensara Travillian on
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"Therefore, in no way was Boris's statements conflicting with the clinical certainty that memories cannot be "stored" in body cells. What is being argued here is semantics."
Semantics is meaning itself, not just a trivial detail, and Boris is an educator. The meaning of what he teaches students is a very important thing to get right.
He has repeatedly said that "body cells carry emotional memory", and we have repeatedly challenged the validity of this claim. Unlike "wrong person", "dishonest", and "get out", to challenge an idea and present evidence against it is not actually an attack.
Examples of where he has stated this claim:
"I found the theory that body cells carry emotional memories to be a true one."
"To more clearly explain this phenomenon, I would like to share one of my most interesting clinical experiences with you that support the theory of emotional memory being carried body cells."
"Being familiar with the theory that body cells carry emotional memory"
"It's reasonable to assume that the memory of the emotional experience is stored somewhere in the brain - the system that is specialized in memory handling and remained inaccessible, as many other memories a human being experiencing during the life. But the shoulder cells hold the bookmark or a memory address of where the actual memories of the incident were stored in the brain."
"As you can see from this episode, clinical psychology approach alone wouldn't be sufficient, because of the emotional memories carried by the cells of his body."
I expect he'll deny it and call me dishonest again, though. And you'll ignore his attacking me, and ask why I'm attacking him.
That's a testable hypothesis, by the way, and you know how to disprove it.
Gary W Addis said:Christoper said: "Gary, I haven't attacked Boris. I have challenged - attacked, if you like - some of the ideas he has posted. That's an important distinction. I think if you review this thread, and the earlier one that led to it, you will not find anywhere where I have attacked *him*. If I am wrong about that, please point it out."
Sure. What got me involved in this thread is your rather condescending statement that Boris had been condescending to Raven.
In his article, Boris clearly said that he did not know the mechanism of the disputed memory storage, adding that obviously the memories are in the mind, and somehow accessed via the cells touched during massage. Therefore, in no way was Boris's statements conflicting with the clinical certainty that memories cannot be "stored" in body cells. What is being argued here is semantics.
Like you, and Raven, I am skeptical of the efficacy of Reiki, Reflexology, Polarity-- the list of energy modalities is long. At this early stage of my education, I don't plan to seek advanced certification in any of the energy meridian treatments. I mean, which of the hundreds of available Reflexology charts is the proven one? Having said that, however, every night I massage the Reflexology points in my hands and feet that many charts say relates to back, sinuses and ears (my own problem areas). Does it help? A better question to ask might be, does it hurt anything to try it?
Back to the animosity toward Boris. He is an educator, and a skilled therapist: I have seen some of his videos. English is evidently his second language, so he is not as eloquent as you are, for instance. That doesn't negate the strength of his argument, nor the skills in his hands. Oops! Forgive me, Christopher, I realize that the skill set is stored in his brain. But, if that is strictly true, why is it practice--physical practice-- makes a quarterback a better passer? Therefore, to my way of thinking, muscles do in fact have, for lack of a better term, "memories". Ah...semantics again. You and Raven are arguing semantics, Boris is discussing a witnessed clinical experience. You aren't a trained, licensed massage therapist? No matter, except... I assure you that everyone who has gone through a 2-year course in TMB has witnessed a receiver having an emotional moment during a massage. Caused by repressed memories? or by the pure pleasure of a nonsexual human touch? Unless the receiver reveals the cause without prompting, the therapist cannot know the etiology. In the case Boris discusses in his article, the client himself remembered, and revealed to Boris, the reason for his emotional breakthrough.
Boris did not urge everyone --anyone, actually-- to probe the emotional centers of clients In the conclusion of his article, he urged fellow therapists to contact mental health practitioners, and offer their services. Because the healing power of nonsexual human touch should not be underestimated. In fact, there is a psychological treatment that employs a simplified form of massage to treat PTSD. My son in law, a veteran of Afghanistan, is undergoing treatments as we speak. If it helps, his wife and my grandchildren won't ask WHY or HOW; they'll merely be happy that it does.
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"But, if that is strictly true, why is it practice--physical practice-- makes a quarterback a better passer? Therefore, to my way of thinking, muscles do in fact have, for lack of a better term, "memories"."
Are you really interested in a discussion of the Brodmann areas in the brain, the pre-motor cortex, and programmatic memory? Because if you are, I will take the time to discuss it. If, however, you've already made up your minds that "muscles have memory", I'll spare myself the effort.
"Ah...semantics again. You and Raven are arguing semantics, Boris is discussing a witnessed clinical experience."
If in my 20 years in the clinic, I had ever witnessed something that thoroughly overturned neuroanatomy as we knew it, I would have clawed my way to a Nobel Prize in Stockholm over the backs of every neuroanatomist in the world.
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Hi Gary.
I am very happy that you have good instructors, and obviously having love and passion towards our occupation. Pleasure to share with you. Participation in the research is a part of my long career. Always employing controlled group for placebo cases definitions. 30% of participants demonstrating improvement on placebo.even if Reiki, Reflexology, Polarity is a placebo, no matter to me. On the other hand cannot say because don't know how much at procedures/ treatment by Reiki, Reflexology, Polarity is a a placebo vs. real physiological stimulation by these techniques. it is many, many evidence that this methodologies producing side effects free and good clinical outcomes therefore I do support your idea meantime not to take training in this modalities but keep your mind open for energy work too. I will post article on stress management. Please pay attention where I am describing electrical potentials including streaming potentials.therefore possible by activating/releasing these potentials we stimulating and corresponding with different body systems and organs that not sharing same level of innervation with stimulated body part . Just advice. I hope you don't mind.
Best wishes.
Boris
Gary W Addis said:Boris, thanks for the good advice. Fortunately, my instructors are all practicing MTs as well as instructors. The education is being provided, and I am working hard to learn it all--maintaining a 4.0 through three quarters. I can locate, test, palpate all the major muscles and many of the minor ones. Already I have experienced the gratification of knowing that I have helped several bodies to heal nagging, painful injuries of sometimes long duration. This next quarter I begin working in the school's clinic, working on whomever comes in the door. I can't wait!
Although. along with Raven and Christopher, my logical mind wants to reject Reiki, Reflexology, Polarity treatment, etc, I accept the fact that I don't know everything there is to know. I employ Reflexology on my own hands and feet, for instance, and however it works, I accept that it seems to aid my hearing and sinuses. And that, friend Boris, is all that matters to me. I hope I never become so arrogant that I close my mind to the unknown.
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Permalink Reply by Laura Allen on
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I must be a glutton for punishment, Christopher. I sometimes go a few weeks and don't say anything on here, other than posting my blog, which ABMP asked me to participate in before this site was launched. Then I see something like Boris' post that I think is interesting, and before you know it, I'm sucked into the vortex!
I admire you for your brain. Boris doing massage for 38 years is pretty dang impressive, too. You can't get that kind of perspective from a book. People are passionate about what they believe and what they do.
There are a lot of students and new MTs on this site. They need to be educated about research, for sure. Whenever these discussions deteriorate and I read back through the posts, all that comes to my mind is "communication breakdown." I hate it when that happens! And I hate it for the newbies who read these things and get the impression that we can't have a civil disagreement.
Christopher A. Moyer said:There are so many misunderstandings on here. It is distressing to me.
Honest question, then, Laura - why do you read this? I'm just curious.
-CM
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My dear Laura.
I am possessing not only clinical experience but also academic background from graduate school of physical education and rehabilitation as well graduated from chiropractic school .in regards of my 39 years of clinical experience.
20 years of it I have worked with former Soviet Union Olympian teams, and in average provided 300 treatments each month, 12 hours working day.therefore probably practically this 20 years only can be considered for 40 years of clinical experience + 19 years in America. Telling this to you because practically and many times text book offered in schooldidn't have real clinical implementation to produce rapid and sustained results. study/memorization of gross anatomy practically had very little utilization.LOL.therefore from now on please consider me as an academician with bad English but very experience clinician and educator who can teach students to deliver results.
Best wishes.
Boris
Laura Allen said:
I must be a glutton for punishment, Christopher. I sometimes go a few weeks and don't say anything on here, other than posting my blog, which ABMP asked me to participate in before this site was launched. Then I see something like Boris' post that I think is interesting, and before you know it, I'm sucked into the vortex!
I admire you for your brain. Boris doing massage for 38 years is pretty dang impressive, too. You can't get that kind of perspective from a book. People are passionate about what they believe and what they do.
There are a lot of students and new MTs on this site. They need to be educated about research, for sure. Whenever these discussions deteriorate and I read back through the posts, all that comes to my mind is "communication breakdown." I hate it when that happens! And I hate it for the newbies who read these things and get the impression that we can't have a civil disagreement.
Christopher A. Moyer said:There are so many misunderstandings on here. It is distressing to me.
Honest question, then, Laura - why do you read this? I'm just curious.
-CM
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Dear Ty Capuano.
additional to sentence that troubled you you should include sentence from article
"Please be aware that emotional release may not be expressed by crying. Many clients may report to you that they have trouble sleeping and experience worry, or they may start shaking during the massage. Some of them will report unusual emotional sensitivity. Please explain to your clients that all above-mentioned reactions are very positive reactions and within the next few days of going through these reactions, they will feel a great deal better."
I don't think that you will breach scope of massage therapy practice, if somebody on your table at the time of treatment will start crying /releasing emotions and you will explain that there is an theory about the body parts containing the emotional memories, and many times it released at the time of massage therapy procedure. Or,next day after treatment client will call you and will tell:" your treatment, cause me some extra sensitivity should I continue with you????you have to be ready to explain what you know about the body parts containing the emotional memories.I always explain about possible reaction before treatment.I do. if local officials where you are practicing do not allow you to explain this kind of phenomenon then don't do this. Just doublecheck if this is legal to provide this kind of information. On the other practical hand, when you are massaging any part of the body and with no obvious objectives such as pain ect.clients start constricting muscles most likely and to me it is certain that this body part carried this negative memory.
in such a case I spending a little bit more time on this area by providing petrissage . Can assure you it does work, and people reporting much of improvement.BTW. Only 10% of people statistically reacting negatively.
I hope it was helpful.
Best wishes.
Boris
Ty Capuano said:"Please explain to your clients that all above-mentioned reactions are very positive reactions and within the next few days of going through these reactions, they will feel a great deal better".
I keep coming back to this sentence which concerns me every time I read it. If I opt to tell my client that a release symptom - shaking, not sleeping, worrying or crying is a positive reaction and they will feel a great deal better within the next few days then I believe I am making a judgement which is out of my scope of practice. There is no way I can be sure enough of that statement to utter it. I would be assuming at that point. It feels more appropriate to just listen and be with them for that moment rather than to tell them how they are going to feel. That discussion would be better suited to a counselor. I am commenting on this as I think therapists should be very careful of their wording when talking with their clients about any type of emotional release unless they also have a degree in psychology.
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Boris remarked: ""It's reasonable to assume that the memory of the emotional experience is stored somewhere in the brain - the system that is specialized in memory handling and remained inaccessible, as many other memories a human being experiencing during the life. But the shoulder cells hold the bookmark or a memory address of where the actual memories of the incident were stored in the brain."
Raven, in the above paragraph he says that "emotional experience is stored somewhere in the brain." I take him at his word. What excited you, I think, is his additional comment that the shoulder cells hold the "bookmark". To your animus regarding the unscientific comment I again apply the term "semantics."
Athletics conclusively demonstrate that muscles remember: athletes train for hours per day for half their lives in order to establish and retain muscle memories. Now, you may take that statement to mean that I believe that muscles contain little special, invisible-to-microscopes memory cells. Nonsense. Neural pathways from brain to eye to brain to muscles are established, however. Proprioception may be the clinical term. Whatever the terminology, whatever the mechanism involved, muscle memory is very real.
Meaning no disrespect of your life's experiences and your hard-earned education, once again I point out that you and Boris are working from the same playbook--you are both skilled MT practitioners. You admit that, yes, clients do sometimes undergo emotional "breakdowns" while on your table; so does Boris. He knows not why, only that touching a particular part of a bodypart, the client had some sort of emotional release.
One of my MT instructors is also a board certified, practicing psychologist. His advice to his MT students? Don't interrupt the session unless the client's body tells you to step away... just continue the session, silently providing comforting touch; offer water, a tissue, don't probe for the reasons for the tears, listen if it is volunteered, then when the session is over (depending on the circumstances) refer the client to counseling. In Boris' case, the client wanted to talk: he listened.
Boris' phraseology differs from yours-- he comes from a different background. You may be adamantly against, say, reiki, and he may be a practitioner. I question the energy thingees myself, but I don't condemn outright. For who knows all the mysteries of the Universe.
Science is now discussing the black space beyond the known universe as if it were a living thing--pushing here, pulling there; science believes that smashing two atoms together may create a blackhole that will absorb the solar system. Who's to say what is truth and what is fantasy? --not brilliant scientists who argue over magic strings and big bangs--not me, who admits that I don't even know what to ask.
You are intelligent, and better educated than I. But I too am intelligent, and still questing for answers. A friend of mine scored 187 on MENSA's exam. Although he is a nuclear physicist, he admits that he doesn't fully under the nature of atoms. But he is certain of one thing: atoms do communicate in some manner (thus, the aforementioned string theory, quantum physics, etc) If you have all the answers, please pass them on, and I'll pass the knowledge on to my friend.
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Hi Christopher.
I believe that finally we can finish our whatever you will call but no discussion.
You wrote:I think truth is important. When someone spreads bad information, I think that information should be challenged. That is my motivation."
No spining to much,you must write sentence or two on bad information I am spreading?in such a case of will be settled. I agree with you no bad information should be distributed.
one favor to ask please don't repeat that in article I have claimed :"
Body Cells Carry Emotional Memory
this is title and below some important information and from article:
it's reasonable to assume that the memory of the emotional experience is stored somewhere in the brain - the system that is specialized in memory handling and remained inaccessible, as many other memories a human being experiencing during the life. But the shoulder cells hold the bookmark or a memory address of where the actual memories of the incident were stored in the brain. Thus by activating the shoulder cell you triggered the process of loading the content of that remote memory in the active memory, causing the aforementioned reaction.
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