Yoga and Bodywork

Mouse and the Storm: Extract

Singing Dragon 0 Comments

To celebrate the release of Susan Quayle’s new book, Mouse and the Storm, we are releasing an extract from the book – please click here to view it.

Mouse and the Storm tells the story of Mouse and her animal friends who are rudely disrupted from the comfort of their homes by a big storm! Waking up away from home, together they must find their way back despite feeling scared and lost.

Written in rhyme along with easy-to-follow diagrams and instructions for giving simple hand reflexology to a child, this book will help parents soothe children, especially those who experience anxiety or have sensory regulation difficulties.

Beautiful illustrations accompany the reflexology techniques which are easy to use to provide a calming experience to a child. No prior reflexology knowledge is required.

To read more about the book, or to purchase a copy, please click here.

If you would like to read more articles like this and hear the latest news and offers on our books, why not join our mailing list? We can send information by email or post as you prefer, and please also tell us about your areas of interest so we can send the most relevant information. You can unsubscribe at any time.

 

What is Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome?

Singing Dragon 1 Comment

Isobel Knight discusses new research, co-morbid conditions and management strategies for hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome in this Q&A. Find Isobel Knight’s books on hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome here.

 

For those who are unaware, could you briefly describe what hypermobility is?

A hypermobile joint is one that has a larger than normal range of movement. If you look at the figure of the elbow picture below, the joint looks ‘inside out’. Hypermobile people tend to be people we consider ‘flexible’ or ‘bendy’, and as such there is a high prevalence of hypermobility in the dance and performing arts sectors.

Hypermobility can be generalized at a range of joints – for example knees and elbows, or sometimes found in peripheral joints (e.g. hands and feet). It is perfectly possible to have joint hypermobility and be asymptomatic, but for some people their hypermobility can cause pain, dislocations, soft-tissue injuries and there can be other findings – such as extensible and stretchy skin which might be more suggestible of a form of heritable connective tissue disorder such as hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

There are now new and strict diagnostic criteria in place to distinguish between those who have generalized or peripheral joint hypermobility through to those who have what is now called a Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) or hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS). The diagnostic criteria that I discuss in my books refer to the old names of Hypermobility Syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Hypermobility-Type or Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (Type III) – but although the name and diagnostic criteria have changed, the overall management strategies remain very much the same for these conditions.

Continue reading →

Dentistry, Orthodontics and Cranio-Sacral Integration

Singing Dragon 0 Comments

Thomas Attlee’s book “Face to Face with the Face” explains how Cranio-Sacral Integration can help a wide range of persistent and painful conditions involving the face and the cranial nerves – from trigeminal neuralgia, sinusitis, hearing loss and TMJ syndrome to autism, chronic fatigue and polyvagal disturbance – through a deeper understanding of quantum levels of health and the biodynamic forces which underlie the body’s inherent healing potential.

Continue reading →

Sitting on a Chicken: Extract

Singing Dragon 0 Comments

chissick-sittingonachicken-c2w

To celebrate the release of Sitting on a Chicken by Michael Chissick, we are releasing an extract from the book, featuring four interactive yoga games and poses you can use with your children or pupils!

To download the extract please click here. 

Learn more about Sitting on a Chicken here. 

Michael Chissick has written several books for children, published by Singing Dragon, please find them here.

Preparing the Body for Work: Working for Coherence

Singing Dragon 0 Comments

In this blog by Amanda Brennan, author of The Energetic Performer, Brennan provides an overview of her method of acting and how increasing awareness of the body can enhance the acting experience. 

I recently ran a series of workshops for professional actors in Santiago, Chile. The course was designed to refine performance skills, explore the craft of screen acting and discover how to create a rich and complex inner life. In my book The Energetic Performer, I refer to the inner life as all that moves with in, thoughts, vibrations of the nervous system, the beat of the heart, the flow of breath, all feelings and emotional expression. Its cultivation is at the heart of screen performance, where the real action is on the inside. To achieve this aim, I began with what I believe is the fundamental necessity: preparing the body for work.

Continue reading →

Facial Torment – and resolution

Singing Dragon 0 Comments

In this second blog post by Thomas Attlee, author of Face to Face with the Face, Attlee expands on his previous blog post ‘Essentials of Cranio-Sacral Integration‘, by expanding on the key points, and again providing the following three case studies: Tooth, Jaw and TMJ Pain; Hearing Loss and  Trigeminal Neuralgia. 

Fiona was forty-seven and had suffered a lifetime of countless recurrent ear infections, glue ear, severe deafness, extreme pain, burst ear drums, and inability to travel by air. She had been through countless courses of antibiotics, grommets, operations and other treatments without benefit – until she discovered cranio-sacral integration, and her life was transformed – able to hear again, free of pain, able to fly (by aeroplane, that is, not independently – cranio-sacral integration is not quite that miraculous).

Ninety percent of babies and children suffer middle ear infections¹, often leading to glue ear, with potential repercussions on speech and language. Like Fiona, they may receive frequent prescriptions of antibiotics, sometimes grommets and possibly operations, none of which addresses the underlying cause and which may consequently lead to repeated episodes of the condition.

Continue reading →

Essentials of Cranio-Sacral Integration (and case studies)

Singing Dragon 1 Comment

In this blog post by Thomas Attlee, author of Face to Face with the Face, Attlee explains the ‘Essentials of Cranio-Sacral Integration’, providing an overview of the key points, and providing three case studies: Tooth, Jaw and TMJ Pain; Hearing Loss and  Trigeminal Neuralgia. 

Higgs-boson:

In 2013 Professor Peter Higgs received the Nobel prize for a concept he first proposed in 1964 and for which the experimental proof was finally provided at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland in 2012. Professor Higgs postulated that there is an invisible field pervading the whole universe.

Within quantum physics it has now been established that there is a universal field, a unifying matrix within which everything exists and interacts – every galaxy, star, planet, solid object, living being, molecule, atom, subatomic particle – a field from which particles take their mass.

In the quantum model of cranio-sacral integration, we also perceive a universal field or matrix, within which life on earth has come into being, and each one of us exists as an individual matrix within this wider matrix. We are formed embryologically, developed, maintained and sustained by the biodynamic forces within that field, and every cell, atom, and subatomic particle within our body is an integral part of that wider field.

Continue reading →

A Feminine Approach to Bodywork?

Singing Dragon 0 Comments

1

by Liz Kalinowska and Daška Hatton

A feminine approach to therapeutic bodywork has interested me since I took my first tentative steps along this path sometime in the mid 1990’s.  I noticed that in my field (Alexander Technique / Craniosacral Therapy) most of the practitioners are women and yet most of the courses and books on the subject are written by men.  The feminine viewpoint is and always has been different, with a distinctive voice and function.  Although a massive over-simplification, the masculine approach tends to focus on techniques and results, while the feminine may naturally relate more intuitively and compassionately. Continue reading →