About Integrative Somatic Therapies
Working with Lenore was a true gift. Her rich knowledge and calming presence as a trauma-integrated somatic therapy practitioner helped me build invaluable resources and do deep, meaningful process work. I highly recommend her unique and effective approach.
Lenore, and her unique combination of skills, has improved my parenting, my work, my exercising, my recovery from injury, and likely lots more. Due to her deep and diverse knowledge, she has provided valuable input on most parts of my life. Sessions have varied from therapeutic coaching, addressing a range of challenges in my life to health and body movement guidance to structural body work, addressing long-term pain. In all areas, Lenore has surpassed any previous treatment I've received. My favorite part of working with Lenore is she is fully present for every session in a way I haven't experienced with anyone else.
Lenore's whole-person approach to therapy provided an impactful turning point in my struggle with chronic back and neck pain. The complex suite of treatments I received contained all the necessary ingredients to pull me out of despondence and hopelessness and set the right course for my healing journey. I could not have gained the degree of lasting wellness that I now possess if it weren't for Lenore's masterful and compassionate support.
Comments From Bodywork Clients
Lenore Bryck is one of those rare bodyworkers whose powers of healing are so refined and so integrated that her lucky clients experience relief from the first words and touch. Her work with me, my mother, and other family members has left a profound and lingering imprint on our bodies and in our psyches. Her tenderness and intelligence are legendary, and she is a natural teacher. In a valley that is teeming with healers of every stripe, she is truly a gem.
Lenore’s generosity of spirit and attention to detail around each centimeter of each muscle’s position in my body immediately gave me trust in her gifts. She knew how my body parts worked together to make me this standing, pulsing being. Her deep bodywork, suggestions for exercises, and kind, gentle guidance helped me stand straighter and more comfortably. But most importantly, she helped introduce me in a deeper way than I’ve ever experienced to my own body and its workings.
I highly recommend Lenore Bryck. I originally went to her for back pain that would flare up now and again but would never fully resolve. I kept wondering whether this was strictly muscular or some kind of “pinched nerve.” But Lenore knew exactly what it was and how to deal with it, and after a few sessions, I began to see improvement. More importantly, she got me to understand the cause, which gave me the ability to fully resolve it. I have been back pain-free for a longer period than I can remember. And, after some recent work I did on the roof of my house and the back pain returned, I knew what to do. Lenore is incredibly insightful and has developed approaches to bodywork that simply work. I am a lucky recipient of her insight and work, and I’m truly grateful.
Lenore is one of those rare bodyworkers who combines both proactive and reactive approaches. For example, although she does respond to existing injuries, with repeat clients she identifies their structural idiosyncrasies and tendencies, designs exercises to help address these issues, and teaches clients how to do them. Unlike many bodyworkers, she doesn’t need to mask a lack of uncertainty about your physiological problems with a bunch of ethereal mumbo-jumbo. Her 20 years of experience and training allow her to integrate a deep understanding of Western-style kinesiology and physiology with Asian approaches to body function.
I was suffering from earth-shattering headaches that were caused by most of the muscles in my neck and upper shoulders being in total spasm. Because of my profession and my need to continue to work, I could not simply medicate my way out of this issue. Lenore brought me relief within three sessions. When she told me, “I’m going to apply pressure to your right, right?? But you will feel it in your left ????” I knew this lady knew her craft. She not only brought me immediate relief, but she also taught me how to manage my condition through stretching I could do at home. She provided me with invaluable services.
I have had several back injuries over the years, and I’ve suffered from chronic low-back pain for over ten years. Lenore Bryck has been giving me therapeutic massage treatment over the last seven or eight years, and her therapy has made a tremendous difference in reducing/eliminating my back pain, increasing my mobility, and allowing me to live a more normal, active life. She has also been extremely valuable in teaching me a set of back-strengthening exercises that have helped me to be a proactive participant in my own healing. I strongly recommend her services for anyone in need of massage therapy.
I am a 51-year-old male and term myself a ‘recovering athlete.’ I have had 10 knee surgeries and two shoulder surgeries and have battled pain for much of my life. Lenore Bryck started working with me after I had tried unsuccessfully to rid myself of pain using physical therapy, medications, chiropractic, and other conventional and alternative approaches. She takes a masterful holistic approach to her practice and ‘homes in’ on the sources of pain, considering all the complexities and interactions of my case, and was successful in helping me feel significantly better. I would recommend her to anyone, but especially to those who have not had success with other treatments.
Lenore Bryck is a gifted practitioner. As a client, I have benefited greatly from her intuition, caring, and incomparable knowledge of the physical body and its connection to the emotional self. Thanks to my work with Lenore and her holistic approach to healing, I have less pain, more self-awareness, and the precious sense of being sincerely cared for by my caregiver. I feel blessed to have found her.
Impressive knowledge. Corrective results. Lenore identified and brought mobility back to the non-responding. The steps I take are ever so rewarding.
When I started seeing you for treatment, I thought only of relieving pain and regaining mobility in my back. But working with you these past few years, I’ve received much more than pain relief. I’ve become more attuned to how I use (or misuse) my body, and I’ve learned natural ways to care for and “re-train” my body with patience and compassion. With heightened awareness and a more holistic understanding of the body, I’m much better at avoiding or minimizing situations that would otherwise lead to a crisis. In fact, as I was walking back from breakfast on this historic day, it dawned on me how much more comfortable I’ve been feeling on my extended walks—more supported in my lower back and much less stress in my knees, lower legs, and ankles. As a result, I feel like walking longer and more often, and I can concentrate on getting the aerobic benefits as well. For a while there, I was getting discouraged about aging after years of taking my body for granted—and paying for it with recurrent aches and pains. But with your care and guidance, I feel more empowered when it comes to my health and well-being, and I’m much more enthusiastic about this business of growing older.
I first met Lenore as her physical therapy/pain management patient. She had been highly recommended to me by a friend who had undergone several other surgeries and was in chronic pain. I was so impressed that I made an appointment almost immediately. I was not disappointed. I felt a kinship with her on our first meeting that I could not put my finger on but seemed old and deep and went beyond the usual pleasantries. I instinctively trusted her. Her techniques, an alchemy, she said, of her knowledge and experience in dance, yoga, meditation, and various body treatment modalities, were surprising yet delightful. I discovered my body as she did, an exploration of the whole, not just as the sum of its parts, but as its history of movement, of its holding of life’s experiences, and ultimately, of its letting go. In that space of an old injury or emotional trauma, I followed her lead. The trust she helped create allowed me to go to places in an accepting way where I had not allowed myself to go in a long time. Upon her recommendation, I enrolled in her “Moving Beyond Pain…” class. This was a heart-opening celebration of creative movement, yoga, etc., presented in a very gentle and non-threatening way. Each of us, all previous or present patients of Lenore’s, seemed to have to “stretch” just beyond our comfort zone at some point during the class. At the end she gave us each customized daily exercises and preventive maintenance techniques to avoid chronic injury. I have been using many of these exercises ever since. Even before I contracted Lyme disease in 2001 (undiagnosed for a lengthy period of time) and fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, I had to use pretty frequent, intensive regular chiropractic, acupuncture, and other modalities to keep my body in alignment to just function. I am happy to say that after being treated by Lenore, I have not visited the chiropractor or acupuncturist once in two years. Instead, my time has been freed up to try therapeutic areas of self-exploration such as yoga, meditation, writing, and song. I know others would share the feeling that she is not only a bodyworker but also a beloved teacher and, most of all, a friend.
Comments From Students
These are words I have actually spoken in the past when telling my own previous therapist about you as a teacher and pain relief therapist: “She (Lenore) knows more about the human body than anyone else I’ve met in a long time.” These are also true sentiments: Your approach to teaching shows an acceptance of each student “where they’re at.” You’re knowledgeable, warm, and make learning fun.
Studying with Lenore made all the difference in how I view myself as a professional. I always knew massage could make people feel better, but now my practice can become truly therapeutic, affecting real change in my client’s well-being. Her method is creative and empowers you to be so in your practice as well. If you want to learn how to facilitate real change in your clients's lives, then you owe it to yourself to learn with Lenore!
Having the knowledge and techniques I learned in your class allowed me to understand how I could help people in the clinic with direct treatment, giving me confidence and direction in the session. When I work with a client now, I have a toolbox of reliable, effective techniques that I can draw on to create tangible change in tissue and instigate the body’s healing processes. My intellectual work level went from “Well, I think this will help somehow…” to “I know which techniques to use in this situation, and that they will effect positive change.”
This course is a must if you want to work with people experiencing pain on any level. Taking Lenore’s course last spring was deeply transformational, informing my clinical knowledge (including using the Gate Control Theory of Pain to understand pain intervention), completely and skillfully expanding my trajectory of pain relief modalities, and forming the foundation for my career. You can’t find anything this local (and affordable) that is as sophisticated as the training Lenore is offering.
Again, thank you. Your class has changed the way I’m practicing and has reinvigorated my enthusiasm for the profession. I’m seeing better results with my clients, and I feel like I’m making more intelligent choices in how I strategize their treatment.
Before taking this class, I was afraid I would lose interest in this field. I no longer have these fears. This class revealed to me I can grow in this field over the course of a career.
A true learning experience with super knowledge of the entire human body system! Not just muscles and bones, but emotional effects on the body also