Body Therapist - Erika Moore R.M.T

Vancouver Massage Therapy at Fairview

~ 604 732-5221 ~

"My life's journey informs my work.
I have come home to my body and, I know, so can you!"

Soon after my daughter was born, I had a powerful and unforgettable somatic epiphany. It felt as though every cell in my body simultaneously realized the significance of human touch. Not only is human touch vitally necessary at the beginning of life, it can be deeply healing throughout life, for both the giver and the receiver.

This insight inspired me to study the art and science of touch. I graduated from the West Coast College of Massage Therapy in Vancouver and was granted registration as a massage therapist in 1997.

The aim of traditional massage therapy training is to help clients decrease body pain, regain mobility, and restore strength, flexibility and balance. However, as I immersed myself in the practice of my field, many questions arose that had not been addressed in the courses I had taken.

If you have had massage therapy treatments, you may be able to relate to my ponderings.

• Why did my interventions help some clients but not others, even though they  suffered similar injuries?
• Why did some clients revel in the work I suggested they do at home, while others found it hard to recall simple instructions?
• Why would some clients plateau in their recovery, unable to make further gains?
• Why did some clients experience significant relief after one treatment, only to suffer again later on?
• What accounted for the temperature fluctuations, increased body tension, and wide range of emotional reactions that occurred in some clients during treatment or afterwards?
• Why did some clients experience the body as an object, an  impersonal "it", or even as an "enemy", and others were unable to feel their bodies at all?

Driven by a desire to find the answers I acquired specialized training at the Canadian Foundation for Trauma Research and Education.

Here, my ongoing love affair with neuroscience began. I studied developmental trauma and shock trauma from a neuro-physiological perspective. I learned that trauma tends to alienate one from the body. It can manifest as hypervigilance or an incessant need for activity; as internal bracing and muscle tension; or as the opposite - muscle flaccidity and weakness.

If left untreated, all of these responses to trauma can hurt tissue health. Journeying with my clients and practising mindfulness toward my own experience have deepened my understanding of the subconscious ways our bodies reveal this adaptation to injury.

My study of the application of neuro-physiological principles was also the beginning of my own journey toward profound embodiment – the body experienced from within - and somatic integration – being at home in my body.

As a result, my approach to treatment combines variations of three established techniques:

• Touch therapy in the form of massage, myofascial release, manual lymph drainage, visceral manipulation and craniosacral interventions.

Touch therapy invites the client to be receptive to the therapist’s touch. The client entrusts himself or herself to the therapeutic judgment and care of the practitioner.

For some people, this is the starting point of therapy. For others, learning to be at ease with touch and to benefit from touch might be the goal of treatment. In developing the capacity to experience challenging bodily sensations, the client learns to trust and to accept his or her body.

• Movement therapy based on Hanna Somatics and traditional therapeutic exercises.

The aim of movement therapy is to enhance awareness of body sensations, improve physical coordination and balance and extend our range of motion. In my practice, I encourage my clients to slow the movements, thus unmasking involuntary and subconscious compensation patterns. Together we allow the body to reveal the story behind the tissue tension or muscle weakness.

• Self-regulation Therapy, a mind/body approach aimed at decreasing excess activation in the nervous system.

I find that clients respond best to this intervention when they work concurrently with a mental health professional who is familiar with a body-centered approach such as Self Regulation Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor psychotherapy, Bodynamics, Hakomi etc.

My intention is to foster awareness of reactive patterns that are generating body pain and to interrupt habitual patterns, thus creating an opening for integration and conscious change.

This kind of  treatment is the most challenging. It requires a willingness on the part of both client and therapist to listen to the body’s unique language of sensation. The body will lead us to the roots of its distress.

Throughout our lives, our bodies register physical and emotional reactions to neglect or breach of personal boundaries. Moments of terror, accidents and surgical procedures leave their neurological footprints. The result, although we may not be conscious of it, can be a narrowing of our experience – a lack of spontaneous movement, a withdrawal from touch, a shrinking from connection, a denial of the body’s natural expressiveness.

I invite my clients to notice the sensations associated with these limitations. Our aim will then be to build the capacity to tolerate the charge these sensations can carry, and, most importantly, to learn safe ways to discharge the activation trapped within reactive patterns.

A most rewarding aspect of my work is hearing from clients that not only is their pain reduced and range of motion increased--typical gains associated with massage therapy--but also about the lasting transformation in their lives.

• Riding a bike when you have not ridden in years after a bike accident.
• Enjoying an exotic holiday when you have for years avoided airplane travel because of panic attacks in enclosed spaces.
• Being able to spontaneously take a different route to work when you have driven the same one for years.
• Letting yourself be touched by nature's beauty because physical pain no longer dominates your experience.
• Feeling the touch of another without having to physically or emotionally withdraw due to the legacy of physical or sexual abuse.
• Tolerating the physicality of grief or joy that once seemed overpowering.
• Taking in comfort without dissolving into tears because you are now able to tolerate connection.
• Being able to experience your body as a source of pleasure and not a reminder of pain or trauma.

My Personal Musing

The wonder of transformation, the excitement of journeying with my clients on the edge of discovery, often leaves me speechless. I am so grateful that neuroscience provides a language to describe the profound changes that can occur.

My office is at:

Fairview Massage Therapy Centre

304 - 1037 West Broadway (at Oak)
Vancouver, BC V6G 1E3

Feel free to call me for more information at 604 732-5221.

Have a Question?

If you have a comment or question on how I work, I'd be pleased to answer it. Dr. Shrinklady interviewed me and posted the audio on Going Beyond Massage Therapy.

Scroll down the page and look for the box to submit your question.

My Training and Professional Development

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