At the age of five Angela Rose experienced a traumatic event which would shape and change the course of her life forever. This event took Angela on a healing journey traveling around the world to learn and gain skills necessary in assisting in her recovery. Today a full-time resident of Ashland, Oregon, Angela runs her practice Sol Bodyworks where she utilizes these skills to create change and transformation for those in need of healing.
Hi Angela, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me today to share your story with us.
Thank you Shields. My goal is to share my story and what I have learned to support people on their path of healing to find greater levels of ease, comfort and wellness.
Angela, can you please tell us what happened to you when you were five years old, and describe the events and course direction that occurred after these events?
I grew up in Idaho, on farms and in a community of loving people, we sang and went horse camping, gardened and picked berries together. I lived on 5 acres at the base of Moscow Mountain with my mother, father and three brothers. I was five years old when I came across a cistern – an open stone water well. I was playing on the land with my two-year-old brother; my mom was mowing the lawn and I played at the edge of the water and… fell in. By the time my brother, who was preverbal, was able to get back to my mom, and she was able to come down and swoop my body out of the drink as she called it, I was clinically dead. Dead for about 45 minutes, I was then revived but lay in a coma for three days. I drowned in the water that day, and the ice cold spring water preserved my little brain. I left my body and had a near-death experience, and I remember it well.
I returned back to my body and three days seemed like an eternity. I had experienced such a presence of spirit and oneness, an overwhelming sense of acceptance and unity. I felt very connected to the spirit world, and it seemed more of a challenge to stay grounded and present in my body and with the physical reality.
As I grew up, I had moments where I felt very connected to myself and to life. I felt alive, vibrant, curious and attentive. And then other moments where I was struggling, I felt pain and discomfort in my body. My thoughts and emotions seemed to play a vital part in this as well as the circumstances that were presented in the external world.
I began my spiritual healing path and the big work of calling myself to this present moment. I called in teachers, and found them. I was blessed to spend my adult life with teachers learning the tools of meditation, movement, sound, song, therapeutic touch and gardening. I developed a consistent growing interest in how we become present to heal.
I began practicing movement forms as a girl. I continued to study dance and found Nia, a large body of work which I incorporate into my everyday life that has helped me feel more present in my body.
After college I traveled to healing centers learning and teaching different forms of the healing arts, permaculture farms to be connected to my food, and in nature where I felt and could be in touch with my natural environment. I found that feeling connected to my outer world was a big part of feeling connected in my internal world.
I have a deep relationship with water, through my near-death experience, and find ultimate connection in, near and by bodies of water. I also find water as a living sentient being and the consciousness of water, as well as the states and phases of water, closely relate to the phases of fascia, because our body is made up largely of water. How water moves, we move.
I traveled for five years and settled on Kauai, where I found the Pacific Center for Awareness and Bodywork. Really, I found my teachers Lee and Carole. In the blue of Lee’s eyes, I was offered a depth of presence that helped me to center myself, accept everything and feel the loving presence that is alive within. It is here, in this loving presence, that healing occurs.
Lee Joseph taught me Connective Tissue Therapy, Structural Integration and most importantly, Presence Centered Awareness Therapy. He showed me how to pay attention, and to listen. Also how to integrate and utilize as much of our knowledge of anatomy, kinesiology and the bodywork techniques in service of our clients in sessions. I use these tools as a foundation of my work as a Myofascial Release Therapist.
Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Yes, I am sharing my story so that others who are ready to heal and to feel more connected to themselves can come to work with me. I work with clients who are committed to their health and wellness. I help my clients to find ease and comfort in their body, to find peace of mind
and to learn to hold and experience emotions from a grounded space of awareness.
Angela, please bring us into the current time of your life and work here in Ashland, Oregon. How do you utilize the gifts and experience of the past to do the work you do now?
Through my studies and as a teacher at Lee Joseph’s PCAB, I learned how to pay attention to the details. I have learned to track, and be curious, to pick up information from my clients to help me to understand their body. Through formal training and experience I have picked up tools that help me understand what is pulling the body out of alignment, and then I use the best tools I have to listen to and shift the tissues so that there is more ease and mobility.
We have a map of the body, the anatomy and structure presented in a drawing, researched and yet static, not living. In reality the body has developed and had a life of activity that is very personal and unique. In an assessment I body read, to understand how the body is holding itself upright and which areas of the body are too tight, or being pulled, crowded or pushed out of alignment. I use Myofascial Release techniques to reorganize the issues, and to restore the function and mobility in this area. When the balance is restored the body can function as a unit instead of dysfunctional parts.
I have clients who have been in chronic pain, who have suffered from accidents which resulted in injury and trauma. I work with people who have suffered from stroke, have sciatica, are recovering from drop foot, sports injuries and cancer. I work with people who understand the connection of the body, mind and emotions. Clients who are looking for a way to heal from mental and emotional trauma. I am an injury specialist, I help clients who want more freedom, ease and joy in their bodies.
I have presence and awareness tools as well as advanced tools from my 18 plus years as a bodyworker. I weave these bodies of work into sessions designed unique to each individual, based upon what I see they need to bring them into a centered, present state. Which then reflects in the tissues.
I practice Myofascial Release exclusively with my clients because in all my years, I have seen the biggest results using this therapy. Myofascial Release allows me to recall and utilize all of my former training in a way that is the most effective.
You are formally trained in Myofascial Release and Presence Centered Awareness Therapy. Please talk about the power of these modalities to facilitate healing.
The John Barnes Myofascial Release technique works because it is a balance of technique and skill, and also supports the spontaneous intuitive nature of healing. MFR was developed by John Barnes, a physical therapist. Since he developed this technique he has trained over 100,000 therapists. It is practiced all over the world. It is popular because it works. Fascia, which is connective tissue, wraps every cell of the body. When the fascial tissue is restricted because of injury or trauma, it can have a tensile strength of up to 2,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. It can act like a straight jacket. What this means is that the fascia can become adhered and glue down areas in the body. This pressure created by the restrictions can have effects and impact every system of the body. If you are in pain these symptoms are caused by fascial restrictions. The pain relief that is presented by Western Medicine: shots, medication or surgery, may bring temporary relief and often only temporarily mask the symptoms.
MFR brings lasting pain relief by addressing these symptoms at the source. MFR treats the whole body, because even if the symptoms show up in one area it may be connected to other areas of the body. My clients consistently report back that their body feels gratitude, that they get amazing pain relief from MFR treatments and have more mobility and a higher level of function. It is so important to get back to an active pain free life. MFR offers pain relief and clients are able to get back to doing the activities that bring them joy.
Presence Centered Awareness Therapy is practiced during sessions and is a space that I hold as a therapist. I offer verbal cues that are more like dropping a pebble into the water and watching the ripple than something that is concrete. We access awareness by noticing the breath, noticing the body, watching the breath move the body. We practice awareness by intentionally being in the area we are working and learning how to breathe into that part of the body and invite it to relax. It is a practice more than anything. Because these repetitive movements that end up binding and restricting need a counter, something to initiate relaxation, to release tension. As we notice the body we begin to notice the mind. We access a little more awareness every time we watch the thoughts instead of getting carried away with them. With feelings, we allow the feeling, we notice and observe again, without judgment. With the direct experience of letting the emotion come like a wave, it is felt and sensed and then it is free, we are free.
Angela, can you please tell us about your practice Sol Bodyworks here in Ashland, Oregon?
I offer Myofascial Release treatments at 545 Lit Way, in Ashland, Oregon. I offer one-hour, one-and-a-half and two-hour treatments. I encourage clients to start a series of treatments and I offer an introductory series to see how the body responds to MFR. I suggest frequent MFR treatments because healing happens from the cumulative effect of a series of treatments done in a short time to really get to the heart of the matter.
The healing addresses all different aspects of oneself. Can you please talk more about the process of healing?
Yes. Our body’s sensations, our mental activity, our vast sea of emotions are all a part of what we are experiencing right now. Our body is a living journal of our human experience. We have stored and hold these aspects as memories of our human experience in our living tissues. When we take the time and we are supported in a safe space in which we feel held, a space that is allowing and accepting and free of judgment, we are invited to access our awareness. When we access awareness we create a space to explore our current experience and the stories, memories and beliefs that lie within our subconscious and unconscious come to light.
Often out of a need for safety we have developed physical, mental and emotional patterns and behaviors that are often based on traumatic events that happened early in life. These memories, stories, and beliefs are stored in our living fabric – our fascia. These stories can end up holding us back and limiting us.
By accessing our higher self, a loving presence and holding space for what we carry, we are able to notice and give ourself the love we need to process these life experiences. From a place of greater knowing, of compassionate love, we can heal. We can feel what needs to be seen, heard and held, that which we may have been and may still be storing in the body. By feeling it, we can release the trauma, we can let it go, and thru this process healing occurs. From a place of awareness – our greater intelligence, we have more choices and we can see the limiting patterns and choose a new path. By learning how to hold this space for ourselves we have greater capacity to reach our potential. With intention, the loving field of awareness heals.
Angela, what does it mean to actually do the healing work and how do you coach your clients not to go into the story?
I direct my clients to their present moment.
Interestingly, I do not coach clients to stay out of the story. Life is a story, it’s really all about the perspective we take. We want to view life from an integrated, healthy, whole, well-adjusted side of ourselves. This is Awareness, wisdom, a deep inner knowing – the intuition. We want to be free from identities and yet we are still a son, a daughter, a mother, a father, a human with a past, and dreams of our future. We want to see things in a good way and still we have grief, we have loss, we have anger, we have pain. We still directly experience the combinations of senses, mind and heart living a full life which ultimately weaves a story. We will still have preferences, desires and narratives. The thing is we don’t want to get stuck in the story, or tell ourselves stories based upon our past.
My teacher Lee Joseph told a story shortly after school started. He had a client Robert who’s right shoulder was so high it almost touched his ear. Robert had no idea what had happened to elevate his shoulder, and session after session it would eventually go right back up to where it had been close to his ear. This had for years been causing him pain, and over time Lee developed a good rapport with him. He was working on his shoulder in a session and Robert began to recall in detail the route he would take coming home after school. He would walk through the kitchen and he had to pass through the living room to get to his bedroom and he would pass his father who was an alcoholic. His dad would yell at him and throw beer cans at him. He began to soften as he remembered the event, because he witnessed it from the eyes of his loving presence. He was able to see his dad and all that he had been through, and came to forgive his father. From that day on, his shoulder was no longer elevated. Healing the Consciousness is Healing the Body.
I guess the thing is Robert couldn’t change his past, he chose a perspective from a space of healing, acceptance, love and forgiveness. He still has the story, he has chosen a healthier relationship with it.
We may still get angry, or hurt from time to time. Our patterns present and here is another opportunity, it is up to us to choose to see the stories we are telling ourselves that are not true, and in this we are breaking that cycle by seeing the truth through our awareness. We learn to befriend and integrate these aspects of ourselves. An emotion shows up and we greet our anger like a good friend who has come for a visit rather than a feeling to resist, which actually takes so much more energy in the resistance of feeling. Which is why awareness is allowing. Allowing the story to come up and watching from the best seat in the house. And the story is seen and felt and acknowledged and then we allow for what needs to have a voice and never did. The story then integrates into our consciousness in a different way, when we rest and reside in the presence of the moment in the verb of awareness. So there are two things happening simultaneously at once. We take the watcher perspective of observation, and we deeply go intuit letting our consciousness reveal what story is meant to be seen. By story I mean a unique experience that has made an imprint on our map. The map of our consciousness which includes our body. And we make room for the new moment by tending to the unfinished business which may be subconsciously stored and blocking.
The result, more room for new life, less identifying with the old stories, more room to grow and find our human potential.
I have asked this above but would like to ask in more detail. What does it actually take to heal oneself?
It takes a continual rededication to finding center. What I have found is it takes your attention and your imagination. To keep seeing things in a different way. You begin each day as a journey, curious, and noticing the details. “Hey, what is going on here?”
I guide clients to be in their body so over time they can cultivate greater ease.
Oh here I am holding my x again. My body is in a place that it needs to create safety by locking down. Awareness is curious, awareness is watching. When we center in this place we have more options and we can think outside the box. Then we ask questions, how do we release it, how do I heal here? We gain access to healing through awareness.
It also takes getting help. We need to invest in ourselves and take time and spend the energy to do what is good for us. I have always seen the bodywork sessions I have received as the wisest investment I have made. I have sought out deeply intelligent healers to teach me the ways to heal myself. I look for wisdom and harvest it often. It is important to invest in your body and take the time to do the important work of taking care of yourself. Self-care often involves cleaning and organizing your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual house.
Can you please share a success story or two that stand out in your mind as unique and special?
I will change the names so as to not refer to any client personally.
A young woman, Ali, comes in with a repetitive sports injury, her disc at T7 is bulging and she is in her early twenties. Her ribcage also sets off to one side by a couple inches. She has responded well to the invitation to let her movement be free, she has given her body permission to release the trauma and at times she shakes and wiggles – she unwinds. Unwinding during treatment can dramatically increase the release of trauma because the body already knows how to heal, it’s just a matter of if we let it. We are in her second series and her disc bulge is half of the size it was when she came in. I watched it today and it decreased in size during the one-hour treatment.
I place wedges to stabilize and take the torsion out of the pelvis, so the body can reeducate. This takes away the strain of the muscles tightening in its attempts to bring balance. The relief is audible. Ali is laughing and giggling. She is hearing the parts of her body, the voices of her body say thank you. She has not felt relief from her pain since she was 12 and started this sport. She also felt immense pressure from her family to continue this sport and the story was, it was the only way she would be able to go to college. So she continued to be in increasing amounts of pain for almost 10 years. She has been able to process the physical pain, and the feelings around this pressure to perform and other pain around a close friend who has passed. She gets the greatest sense of relief from our sessions, she is also learning movements to help her lengthen her psoas and practices to retrain her nervous system when she goes into old patterns of posture and movement.
Jennifer is a mother in her late 30’s, she has 3 boys. She found me and knew right away she wanted to work with her fascia. She has regular sessions and she has expressed how much relief she gets from multiple MFR Series. She is used to paying attention to everyone else and she feels she comes in last after her children and husband and with her mother growing up. Her mom was a single parent, and she took on some of that stress. She has been finding her emotions because she tucked them away and hid them even from herself. She is growing courage to be with the emotions she finds more difficult and feels empowered when she feels herself. She has been consistent in dedicating herself to continuing to hold a loving non-judgemental space where she is feeling her aliveness more and more with each session. Releasing through tears, she is blooming into what she has held back. She has had pain relief and greater sense of space, more room in her fascia. She has reported less pain in her hip, neck, shoulders and chest.
I work with Doug, he had a stroke last year and has been working on his goals to regain his brain function and the cross diagonal coordination in the left and right side. A stroke can affect this coordination and the strength and function of the nervous system are affected. Doug had a lump in his back the size of two of my fists. We pulled that lump out over the course of these sessions. The numbness in his arms and fingers went away and he began to enjoy unwinding as well. We found earth-based guided imagery and hypnosis helpful in sessions. His biggest source of relief from stroke symptoms comes from his MFR treatments.
In your own path of healing, what were some obstacles you needed to overcome and how did you do it?
After my drowning experience I had anxiety and a visceral sense of not being able to breathe. There was a neurological thing going on for me and I would feel a shortness of breath. I had to work with my nervous system to not go into fight, flight or freeze. The more I tried to force myself to stop, the more it would flare up, so I brought patience and acceptance to my body and with awareness practices, I found relief.
Angela, so much of your work is about listening. What exactly do you mean and how do you do it?
So much listening. The body has an innate intelligence and if we listen, it’s all there.
When we are listening and when we are available the body responds. The body says thank you. NOBODY has been able to do this yet, my client says to me. People on my table are not only healing their body but their heart and mind. I think the biggest key is the deep listening. My work is not pre-prescribed. It is not a protocol. I come with my tool belt and read the need. When I see the architecture of the overall structure, I know and see what’s out of balance and where I can bring the body back to plumb. Then I go to work lengthening, spreading and differentiating the tissues. Almost like I am sculpting. My listening skills are always on, when my client tells me what is happening, when I am reading the body, and when I treat with hands on. The work is not painful, because I am listening to the cue of the client. The tissue and the position of the bones tells me through touch, where the greatest ease is, where it wants to be by the way it holds or releases. My job is continual listening.
The body is a map and it holds everything one must have for healing. Please talk more about this.
Our anatomy books give us maps to understand the landscape of the anatomical body. Then there’s the body of a human. Each human differs from the map of the body. We look for what is similar and different in the client.
Angela, what are your goals in working with your clients?
I am looking to alleviate symptoms by addressing the restrictions that are seen and felt in the myofascial system. I listen to my clients and what they feel in their body, and what their diagnoses, illness, pathology is. I use this information in my assessment of their structure to see what may be pulling the bones out of place, how the restrictions are pulling and I match up what I see and what I hear. I liken this to a puzzle and each detail fills in a little more about what I am doing. The more open clients are to finding and working towards their healing the deeper and farther we can go. Some clients feel good in their body and use this work as preventive medicine. People are getting smart about their healthcare and really take initiative to evolve and stay healthy.
Are you currently accepting new patients and how can one go about setting up an appointment to work with you?
I am currently accepting clients who are interested in creating positive lasting change in their body. You can find more information and book directly at solbodyworks.com. You can also call and email with questions. 503-869-6812 solbodyworks@gmail.com
