My Practice & Philosophy
My background in aeronautical engineering taught me to think in terms of whole systems rather than just component parts. In a complex, integrated system like the human body, everything affects everything else.
For example, back pain often begins with shortening and tightening in the abdominal muscles, though this is not intuitively obvious. Later, the spasm pattern may spread down the leg, so symptomatically this will resemble sciatica pain. Yet working on the muscles in the lower back and leg will do next to nothing to resolve the problem, because that is not where it started. We have to address the source.
Another example: A subtle 3-degree shift in pelvic tilt—practically invisible to an untrained eye—can rebalance a person’s entire posture and, surprisingly, eliminate neck pain, because it enables the cervical spine to assume its natural curve.
Determining Treatment
To effectively treat pain and injury, a healer must accurately determine which body tissues are involved and how they are involved, identifying “culprit” tissues rapidly and precisely. While this may sound straightforward, it requires sound clinical judgment and a comprehensive understanding of anatomy, physiology and kinesiology. Knowing the referring pain patterns is essential to successful treatment and sustained pain relief. If you have recurrent pain in the heel of your foot, this typically has nothing to do with the foot itself. It originates in one of your calf muscles and is felt in your foot.
In treating musculoskeletal issues, the therapeutic technique must fit the problem. Otherwise, treatment may not only be ineffective; it can actually make things worse. This is why I use a number of different approaches, including but not limited to:
- neuromuscular therapy and myofascial release (to clear fascial restrictions).
- passive positional release.
- muscle energy work.
- Muscle Release Technique™.
- PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) stretching.
- Active Isolated Stretching™ (usually assigned as homework).
All of these methods work at various times. However, my preferred method is AMR, as it efficiently allows me to treat acute soft tissue injuries without risk of causing additional trauma from pressure applied during treatment.
Meet Olga
I was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. When I was very young, my parents gave me a medical encyclopedia. It became my favorite book as I was growing up. The workings of the human body amazed me.
Though I became an aeronautical engineer (like both of my parents), this fascination with anatomy never left me. I realized that the human body is an engineering masterpiece. Our central nervous systems are electrical networks; our circulation is governed by the laws of hydraulics; our minds are complex software processors with multiple codes (often in need of rewriting!). And best of all, our musculoskeletal systems are elaborate mechanical structures with high redundancy. The body is an engineer’s dream, a self-regulating system!
This is the perspective I now bring to bodywork. I make adjustments that reset the body to its optimal self-regulating mode. I’m still an engineer at heart, but today I am an engineer of the beautiful human body.
Of course, the body is far more complex than any human-made device, no matter how sophisticated. That’s why, in my approach, I respect the fact that Nature knows best, and my purpose is to restore balance allowing your body to function as it was designed to.