14/08/2026
Much of what we describe as chronic pain doesn’t begin where the pain is felt.
Over time, the spine adapts to gravity, injury, surgery, emotional stress and the countless demands placed upon it. As those adaptations accumulate, the body’s fascial network distributes tension throughout the whole system. What begins as a local adaptation can eventually become a global pattern.
The fascia doesn’t just connect muscles. It provides the body with a continuous network through which movement, tension, shock and protective reflexes are coordinated.
Breath is central to that process.
Every breath influences the movement of the rib cage, diaphragm, spine and nervous system. When breathing becomes restricted, those protective patterns often become increasingly fixed. When breathing is restored, the body has an opportunity to reorganise itself from the inside out.
This understanding is reflected across many areas of trauma-informed practice. In The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk highlights the importance of body-based approaches in helping people recover from traumatic experiences. Before thoughts can change, the body often needs opportunities to experience safety, movement and regulation.
My work sits within that same appreciation of the body’s capacity to reorganise itself.
By restoring movement to the thoracic cage, integrating breath with touch and encouraging fascia to yield rather than resist, we create conditions in which the body can begin to integrate patterns that may have developed over many years.
When the body becomes more integrated, movement becomes easier, posture becomes more efficient and breathing becomes less of an effort.
The body has always known how to organise itself.
Sometimes it just needs the opportunity.
— Christian Platts
