About NeuroKinetic Therapy® (NKT)
NeuroKinetic Therapy® (NKT) is an assessment and treatment technique of imbalances in the body related to movement and breathing patterns.
NKT aims to find the underlying reasons for pain, discomfort, or limitations you may feel you have in your body, not merely treating symptoms. If you have been to traditional therapists and get temporary relief, but the issues keep coming back, this may be the missing link!
NKT is Based on Neuroscience
NKT is based on neuroscience, using manual muscle testing to communicate with the nervous system to determine and correct the underlying causes of dysfunctions in the body caused by movement or breathing patterns learned by the brain.
Our bodies contain almost a thousand muscles and joints, which are coordinated and controlled by our brain via the nervous system (motor control centre). Using a computer analogy, you can think of this as the ‘software’ of our body (hardware). We learn patterns of movements all our life, but some times our brain learns patterns that cause us issues. This is what NKT aims to identify and help change!
Potential Benefits of NKT
There are many benefits possible with NKT as motor control issues related to movement and breathing patterns can affect a lot of different things throughout the body.
An NKT View of Chronic/Recurrent Issues
Our brain is very clever and has the ability to learn incredibly complex things.
But, if it’s so clever, why can it cause issues?
The brain does what it can to protect the body or do things efficiently. This isn’t always benign. As human beings, we may develop poor lifestyle habits (e.g., poor posture, sitting too much or doing a lot of repetitive movements), get injuries or experience physical and emotional traumas.
Let’s say you injure your ankle. Muscles in the area are likely to tense up to create stability in order to keep you safe. As such, the brain learns a new pattern. The pattern may also become global, affecting your knees, hips, back and neck as we move in a way to protect ourselves or reduce the pain. So, while your brain kept you safer while your ankle injury healed, the new pattern in your brain may cause long-term issues throughout your body as muscles continue to be recruited to do things they aren’t meant to. This can be particularly painful if smaller muscles are overworking for larger muscles that aren’t doing what they’re supposed to.
Using NKT assessment protocols, such patterns may be identified. We break down movement patterns into its components, and identify and activate under working (neurologically under active) muscles. Once that is done, we then release the overactive ones (using massage techniques). This applies to other structures in the body as well, like scars.
So, that muscle tension or pain that keeps coming back may be there for a reason. Until you address the reason, it probably won’t let go.
NKT Empowers You to Change
An NKT practitioner doesn’t fix you – you’re an active participant in changing yourself!
In the same way the brain learned a pattern that caused issues, you need to help it learn new, healthier, patterns after an NKT session. Essentially, the brains needs reminding in order to transfer the benefits of an NKT treatment from short-term memory in to long-term memory for lasting effects!
A treatment needs to be followed up by you doing some homework, which typically is no more than a few minutes 2-3 times a day.
Example homework: 1 minute self-massage or stretching of calf muscle. 5-10 repetitions of glute activation exercise.
As such, NKT is really all about helping you help yourself – working with your body and brain to make the changes you want to make for your own health and wellbeing.
Treatment Details
An NKT treatment is one hour.
Prior to the first treatment, a thorough consultation is conducted, which is free of charge. The duration of this depends on your condition and medical history, but it generally takes about 30 minutes.
A typical treatment session involves the following:
• Discussing your issues and relevant history.
• Functional movement assessment and orthopaedic testing.
• Muscle testing and palpation.
• Release of facilitated muscles and activation of inhibited muscles.
• Discussing and agreeing homework.
If you have any questions or would like to book an appointment, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Latest NKT Blog Posts
The power of changing movement patterns
Common questions about NeuroKinetic Therapy (NKT) include: "How does it work?", "Can it help me?" and "When will I feel a positive change?". For me, a great way to understand the answers to such questions is to have some [...]
Just because a muscle is tight and painful doesn’t mean you should stretch or release it
Consider this: a tight and even painful muscle is that way it is for a reason. Depending on what that reason is, stretching or releasing it may be the worst thing you can do. Are there times when it's [...]
The importance of moving your body
It's a new year and it's the first blog post I write for Ephemeral Energy. It's also related to what was the start of my journey of improving my own health and wellbeing. This could have been entitled "the [...]
