Helping people with chronic pain return to an active lifestyle
We empower clients to make meaningful changes in their health and in their life
We help clients with chronic pain who truly want to get better at a deeper level. They want to find and address the real cause of their pain and are done treating “just” the symptoms.
The medical system and traditional approaches have a time and place, but right now those things aren’t serving them they way they need.
The immediate pain or diagnosis that brings a client in for treatment is probably not the real issue anyway - otherwise the problem would have been fixed with everything else they’ve already tried. If they are being honest, many clients have had something going on for years.
There is a whole lifetime of injury, overuse, stress and trauma that is at play in the body.
Our clients want to take their healing journey into their own hands, and make substantial, meaningful progress. They are open-minded and need an effective therapy that is open-minded as well.
Our clients want to have less pain. Maybe even no pain.
Our clients want to be able to do activities they used to do but cannot now.
Our clients want to feel better, live better, and take care of themselves.
What is Myofascial release?
Myofascial release (MFR) is a safe, gentle, and highly effective body-work therapy for treating chronic pain. We provide the “John Barnes” style of Myofascial Release at our practice.
Chronic pain can be coming from any number of sources: stress, health conditions, new and old injuries, surgery, trauma, posture, holding patterns, overuse/misuse doing activities that you enjoy, or perhaps your chronic pain remains unexplained.
MFR is a hands-on technique that applies gentle, sustained pressure for several minutes in targeted areas of the body to facilitate the release of tension in your fascial system. Your fascial system supports and protects you, but restrictions in it can cause chronic pain and reduce the ability for movement.
MFR treatments are individualized for each person, and both the client and therapist are actively involved in the session.
Myofascial release first treats your symptoms to bring you some much-needed relief, but then seeks to find and release the cause of the pain - which might be in a different location of the body. We look beyond the immediate pain or diagnosis and over time clients get more effective results.
What is Pain?
Pain is a message.
What is your body trying to communicate?
Is it taking over your life? Keeping you from sleeping?
Do you ignore it? Push through? Tune it out?
… how is that working out for you?
With myofascial release, we get very curious. During treatment, we get quiet and breathe. Where do we feel pain, tightness, or discomfort the most?
When we actually get quiet, maybe it’s in a completely other part of the body that we never even noticed. Sometimes, one area of the body was shouting so loud at us that we didn’t even hear the other parts.
While we are doing an MFR technique in one location of the body, say your shoulder or neck, very often a client will say “you know, this is kind of strange, but I actually feel that in my low back!” Or hip, or ankle, or pinky…
The body is pointing the way toward fascial restrictions that are creating your pain. The body is wise.
Your fascial system is a 3D body system that interacts with all other body systems.
Fascia covers and infuses your muscles down to the smallest muscle fibers, it wraps your bones, your tendons, your organs, your blood vessels, your nerves, it fills the spaces between cells… everything.
Your fascia is everywhere and it is entirely connected.
A fascial restriction in one part of the body can restrict other areas of the body.
Therefore, releasing a restriction in one part of the body can release other areas of the body.
In myofascial release, we honor what comes up and treat that next. We don’t necessarily work in a “logical” way, and we certainly do not follow protocols that may or may not even apply to you. We can, but the work is much more effective if we just follow what the body tells us. If we are working on your neck and your elbow starts to feel it for no apparent reason, we may just work on your elbow next.
The fascial system is not linear.
Healing is not linear.
If we listen to what your body tells us through the fascial system, significant changes are created.
What is a Diagnosis?
Ultimately, a “diagnosis” is just a description of your symptoms.
Think about that for a moment.
Symptoms describe what you feel and what is showing up. Maybe you have a bulging disc at C6/C7. Maybe you have fibromyalgia. Maybe you have migraines. Maybe you have tendonitis from work. These diagnoses put a label on your symptoms.
Maybe your symptoms don’t even fall into a category and your medical provider can’t explain it.
Treating symptoms is one method of feeling less pain. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t. But rarely does it actually address the problem.
Many clients choose to share their imaging and test results with us which can be helpful. There is usually more to the story than those results, and THAT is what we are intrigued with. Your diagnosis, your symptoms, and any test results are a starting point in myofascial release therapy.
We are interested in finding and releasing the cause of your pain, which in turn eliminates the symptoms.
How much better will your life be when that happens?
What is an MFR Session Like?
At Pacific Myofascial Release, our clients have 75 minute appointments.
In the first ten minutes or so, we check in about any of these things:
how you’re feeling right now
what has come up since the last treatment
anything that has changed in your awareness
This is where you really have the opportunity to share and make the most of your healing process.
An MFR treatment doesn’t always end when you leave the room. Maybe since your last treatment, you had a memory surface that is at play in your body. Maybe you're reading one of our recommended books and want to talk about something that caught your attention. Maybe you discovered a pattern from your posture, work, or activity that isn’t helping your goals and want to bring it up for treatment. Whatever has come up, this time for conversation before your treatment is an opportunity to show up for yourself and get the healing that you came for.
Next, we are going to turn our focus to the work at hand:
“How is this showing up in your body? What are you feeling?”
Using that information, then we get started with MFR.
During the session, clients get 60 minutes of myofascial release treatment that is purely focused on you.
The more present you are in your body and FEEL, and the more you are willing to be open-minded and curious, the greater the opportunity you have for change.
MFR is a hands-on therapy, and there are release techniques for whatever shows up during the session as pain, tightness, or discomfort in the body. It’s common for clients after their first visit to remark how gentle the work is… but… also that it’s completely different than anything they’ve tried before. Most of the session is done without socializing, and you are strongly encouraged to share out what you’re feeling as it arises. The most effective MFR treatments occur when we truly listen to what your body has to say. Intuition is very welcomed.
The last 5 minutes or so allows time for you to ask any questions that might have come up, as well as learn about self-treatment and self-care.
Most clients purchase packages and come for treatment weekly, but if you’re here for a single visit to try it out, that is when you’ll pay for the treatment and book your next appointment.
When you begin treatment at Pacific Myofascial Release, we will spend time - especially at your first session - talking about your goals and discussing your health history.
We want to be aware of anatomical things going on in your body - your past injuries, surgeries, conditions, diagnoses and current symptoms (*please read our earlier section on diagnoses!). It’s helpful to list as much as you can on your forms - sometimes your past accidents and surgeries never fully healed or have scarring and are still causing restrictions in your body. At some point we will do a posture analysis to see what’s going on from that perspective as well.
We also really want to understand your goals. Is your pain keeping you from work? Keeping you from showing up as your best self? Maybe an activity you love to do has become painful and you miss doing that activity? Or maybe you’ve always had chronic pain and now you’re ready for change and a new way of experiencing your life.
Many of our clients come in with one goal and it shifts as they start receiving myofascial release therapy. This could be for any number of reasons and we welcome updates on your goals! Some clients didn’t realize that MFR could help so many aspects of their health - or didn’t believe they could get better and now they realize it is possible. Some clients have past trauma, and as treatment progresses they decide that they want to get past the effects of that experience.
MFR increases mind-body awareness. As our treatments progress, we learn to get quiet, be present, and breathe… We start to perceive how we feel in a new way, we start to view pain in a new way. We start to see the impact on our body from our activities and work. We also might learn how emotions show up in the body - they (stress, worry, anxiety, etc) have a feel to them, can be described, and show up in specific locations in your body.
Changes in our awareness add new dimensions to our healing process.
“Without awareness, there is no choice”
As clients increase their awareness, often they start to make new intentional choices. They have their goals, they are seeing results, and they choose a new way of doing something in their life. This can look like many different things:
taking care of themselves
self-treatment in between appointments
setting up better ergonomics for work, driving, etc.
developing patience with their healing process
being intentional with their movement and exercise
choosing feeling well instead of running themselves into the ground with work and stress
And often, these new choices bring even more awareness, which leads us to a new layer of how things are showing up in the body, which leads to even better health…
Our Process
Kristin Kunzelman
Owner of Pacific Myofascial Release
Expert Level MFR Therapist
Kristin Kunzelman is dedicated to helping others overcome their chronic pain so that they can enjoy their life more fully. She helps clients with their immediate needs as well as achieving their long-term goals. She believes in striving to find and release the cause of your pain, rather than just temporarily helping your symptoms. Kristin connects with her clients, truly listens to them to understand their goals, and facilitates a unique process for each client to achieve their own improved health and well-being. She loves helping clients of all ages, from newborns to those enjoying their retirement, and would love to help YOU!
Having experienced three neck injuries in five years, she understands the impact that chronic pain can have on your life. She was an MFR patient for five years before she became a therapist; she knows the ups and downs, the frustrations and set-backs, and the wins and happiness when you get back to being who you want to be. Not only did MFR help her get back to work and doing the activities she enjoys without pain, it also developed into a meaningful journey in health and awareness. MFR changed her life.
Kristin connects with the saying, “Healing is a process, not an event.” She truly believes that the body can and wants to heal itself, and views her role as a facilitator in this process. She views this work as a partnership with her clients, and listens to what they and their bodies have to say.
Kristin specializes in and only provides the John F. Barnes approach to myofascial release therapy. She regularly attends MFR seminars around the country to continue her education, and has studied alongside John F. Barnes P.T. and the expert practitioners at his treatment center in Sedona, AZ.
To date, her MFR coursework includes:
MFR 1, MFR 2, MFR 3
Fascial-Pelvis, Cervical-Thoracic, Fascial Cranium
Pediatrics, Mobilizations, Rebounding
Unwinding, Advanced Unwinding
Subtle Energy, Quantum Leap
Skill Enhancement Seminar
Therapy for the Therapist
In addition to her training in Myofascial Release Therapy, Kristin attended the University of Puget Sound for her undergraduate work (Music Education), University of Colorado at Boulder for her Masters degree (Music Education, Jazz Studies, K-12 Teaching Credential), and San Francisco School of Massage & Bodywork (CA CMT License).
Prior to becoming a Myofascial Release Therapist, Kristin taught music at all levels in both the public schools and in the non-profit industry where she also taught music teachers. Kristin continues to play flute in community orchestras and study piano. Outside of work and music, Kristin loves to travel, hike, practice yoga, and cook.
Pacific Myofascial Release is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are in Burlingame, just south of San Francisco Airport on the peninsula, off of highway 101.
Our Top Book Recommendations
A Patient’s Guide to Understanding Myofascial Release
by Cathy Covell
An easy to read book that provides “simple answers to frequently asked questions” about MFR.
Waking the Tiger; Healing Trauma
by Peter A. Levine
Explains trauma, the freeze response, and what happens if the healing process isn’t able to complete.
Healing Ancient Wounds
by John F. Barnes
A much deeper dive into Myofascial Release with a little bit of everything: process, science, testimonials, stories, and other helpful information for the healing journey.
Comprehensive Myofascial Self Treatment
by Joyce Karnis
A resource to continue care on your own between treatments. Provides explanations, photos, MFR stretches, work with props such as a therapy ball which we provide to regular clients on packages.