About

Health and wellness have always been important to me, but I have not always been healthy and well.  Our lives can be quite complicated and before you know it, we all get off-balance.

 

I still find myself seeking healthier ways to live a more vibrant life, fine-tuning the way I live, taking baby-steps along the way.

 

I went into massage therapy primarily to help myself, but also because I feel called to help others as well.  I wanted to understand my body and try and figure out how to get past my aches and pains.  When I signed up with massage school, I was dealing with a rotator cuff injury and had to give a number of massages with just one arm.  But, what I learned in school and through my self studies, has helped me to heal my own injury.

Helping you nurture your body back to comfort and joy.

Massage ‘N Motion

            Therapeutics

Renee Baker, Ph.D., LMT

3530 Forest Lane, Suite 306

Dallas, TX 75234

214-607-5620

 

Massage is an ancient way of healing.  Touch is the natural response we have to pain.  Much of our pain lies in the muscular system, so massage is the natural vehicle to facilitate the healing.  Most people are not aware of the importance of massage and instead turn to pain pills and surgery, which can exacerbate the problem. 

 

It is best to think of pain as simply a way for your body to tell you it needs some attention.  Pain pills tell our body to be quiet, but the underlying dysfunction remains.

 

I have worked through many of my own injuries, trusting in the innate ability of the body to heal itself.  If we provide the body with the right conditions, it can repair itself.  In fact, there is no other way.  The body must heal itself or it will not heal.  If we do not heal, and move past our pain, it will continue to spread like a domino effect and we will eventually die.

 

I also come at massage as a former marathon runner.  I am only running short runs now and prefer to walk, but I learned a great deal about the limits of the human body when I was running marathons.

 

I have had injuries to all the load bearing joints in my body.  I have injured both of my ankles from long distance running, not from the running itself, but sprained from landing wrong while going off of a curve.  I had to loosen up my tendons and re-align collagen fibers to overcome my pain, with the aid of self-massage.  No surgery was needed.

 

I have injured my right knee, from too much running.  My kneecap was turned 15 degrees from an imbalance of strength.  My IT band on the outside of my leg was too tight and abductor muscles on the inside too weak, causing a rotation.  I had to massage my outer leg muscles to loosen them, while strengthening my inner leg muscles.  My kneecap is now in place.  No surgery was needed and I don’t need pain pills.

 

I had rotation in my hip joints.  I walked like a duck with everted feet.  With massage, I worked through my knots with trigger point therapy and returned to a normal walk. 

 

I damaged both shoulders.  Once from getting scared when a horse came at me and another time from inactivity in certain ranges of use—in other words, too much computer life.  I had to use muscle energy technique massage to overcome my injuries. 

 

I had scoliosis from a car accident.  My upper thoracic back was S-shaped.  Coupled with much neck pain, I worked it all out with massage and muscle energy techniques.  Most people don’t realize that scoliosis is often a muscular problem and not skeletal.  The bones do what the muscles tell them to do and when our spine are S-shaped or we are hunched over, it is because we have muscular work to do, strengthening the right areas, weakening others, and stretching and massage.

 

Have you ever seen an elderly person hunched over.  Well, it doesn’t start out like that.  Many people I see have a forward head projection.  I did too.  It can be overcome.  If we wait too late for massage and stretching, calcification occurs.  We begin to stoop more and more.  It happens 1 degree at a time...don’t wait until it is too late.  Just spend time each day with your hands held high and looking up...there is more to it, but you get the idea.

 

My lower back too often was in pain.  My abdominal muscles were too weak and my back muscles too tense.  Through massage, stretching and muscle positioning release techniques, I overcame my pain.  (I admit I occasionally have to relearn this lesson and get back to balance!)

 

All my pain, through discipline and knowledge of the human body, was now gone.  I still have to pay attention to my health, it takes daily effort to stay in balance.  We get off-balance easily in this world, so it is good to get massage regularly.  Yoga and stretching are wonderful too, and necessary, but not a substitute for massage.  

 

Most importantly, we need to learn how to take care of ourselves.  I am happy to help you in anyway I can, so that you too, can get on a path to overcome your own pain.  There are many simple techniques that most of us don’t know about that can really change our lives.

 

I am hear to help you empower yourself, because that is the only real way for you to get to a place of peace, balance and comfort.  

 

Wishing you well,

 

Renee  Baker