Anxiety Relief Through Myofascial Release: Understanding the Mind-Body Connection in Stress Management
In this blog post we explore how myofascial release therapy can help manage anxiety by addressing both physical and mental aspects of stress. We delve into the scientific connection between the fascial system and mental well-being, explaining how physical tension patterns can create and maintain anxiety cycles. Lastly we cover what to expect during a Myofascial release session at our Brighton and Hove based clinic.
Introduction
In today’s fast-paced world, anxiety has become increasingly common. While many traditional approaches focus solely on mental health treatments, emerging research shows the powerful connection between physical tension and mental stress.
Myofascial release therapy offers a unique approach to anxiety management by addressing both the physical and mental aspects of stress.
The relationship between physical tension and mental well-being has long been recognised in practitioners treatment rooms all over the world, but modern research is now providing scientific evidence that helps support what our intuition and client’s feedback were already telling us.
As our understanding of the body’s interconnected systems grows, we are exploring more effective ways to address metal health through hands-on physical therapy.
One particularly popular treatment method is myofascial release therapy, which targets the body’s fascial system – a complex network of connective tissue that surrounds and can be found in every muscle, bone, nerve, artery, vein, and internal organ.
Recent studies in neuroscience and biology have revealed that our emotional states are not just “in our heads” but are deeply embodied experiences that manifest throughout our physical form. When we experience anxiety, our bodies respond with various physical changes – muscle tension, altered breathing patterns, and changes in posture.
These physical manifestations can, in turn, reinforce and perpetuate the cycle of anxiety, creating a feedback loop between mind and body.
Understanding the Mind-Body Connection
The fascial system plays a crucial role in our stress response, equally the stress response plays a crucial role in the health of our Myofascial system.
With more nerve endings than the skin itself, the fascia is deeply connected with the nervous system and the brain.
Information travels from the brain to the fascial and vice versa. The brain communicates with our body through the fascia and equally the fascia communicates with the brain. This makes the fascia a powerful gateway for accessing and addressing both physical and mental tension.
The fascia contains numerous mechanoreceptors, proprioceptors, and nociceptors that continuously send information to our brain about our body’s state. This sensory feedback plays a crucial role in how we experience the world, how we perceive reality and ourselves.
How do fascial and brain communicate?
fascia to brain
The fascia is an extremely active and lively organ, it’s busy!
Its role as a sensory organ is to constantly communicate with our nervous system, acting as an advanced communication network between body and brain through multiple mechanisms.
It has mechanoreceptors for proprioception (body position awareness) that report to the somatosensory cortex in the brain, it has nerve endings for interoception (internal feeling) that connect to the insular cortex in the brain for emotional processing. The fascia also has piezoelectric properties, generating electrical signals in response to mechanical stress (changes in pressure), and can conduct light signals (biophotons), potentially acting as a body-wide signaling network.
When we address the fascia we cause positive change in the client’s physical health but we are also indirectly affecting body position awareness, the way that person feels and the way they perceive reality and themselves.
Addressing the fascia helps reset the nervous system from fight or flight to a state of restoration, where positive changes, both physical and mental, naturally happen as a result.
brain to fascia
Equally, the brain communicates and affects the myofascial system.
When we experience stress or anxiety for prolonged periods of time our body becomes a toxic potion where the fascia gets irritated as a result.
The “fight or flight” response is present in all animals, it’s incredibly efficient and much needed to get us out of trouble in emergency situations or life threatening situations.
The problem comes when this “fight or flight” response is sustained over long periods of time.
In society we experience high levels of stress that trigger our “fight or flight” response mechanism, related to old trauma (physical or psychological), life choices, general life chores (bills, personal relationships, fast life pace, media overload, etc.)
Our brain doesn’t distinguish between a real life threatening situation and stress, it interprets both as “fight or flight” and it activates that response mechanism to help us.
Our bodies were designed for short bursts of “fight or flight” response; real life threatening situations resolve quickly, either we die or we scape/come out victorious (think about coming across a lion in the middle of the jungle, you either scape or die, either way it doesn’t last long!) Once the situation comes to a conclusion, the parasympathetic system kicks in and our body returns to its normal restorative calm state.
When the cause of the “fight or flight” response is stress there is no quick resolution, our problems go on forever. The body remains in “fight or flight” for long periods of time, the nervous system in alert.
Our bodies weren’t designed for this.
When sustained overtime, the stress response becomes a health problem and our myofascial system, which responds so sensitively to the environment, gets inflamed as a result, developing restrictions, as well as affecting posture and breathing patterns and our ability to precessing and analysing situations (with the health implications that these alone have in our life).
This brain-to-fascia communication is important because it shows how our mental state can create physical tension patterns in the body.
Once triggered, the fascia has a mind of its own, as we’ve seen above the fascia sends information back to the brain which reinforces anxiety in a continuous feedback loop.
The Role of Myofascial Release in Anxiety Management
Addressing physical tension in the fascial network:
Myofascial restrictions can develop as a result of stress, poor posture, or trauma (emotional/physical). Regardless of the cause, these restrictions contribute to perpetuate the cycle of stress and anxiety. Addressing these restrictions through Myofascial release will alleviate both pain and other physical symptoms as well as positively impact the nervous system, and therefore the stress response.
Helping restore parasympathetic nervous system activity: Elaborating on the point made above, the body’s “rest and digest” response (parasympathetic nervous system) gets activated as a result of Myofascial release or reduced inflammation in the myofascial tissue.
Breaking the cycle of stress response: By addressing both physical tension and nervous system activation, myofascial release helps interrupt the feedback loop between physical tension and mental stress. When the body releases chronic tension patterns, it becomes easier for the mind to think clearly and let go of anxious thoughts and toxic patterns. A grounded individual, connected with their true essence and isolated from unnecessary “noise” is naturally at peace, knows what it’s best for them and acts with clarity.
Creating a space for mental relaxation and healing:
During treatment, clients often experience a meditative state that allows for emotional processing and mental reset. This combination of physical and mental relaxation creates optimal conditions for healing and stress reduction.
What to Expect During Treatment
A myofascial release session focused on anxiety management aims to invite the client’s body into a meditative state where emotional processing and healing happens naturally.
The therapist is not a healer but a specialist in inviting these deep relaxation state into the client’s body.
Healing happens by itself, as our natural state of being takes over.
You can expect a setup similar to a regular massage treatment.
The therapist will use different techniques to achieve their goal and these will vary slightly depending on each person and their tensional patterns or the bodily areas where they hold myofascial restrictions.
Some of these techniques involve very slow strokes where gentle firm pressure is applied.
It is slow for two main reasons:
-
The myofascial tissue mechanoreceptors respond to pressure changes, we need to allow time for these changes to be triggered/happen.
- When gentle sustained pressure is applied to the fascia, it initiates a fascinating physiological response. The initial pressure causes fluid (mainly water) to move out of the compressed area (like when you squeeze a sponge). When this pressure is released, there’s a rebound effect where fresh blood and nutrients flood back into the area, creating what’s known as a “therapeutic pulse.” This fluid exchange helps:
- Remove metabolic waste products and inflammatory substances
- Deliver fresh nutrients and oxygen to the tissues
- Promote better hydration of the fascial tissues
- Stimulate cellular repair and regeneration
The slow, sustained pressure allows time for this physiological response.
The therapist works with the body’s natural responses rather than against them
Slow steady and firm pressure where the therapists sinks through the layers and “asks permission” the the body to access the deeper layers or the inflamed areas versus a more forceful approach of pushing against the tissue, like it can happen in other styles of therapy.
Focus on whole-body tension patterns
The fascia is a fascinating continuous network that consists of a single piece of fabric, that means that it doesn’t divide, IT’S ONE.
Tensions and restrictions in one area of the network will affect balance and health of the whole system, pain felt in one area can be the result of restrictions elsewhere. For this reason myofascial release is approached with a whole-body idea in mind.
Integration of breathing and mindfulness techniques
We teach clients how to breathe.
On one hand, there is a deep connection between breathing patterns and anxiety or stress.
On another hand, the breathing muscles and other structures involved in breathing are part of the myofascial system. Muscles like the diaphragm or the scalene muscles and even the iliopsoas muscle and deep core muscles are part of deep myofascial lines, are interconnected between them and are fundamental in breathing mechanics.
Most of us don’t know how to engage these muscles at all during breathing, or get them to work correctly. This reinforces both postural patterns that are not functional and anxiety/stress patterns.
For this reason it’s part of our treatment plan to educate clients into better breathing patterns that will improve overall mental and physical.
Recap
Understanding the intimate connection between our fascial system and mental health opens new possibilities for those seeking anxiety and stress management. Myofascial release stands out as a solid treatment option that offers a holistic approach capable of addressing both the physical and mental aspects of stress, helping restore balance and promote healing throughout the body and the mind, while simultaneously being a deeply relaxing and nourishing experience.
References:
These sources provide scientific evidence for the connection between the fascial system and mental well-being, as well as detailed explanations of how myofascial release therapy works through the body’s connective tissue network.
Schleip, R. and Klingler, W. (2019) ‘Active fascial contractility: An in vitro mechanographic investigation’, Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 23(1), pp. 138-144.
Myers, T.W. (2020) Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual Therapists and Movement Professionals. 4th edn. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Bordoni, B. and Simonelli, M. (2018) ‘The Awareness of the Fascial System’, Cureus, 10(10), e3397.
Van der Kolk, B. (2014) The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York: Viking.
Porges, S.W. (2011) The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. New York: W.W. Norton.
Price, C.J. and Hooven, C. (2018) ‘Interoceptive Awareness Skills for Emotion Regulation: Theory and Approach of Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT)’, Frontiers in Psychology, 9, p.798.
Levine, P.A. (2010) In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
About the author
Rocio Santiago
MA in Nursing, Dip. Soft Tissue Therapy
Ro initially began her career as a nurse. Following this and after a difficult time in her life that resulted in a career change, Ro went on to train at one of the leading soft tissue therapy schools in Europe, completing a 3 year degree level course and specialising in effective soft tissue manipulation for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain.
The treatment method Ro uses consists of a combined approach using different specialised techniques, myofascial release and trigger point work among others, with the intention and focus on providing effective results in the least possible amount of time.
Combining her training, science background and life experience, her treatment method is based in science and built using a whole body approach, where mind and body are addressed as one.
Ro has been seeing clients as a soft tissue therapist for 8 years, successfully treating a wide range of conditions.