I have been practicing massage for over 18 years. I am an empath. What that means, for me, is that I can feel on my body where it hurts in others. Honestly, I wouldn’t have believed that if someone had told me that about themselves before it happened to me. But almost 20 years later, here I am. It has changed my life, and it has been a gift that, on a good day, allows me to help heal and change the lives of others.

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My pressure is naturally deep. Though I rarely ever use the full amount of pressure that I am capable of unless specifically requested, I would describe my technique as firm. I use slow, deep movements that gradually build to allow muscles to release tension, relax, and allow fresh blood, oxygen, and nutrients to enter the tissue.

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When people walk into my office, I will typically feel their pain in my body right away, which guides me and allows me to know a little bit about what’s going on with them. One of the things I see very often starts in the hips. When the hips become misaligned, this can cause the surrounding muscles to naturally pull while walking. Our body structure is designed to be anatomical, or straight, in alignment. When there is a structural imbalance, the body will naturally try to correct itself.

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During this process, and over time, the muscles fatigue and fill with toxins or lactic acid. When a muscle uses energy, it creates waste. That waste travels through the capillaries and is filtered out through the blood and kidneys. When there is a lot going on with a muscle, the capillaries can become bogged down, and the waste will stay in the muscle. This is okay, because it will then be processed by the lymphatic system. The only problem is that the lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump—it works through movement of the body.

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Consequently, if you are living a static lifestyle, or if the muscle group is thick—such as the glutes—the waste can remain there until it is pushed out naturally. The problem occurs when a muscle fills with this waste or lactic acid; it can literally cause the muscle to stop firing. The glutes are the largest muscle group in this area of the body, so they do most of the work. If the glutes stop firing, the smaller muscles around them will take up the slack—specifically the gluteus minimus and the quadratus lumborum. This then pulls across the body to the opposing shoulder.

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What’s interesting is that the muscles will then pull across the back and affect the neck and shoulders. So if you’re having an issue, for example, with the right side of your neck, very often the issue is stemming from the left hip.