Inter-X-Connected

Teaching Gestalt Therapy Theory and Neurobiology to enthusiastic students at the fabulous Gestalt Institute in Randers / Denmark.

https://www.gestaltinstituttet.dk/

Depression is a complex condition that despite much research, is still in many ways a mystery. Similarly mysterious is the fascial tissue(thin tissue that wraps every organ /muscle, blood vessels/nerve in the body). The fascial tissue was initially thought to be garbage and excluded from all anatomy text books. But over the last 20 years, it has been shown that fascia is a highly complex and refined tissue with more nerve endings and biochemical processes than any other tissue in the body. While the mind/body connection for depression has been discussed for a long time, there has not been much scientific data supporting this discussion.

However, a recent study has shown that in clients with major depressive disorder the myofascial (muscle +fascia) tissue has increased stiffness and reduced elasticity They also showed that foam rolling had a positive impact on the stiffness. This lead us to speculate that perhaps massage or bodywork could benefit depressed clients by reducing the stiffness of their myofascial tissue. The end result of this could in theory change the messages from the body to the brain and thus impact the neurobiology underlying depression. More research is needed before these speculations can be confirmed or dismissed.

In the meantime, it is important for people with depression to explore alternative healing modalities like massage or bodywork. For the massage therapist it is, as always, important to be attuned to their client and adjust the work to fit the particular client’s needs, so listen carefully to what the tissue has to say.

Myofascial tissue and Depression
Johannes Michalaket al..
Accepted: 25 November 2021 / Published online: 21 December 2021 ©
The author(s) 2021