Team Body Transcendence

Jill Branch

Jill Branch headshot

NC License #19375

Clients often ask me how I got into this work. Here's the story.

I had been practicing traditional massage for almost 10 years before I found structural integration. But if I'm being honest, I think it found me.

Like many people, I used to get massages every month for my trouble areas. For me, that was my neck (I had headaches almost daily). Massage and chiropractic helped alleviate my symptoms for a bit, but they always came back within a few days. I saw the same pattern with my clients and most of them were in worse shape than I was.

I was always on the lookout for something more. Even with all the continuing ed courses I took, it felt like something was missing. I wasn't looking for something that would just last longer. I wanted to find what would actually help people get better.

I seriously considered persuing an intensive specialization in trigger point therapy. Of all the types of massage I had, that seemed to work the best for me. Who knows why I didn't follow through with it...I think my subconsicous was waiting for something bigger.

I began working with a structural integrator and when I received some sessions from him, I quickly realized this wasn't just a different style of massage. He worked on places that no one else ever had, in a way no one else ever had. It was different than anything else I'd experienced. It was actually changing my body, not just helping me feel better for a little while.

I stopped having regular neck pain and headaches. But it was more than that. I finally found what I had been looking for all those years...transformation.

Kevin Keithley headshot

Kevin Keithley

A math-guy, ex-meathead who hopes you can learn from his mistakes.

I started like a lot of you reading this. I had back pain that I was pretty sure you couldn't do anything about. I was pretty sure because I was an athlete, lifted weights, and spent all my spare time reading fitness articles and the latest research on the human body. I was already doing all the right things anyway.

It wasn't until my complaining lead to enough badgering from my mom when I was home from college that I finally got a session of structural integration. Holy @$&!, why I haven't heard of this before?! Stuff was happening that wasn't supposed to be possible.

I can remember these things like they were yesterday. I stood up after having one hip and leg worked on. It was longer and straighter than the other leg! I could feel it AND see it. I learned this wasn't an accident, there was this person named Ida Rolf who actually figured this all out a while ago.

I realized some common lifting ideologies were just plain wrong. I came back for another session and said, “They tell everyone to pull their shoulder blades together to make a solid platform for benching. That's wrong!”

I was out of pain (permanently) relatively quickly, but the work was so much more. There really isn't a limit to how good you can feel in your body. And nobody was talking about the work, because they didn't even know it existed, or it just wasn't done very well.

It was time for a career change.

Fast forward to the present, and I now realize how strange I was as a client. What was so obvious to me, isn't very obvious to most people. Maybe part of the difference was my physical background. Another part was probably the time period in my life. I was in college and didn't have much of real life getting in the way.

Whatever the reasons, I've come to appreciate the differences in peoples' backgrounds, and have the knowledge and experience to help get you to the place where you probably didn't even know you wanted to go.

“ ”

So many people are still asking, ‘What should I feel?’ I say to them, ‘Well, who the heck knows what you should feel except you.’ I can’t feel what you feel. -Ida Rolf

Our promise to you

We have experienced first hand how a physically organized body lends itself to improvement in all aspects of life. It has given us a platform for continuous personal growth and allowed us to tackle the unknown. Going through the process of structural integration has not only transformed how we feel physically, but in many ways has become a philosophy for us to live by.

We are committed to understanding how the body works and how to continually improve our abilities to help yours function optimally. We are also committed to sharing the things that have helped make our lives better with you. Through SI series work, educational videos, writings, and our own experiences, we hope to help you as you embark on your own journey of physical transformation.

Your commitment to us

People tend to fall in two categories when it comes to body awareness: those who think they have it, and those who think they don't. Too often, both are wrong.

The process of removing fascial twist from your body can be humbling, exciting, and even scary. You've never had any tangible experience with your body in this way. How well will you process the information your body is giving you? Those who are discerning and perceptive will do well as receivers, those who are merely skeptical or have a body awareness ego are best served elsewhere.

It could be accurately said that most, if not all people, will have already determined what they're going to get out of Structural Integration before they've even received a session. People experience success in direct proportion to their willingness and desire to just listen, learn, and participate with what is going on in their body during and after sessions.

Enjoy the journey!