Balance, Mobility, Strength
In a typical session with me, we start with determining what your goals are and work from there. I weave in ideas and techniques from various sources. These sessions are done fully clothed in comfortable, stretchy material to accommodate wide ranges of movement. Sessions with me include light, hands-on touch as well as learning specific moves/tools/exercises for your unique body to help support, balance, and strengthen your body.
Optimize Space. Reduce Pain. Improve Core and Pelvic Floor Function.
All bodies can benefit from these modalities of bodywork and movement, however my focus has been on supporting people in their journey of pregnancy (from fertility through postpartum) as well as doing bodywork on newborns. Starting earlier than the third trimester to create balance, optimal space, and function in the body is more than ideal – it is preferred. The movements learned in sessions with me help create a functional core and pelvic floor, minimize pain, and increase body resilience and also tend to help with baby positioning. These sessions are especially recommended for first-time pregnancies, those planning for a VBAC, and those individuals who want a better birth experience than they had previously. (but truly, they can be beneficial for all bodies!). For your postpartum body (or any body with core or pelvic floor issues), the movement instruction I provide can help retrain your core and pelvic floor muscles to be functional, reflexive, responsive and supportive to your body. Learn to move better, exercise better, uncover movement compensation patterns and create new patterns of strength, mobility, length and support.
Each session is based on your specific body and needs. You will leave with 3 moves/tips specific to your body to help you with your functional strength, mobility, and alignment.
My training, knowledge, and skills come from a broad and diverse range of sources.
Three of my main sources of training are from Dynamic Body Balancing (DBB) and Body Ready MethodⓇ (BRMⓇ) and Restore Your CoreⓇ (RYCⓇ)(you can learn more about those individual trainings below). I also weave in techniques and ideas that I have learned through Spinning BabiesⓇ, the Institute for Birth Healing, and from Maria Antonescu of Massage and Movement in Duluth.
I also provide Newborn Craniosacral care. These sessions can help address imbalances in the baby's body. Baby bodywork can help ease breastfeeding issues, colic, constipation, and other issues. You will end the session knowing a few of the things you can do with your baby to continue the work at home between sessions with me. For babies under two weeks old, I can travel to your location.
I currently work out of my home in Mahtowa, MN.
You can contact me at amanda@thesacredspacekeeper.com
Amanda Lambert
- Body Ready Method® Pro
- Spinning Babies® Aware Practitioner
- Dynamic Body Balancing
_______________________________________________
Bodywork & Movement
• INITIAL SESSION (1.5 hours) $90 • FOLLOW UP SESSIONS (1 hour) $60 •
• NEWBORN BODYWORK (1 hour) $30 minimum donation • (for a baby under 2 weeks old I can travel to your location)
• One-time session options at the end of pregnancy:
Prepare Your Body for Birth/Induction
End of Pregnancy / Pre-Induction - 90 minutes - $100
A combination of Dynamic Body Balancing, Body Ready MethodⓇ and Spinning BabiesⓇ based on your specific body with a focus on balancing your body to support baby in finding their optimal position and prepare your body for birth. Using craniosacral and myofascial bodywork as well as safe and painless moves to find better alignment and suppleness in your body. These moves are also able to be done by you at home/in the hospital prior to and during labor to support your body’s balance in birth. Leave the session with several strategies/moves specific to your body.
Prepare Your Body for Posptartum Recovery
Daily 7 Protocol - 60 minutes - $70
Postpartum should involve rest, support and recovery, and gentle movement can be helpful to facilitate recovery. This session is great to do at the end of your pregnancy so you can apply the movements immediately in your postpartum as you are ready and able to do so. I will help you learn and practice a series of seven movements (Daily 7) that are designed to aid in postpartum recovery. These exercises can be done from the bed or the bedroom or on your walk to the bathroom (and in the first five days of your postpartum recovery these are the only places you will hopefully find yourself). These movements help engage your core and give some extra attention to places that can really use them in the postpartum, like the neck and chest wall. The Daily 7 are movements from the Body Ready MethodⓇ.
_______________________________________________
Body Ready MethodⓇ
BRM® is an approach to using whole body functional tools with the perinatal population that can help with:
- Body balancing to help baby find their best position
- Prenatal aches and pains
- Pelvic floor dysfunction
- Core support to minimize issues with abdominal separation and diastasis recti
- A more efficient birth by optimizing the body during pregnancy
- A smoother postpartum recovery
Pregnancy is a huge physical feat, yet most are not given the tools they need to appropriately and adequately support their body through this process. An empowered pregnancy should include specific education and support for the pregnant body including the core, pelvic floor, upper body mobility, pelvis and body alignment or movement pattern education. Not only can this minimize or even eliminate symptoms and dysfunction that we are often told are “just a normal part of pregnancy,” it also prepares the body for a more efficient birth and a smoother postpartum recovery.
As a BRM®Pro, I work with pregnant people who want to optimize the balance, strength and resiliency of their pregnant body. I work with birthing people who want a professional by their side that can suggest positions and perform hands-on techniques to create balance and space in the birthing body to support the physiological process of birth. I work with immediate postpartum people who want a simple protocol to follow to encourage optimal recovery from pregnancy and childbirth.
Who could benefit from BRM®:
- An individual who is pregnant and wanting to prepare their body for birth.
- Somebody who has had previously difficult birth experiences and desires to be more proactive and find more support for their next pregnancy and birth.
- An individual who is pregnant and worried about their core, diastasis recti, pelvic floor function, or other body issues.
- Anybody who is pregnant and looking for a more holistic way to remain strong, functional and resilient through the entire journey. Those who value function over fitness. BRM® is so much more than modified-for-pregnancy exercise and we value function over appearance.
_______________________________________________
Spinning BabiesⓇ Aware Practitioner
Spinning Babies® Aware Practitioners are trained in a bodywork curriculum designed to allow:
- Comfort in pregnancy and labor
- Spontaneous change to a more optimal fetal position
From the Spinning Babies® website:
Spinning Babies® offers a third perspective to the “natural vs. managed” childbirth today. In reality, we don’t pick all one or all the other. Technology and Nature aren’t teams in a sport to which we must be loyal. Medicine and Midwifery are professions developed to serve Nature when the body needs support.
So, rather than increasing technology or medication to help childbirth, we activate nature within the body by working with the body in new ways. We begin with physiology and move to interventions if and when needed.
The assumption that birth is a passenger powered through the pelvis (The old 3Ps paradigm) seems to make the passenger and pelvis static. The power of the body is replaced with medication and if that doesn’t work, then surgery. Physiology allows for more creative, body-centered options.
Self-care and specific body activities restore body balance and make room for the baby. Babies then put themselves into the best positions possible for childbirth – within the anatomical space available.
We offer a unique pregnancy preparation program with labor activities that have been shown to ease birth. Spinning Babies® can be used with any childbirth method or none at all. Spinning Babies® approach is good in any childbirth setting, home, hospital, and independent birth center.
_______________________________________________
Dynamic Body Balancing Facilitator
Craniosacral Therapy (CST)/ Myofascial Unwinding (MFR) is gentle and hands-on, using a light touch to restore balance within the fascia.
This allows our muscles and bones to able to balance and realign, and we free up the flow of our nerves, blood, and energy channels.
Relieving tension in the central nervous system promotes a feeling of well-being by eliminating pain and boosting health and immunity.
What does it look like?
Dynamic Body Balancing is non-invasive and the various techniques are done while you are laying on a massage table, sitting on a stool, and while standing. From the outside, an observer may describe this bodywork as a massage or stretching.
A gentle mix of craniosacral and myofascial unwinding that focus on the pregnant body for ideal uterine placement. This allows the baby more space so they are more likely to get into an ideal position for pregnancy comfort and birth. This style is also wonderful for working with infants!
Created and taught by Dr. Carol Phillips, her techniques are the foundation of Spinning Babies by Gail Tully.
Dynamic Body Balancing for Pregnancy, Postpartum, and Babies!
Pregnancy should not be painful, but often times it is. Previous unbalances can become more pronounced in pregnancy as the center of gravity changes from the ever-growing uterus. A restriction in our body can put the uterus in non-optimal positioning. Tightness in one area of the pregnant person's body can restrict baby's movements, and ultimately its positioning and decent in birth. I recommend checking out Dr. Carol Phillips' video here: Witnessing the Miracle of Birth
Postpartum: the cells of our bodies can hold on to the experiences we have. Sometimes our birth experiences can lead to tension, torsion, or trauma in our bodies. For the first six weeks of postpartum, the relaxin hormone in the birthing person's body helps greatly in allowing changes to occur with myofascial release and craniosacral therapy.
Babies: the experiences of the pregnant person's day to day life (work, sports, falls, accidents) can impact the baby's body, and so can their birth experience. Dynamic Body Balancing can help restore the baby's homeostasis, and can be especially helpful soon after birth and at each growth spurt. Craniosacral therapy helps alleviate restriction to allow the bones to expand as the baby's brain grows. Mothers will always be in contact with their baby while the baby is getting worked on.