Scar Tissue Work

We are mostly aware of scar tissue, when we can see it. For example, old scar from a superficial cut, surgical incision with suturing marks, a deep wound that took ages to heal. Scar tissue can form at any level within soft tissue (fascia, muscle, tendon, other membranes), and often we can’t see it. Scar tissue can make our bodies feel stuck and sore; and our range that we can move through (ROM) is less than what it used to be.

Why do our bodies react to scar tissue in this way?

When we have soft tissue that has not been scarred, it has a quality to it that is very malleable, and it slides and glides without much hinderance. There are many layers to soft tissue that are all interwoven and form a huge 3-D structure – think of a massive fishing net that is able to move up and down like a wave, and then think of many other fishing nets moving in the same way and connected to the original and each other at various points. Therefore, each point of the original fishing net is touching at least one point on another fishing net, and usually there are more points touching per net, and the whole net structure is moving as one. You could now say that all of the fishing nets linked together by touching each other at various points could be viewed as one whole network, and each touching point can be connected via different routes along the net. Now imagine that your fascial network can be understood in the same way: the many deeper levels of fascia and many various soft tissue levels are all connected by touching, to the very most superficial tissue (the skin) and the densest deepest tissue (bone).

When you make a cut into soft tissue the organisation of the tissue changes and it looks as though it has changed from a smooth slide and glide connection you would see in a fishing net to a frayed edge. Now imagine all those frayed edges trying to join back together and trying to configure themselves back in to a smooth slide and glide edge – it realistically cannot happen. When soft tissue tries to re-join itself together (similarly to the frayed edges of the fishing net) its reconnection to itself is completely different in texture, direction and shape, compared to before it was cut. This subsequent reorganised tissue is called scar tissue.

What can we do about scar tissue?

Clinical observations and research have now shown that certain hands-on techniques, particularly light touch techniques can change the texture of scars in both superficial and deep scars. Sharon Wheeler (US) is globally renowned for her Scar Tissue techniques and I was very grateful to receive training in Sharon’s work from Sally Morris of On the Spot Training UK (Sally has trained directly with Sharon). Sharon’s pioneering techniques include ways of working with superficial and deep scar tissue. I incorporate these techniques into a treatment to soften and change the shape of scar tissue, so that changes happen in the local scar tissue – helping a client increase the flexibility of the tissue so that it doesn’t pull on other tissues; and in the wider network of tissue, by encouraging the return of sensation in an area of numbness in the body far away from the scar, after nerve impingement or damage when and where the scar tissue was originally formed.

I am also using light tissue scar tissue techniques on areas of the body that are deeply holding, and may have been doing so for sometime. I have found that clients holding tension and stress in their neck and shoulders benefit from these techniques, as the tissue loosens and softens in its own way and in its own time, without resisting because it feels the work is too deep and “ouchy.”