Mighty Oak’s owner, Megan Fredheim, had a first experience with Systemic Deep Tissue Therapy® that left a positive and profound impact. Here’s her story.
I received my first SDTT® treatment from the therapy’s originator, Armand Ayaltin, RHP, RMT.
It was during a course I was attending, and I was impressed with the theory we were learning. After having my own “structural deviations” pointed out during an assessment portion of the course, I wanted to experience the results of Systemic Deep Tissue Therapy® for myself.
Prior to this first treatment, I had been struggling with what had been diagnosed as a “bone bruise”.
It was located in my right knee, and had come on very suddenly almost a year before. One day I went for a run and felt great; the next day I did the same run and couldn’t continue for more than two minutes without feeling excruciating pain in my right knee.
In the year since this knee injury I had seen medical doctors, a musculoskeletal specialist, two chiropractors, and multiple Massage Therapists:
So I stopped running for almost a full year. And when I tried to slowly ease back into it, my painful symptoms reappeared just fifteen minutes into the run.
The knee wasn't my only issue. I also had an assortment of discomforts that I had accumulated over eight years of kickboxing, six years as a student, and time spent working in a very physical profession.
You can view a list of my symptoms, both before and after my first Systemic Deep Tissue Therapy®, at the end of this article.
In short, I was uncomfortable.
All over.
I had also figured that I’d just have to deal with the discomfort since I had already sought out treatment and experienced very little in terms of relief. If you’ve been here before, you know how defeated that can feel.
The SDTT® treatment I received that day from Armand Ayaltin was just over an hour and fifteen minutes long.
There were certainly some uncomfortable, intense moments during that first treatment (due to the years of accumulated dysfunction he was working through). Armand kept checking in with me, though, and made sure the pressure was “bearable”.
Right after getting off the table, I immediately noticed how relaxed my entire body felt.
In fact, I couldn’t remember my upper body and neck ever feeling so relaxed. And on the second day of the course even my fellow colleagues noticed that:
Overall, I felt fantastic.
As though all the tension that had been stored in my muscles had been shaken from my entire body. Like each muscle had breathed a huge sigh of relief!
Within four hours of the massage, a reddish-purple bruise started to appear along my right thigh (where some particularly nasty adhesion had been treated). But my body felt so good that I didn’t mind!
I was definitely a little bit sore that evening, and ached the next day, but I applied heat as Armand had recommended and it helped quite a bit.
Within a few days, all discomfort had subsided and I felt great.
With results this dramatic, experienced after just one treatment, I was convinced of the therapeutic benefit of SDTT®.
Since then I have completed both courses in SDTT® as well as the advanced level certification mentorship program offered by Armand (approximately a three-year process).
Today I am proud to pass on results like this to my own clients!
Here is the list of my symptoms, from head to toe:
Before: The outside of my right foot felt “stuck” and had required adjustment by a chiropractor. My weight was very unevenly distributed between both feet, as evident in the uneven wear in the soles of footwear I had worn for less than two months.
After: My weight now felt evenly balanced between both feet, as though each foot sunk evenly into the ground.
Before: Both ankles felt unstable. I would constantly catch myself standing on the very outer edge of both feet, turning the bottoms of my feet towards one another.
After: Felt stable. I now find myself standing balanced, with my feet rooted easily, flat on the ground.
Before: A sensation of muscle shakes and tingling in both calves while lying down. Every night, for over two and half years.
After: No longer tingled or shook at night. Standing now felt effortless, and I realized how much energy I had been expending just to stand up straight on such imbalanced, tight muscles.
Before: A persistent “bone bruise” in my right knee caused excruciating pain when running.
After: Pain free! The first week after my first treatment I was able to run for a full hour without any pain – for the first time in a year!
Before: Chronic pain and tightness experienced in superior gluteal muscles bilaterally, and painful, tight hip flexors. Also a constant “clicking” and “snapping” of both hips, and a feeling of the joints being “stuck.”
After: The chronic muscle pain, tightness, and snapping of joints was completely gone.
Before: A frequent, violent “clunking” as the vertebrae in my lower back would “self adjust” with certain movements. Also a persistent feeling of tightness and restricted movement in my lower back, and discomfort when sleeping on my back.
After: My lower spine no longer made that abrupt “clunking” sound or self-adjusted. I was able to comfortably sleep lying on my back.
Before: Discomfort, tightness, and restricted movement, especially right along my spine. This lead to constant fidgeting and shifting to try to find a comfortable position. My lower ribs on my right side felt like they were being pulled down and needed to be “released”.
After: I was able to breathe easier, fully expanding my ribs. I no longer experienced the feeling of tightness and restriction on my right lower ribcage.
Before: I found myself frequently stretching and fidgeting, seeking relief from the persistent tightness and tension I felt in my neck and upper back. After one manipulation, my neck had started making a sickening “clunking” sound as the vertebrae adjusted when I would stretch out the tight muscles.
After: My neck completely stopped making that “clunking” sound and no longer felt like it constantly needed to be stretched out. I could place my ear to my shoulder without even a sensation of stretch being felt in my neck muscles.