#33 Jeannie Di Bon: Movement Therapist & hypermobility expert: awareness over mechanics for pain

“Our connective tissue is everywhere so this collagen-based defect of hypermobility (sometimes diagnosed as Ehler Danlos Syndrome) can affect everybody differently.” And thus starts our interview with movement therapist & hypermobility expert Jeannie Di Bon. She has built her life’s work, both personally & professionally, around living with and minimizing pain and instability within a body that gets accustomed to bracing or guarding in one direction while potentially painfully overextending or dislocating in other joints. Ever do ‘party tricks’ with your body as a kid or watch kids around you do ‘party tricks’? Then this podcast is for you. We walk through her six important principles of living within a hypermobile body: breath, relaxation, proprioception (including both nociception and interception), stability (vs mobility), balance and posture finishing with touches on the science of tensegrity, meaning finding the dynamic pressure to remain aligned from the inside. We then dive into the tenets of her Integral Movement Method (IMM) which brings people through an iterative process of unwinding, exploring, assessing, refining, and reflecting.

Jeannie Di Bon’s work so unique and powerful in a mechanically-focused movement therapy world because her recommendations are not focused necessarily on the movement or any particular string of exercises. Her process is to build awareness through movement- it’s not about the movement but the awareness. The goal is that we all become more conscious around what our body is doing and what it should be doing to remain functional and pain-free.

There are so many ways to continue learning from Jeannie Di Bon:

o Website: https://www.jeanniedibon.com/

o Youtube videos with a new video every Thursday: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh3dgBm_L5pwaeBQI-Q7yVw

o Books: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/search/site/hypermobility

o Zebra Club with 80 classes available: https://jeanniedibon.com/products/#zebraclub

o social media: Instagram, Twitter & FaceBook

o Zoom consult: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=14864103

o Trainings for therapists/ teachers: https://jeanniedibon.hypermobility.club/users/checkout/auth

o EDS Society health professionals directory for local practitioners: https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/healthcare-professionals-directory/

#EDS #hypermobility #zebraclub #bendybodies #ehlerdanlos #PT #pain #painmanagement #chronicpain #chronicpainwarriors #bestself