What is Interdisciplinary Fascia Therapy (IFT®)?
What is Interdisciplinary Fascia Therapy?
Interdisciplinary Fascia Therapy – in short: IFT® – is a form of therapy developed by Christopher-Marc Gordon to treat stress and pain, and to promote performance.
IFT® combines myofascial bodywork through manual and instrumental therapy methods with heart-rate variability training (HRV) to stimulate the autonomic nervous system. The human being is regarded as a holistic organism. IFT® has been successfully applied to patients and professional athletes since 1990. By combining therapeutic treatments with self-help treatments, the efficiency and sustainability of the therapy is significantly increased compared to conventional treatment approaches. As such, IFT® enables a reduction of chronic pain – up to complete painlessness – and further allows a sustainable promotion of stress resilience. Numerous scientific studies prove the effectiveness of IFT®.
How does IFT® work?
Through the manual and instrumental treatment of all fascial mechanoreceptors and trigger points, the IFT® stimulates the tissue holistically. Stiffness and elasticity of the tissue are improved, whereby joints, tendons and ligaments are gaining mobility and stereotypical movement patterns can be corrected. Furthermore, by slowly treating the deep-lying tissue, muscular and painful imbalances can be corrected, and the organism can be brought back into balance. Myofascial body therapy is complemented by a regular heart-rate variability (HRV) training to stimulate the vagus nerve. This activates the autonomic nervous system, and among other things, reducing cortisol in the blood. HRV training therefore, promotes the body’s immune response to inflammatory stimuli. Just one IFT® treatment leads to improved pain sensation and range of motion.
Our training within the IFT® framework
The seminars and training sessions of the GordonHealth Academy are founded on IFT®. During our IFT® training, physiotherapists, osteopaths, naturopathic practitioners, masseurs, doctors and related medical professionals learn Interdisciplinary Fascia Therapy in 6 days for use on their patients. At the same time, we offer trainers, coaches and interested professionals the Fascia-ReleaZer® trainer courses to teach our “self-help” concept. Have a look at our website!