Carissa Shima Healing Bodywork

Most people have been taught to correct their head position by jamming their chin back and up — the typical chin tuck you might have learned from a physical therapist or seen online.
This is different.
Top of Head Awareness:
Stand or sit comfortably. Instead of pushing your chin back — imagine someone is gently sky hooking you from the top and back part of your head. Not pulling you straight up. From the top and slightly back.
Or try this image — feel as if someone is gently lifting you from the back roof of your mouth.
The movement is tiny. Almost imperceptible from the outside. But the feeling inside is significant — a gentle lengthening through the back of the neck and a subtle decompression through the cervical spine.
This should come from an internal sense of length — not from an external push or force.
The difference between this and the typical chin tuck is everything. The chin tuck compresses. This creates space.
Practice this standing, sitting, and walking.
If this feels difficult or unavailable — that's information. That's where hands-on structural work can help create the space your body needs to find this position comfortably.
Try it right now and tell me in the comments — could you feel the difference?

Meet Polina.
She works with bodies for a living. She knows what good bodywork looks like. And when elbow pain became so bad it was preventing her from doing her job — she came to me.
This is what she said in her own words:
"I was having elbow pain so bad I couldn't work effectively. I came to Carissa looking for a solution. She was able to assess my posture and my alignment and she was able to detect that the pain wasn't actually coming from my elbow — it was actually coming from my shoulder."
"With some manual work in the shoulder region, the elbow, and further down into the wrist, she was able to resolve my issue and my pain quite quickly."
"She also talked to me about restorative exercises, posture, and some strengthening protocols that I should follow — which I did. And today I am pain free and functioning again in my life."
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about root cause.
The elbow was where Polina felt it. The shoulder was where it started. Until that connection was addressed — nothing else was going to fully resolve it.
If you've been treating the same area for months with limited lasting results — it might be worth finding out where the conversation actually started.
Tell me in the comments — have you ever been told the cause of your pain was somewhere completely different from where you felt it?
Link in bio. Las Vegas — Body Spa West.

Did you know that how you sleep affects your structural patterns just as much as how you move during the day?
Think about it — you spend seven to nine hours in the same position every night. Whatever that position is doing to your body it's doing it for a third of your life.
Let's start with the position I see cause the most problems:
Stomach sleeping.
When you sleep on your stomach you have to turn your head to one side or the other for hours at a time. That alone creates significant strain through the neck and shoulders — often on the same side every single night.
It also puts your pelvis into a forward tilted position that loads the lower back throughout the entire night.
I've had clients who were surprised to find that simply changing their sleep position made a significant difference in how their body felt — without changing anything else.
If you're a stomach sleeper and you wake up stiff, tight through the neck and shoulders, or with low back tension that takes hours to clear — this is worth paying attention to.
Next week I'm going to cover exactly how to set up side sleeping and back sleeping so your body can actually restore while you rest — including the specific props that make all the difference.
For now — take note of what position you wake up in most often.
Are you a stomach sleeper? Tell me in the comments — and tell me where you feel it in the morning.

Every person who walks through my door has a version of the same story.
A body that has been doing its best. Carrying more than it should have to. Asking for help in the only language it has.
And a life they want to get back to — or get to for the first time.
Ricky wanted to run again. Golf again. Lift again. Without surgery.
Evelyn wanted to move through her days without pain defining every decision after two major surgeries.
Bill wanted to pick up his grandkids.
None of them knew exactly what was possible when they walked in.
They just decided to find out.
That's all the first session requires.
Not certainty. Not a diagnosis. Not knowing exactly what's wrong or what you need.
Just the decision to find out what your body is actually capable of — with the right support.
A full assessment. Hands-on work that begins in the same visit. And a clear picture of what your body needs next.
You leave knowing more about your body than you did when you walked in.
What do you want your story to be?
New Client Sessions available now. Link in bio. Las Vegas — Body Spa West.
What's the activity or feeling you most want to get back to? Tell me in the comments.

I want to set an honest expectation for anyone considering this work.
When you first come in — especially if your body has been carrying tension, compensation, and restriction for years — things are going to feel like a lot is going on in there.
Because there is.
The first session we start moving things in the right direction. Something shifts. You feel better walking out than you did walking in.
And then you go live your life.
You sleep. You move. You train. Your body starts to integrate what we did together.
When you come back — things might still feel like a lot is going on. But something is different. The direction has changed. The tissue is starting to respond. The nervous system is starting to get the message.
We work again. Things continue to improve.
This is how cumulative work actually works.
Not one dramatic session that fixes everything.
A progressive series of sessions — each one building on the last — that gradually unwinds what took years to accumulate.
By session three most people are noticing something significant has shifted. By session five the body starts feeling like it's working with you instead of against you. By the end of a full series the changes have layered deep enough to hold.
Ricky said it perfectly — by session three he was noticing a significant change. By session four he was already on the upswing. Session five he was completely clear.
That's cumulative work. That's what happens when you commit to the process.
The body didn't get here overnight. And it won't change overnight. But it will change — consistently, progressively, session by session — when given the right support.
Are you someone who has tried something once and given up because it didn't work immediately? Tell me in the comments.
Link in bio. Las Vegas — Body Spa West.

I've been doing this work for 21 years.
And the question I find myself most curious about — with every new person I meet, every new client who walks through the door — is this:
What finally made you decide to do something about it?
Because almost everyone I work with has been living with something for a while before they show up. The pain. The tightness. The limitation that's been quietly growing.
And at some point something shifts. Something makes them say — okay. Now. This is the time.
I want to know what that moment was for you.
Was it something your body did that scared you? Was it watching someone else get their health back? Was it hitting a milestone birthday and deciding you were done settling? Was it just one morning where you woke up and something in you said enough?
Tell me in the comments. I read every single one.
And if you're still waiting for that moment — maybe this is it.
Link in bio. Las Vegas — Body Spa West.

Try this tonight.
I learned this movement from Mary Bond — movement educator and author whose work beautifully bridges body awareness, posture, and the principles of Structural Integration. Find her at healyourposture.com.
Lie on your side with your hips and shoulders stacked directly on top of each other. Place a pillow under your head so your head and neck stay in alignment with your spine. Place a pillow between your knees. Let your knees bend to a comfortable middle position — not pulled up to your chest, not fully extended — think of a gentle zigzag or lightning bolt shape with your legs. Your lower back should feel relaxed and neutral.
Now — imagine your spine is moving like a fish.
Start small. Begin with just your neck — a slow gentle undulation forward and back. Then move to your mid-back — the same gentle movement. Then your lower back.
Then let the whole spine move together. One slow fluid wave — forward and back — like a fish moving through water.
Move slowly. This is not a stretch. It's an invitation.
Here's something I love about this exercise: you can also simply imagine the movement happening without physically doing it. Close your eyes and vividly picture your spine moving like a fish.
This isn't just visualization. The part of the brain that controls movement activates in nearly the same way whether you physically do a movement or vividly imagine it. Imagining movement that feels difficult or unavailable begins to make it more possible.
Do both sides. Take your time. Notice where the movement feels fluid and where it feels stuck.
That information is valuable. That's your body telling you where it needs more attention.
Try it and tell me in the comments — where did your spine feel most fluid and where did it feel stuck?

I want to talk about what's actually at stake here.
Not just the pain. Not just the tightness. Not just the recovery that's taking longer than it should.
What's at stake is the life on the other side of all of that.
Ricky wasn't just trying to avoid surgery. He was trying to get back to his 5K runs. His golf game. His leg days at the gym. The active life he'd built and wasn't ready to give up.
Evelyn wasn't just recovering from a knee surgery and a hip replacement. She was trying to get back to moving through her days without pain defining every decision.
Bill wasn't just addressing chronic back pain. He was trying to pick up his grandkids.
This is what I think about in every session.
Not just the tissue. Not just the pattern. But the life the person is trying to get back to — or get to for the first time.
Because that's what the body is for.
Not to be managed. Not to be worked around. Not to be a source of constant negotiation and limitation.
To carry you fully into the life you're here to live.
That's worth fighting for. That's worth showing up for session after session even when progress feels slow.
Because on the other side of that commitment is not just a body that feels better.
It's a life that opens back up.
What does your life look like on the other side of feeling truly well in your body? Tell me in the comments.
Link in bio. Las Vegas — Body Spa West.

Feldenkrais understood something that most movement practitioners of his era missed entirely.
He wasn't interested in making people stronger or more flexible in the conventional sense.
He was interested in the quality of movement itself.
Not how much you can lift. Not how far you can stretch. But how intelligently, efficiently, and effortlessly your body moves through the simplest actions of daily life.
Getting up from a chair. Walking across a room. Reaching for something on a shelf.
He believed — and spent his life proving — that when the quality of those fundamental movement patterns improves everything else improves with it.
Pain decreases. Energy increases. The body stops working against itself and starts working with itself.
This is exactly what the dragon tail exercises we've been working on this week are about.
Not a workout. Not a stretch. A refinement of movement quality.
A conversation between your brain and your body about how things could feel different.
That conversation — small, precise, awareness based — is where lasting change actually lives.
Improve the quality of the process. And you improve the quality of life itself.
What movement in your daily life do you most want to feel easier and more effortless? Tell me in the comments.

I want to share something that's been true for me for as long as I can remember.
When I feel ungrounded — when something feels off in my body or my nervous system feels like it can't quite settle — I go outside.
Not to exercise. Not to hit a specific step count or heart rate target.
Just to be in it.
The uneven ground under my feet. The light changing through trees. The sounds that have nothing to do with screens or schedules or the demands of a busy practice.
Something shifts almost immediately.
And I've come to understand why — from both a personal and clinical perspective.
Nature provides the kind of sensory input that the nervous system was literally designed for. Varied terrain. Natural light. Unpredictable sounds. The smell of earth and air.
It's the opposite of the controlled, consistent, screen-dominated environment most of us spend our days in.
And for a nervous system that has been running on high alert — managing pain, managing stress, managing the demands of an active and full life — that variety is deeply restorative.
I'm not able to do everything I want to do outside yet. My body is still rebuilding.
But even a short walk. Even sitting on the grass. Even just standing barefoot on the ground for a few minutes.
It brings me back to myself every time.
What does nature do for your body and nervous system? Tell me in the comments.