Myofascial Release, Manual Lymph Drainage, Cranial Sacral Therapy, Massage Therapy
MEET OUR TEAM
The skilled team of practitioners at the Centre for Soft Tissue Pain are eager to provide you with the relief you need from your physical pain. Serving clients throughout Alberta, we are proud of our talents, and hope you will take a moment to learn more about us below. When you’re ready to get started, just contact us today.
DENNY PACCAGNAN
Denny Paccagnan has been passionately practicing Hands-On Therapy at the Centre for Soft Tissue Pain for more than 28 years. As a result of Denny’s desire to learn, he has also become fully certified in Dr. Vodder’s system of Manual Lymph Drainage (MLD) and Combined Decongestive Therapy (CDT), and completed numerous myofascial release courses taught by John Barnes, and Masters Training Certification in Advanced Myofascial Release, instructed by Barry Jenings. Denny is also a fully certified Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist, completing a 9 week program in 2009 and 2010. Between 2010 and 2014, Denny spent over 30 full days dissecting cadavers with Gil Hedley, learning numerous things about the body and especially the fascial network. His desire and enthusiasm to learn keeps him informed on the latest myofascial and lymphatic techniques.
As well as being well educated and highly trained, Denny has over 28,000 hours of “hands-on” therapeutic work experience with clients suffering from numerous musculoskeletal and lymphatic related problems. His philosophy is to help the body initiate its own innate natural healing response, which allows the injury or problem to heal itself. He utilizes many different styles of fascial, lymphatic, and biodynamic craniosacral therapy techniques, with most of them being very gentle and non-invasive. This method of treatment is ideal when treating patients whose nervous system is already overloaded and require a gentle, less invasive approach to healing.
Denny has been teaching workshops on his gentle approach to myofascial release since 2010, and continues to write more courses with passion and enthusiasm. His unique philosophy is best utilized for those patients who require a firm, grounding, and gentle application to their healing. Denny is able to work extremely deep, without causing pain, bruising, or injurious side effects often experienced when receiving myofascial release therapy and other harsher therapies. Denny is a very calming therapist to be around, and his style of treatment has been described as one using intuitive intelligence behind his techniques, meaning he follows his intuition and combines it with all the education and experience he has received over the years. This combination has been shown to be very effective in successfully treating his patients. Outside of work, Denny loves to spend time with his family, and walk his dog daily. He enjoys the outdoors, camping, hiking, fishing, spending time at the ocean, and chilling out anywhere near the mountains, lakes, and rivers that are so close to his home city of Calgary.
RUTH MAJOR
Ruth Major has been actively pursuing health and body wholeness since her youth. Her professional development and experience spanning nearly 20 years reflects this passion. Ruth began as a Registered Massage Therapist and her disciplines have grown to include:
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Postural Myofascial Release Therapy
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Lymphatic System Cupping (trained with Anita Shannon) and
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Craniosacral Therapy for Trauma and Concussion (trained with Michael Shea, Ph. D)
In addition, Ruth’s natural ability as an intuitive energy healer enhances and increases the positive results her patients receive. Ruth’s goal is to assist others in developing deeper awareness, presence and connections in their relationships with themselves and the world. She firmly supports empowering people to heal trauma and reprogram belief patterns. There is a student, teacher and master that reside in each of us. Ruth is excited to help us bring them out.
Ruth looks forward to meeting and assisting you in your journey. For more information on these therapies, please follow these links:
STEVE YOUNG
Steve has always been interested in helping people lead a healthy life. After 10 years teaching in the mountains, he made Calgary his home base and switched his focus to helping clients move better and assist the healing process after injury occurs.
Since graduating from Mount Royal University in 2012 from a 2200 hour Massage Therapy program, he has worked towards applying his knowledge in a multitude of techniques; deep tissue, fascial decompression and fascial stretch therapy (FST). In 2016, Steve obtained the qualification of Level 3 Fascial Stretch Specialist - Medical and is excited to bring it to the clinic and help people heal better. As Steve continues to utilize FST in his practice, he is discovering that it is the missing link and acts as a bridge to compliment other therapies. Where a patient is ‘static’ or has reached a ‘plateau’, in a discipline or therapy, FST facilitates continual improvement.
EUNICE MOONEY
Eunice Mooney has been a Registered Massage Therapist and Certified Lymphatic Therapist since the early 1990’s. Her fascination with human movement and body alignment combined with many years of training and experience led her to develop the Eunique Alignment Therapy protocol for re-establishing and maintaining good health and pain free movement. This one-of-a-kind method focuses on your body as a whole and allows Eunice to be more precise in finding the underlying cause of your pain and injuries. Treatment plans are customized to each individual to reduce pain and inflammation.
Therapy may include a combination of:
Detailed Alignment Assessment
Myofascial Release
Medicupping
Manual Lymph Drainage
Chi Nei Tsang
Elastic Taping
Somatic Movement
Home Maintenance Program
All Eunique therapies are pain free without the use of oil or lotion. On a mental/emotional level it is important to switch the body from a sympathetic (stress) to parasympathetic (relaxed) response. Not only does this feel good to the client, it is important to remember that in order for the body to heal, it needs to be in parasympathetic mode. The benefits of good body alignment include much more than looking great. Our breathing, digestion, circulation, and overall health are dependent on our posture and movement.
Eunice’s fascination with human movement began in the 1980s when her love for music and fitness attracted her to participate in group fitness classes, then to become a Group Fitness Instructor. Since then she has continued to learn about health and fitness, acquiring a Eunique variety of skills. Her passion for good health and movement led her to design the Eunique Fit Class that she enjoys sharing.
In 1991, Eunice became a Registered Massage Therapist then studied Kinesiology by taking Distance Education classes from Simon Fraser University. Over the years, she has travelled to various centers across North America and abroad to study methods of body work that integrate the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of our lives.
In 1993, she was fortunate to study Manual Lymph Drainage and Complex Decongestive Therapy from an Austrian expert who is the last living student of Dr. Vodder, one of the founders of the method. After rigorous study and exams, Eunice became one of the first three Certified Manual Lymph Drainage Therapists in Saskatchewan.
She later learned Biosomatics Movement Therapy and other forms of exercise, which enables her to create home maintenance programs for her clients. The foremost thing that she learned is that all ways of exercise have their merit but none are helpful if the body is not aligned first. She has developed her own Eunique protocol for alignment, treatment, and maintenance.
Eunice travelled to Arizona to study from John Barnes, a foremost leader in Myofascial Release. MRF combined with the St. John method of Neuromuscular Therapy quickly became her treatment of choice for clients with muscle pain and misalignments.
In 2005, Eunice began studying Chi Nei Tsang, a method that detoxifies the body and trains internal organs to work more efficiently. She later travelled to Thailand to learn more from Mantak Chia, the person responsible for bringing these ancient Taoist monk ways of healing to the world.
Experience as a figure skater and coach—as well as participation in water skiing, downhill skiing, snowboarding and other sports—has helped Eunice understand the necessity for treatment and self-maintenance. In her early 30s, with many sports injuries behind her, her body would “seize up” for a few days at a time. Not knowing what to do about it, she used pain killers to help her through her life. Now, after becoming well-educated in holistic methods for maintaining a healthy body, Eunice can truthfully say those episodes are in the past. Her motto is “I’m not getting older, I’m getting better!” It is her goal to help all those who seek her services feel that way as well - The Eunique Way.
THE EUNIQUE METHOD
No matter what a client comes to see me for, there is always a postural component to their treatment. Poor posture is not a cause; it is simply a symptom indicating over or under functioning of various bodily systems including musculoskeletal, endocrine and nervous. Hours sitting staring at screens, lack of exercise, poor functional biomechanics (movement patterns) all contribute to the symptom of poor posture, which may then lead to other symptoms such as lack of focus, headaches, chronic stress, swelling, digestive problems, visual disturbances and poor balance.
Alignment assessments are crucial for me as a therapist, and also to each patient’s improvement. Focusing on the body as a whole is most important. The information gathered in the standing assessments provides the information for me to zero in on the source of the patient’s condition, which is often not the area of pain. Treating the pains/discomforts is simply chasing symptoms and although patients feel improvement after treatments, the pain soon returns when the cause is not understood. It is more important to find the root cause if the treatment is to be successful. After the alignment assessment is complete, treatment begins. Depending on the needs of the patient, I use a combination of various modalities that I have learned over two decades of practice, including myofascial release, manual lymphatic drainage, abdominal organ treatment (Chi Nei Tsang), vacuum therapy, kinesio taping and more.
It is important for patients to understand the reasons for their symptoms and make improvements between therapy sessions. I stress to all patients that there is no magic cure or therapy. If they simply go back to the old ways that created the issues, they will return to their previous state. Understanding the force of gravity and how to use it is crucial to our health. That is why I provide education regarding alignment and “homework” methods for creating new movement patterns. Much of the improvement is about retraining the brain.
SONIA BROWN, RMT