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Integrative Bodywork & Ayurvedic Counseling in Lakewood, Ohio
Presence is the most powerful intervention.
Whether you are looking for integrative massage therapy in Cleveland, Ohio or wanting guidance on living in deeper alignment, Ava Leben Ayurveda provides care that challenges the paradigm of protocols and perscriptions.
Located within the Willow Room Collective, Ava Leben Ayurveda provides personal, unhurried care focused on helping you navigate the physical, mental, and emotional stress of everyday life.
Nervous System-Focused Care
Ava's approach to bodywork is centered around ensuring that the nervous system of her client feels safe enough to permit the fascia and connective tissues of the body to shift and engender deeper, more lasting shifts. A blend of MyoFascial, CranioSacral, and Massage Therapy are utilized in conjunction with the major marmani and energy centers of the body to provide highly personalized sessions that exceed the bounds of protocol.
Every time you are on the table your body is expressing its lived experience, and Ava is committed to permitting your body to express these experiences and follow its lead as fascia gently unwinds. Integrative Bodywork is an amalgamation of clinical knowledge, personal and professional experience, and deep listening.
Full Spectrum Digestive Support
Digestion encompasses how we metabolize our experiences as well as what we eat. Ayurveda recognizes that poor digestion leads to an accumulation of Ama or "toxicity" which is the ground floor for all disease and imbalance. Enhancing your digestive capacity on a physical, mental, and emotional level is something Ava is dedicated to.
For some, digestive imbalance is a symptom of high stress and anxiety. For others, it is direct result of lifestyle and dietary patterns that don't align with one's Constitution. Whether you are dealing with a hypermobile nervous system or habits that are unintentionally pulling you out of coherence, Ayurveda and Bodywork are tools to help bring you back to a place of physical and energetic comfort.
We understand how imbalance and disease unfolds.
Pragyaparadh. Mistaken Intellect: The most common cause of disease is what Ayurveda calls Pragyaparadh, mistaken intellect (i.e. saying "yes" when we know we need to say "no"). It is a misuse of our intuitive discernment regarding decisions that either pull us out of alignment or enable us to live in accordance with our Constitution.
Asatmya Indriyartha Samyoga. Misuse of the Senses: The second most common cause of disease is what Ayurveda calls Asatmya Indriyartha Samyoga, misuse of the senses (i.e. listening to music too loud, continuing to eat when full). This is a disrespect of our body's messages about what it right for us at any given time.
Parinama. Living Out of Season: The third most common cause of disease is what Ayurveda calls Parinama, living unseasonably (i.e. wearing shorts in December, running at noon at the height of Summer). When we live out of season, we are working against our innate rhythms and cycles and seeding imbalance.
Curiosity and compassion are the conditions for change.
Restrictive tissues are organized around emotions and experiences that have not been fully metabolized. Ava's slow and subtle approach to care of both the physical body and nervous system offer an opportunity for these old stories to be witnessed and expressed in order to help clients reach a place of spaciousness, clarity, and ease.
Ama, the Tale of Undigested Experiences
When our capacity to metabolize our food, emotions, and experiences is low, we end up with Ama, something undigested. Physical, mental, and emotional Ama requires our immediate attention because Ayurvedic widsom teaches us that Ama is the groundfloor of all disease.
Ama From Unprocessed Experiences
Ava's anatomy and physiology teacher in massage school always said, "your issues are in your tissues." It is true that the body holds onto what it has not yet been given the proper space or time to metabolize. However, it's less about excavating a foreign object that doesn't belong. Ava Leben Ayurveda offers care that is about focusing on the metabolic health of a body so that it can finish working through the experiences that caused holding patterns int he first place.
The body rearranges itself around its environment, which is, in and of itself, an event and cause for complex trauma. Our response to external information and experiences becomes our way of being. We take shape around what we have had to endure and what we have not forgotten but have yet to consciously process.
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." -Carl Jung
Everything is recorded as a personal story within the cells, fascia, tissues, and systems of the body.
This pattern of holding becomes a problem when it begins to stand in the way of our embodiment. We cannot hear our body's needs when we are uncomfortable. When we aren't embodied, we begin living out of alignment with our Constitution. The problem isn't the body, rather the inability to metabolize the experiecnes that are keeping the body in a reactive state long after the situation it is arranged around has past.
As we say in Ayurveda, "you aren't what you eat, you are what you can digest."
Ama From Undigested Food in the GI Tract
The inability to metabolize our food sets the stage for imbalance and disease in the same way that the inability to metabolize our experiences does. Modern research is beginning to back up the Ayurvedic understanding that nearly all disease can be traced back to some dysfunction in the gut and the microbiome. Sometimes digestive issues begin due to mental and emotional stress and hyper-mobile nervous systems, and other times the problem truly resides in the gut itself.
Ayurveda excells at managing and maintaining digestive health.
Embodied listening and dot-connecting.
Your health is nuanced and multi-layered. Therefore, the care your receive should feel attentive and unhurried. Sessions don't follow a script and are anything but standard--they're adaptive. Integrative Bodywork and Ayurvedic Counseling are fluid, overlapping opportunities for full-spectrum holistic care that are designed to meet you where you're at every time you come in.
Living in Alignment: Our Current Season
Ayurveda teaches us that one of the fundamental ways we become vulnerable to disease is through Parinama or Kala. This means "to live out of seasonal alignment." There is no magic pill or herbal formulation that can remedy this disconnect for anyone. We must learn and remember how to recognize the Universal seasons and cycles in order to engender our own healing on a deeper level. This is how we cultivate sustainable wellbeing practices.
We are currently in Kapha Season
During this time of year, the elements Earth and Water are most abundant. This is the season of awakening and detoxification. Learn more.
“The Doshas are three: Vāta, Pitta, and Kapha. In their balanced state, they maintain the body. When imbalanced, they afflict the body with imbalances and diseases.” Charaka Samhitā, Vimānasthāna, 1.5
Vata
Vata
Vata is the combination of the elements Air & Ether/Space. It's qualities are freezing cold, light, irregular, dry, and rough. When balanced, Vata gives rise to creativity, inspiration, and effective communication. When imbalanced, Vata leads to deficiency and depletion. Vata is the Monarch of Movement in the body and mind.
Pitta
Pitta
Pitta is the combination of the elements Fire & Water. It's qualities are hot, sharp, penetrating, dry, and oily. When balanced, Pitta gives rise to passion, confidence, and strong leadership and independence. When imbalanced, Pitta leads to inflammation and irritation. Pitta is the Tzar of Transformation in the body and mind.
Kapha
Kapha
Kapha is the combination of the elements Water & Earth. It's qualities are heavy, dull, smooth, dense, and cool. When balanced, Kapha gives rise to contentment, compassion, and feelings of security. When imbalanced, Kapha leads to excess accumulation and congestion. Kapha is the Lord of Lubrication in the body and mind.
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