In the world of body work, so much depends on the practitioner: her knowledge, her skill, her intuition, her ability to impart what she knows, and, above all, the quality of her attention. By all these measures, Karen Carlson is as good as it gets. She probably has more refined knowledge of the body’s skeletal and muscular structure than most doctors, can locate the source of dysfunction, devise exercises to alleviate the strain and retrain the neurological pathways, and explain in images as well as technical terms exactly what she has devised, and why. She does nothing by rote, as each person’s situation is uniquely individual, and so is her approach.
I am in my 70s, have lousy posture and a writer’s too-many-hours at the desk. Without the individual instruction, focused attention and movement practice I have had from Karen, I would probably be no more mobile than a wrought-iron lawn dog. But as it is, I am doing fine; in fact, she has taught me how to move to maximize my body’s strength and rely on its structure. And I should add that my husband, who has worked with Karen for 15 years or more, is entirely free of the severe back pain that brought him to her door.