Zero Balancing can help reduce stress by promoting an optimal flow of energy throughout your body.
Zero Balancing is a gentle yet powerful method of balancing body energy with body
structure using skilled touch. It was developed by an American Osteopathic Physician,
Dr Fritz Frederick Smith MD. Zero Balancing integrates western knowledge of our body with oriental insights into energy, recognising the ways our body heals itself and how we maintain good health.
It has been taught in the UK since 1983. Practitioners of Zero Balancing are health-care professionals who have been trained to a recognised level of skill and awarded the title ‘Certified Zero Balancer’.
A Zero Balancing session lasts between 30 and 40 minutes during which you remain fully clothed. The work is performed with you sitting and then lying comfortably on your back on a massage table. Zero Balancing uses held stretches and finger pressure with a focus on bones and joints. It takes a person into a place of refreshing relaxation which can bring about a profound experience of well-being and body-felt unity. The touch used in Zero Balancing has a characteristic clarity which is pleasurable to receive.
“I have been having regular Zero Balancing with Ross for the last two years and find that it really helps me to navigate the day-to-day stresses of working in a high-pressure kitchen environment and running several businesses. Zero Balancing gives my body and mind a chance to relax, take some time out from my busy schedule and provides release from held physical tension.”
– Mark Hix
The gentle but firm touch brings about a return of flexibility, encourages good posture and clears stiffness in a richly restorative way. The sensitivity of touch used in Zero Balancing returns us to ourselves whilst simultaneously opening to an awareness of a centred presence in the world.
Zero Balancing is very useful when we are becoming overwhelmed by stresses in our lives which in turn can lead to a decline in our vitality and our ability to adapt to change. Contemporary life is increasingly attracting us into a virtual experience, with life being lived at an ever-faster pace. Staying in touch with the actual world and its natural rhythms is an essential reality check which is valuable in maintaining the balance which is health.
“Zero Balancing is beneficial for a wide range of people and effective in many ways. It is truly a bodywork ideally suited for the lives we live now.”
Zero Balancing works with the bones and joints, and with the energy that flows through them. We pay particular attention to those joints in the body that balance posture and movement. These joints naturally have a small range of motion, so when they become compromised the body has few options to resolve the restriction, compensating elsewhere. For example, an imbalance in the bones of the foot might present as pain and discomfort in the knee or hip. Zero Balancing directly addresses these joint imbalances, recognising that small changes in the function of key joints will produce a significant improvement in body ease and alignment.
Zero Balancing teacher Judith Sullivan created a YouTube video called ‘The Energy Effect’ to share her interpretation and explanation of how energy affects the body and how Zero Balancing can engage with it.
