This course is intended for people who have abdominal scars and restrictions related to common surgical scars, inflammation, or emotional holding patterns. This class is also appropriate for those who have no scar but have abdominal restrictions caused by inflammation, infection, endometriosis, emotional tension, or trauma.
The Free The Belly course is also wonderful for anyone who would like to get to know their belly better while learning how to do abdominal massage for abdominal scars and restrictions.
The manual therapy in this course is not intended for people with serious health issues, bowel obstruction, chronic inflammatory diseases, or complicated cases that include mesh, hernias, slings, surgical implants, intentional surgical adhesions, etc. If you're unsure if this course is right for you, please check with your physician to make sure it's ok for you to do self-abdominal massage.

Yes! When you take the Free The Belly Abdominal Scars & Restrictions course and the Womb Care course combined you will be eligible for 14 CEUs approved by NCBTMB for home study continuing education credits! Both courses must be completed before applying to take the quiz to receive your certificate of achievement. *NCBTMB only accepts four (4) CEs per renewal period in Self-Care. Your state board may allow more self-care CEUs per renewal. Please check with your licensing board.

My intent for this course is to teach you how to reduce abdominal restrictions and minimize the chance of new restrictions from forming so that you’ll feel freer in your body, experience less pain and other symptoms related to the scar. But above all, I want to help you connect with the beauty and wisdom of your amazing body. This course does not replace manual therapy from a qualified professional. If there's a professional manual therapist near you, it's always best to receive treatments from them. I've created this course because I know there are people who don't have access to qualified manual therapists and need a way to mobilize their tissues in a non-violent, respectful, and loving way.

No, the techniques in this course do not include any of those modalities. However, I have been inspired by my many teachers, trainings and 20 years of experience in the field of manual therapy. I do teach the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® and Chi Nei Tsang, but only live and in person.

There's some overlap because there are certain topics that, in my opinion, shouldn't be left out and apply across the board. The videos that are in both courses are the Issues in our Tissues/Belly Map (20 minutes), Warm-up Techniques (6 minutes), contraindications/bolstering (9 minutes), and castor oil packs (10 minutes). Because of the 45 minutes of overlap, I offer students $50 off when they purchase both courses together.
The "Practitioner Page" is also the same for both courses and has been added in 2022 at no additional charge. The over 10 hours of Q&A on the Womb Care course is unique to the Womb Care course and is also considered bonus material.

You may start this course anytime in your healing process. However you should wait at least 12 weeks after a surgery before moving on to the manual therapy techniques. The time of complete healing may vary depending on your health and the type of surgery you had. Also, keep in mind that the skin incision may heal before the deeper layers, so check with your doctor to make sure it's ok to massage the abdomen before proceeding.

This depends on your unique situation. Once you start to do the course you will get an idea of what works best for you. Your body knows better than anyone, by doing this course you will learn to connect with that innate wisdom. In general, I recommend spending 5-10 minutes a day, 3-5 days a week until you feel a freedom in the tissues and elimination of associated symptoms. Then check in once a week for a while, and eventually once a month.

The belly map exercise, and breath work, as well as most of the restorative exercises are appropriate for most everyone. The manual therapy outlined in the course may not be appropriate for everyone or during flare-ups or certain conditions. These conditions where self-abdominal therapy/massage is not appropriate include, but are not limited to, post surgery while the layers of the abdomen are still healing (get permission from you doctor before doing abdominal massage), if you have open abdominal wounds, acute diverticulitis, acute Chrohn’s disease flare-ups and acute colitis. This course is also not intended for pregnancy. You also wouldn’t want to do self massage directly over mesh implants, IUDs or other implants, sutures, or intentional surgical organ suspensions. If you are unsure about whether abdominal therapy is appropriate for your specific condition, consult your physician to see if abdominal massage is permitted.

This course is not designed for pregnancy. There are just too many subjective variables that come into play to learn the techniques via an online course. On the positive side, the growing uterus provides some natural adhesion release as it grows. I advise waiting until after pregnancy to do the manual techniques. However, the breath work, stance, and belly map in the course are fantastic for pregnancy.

The goal isn’t about reducing the appearance of your scar, although that may happen. My wish is that this class will help you not only reduce pain and restrictions but also help you become friends with your body.

By registering today you will receive lifetime access to this course. Which means as long as this course is available you will have access to the content and all upgrades.

For security reasons and to deter link sharing the number of IP addresses are limited per user. You can access the course from different devices, but not an unlimited number.

This is a self-care course. The courses when taken together are approved by NCBTMB for home-study continuing education credits. The massage techniques in the courses are intended for self-care only. However, by taking these courses together, Free The Belly and Womb Care, the massage therapists will also deepen their knowledge regarding the abdominal layers, anatomy of the abdomen, contraindications to abdominal massage, diastasis recti causes and prevention, breath assessment, signs and symptoms of a displaced uterus, emotional holding patterns in the belly, pelvic floor education, and more. All of which can enhance how you work with clients.

Since I have many LMTs who take my courses to deepen their knowledge. I also have a bonus practitioner page for LMTs with a few video lessons on how to approach the abdomen, calming techniques, using flower essences on the abdomen, and accessing the breath.

The techniques in this course do not replace professional help. A professional therapist trained in manual abdominal therapy will be able to help you in ways that can't be achieved using self-care.
However, since everyone has varying degrees of restrictions, this self-care course may be enough for some people to reach their goals and/or create a foundation to work in partnership with their practitioner.