Fascial Manoeuvres: What They Are and What They Can Do For You
- evennow
- Jun 22
- 5 min read
If you read my last blog post, you will know how I discovered Fascial Manoeuvres through a podcast recommendation from an old colleague, and how my very first organ reset had me in tears, releasing a wave of fear that I had been carrying since childhood. If you have not read it yet, I would suggest starting there, and then coming back here, because this post is the natural continuation of that story.
Here I want to do two things: give you a short and simple introduction to what fascia actually is, based on what Jason van Blerk explains in the podcast, and then share the videos I started with so that you can try it for yourself, without spending a single penny.
So, What Is Fascia?
Most of us have heard of muscles, tendons, bones and organs. But fascia? It is one of those things that has been hiding in plain sight, and science is only just beginning to catch up with what practitioners like Jason have been observing for years.
Fascia is a connective tissue that runs throughout the entire body, wrapping around and connecting every muscle, organ, nerve and bone, essentially holding everything together and giving the body its shape and coherence. What makes it particularly fascinating is that it is primarily made of water, and water, as some researchers have shown, has the remarkable ability to hold memory and information. Jason describes it beautifully: if you are 70% water, where is all the memory being stored in the body? His answer is: in the fascia.
This is why fascia is not just a structural tissue. It is also, Jason believes, the place where our emotions and unprocessed experiences are stored. And this is not a fringe idea. Think about what happens in your body when you feel angry: you clench your jaw, you tighten your fists, you roll your shoulders inward. Or when you feel sad or suppressed: you curl forward and make yourself small. These are not just expressions of emotion, they are the emotion being written into the body's posture and tissue. And if those emotions are never processed and released, they stay there, quietly shaping how you hold yourself, how you move, and how you feel.
Jason has worked on thousands of people, and what he has observed over and over again is that different areas of the body tend to hold different emotions. Working on someone's jaw, for example, often releases anger. Working on the organs can bring up fear. He is not the first to notice this, Louise Hay documented similar patterns for decades, and Bessel van der Kolk's book 'The Body Keeps the Score' has brought this understanding to a much wider audience in recent years, but what Human Garage has done is create a practical, self-directed movement practice that allows anyone to begin this work at home, without equipment, without a therapist, and without a large budget.
The practice itself combines specific rotational movements with intentional breathing, and the goal is to gently unwind the patterns of tension and stored emotion that accumulate in the fascial tissue over a lifetime. It can look a little strange from the outside, I can confirm this from personal experience, but what it produces on the inside is something quite extraordinary.
My Experience, Four Weeks In
When I introduced my friend Maggie to the manoeuvres during our recent holiday in Ireland, I recognised myself in her struggle to keep her balance at first, all that twisting and breathing and moving in ways the body is simply not used to. We laughed a lot, paused the video regularly, and did not take ourselves too seriously, while still doing the work seriously, if you know what I mean. And watching her, I suddenly noticed how much progress I had already made without realising it, because my body had already started to make these strange movements familiar.
This is something I always remind my clients of: we tend to look forward in search of our goals, and we forget to look back and see how far we have already come. Even after only a few weeks, the progress can be immense, and noticing it is deeply encouraging.
For me personally, the biggest shift has been emotional. I was brought up in an environment where emotions were not welcome. I was not allowed to cry, to laugh too loudly, or simply to be silly and free as a child, and so I learned, very efficiently, to contain every emotion and present a calm, composed surface to the world. This was enormously useful during my years as a Night Manager in the hotel industry, where staying calm under pressure was part of the job, but for my own emotional health it was quietly devastating. I had become, over many years, almost emotionally numb.
And now, after four weeks of Fascial Manoeuvres, I can feel that changing. It is becoming easier for me to feel into my emotions as they arise, to notice them in real time rather than filing them away. And that, for someone with my history, is not a small thing. It is a beautiful and very welcome change.
Where to Start: Two Free Videos
I never recommend anything I have not tried myself, and I want to make it as easy as possible for you to try this too, so here are the two YouTube videos I started with:
The first is a morning routine, which is a wonderful and gentle way to begin the day and get your fascia moving:
The second is the organ reset that made me cry on my very first attempt, and which I now consider one of the most powerful things I have ever done for my emotional body:
Go gently. The movements can feel unfamiliar and even a little uncomfortable at first, particularly with balance, but that is simply your body encountering something new. Give it time and give it repetition, and you will feel the difference.
Want to Go Further?
If this resonates with you and you would like to explore more, you can do your own research and find a Fascial Manoeuvres facilitator or 'fascia work' modality that resonates with you, or head directly to Human Garage. One of the things I love most about their philosophy is that their courses are offered on a 'pay what you can afford' basis. There is a suggested price that covers their costs, but if you are on a tight budget, you pay what you can, even as little as $1, and those who can afford to pay more are invited to do so in order to support those who cannot. This spirit of genuine accessibility, the idea that anyone who wants to improve their health should be able to, is something that makes me want to shout about them from the rooftops. And when you sign up for the 28-day Challenge, you get to take the Wellness Assessment that I shared in my previous post, which is a wonderful way to see exactly where you are starting from.
I am currently in the middle of that 28-day programme myself, and I cannot wait to retake the assessment at the end and share the results with you.
As always, I am not affiliated with Human Garage in any way. I simply found something that works for me, and sharing it with you is the most natural thing in the world.
I would love to hear from you. Have you tried anything similar? Does the idea of emotions being stored in the fascia resonate with your own experience? Leave a comment below, or come and find me directly. I am always happy to talk.
Love and light,
Tanya
I always knew there was more to fascia than what I once learned in a fascia class which involved doing a lot of exercises using foam rollers and massage balls to loosen tight spots. It's exciting to see there is so much more to learn! I'm curious to discover how this work can help with so many withheld emotions. And despite not being able to keep my balance at first, I'll continue on this journey and see where it takes me!