Looking for Alternative Treatments for Anxiety?

Welcome to this blog series on alternative approaches for working with anxiety. In this series, I will highlight professionals and resources that help people who are struggling with anxiety feel settled and calm. Our fourth guest to be featured is Lu Mueller-Kaul from Balance Orlando. She uses Rolfing to help people work through anxiety.

How, specifically, does your treatment help people struggling with anxiety?

For Rolfing, relief from anxiety is a welcomed side effect (just as pain relief). Working directly on the body in different depths gives the brain clear feedback on sensations that go from very pleasant to mildly uncomfortable. In a welcoming, accepting, and safe setting the client often brings up personal struggles and can process them through the physical experience. Manual therapy, in general, has been proven to relieve anxiety, and the clear reduction of stress hormones has been shown in various studies. In Rolfing, particularly, there is additional work with posture and movement so clients can consciously, under gentle encouragement, learn to change the way they face the world, using their experience of gravity as a grounding force that not only keeps them upright, but also empowers them to thrive.

What is the most effective way you help anxious people feel calm? 

Holding space is huge in my practice. I often notice that anxious clients calm down very quickly when I give them permission and encouragement to just be how they are in the moment. Listening is one of my most important strengths, but also just providing a safe zone without judgement. Skilled touch is relieving anxiety on a very basic level, we have receptors in the skin that are specialized on social touch. Particularly, Ruffini receptors are only there to register slow strokes as used in Rolfing. This type of touch sends signals to the emotional centers of the brain that we are safe and well-supported.

What type of transformation do you see in your clients that struggle with anxiety? 

Clients who work through a series of Rolfing treatments not only process old trauma, they also get direct anxiety reduction via their own nervous and hormonal systems due to the special quality of touch in Rolfing sessions. Even better is the permanent long-term result of literally being able to stand up for oneself and walk in effortless confidence, that is the general goal of the classic "Ten Series" of Rolfing treatments.

How long, on average, does it take for people that struggle with anxiety to feel better?

It's wonderful to see how even just one treatment helps resolve anxiety. In the beginning, that might only be temporary, especially in difficult chronic cases. However, it is typical that with each session, the results last longer and longer until they become permanent. An important aspect of how the physiology of Rolfing treatments is understood today is in establishing new neural pathways to provide more appropriate solutions and behaviors.

What motivated you to help people that struggle with anxiety? 

In the beginning, working with anxious clients happened by accident. Anxiety complicates and increases pain, and a lot of clients with chronic pain come to me. I noticed how fast the symptoms of anxiety would dissipate even during one treatment of Rolfing. I also realized that consistent or permanent Rolfing would be the most effective tool in resolving chronic pain.

How long have you been helping people overcome anxiety?

I have been working with hands-on treatments for over 20 years; in Germany my license is as a Naturopathic Physician. I founded Balance Orlando in 2008, and now I'm training my employees in working with anxiety and chronic pain.

How should people contact you for your services?  

Via our website at: www.balanceorlandoschedule.info which is the direct link into our scheduling system.

By telephone at: 407 704 8867. It is answered by our dedicated office staff seven days per week.

I also recommend a "First Visit" with me, that costs $95.

More about Lu Mueller-Kaul

Advanced Certified Rolfer™ and Balance’s founder and owner, Lu Mueller-Kaul is also a board-approved provider for continuing education for massage therapists in Florida and a highly skilled bodyworker.

She has spent more than twenty years studying alternative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, various types of bodywork and massage therapy, and ran her own office as a naturopathic physician in Germany.

Lu’s current role is that of a mentor and trainer for the talented staff at Balance Orlando.

She also travels across the country teaching continuing education courses for Licensed Massage Therapists. Visit www.myomob.com for more on CEU’s.

She is the immediate past President of the Board at the Central Florida LGBT Chamber of Commerce, the 2017 recipient of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce’s prestigious Chamber of the Year award.

Want more on alternative treatments for anxiety?

EMDR Therapy in Orlando.

Neurofeedback Therapy in Orlando.

Yoga and Holistic Approaches in Orlando.

Want to learn more about Orlando Counseling services?

Schedule your free 15-minute phone consult here.

Mindful Living Counseling Orlando is a trauma healing center. Our Orlando Therapy Services include anxiety therapy, trauma counseling, eating disorder recovery, teen counseling, and healing from toxic relationships. At Mindful Living Counseling Orlando, we use a down-to-earth approach infused with cutting-edge therapies that go beyond traditional talk therapy so clients can heal at the root level and experience lasting change. Feel free to access one of our Guided Meditations to help you feel settled and calm now.