To view times and book online with Brooke, click here.

About Brooke Thomas:

The education bit: I graduated from the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado in 2000. While at the Institute I studied with a number of outstanding teachers, many of whom trained directly with Dr. Ida Rolf. Since my graduation, I have taken a number of continuing education courses in diverse subjects such as spinal mechanics, visceral manipulation, and Frequency Specific Microcurrent.

Other practices and other projects: Over the last 11 years, I’ve had the opportunity to serve the loveliest clients imaginable in practices in Napa and Sonoma, California, Brooklyn, New York, and now here in New Haven. With all that practice building going on, I discovered along the way that I have a love for that whole thing and now I teach other wellness providers how to grow their practices over at Practice Abundance. When that all isn’t keeping me busy enough I’m raising my 4 year old son and having adventures whenever I can.

How did I find Rolfing?: Rolfing saved my bacon. I know that sounds purely funny ha-ha, but it really did save my bacon. I can’t imagine what life would look like for me right now if I hadn’t found it. When I came to Rolfing I was a 22 year old college student who couldn’t open her mouth, was told she’d be eating soft food (read: liquid-y mush) for the rest of her life, couldn’t turn her head to the right, and couldn’t get out of bed many days from chronic pain. Oops, I’ve started calling myself her. I can’t really help it, it does feel like a different person; I was a mess. 

Now that all is said and done, the best guess that a variety of doctors, specialists, other practitioners have come up with is that it began with my birth injury (so for those of you who are afraid you’ll never get better because you’ve had your problem for too long- take heart. Mine started at birth). I had a cord strangulation which gave me Bell’s Palsy in addition to a little tweak in my neck, which set my jaw off course as I grew. As a kid I had always had chronic pain (and a droopy face, but my mom told me it gave my face ‘character’ ain’t she sweet?), but since I had always had pain, I didn’t know it wasn’t the norm. The problem was that over the years the pain was worsening. By college, things took the big downhill slide. My jaw finally revolted and locked itself shut. Now that I both felt and looked like a 92 year old in a 22 year old’s body, I had to look around at my fellow college students and notice: hmmm, not everyone’s limping around like a cripple. Maybe this isn’t normal.

And so begins the healing journey. I won’t bore you with all the gory details, but suffice it to say- for those of you dragging yourself to doctors four days a week and crying the other three - I’ve been there. Among the myriad of doctors and specialists, I had the great good fortune to find myself in Dr. Murad Padamsee’s office. He is a TMJ specialist and orthodontist. Luckily for me, he didn’t believe in trading in one’s jaw for the titanium model (the surgery has a 20% success rate at best…) and so instead we began a long process of working manually with custom splints and orthodontia to get my jaw alignment back. Dr. Padamsee is the miracle worker who managed to get my jaw to open. Trouble was, I was still in excruciating pain and had limited mobility in my neck and spine. I still looked pretty gimpy. I’ll never forget the day that Dr. Padamsee sat me down and leveled with me; he told me that if I wanted to get well and stay well I was going to have to seek out some good bodywork and take meditation classes. What luck! My conventional doctor was the one who opened my eyes to this whole world of alternative options that I never knew even existed.

I tried a lot of things and was generally stumbling around trying to find the thing that would make a dramatic difference. I refused to accept the idea that many people had tried to feed me: that I was a sunk ship and I was going to have to learn to accept it. After a long period of being equal parts tenacious and hopeful, I heard about Rolfing. When I first called my Rolfer, Joe Wheatley, I told him quite frankly that I had tried many things and that if he didn’t think he could help then he should find it in the good of his heart not to waste my time. Joe good natured about it and he told me to come in for one session. If I didn’t feel better- no worries, we would go our separate ways.

In only one session I could turn my head to the right for the first time in almost two years, my pain level dropped dramatically, and I felt like I was breathing fully for the first time in my life. Do you know what it’s like to get full mobility back in an instant after living without it for so long? And to have your pain recede like that? It was a clouds parting, angels singing, fireworks exploding moment. By the end of the session I would have been willing to sign away my first born to get Joe to continue giving me sessions. Fortunately Joe didn’t require this. My first born is pretty dang cute.

As my sessions continued I felt like I was not only regaining my old self, but that I was gaining new mobility and openness that I had never had. Not everyone has the fireworks exploding Rolfing experience, but mine was powerful enough to launch me into a whole new career and a whole new life. Funny how those ‘worst thing that ever happened to me’ things usually come around to be a best thing, oui?

Since then I’ve fallen in love with a wide range of modalities. Some of my favorites: yoga, acupuncture, homeopathy, Pilates, Gyrotonic, Shiatsu- oh I could go on forever.

You can reach Brooke directly at brooke@newhavenrolfing.com or 203-626-1789

Rachel Felson also practices at New Haven Rolfing, and you can visit her website here.