Meet Anna Cherekovsky, CMT of 3foldbodywork in West Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Cherekovsky, CMT.

Anna, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My background is in dance. Before starting at UCLA, I attended a month long intensive on dance and energy work, with Garbielle Roth and Emily Conrad, among others. The intensive opened my awareness to the relationship between the body, one’s personal energy, and the impact of the physical/material world in which we live. Over the course of the years, I have had the opportunity to train with Mia Slavenska, Carmelita Maracci, Gloria Bowen, Lynn Dally, Rose Gold, Aaron Osborne, and Danny Furlong, along with all of the major dance companies that graced the studios at UCLA during my time there. For many years, I danced with and costumed for local and regional dance companies in LA and northern California.

While I was getting my B.A. in Dance at UCLA, I started intuitively putting my hands injured dancers and found myself drawn to the healing aspects of hands-on therapy. By the time I had finished my degree, I had taken pre-med anatomy and a variety of kinesiology courses, including one with Dr. Valerie Hunt. After graduating, I moved to the Bay Area, completed my California certification in acupressure and met my mentor, Connie Cronin, LAc. Connie invited me to apprentice with her for Structural Alignment work and later directed my studies towards CranioSacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation with the Upledger and Barral Institutes.

For many years, I was dancing and engaged in organizational work – music publicity, managing profit and non-profit organizations, and grant writing, with my bodywork practice being secondary. About 15 years ago, when at one of the crossroads moments in life, I read in the Bhagavad Gita, ” It is better to engage in one’s own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept another’s occupation and perform it perfectly.” So, I stopped organizing other people’s businesses and returned to where I began by working with dancers. I accepted the position as Head of Wardrobe at a ballet company in northern California, taught Adult Beginning Ballet, and focused on honing my skills as a bodywork practitioner until I had a full-time practice. I moved back to LA 3 years ago and now have my practice at Natural Healing and Acupuncture, an acupuncture clinic in West LA.

Has it been a smooth road?
All roads to higher learning are filled with their challenges and sacrifices, but none are without merit and are always fundamental to one’s growth. Organizing other people’s businesses taught me many things about what not to do in a business, since I was endlessly dealing with complications that others had created.

Making a decision to do what was most important to me was significant challenge. It is easy to continue on well-worn path, especially when one is successful, comfortable, and familiar with it. When I decide to stop dealing with other people’s businesses and took the position as Head of Wardrobe, I rented a bodywork space, printed up business cards and brochures without having one steady client. Within a few years, I had a full-time practice.

The struggles along the way clarified that it was well worth taking the risk to make the effort, rise to the challenge and seek the better path.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a bodywork practitioner specializing in Acupressure, Structural Alignment, CranioSacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation. Acupressure is a hands-on form of bodywork that uses the same points and meridians as acupuncture to balance and heal the body. Structural Alignment, CranioSacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation are manual therapies stemming from osteopathy. Osteopathy is a form of treatment that is based on 3 principles: that there is unity between the body, mind, and spirit; that the body is capable of self-healing, regulation, and maintenance; and that structure and function of the body are reciprocally interrelated. The blend of these modalities optimizes body function and is appropriate for newborns to the elderly, addressing rehabilitation of new and old injuries (including dance and sports injuries), recuperation after surgery or dental work, headaches, and the treating TMJ syndrome, chronic pain, prenatal and postpartum issues traumatic birth, and colic.

“Dancing, fabric and gardening” is a metaphor that I use to define my unique style of bodywork.

I look at the body from the perspective of a dancer or athlete. What is the range of motion, flexibility, strength, and weakness of the individual’s body.

As I put my hands on a client, I am feeling the fabric of their tissues. How do the muscles, organs, ligaments, and nerves feel in relation to the surrounding tissues? Do they slide against each other, or is there a pull or drag between them? Do they hang smoothly, like fabric draping on its’ bias, or is there a draw, like the collar of a shirt when the sleeve is pulled? Is the fabric (the tissue) pulled so tightly that the boney structure is no longer in its’ proper alignment?

Just as untwisting a garden hose allows water to flow smoothly and unimpeded, releasing the impingements in the body’s conduits allows the blood, lymph, nerve signals, and chi to flow smoothly to the tissues and structures, supporting the well-being of the entire body.”

As a practitioner, I am amazed by every person who I get to treat, each treatment is not what I do to a client, but the process that happens between the client, my hands and what is in between the two of us. This work is simple, profound, and effective. It addresses present issues or ones from the past, on the physical, emotional, or spiritual plane, depending on what are the priorities of the individual when they come in.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Being born and raised in LA, I feel that LA is a great place for alternative therapies, like what I practice. I have the privilege of being able to say that I have watched LA grow, become cleaner, and more welcoming over the years. LA has a much higher awareness about conscious health on personal, regional and global levels than it ever did before. There is a wonderful awareness of and serious interest in interdisciplinary exchange of information that was not so prevalent in previous years. This exchange of information is very beneficial for both clients and practitioners.

For someone who is starting out, I would recommend being really well prepared, seriously study your craft, and aligning yourself with a very qualified mentor, A city of this size and vibrancy will have a plethora of people of all skill levels in any field, so it is important to develop your skills with those your trust and respect. And, have the patience and humility to take the time to establish your place within this amazing community of very skilled healthcare professionals.

Pricing:

• I charge $90-$130, on a sliding scale, for a treatment.

Contact Info:

• Address: Natural Healing and Acupuncture
  2001 S. Barrington Ave, Suite 220
  Los Angeles, CA 90025
• Website: 3foldbodywork.com
• Phone: 707.498.1123
• Email: anna@3foldbodywork.com

 

Image Credit:
Arcata Photo