About Jake

He attended the Hellerwork Advanced Course in 1994, and became a member of the Hellerwork Faculty and Hellerwork International Board of Directors in 1999. He is currently a member of the Hellerwork Board of Education.

Jake has been in private practice in Eureka, CA since 1988 and was associated with Dr. Salter’s office from 1993 until 2003.

Why I became a Hellerwork Practitioner!

I was diagnosed with a herniated disc at L5-S1. I had sciatic pain down my left leg and in one instance my leg lost its strength and I fell. The pain was excruciating. The hospital had performed a mylagram on me to discover the disc problem. Back surgery was recommended by the doctor for the next day after the test. I chose not to do the surgery and checked out of the hospital.

I found a person that did tissue manipulation, and went to her for about 4 months. The pain went away, I was elated. I went back to my old habit patterns and after about 1 year the pain came back, though not as severe. I returned to the woman that helped me and worked with her for about 2 months. The pain left again. This time I quit doing all of the things that could possibly cause my back pain again. I quit lifting, playing sports and doing anything that could bring back the pain. A lot of my life shut down.

This lasted for about 3 years, then I found a Hellerwork Practitioner. The practitioner worked with me, and my body said that it had felt this work before. It was very much like the woman that worked on me the first time. She was an Osteopath. I later learned that Ida Rolf took a lot of her technique from the osteopathic method of tissue manipulation, and that Joseph Heller had been a Rolfer. In creating Hellerwork, Joseph added movement education and dialogue to the bodywork series. The beauty of the Hellerwork series, that I did not get with the Osteopath, was that I was taught ways to live in my body that allowed me to return to the activities that I had quit doing.

I was a model at Hellerwork Training where I met Joseph Heller, many teachers, practitioners, and students. I was very impressed with the integrity, compassion and knowledge of the entire group. This gave me the desire to become a Hellerwork Practitioner. I wanted to be a member of this professional group and make a difference inpeople’s lives with this work as it had done for me. The method of teaching in the Hellerwork Training was so far removed from my past experience of learning. It was fun to learn. What a concept!

Through Hellerwork movement and dialogue, I learned about my habitual patterns in life. My body felt like it did when I was in high school; I returned to playing basketball and running, feeling great. I have not had surgery to this day, almost 25 years later, and I still continue to live my life as I wish, not limiting my activities, and have no back pain.