Spinal Flow
A gentle and deeply relaxing neuro-somatic technique that works with the physical body only.
Focuses on identifying, releasing and correcting spinal blockages created by physical, chemical and emotional stress.
The spinal wave is a natural healing expression of the nervous system.
See it in motion.
What are
spinal blockages?
Our bodies are naturally intelligent and always working to keep us protected, even when we’re not conscious of it.
When we go through stress or trauma (emotional, physical, or chemical) that we can’t fully process at the time, the body stores that unresolved energy in certain joints, tissues and patterns. It holds onto it until it feels safe to let go.
This can show up in the spine as a spinal blockage - where a vertebra becomes misaligned or restricted (called a subluxation). This may lead to inflammation and reduced vertebral movement, which can interfere with how nerves communicate. Because each vertebra connects to specific nerve pathways, a blockage in one area can affect related organs, muscles, or body systems, like digestion, immunity, or tension in the face and shoulders.
Spinal Flow helps restore the natural movement of
each and every vertebra
(not just the ones related to your symptoms), allowing the entire nervous system to function with more ease.
The science behind Spinal Flow
Spinal Flow is grounded in key principles of neuroscience - neuroplasticity, neuroception and the body's innate ability to heal (homeostasis and autonomic regulation).
Neuroplasticity
The nervous system is designed to change. It learns from experience and adapts continuously. Spinal Flow helps the nervous system shift by guiding it back to ease. In this parasympathetic state the body feels safe enough to rest, repair, and release.
Neuroception
The body’s unconscious way of sensing safety or threat. In Spinal Flow, we work with "access points" along the spine to directly signal safety to the nervous system. These are located in areas rich with meninges (see next section).
Innate intelligence
Your body is inherently intelligent. It regulates heartbeat, heals wounds, and maintains balance without conscious effort. Spinal Flow works with this intelligence through intentional contact to activate the body’s own rhythmic spinal wave.
Neuroplasticity
The nervous system is designed to change. It learns from experience and adapts continuously. Spinal Flow helps the nervous system shift by guiding it back to ease. In this parasympathetic state the body feels safe enough to rest, repair, and release.
Neuroception
The body’s unconscious way of sensing safety or threat. In Spinal Flow, we work with "access points" along the spine to directly signal safety to the nervous system. These are located in areas rich with meninges (see next section).
Innate Intelligence
Your body is inherently intelligent. It regulates heartbeat, heals wounds, and maintains balance without conscious effort. Spinal Flow works with this intelligence through intentional contact to activate the body’s own rhythmic spinal wave.
What are "access points"?
In Spinal Flow, we work with specific access points. These are usually along the spine and cranium. They're areas rich in meninges, the protective layers surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
These access points sit where the dura mater (the outermost meningeal layer) anchors to the bones of the skull and spine. Because the meninges are continuous from head to tailbone, tension in one part can ripple through the entire system. When we make gentle contact at these points, we’re speaking directly to the nervous system, inviting it out of stress and into a state of safety, flow, and ease.
Rather than force or manipulation, this work honours the body’s design. It activates its innate intelligence through light touch, allowing the system to self-correct, unwind, and return to balance.
What happens in a
Spinal Flow session?
We'll start with a brief check-in and posture and spinal assessment. This helps identify where and how your body may be holding physical, emotional or chemical stress. You’ll remain fully clothed and be laying or seated comfortably for the duration of your Spinal Flow session:
1. Signalling Safety
Light, specific touch is applied to access points, primarily located at the cranium and sacrum. These areas are rich in meninges and help signal to the body that it is safe to relax and release.
2. Connecting to your Spinal Wave
As the body begins to feel safe, it may respond through large or subtle movements, shifts in breath, often in a visible wave-like motion through the spine. The spinal wave is inside every body and is a natural, reflexive response as the nervous system starts to unwind.
3. Expanding and increasing the wave
As the wave arises, often it's stuck in areas where there's a spinal blockage, so it needs some guidance from practitioners to expand and flow. The goal is to have the Spinal Wave flow through every vertebrae from the coccyx through to the head.
What happens in a
Spinal Flow session?
We'll start with a brief check-in and posture and spinal assessment. This helps identify where and how your body may be holding stressors. You’ll remain fully clothed and be laying or seated comfortably for the duration of your Spinal Flow session:
1. Signalling Safety
Light, specific touch is applied to access points, primarily located at the cranium and sacrum. These areas are rich in meninges and help signal to the body that it is safe to relax and release.
2. Connecting to your Spinal Wave
As the body begins to feel safe, it may respond through large or subtle movements, shifts in breath, often in a visible wave-like motion through the spine. The spinal wave is inside every body and is a natural, reflexive response as the nervous system starts to unwind.
3. Expanding and increasing the wave
As the wave arises, often it's stuck in areas where there's a spinal blockage, so it needs some guidance from practitioners to expand and flow. The goal is to have the Spinal Wave flow through every vertebrae from the coccyx (base gateway) through to the head (awaken gateway).
Spinal Flow® Technique, created by Dr. Carli Axford
Developed by Dr. Carli Axford, a former chiropractor who holds a double degree in chiropractic, with decades of experience. Her clinical training took her to the Texas Back Institute, one of the world’s leading spinal care centres.
Alongside her clinical foundation, she has trained in a wide range of modalities including Network Spinal, Bio-Geometric Integration, Applied Kinesiology, and Neuro-Emotional Technique. Her time spent studying emotional and energetic healing in India further shaped the heart of the Spinal Flow approach - one that recognises the body as both intelligent and self-healing.
Carli is an incredible teacher, and I’m deeply inspired by her commitment to embodiment and the way she honours the body’s innate intelligence with such clarity and care.
Read more about Dr Carli Axford
A life long journey
This practice is a lifelong unfolding, one of presence, reconnection, and deep remembering. I continue to study, to listen, to unlearn. And what I offer is a space for others to do the same: to gently return to their bodies, to their breath, to their inner rhythms.
This work is for those who carry stress, fatigue, grief, physical pain or disconnection in their bodies. Those who have done the work and still feel a quiet ache. For those shaped by stories that began before they were born.
What we do in the session is guided by what your body is ready to reveal. Toward safety, toward sensation, toward wholeness.
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