Laurel Maier, LMT

What a beautiful breakdown - a scar is never "just a scar". 🤯

Look closer, do you recognize what kind you may have? 🔎

Observe the deeper structures affected, when left to its own devices... Protection and stability is the goal. ❤️‍🩹

With McLoughlin Scar Tissue Release, the surrounding impacts of scars can dramatically change, even surrounding joints and sensation. Increased blood, lymphatic and nerve function can return! Release of tension, sometimes even anxiety. 💙

I love that with McLoughlin Scar Tissue Release, it's never too late! It is always a good time to come in and have your scars checked.

Come on in, and let's collaborate on your healing journey. 💛

🩹🌿 LYMPHIE… THE SCAR YOU SEE ISN’T ALWAYS THE WHOLE SCAR STORY.

We look at a scar and think:

“It healed.”

The wound closed.
The stitches came out.
The redness disappeared.

But underneath that little line, your body may have spent months rebuilding and remodelling tissue.

And here’s what I really want you to understand:

🔬 Not all scars heal or behave in the same way.

Let’s look at 5 different scar patterns 👇🏼

🌿 1. FLAT / MATURE SCAR

Over time, many scars become flatter, softer and paler as collagen continues to remodel.

The surface may look completely healed, while the mobility and organisation of deeper tissue can still differ depending on the original injury or surgery.

🌿 2. HYPERTROPHIC SCAR

This is a raised, thickened scar caused by increased collagen deposition during healing.

The important clue?

👉🏼 It remains within the boundaries of the original wound.

🌿 3. KELOID SCAR

A keloid behaves differently.

It grows beyond the original wound edges due to abnormal scar proliferation and excessive collagen deposition.

Keloids can continue enlarging after the original wound has healed.

🌿 4. ATROPHIC / DEPRESSED SCAR

These scars sit below the surrounding skin.

They develop when tissue repair results in loss or inadequate replacement of dermal collagen and supporting tissue.

Acne and chickenpox can leave this type of scar.

🌿 5. ADHERENT / TETHERED SCAR

Now THIS is an important one when we’re looking at tissue mobility. 👀

Sometimes the scar on the surface looks tiny…

…but deeper scar tissue can become attached or tethered to the tissues underneath.

This may influence:

🩷 Tissue glide
🩷 Mobility
🩷 Sensation
🩷 Comfort around the scar
🩷 Local tissue and fluid mechanics

And now we get to the part my LYMPHIES need to understand…

💚 WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH LYMPH?

Your superficial lymphatic vessels form an incredible network throughout the tissues beneath your skin.

When we have surgery or significant trauma, we’re not only cutting through the visible skin.

Depending on the procedure and depth, there may be disruption to:

🔬 Skin
🔬 Connective tissue
🔬 Fascia
🔬 Small blood vessels
🔬 Nerves
🔬 Lymphatic vessels
🔬 And, during certain procedures, lymph nodes themselves

Then the body begins repairing.

Inflammation occurs.

Fibroblasts become active.

Collagen is deposited.

The wound closes.

And then the scar continues remodelling for months.

But please remember this part:

❌ A scar does NOT automatically mean your lymphatic system is “blocked.”

We cannot look at a scar and make that assumption.

However, depending on the location and depth of the injury, type of surgery, degree of fibrosis, and whether lymphatic vessels or nodes were damaged or removed, healing can sometimes affect local lymphatic transport.

That is why your surgical history matters when we’re looking at swelling.

Sometimes we need to ask more than:

“Where are you swollen?”

We also need to ask:

🌿 Where have you had surgery?
🌿 Where are your scars?
🌿 Were lymph nodes removed?
🌿 Have you received radiation therapy?
🌿 Does the scar feel tight, painful, numb or tethered?
🌿 Has the tissue around it changed?

Because sometimes…

the little scar we can SEE is only part of what happened underneath the skin.

Healing can leave lasting changes within our tissues — and understanding those changes can help us understand the bigger clinical picture. 💚

👇🏼 LYMPHIE QUESTION

Do you have an old scar that still feels tight, numb, sensitive, raised, hard or “stuck”?

Tell us what you’ve noticed. I think we’re going to be surprised by how many Lymphies experience this. 🌿

⚕️ DISCLAIMER:
This post is for general education and awareness only and is not intended to diagnose or treat scar tissue, fibrosis or lymphatic dysfunction. Not every scar affects lymphatic drainage, and scar appearance alone cannot determine what is happening in the tissues underneath. New, rapidly changing, unexpectedly growing, persistently painful, inflamed, bleeding or ulcerated scars should be assessed by an appropriate healthcare professional. If you have had cancer treatment, lymph-node surgery or radiation therapy, scar and lymphatic management should be individualised with your treating healthcare team.

🌿 Lymphatica
Lymphatic Therapy & Body Detox

This is profound. How often do we allow our trauma to dictate how much care we offer ourselves? Is tenderness and compassion safe?

Teaching our bodies safety means being present for our felt senses, our felt emotional reality in our body... Instead of hiding in our intellectual brain.

Safe to feel... means sitting with your felt experience. And maybe offering something as simple as, "I hear you, I am with you".

When you choose bodywork like the Art of Bodywork, McLoughlin Scar Tissue Release, and Neurostructural Integration Technique, you create the space and time... to feel, to unwind, to find calm, and ultimately peace... A welcome home to you.. to your body.

Healing awaits you, when you choose love and presence for yourself!

Come on in, and let's collaborate on your healing journey together.

Podcast episode 58 looks at the importance of your posture toward yourself when it comes to healing from trauma. Trauma is about contempt; healing requires kindness.

What richness we have access to! What good and wonderful things can you spot around you today? This doesn't need to be dramatic, could be anything...

This morning for me: light coming through the shades of my treatment room window, hello sun. 💛

Incredible link! Have you noticed this in your experience with your body?

Did you know that your jaw and pelvis are connected?

Research shows that when people with certain pain conditions (like complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS) had their jaw muscles relaxed, their hip flexibility improved. But when they clenched their jaw tightly, their hip flexibility decreased.

This study highlights something Bowen Therapists have long understood: tension or imbalance in one area of the body can affect distant parts.

In this case, the jaw and pelvis are linked through muscular and fascial connections, meaning tension in one area can restrict movement in the other.

Bowen Therapy’s gentle techniques aim to release tension and restore balance across the body.

By gently working with both local and interconnected areas, Bowen Therapy aims to encourage flexibility, ease discomfort, and support the body’s natural alignment.

Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19539119/

Yes! 💚

🌿 THE CLAVICLES — THE FINAL DRAINAGE POINT 🌿

Most people never realise that one of the most important drainage regions in the entire lymphatic system sits just above the collarbones.

This small area beneath the clavicles acts like one of the body’s major “return stations” — where lymphatic fluid finally flows back into the bloodstream after travelling through the body’s vast lymphatic network 🌿

Your lymphatic system is responsible for moving:
✨ excess tissue fluid
✨ immune cells
✨ inflammatory proteins
✨ cellular waste
✨ fats absorbed from the digestive tract
✨ and other substances involved in immune and fluid balance

through an enormous network of vessels and lymph nodes.

And unlike the cardiovascular system…
the lymphatic system has NO central pump like the heart.

This means your body depends on:
🌿 movement
🌿 breathing
🌿 muscle contractions
🌿 posture
🌿 fascia mobility
🌿 hydration
🌿 nervous system regulation

to help move lymphatic fluid through the body.

✨ Your body moves approximately 2–4 liters of lymphatic fluid every single day.

That is an extraordinary amount of fluid movement happening silently in the background every day.

🌿 So what happens at the clavicles?

Beneath the clavicles sit important drainage junctions called the:
✨ right venous angle
✨ left venous angle

These are areas where major lymphatic vessels empty lymph back into the venous bloodstream.

The largest lymphatic vessel in the body is called the thoracic duct.

This remarkable vessel:
✨ begins near the abdomen
✨ travels upward through the chest
✨ carries lymph from nearly 75% of the body
✨ and eventually empties beneath the LEFT clavicle into the left venous angle.

A much smaller vessel called the right lymphatic duct drains:
• the right side of the head
• right arm
• right chest

into the RIGHT venous angle.

🌿 This is one of the reasons lymphatic therapists often begin work near the clavicles first.

Before encouraging fluid movement through the rest of the body, therapists help prepare the major drainage “exit points.”

Think of it like clearing a river outlet before more water flows downstream.

🌿 Breathing also plays a powerful role here.

Every deep diaphragmatic breath creates pressure changes inside the chest cavity that help mechanically pull lymph upward toward the clavicle region.

This means shallow breathing patterns associated with:
• stress
• anxiety
• chronic tension
• poor posture
• prolonged sitting

may influence lymphatic movement over time.

🌿 Posture matters more than most people realise.

Forward-head posture, tight chest muscles, restricted fascia, and prolonged sitting may place tension around the neck and clavicle region — potentially influencing fluid dynamics and circulation.

🌿 The clavicle region is not just about “drainage.”

It is deeply connected to:
✨ immune communication
✨ inflammation regulation
✨ tissue fluid balance
✨ healing responses
✨ circulation
✨ and overall lymphatic transport physiology

Even the brain’s recently discovered waste-clearance pathways — known as the glymphatic system — eventually connect into the body’s larger lymphatic drainage network.

🌿 Surgery, trauma, scarring, inflammation, or radiation near the chest and neck may also influence lymphatic flow patterns in some individuals.

This is why understanding lymphatic anatomy matters so much.

The lymphatic system is not a “minor” system in the body.

It is one of the body’s most important transport, immune, and fluid-regulation networks — quietly working every moment of every day 🌿

Your body was designed with extraordinary intelligence.

Beneath the clavicles, an intricate drainage and immune network works continuously to protect, regulate, and support you — often without you ever realizing it 🌿

✨ DID YOU KNOW? ✨

🌿 The thoracic duct is the largest lymphatic vessel in the body.

🌿 Most of the body’s lymphatic fluid returns to the bloodstream beneath the LEFT clavicle.

🌿 Your lymphatic system has NO heart-like pump.

🌿 Deep breathing mechanically assists lymphatic flow.

🌿 Your lymphatic system is closely connected to immune health, inflammation, and fluid balance.

— Lymphatica 🌿

This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, exercise, or health regimen.

Sound familiar?

Not all sensations we experience are from a muscle, or visible scar…

A whole ecosystem lies beneath the surface, waiting to be seen, affirmed and treated.

McLoughlin Scar Tissue Release is ideal for this! Gentle and profoundly effective, yes even with internal adhesions associated with pelvic and gastrointestinal conditions! ❤️‍🩹

Endometriosis adhesions and scar tissue... 🕸🪢🩸🫟