The Body Restoration Clinic

I came here after a serious neck injury had left me in serious pain, as well as giving me vertigo. JoAnn was very skilled and caring. She really helped bring down the vertigo – which amazed me as most of the healing didn’t involve touching me at all. However, her treatments didn’t do much for the pain, which was my main complaint. I also saw Sean. He made a very strange assessment, which was that my problem wasn’t my neck! Instead, he thought it was all to do with my hips. He gave me exercises to do, which just pushed the inflammation through the roof. The pain became excruciating. I could no longer sit up, and soon had to be hospitalized as I had lost the ability to eat. I was already emaciated as a result of the injury going untreated, and the exercises were a grave mistake. He really didn’t understand the first thing about what was going on with me. He also told me that my biggest problem was my «victim energy.» This is a harsh and unhelpful thing to tell someone who’s in agonizing pain. It shows that despite their sloganeering about getting people out of pain, he at least doesn’t have real empathy. He never understood how serious it was – he did show some care when I was in the hospital, but I don’t think he understood that he had sent me there. When I finally found a good chiropractor (Dr. Wong at Full Motion Chiropractic in Belmont) and had the problem properly diagnosed, I discovered that my hips were out of alignment because the neck injury had thrown my whole spine out of whack. As the treatment progresses, my pain has been coming down, and lo and behold my energy has shifted. My guess is that this works for some people, and that it’s fine if you have already had a problem diagnosed and treated, and just want something extra to calm you down. The place itself is very pleasant, and JoAnn really does have a way with people and healing.

I’ve been seeing Jo Ann Mason since 2012, and simply put, she is amazing. I’ve had chronic TMJ, whiplash, sinus, and indigestion pains for the last 20 years. They resulted in terrible headaches that eventually made it difficult to function and go to work each day. I only discovered the root cause of these headaches in the last 10 years because the pain became unbearable and I started a quest with various healthcare practitioners to get them treated. I started with doctors and dentists. They referred my to physical therapists, which helped to varying degrees. I was also referred to a chiropractor in Southern California, where I used to live. He helped the most… until now. I had a baby in 2011 and moved to Northern California shortly after. I tried some local chiropractors, acupuncturists, and massage therapists that are highly rated on Unilocal.None of them provided enough pain relief. To make things worse, I could no longer bring my baby to chiropractic sessions because he would cry and scream at the trauma of watching me get adjusted, so even that minimal relief was gone.
Then I found The Body Restoration Clinic on Unilocal and met Jo Ann. Like other reviewers have stated, the Bowen body work is so gentle that I can bring my now toddler with no problem. He even gets treated for his constipation, sinuses, and eczema for free! I was really hesitant to bring my toddler at first, after his trauma from witnessing chiropractic adjustments. But Jo Ann kept reassuring me that she’s pretty good with kids. And boy, is that true. My toddler took to her right away. She’d play with him every session (free babysitting!) until he was happy to play on his own. This is the prefect treatment for mommies in pain (maybe from lugging 30+ pounds around with them [my kid is big for his age]) who need childcare so they can get some much-​needed relief.
This Bowen work clinic is different from others. You get the free, additional benefit of customized, prescribed Egoscue exercises. This is huge, as it is a treatment on its own, and speeds healing exponentially. If I were disciplined about doing my exercises (I hate to admit it, I’m not!), I probably would not need to come for Bowen work anymore, except maybe occasionally. As it is, I only really need to come every month or two. That’s down from every week, and without doing the exercises!
Now, I’m coming every week again because Jo Ann is helping us to get pregnant. I conceived my first child through IVF. After 3 failed cycles last year, we are going to try naturally with Jo Ann/​Bowen work’s help. And the treatment is so much more pleasant than acupuncture and IVF! After the birth of my first child, I was in so much pain, I was sure I could not have any more. But Jo Ann has changed that belief. Words cannot express my appreciation!

Man, this review is long overdue!
I first came to Sean several years ago with debilitating neck, shoulder, and back pain that I had due to being on crutches for over a year followed by a car accident (yay me!). At the point that I started seeing Sean, I had already seen probably ten or twenty various practitioners … chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, etc., most providing just short-​term relief (or none at all), and some making my pain worse. I sought out Sean because I was looking for someone who is trained in the «Egoscue Method» of therapeutic exercises (I had read Pete Egoscue’s books, and they resonated well with me).
From the start, working with Sean was a completely different experience than the other practitioners I had seen. It was clear that he knew what he was talking about, AND he was relaxed and no-​pressure (he didn’t try to sell me any package deals or tell me I’d have to come in 3x a week, like some others had done).
The first thing he does is assess your posture. For me, I had lots of things that were «off,» despite being in my mid-​twenties: hips rotated a little this way and a little that way, knees pointed in, one shoulder hiked up, etc. Sean admitted from the start that the process might take a little longer for me (many of his clients just come in once or twice and are good to go) but but he was confident that my posture (and pain!) could change if I did daily exercises that he prescribed. He asked me how much time I could devote daily to exercises, and I think I said «whatever it takes.» He laughed and said thirty minutes or so should be fine.
It’s important to know that the exercises Sean gives aren’t just your run-​of-​the-​mill PT exercises. In the past, practitioners had done the obvious: «Oh, you have neck pain, so here let me give you some exercises to stretch your tight neck muscles, or to strengthen your weak neck muscles.» The problem? My body had already created compensatory patterns that meant I literally could not do these exercises correctly: often, I felt worse after doing them. Not so with Sean’s exercises! He looks at your body in a truly holistic fashion and then gives you a set of exercises that you do in a particular order that makes neuromuscular sense for your body. At the start, I was doing very simple things like glute squeezes and hip exercises, and it was SO refreshing to feel my body doing things «right.» It took a while (again, I was perhaps a more complex case than usual), but I started to feel better and better, and eventually I was doing difficult TRX-​type exercises that I thought I would never be able to do again.
As a completely wonderful added bonus, Sean also does Bowen Therapy as part of each session. If you’re not familiar with this (I wasn’t), read up on it! It’s a gentle but really powerful form of bodywork. The night of my first session with Sean, I remember having a weird almost out-​of-​body experience because I touched my left shoulder and it felt soft. It didn’t feel like me (my traps had basically been bricks for two years at that point). So with Sean, you get the short-​term relief of the bodywork AND the long-​term change with the exercises. Pretty sweet. He is also knowledgeable about many various health-​related things and tuned in to the mind-​body connection. He has been my go-​to person for so many various things (ankle pain, pregnancy-​related pain and birth trauma, emotionally over-​stressed nervous system, etc.). He even did some Bowen moves on my baby and cured his hiccups in about five seconds! It is amazing how sometimes you can go in and say «Sean, I’m having this pain in my tailbone,» and then he does a Bowen move on your ankle and says, «How does it feel now?» and you stand there stupefied because the pain is half gone. It almost feels like magic sometimes, but I know that it is from many years of experience and learning.
It should also be said that Sean is just a stand-​up guy in general. His prices are SUPER reasonable (I’m talking over a hundred dollars cheaper per session than the official Egoscue clinic in San Francisco). On top of that, he offers a discount for teachers (and I think firefighters and police officers too, if I remember correctly). He could easily charge double or even triple what he does, and people would pay it, but he doesn’t because he wants to keep his services accessible for most people. To me that is just awesome. He is also funny, friendly, kind, and honest. I would probably continue seeing him even if he were a jerk because he is that good at what he does, but it definitely makes it a more pleasant experience that he’s such a good guy!
I have sent many people to him (friends and family), and everyone has had a great experience. Do yourself a favor if you have musculoskeletal pain of any kind, and get in to see Sean YESTERDAY. You have to be willing to put in a little time (to do the exercises), but it will feel so good it will become a great part of your day :).

The most effective therapy I’ve ever had! I’m 74. Having a malformed right hip, I’ve been to countless therapists over these many years to help alleviate acute bouts of pain caused by misalignment due to my malformed hip. Finding The Body Restoration Clinic was like finding a needle in a haystack, but I did. Sean’s work, his knowledge of body physiology/​body mechanics and our Mind/​Body connection is unparalleled!
If you have pain you want and are ready to get rid of, CALL SEAN and make an appointment! That simple!

EVERYTHING IS IN ALIGNMENT!
When the stars above are in alignment, life is bliss! When your body is too, it can carry you to unlimited destinations!
I’m a new patient to Sean’s clinic. A very knowledgeable friend, on her recommendation and experience, informed me about Sean and how great he is.
I decided to see him because of an achy arm (possible Carpal Tunnel according to another friend) and pain in my left hip while running.
Dating a Triathlete can be a strenuous matter, especially when you’re achy just 2 miles into a run. According to Sean, my hips are out of alignment. It has only been 2 weeks since my initial meeting with Sean, but with daily prescribed exercises and in office treatments, I’m feeling better and will be back to running with my Hunni, pain free.
Sean has a plethora of knowledge and advice for keeping the body perfectly aligned, working at it’s optimal capacity. He’s my new go to body restorer!