Sue Hitzmann - The MELT Method: A Breakthrough Self-Treatment System to Eliminate Chronic Pain, Erase the Signs of Aging, and Feel Fantastic in Just 10 Minutes a Day!

A Breakthrough Self-Treatment System
to Eliminate Chronic Pain, Erase the Signs of Aging,
and Feel Fantastic in Just 10 Minutes a Day!

Sue Hitzmann

with Debbie Karch

W ith the MELT Method, Sue Hitzmann introduces cutting-edge information and innovative techniques that anyone can use to get out of and stay out of pain. MELT also allows fitness and hands-on health professionals to give their clients tools to encourage proactive self-care. To my mind, this is the essence of Sues contribution to the growing number of researchers currently studying human fascia, a long-neglected yet critically important aspect of human anatomy. For years she has been combining this important information with practical tools that anyone can use to take care of their own body in a new way. I admire any practice that helps people to help themselves. The MELT Method is just that.

Over the past decade I have watched Sue develop the MELT Method. Sue is relentless in her quest for knowledge, and is willing to refine her perspective over and over again when she gets new information. She is also tireless in her effort to understand complex scientific information, and then transform it into something simple and accessible. Sue pays attention to all the layers of the body, not just the ones that have already been written about. She teaches you how to take care of the body you actually have, as opposed to the muscle body upon which much of the fitness industry is focused. There is so much more to our bodies than just muscles, and Sues efforts represent a great stride in expanding our awareness of our whole body.

The folks who join me to study anatomy in the laboratory are a very small, self-selected group. They are people who are willing to stretch themselves and their understanding well beyond their training. When Sue first joined me in the lab, she was already an established figure in the fitness world as well as an accomplished bodyworker. She was a standout participant among the early adopters from the fitness industry. There are some people you meet, and you know on the spot that you will never forget them. Sue was such a person. Much to my delight, I have been privileged to know her ever since that first course she joined way back when. What I remember of her from that first week we spent together in the lab was that she was on fire! Her bright eyes and intense curiosity demonstrated her complete engagement with the experience, and her palpable excitement for her discoveries. This lady had volumes of energy for her work, a vibrant personality, and a genuine enthusiasm for the process we were engaged in. She spoke to me as if she were on the brink of discovery. She was also clearly blessed with all the drive it takes to see a complex inquiry through to the end.

The first time I got to see Sue share the MELT message with a group was at a large fitness conference in New York City. While hearing Sue teach, my respect for her method grew. She systematically taught us how to self-assess our alignment, develop our body awareness, and increase our consciousness of the fascial system and how it related to what we were feeling. Then she offered simple, do-able techniques with little balls and soft rollers so that we could gently and effectively initiate changes for the better. She placed great emphasis on the gentleness required to effect positive change in our body, tossing aside decades of that insidious no pain, no gain mantra. This alone does us all a great service.

A couple of years ago I went out for a walk with my son, who was twelve at the time. We didnt get a hundred yards down the street when he complained about pain in his foot and ankle. We went back to the house and, thinking of Sue, I told my son that I was pretty sure I had a way to help him. I am trained in multiple hands-on healing modalities, and surely could have done my son some good with a manual therapy session. This time, though, I wanted him to know that he could take care of himself. I popped in Sues Hand and Foot Treatment DVD, handed him the balls, and left him to it. I peeked in once or twice and saw him following Sues straightforward instructions. Afterward, I asked him how it went, and he was happy to announce that the pain was gone. What thrilled me most was not that he was out of pain, but that he learned he could do that for himself.

Another thing I love about Sues work is that she knows that the body is not a machine and that health requires more than merely fixing mechanical problems. Our bodies have ultra-sophisticated chemical, electrical, and energetic communication systems that need to be supported as well. When we open these channels of communication, we re-establish a baseline experience that feels good.

Sues method always maintains a healthy respect for your bodys own voice up front. She would rather have us whisper good feelings to the delicate, fluid tissues of the body than shout at them with even more pain signals. Based on my own decades-long study of the body, that is a program I can get behind. The intelligence of the body deserves our utmost consideration. Our bodies are not the enemy when we are in pain. Our bodies are on our side. Sues program aligns with that fact and takes full advantage of the wisdom and subtle communication systems of the body for our own good.

The depth of Sues MELT Method comes in large part from the fact that it is grounded in her own personal experience of self-healing. Sue is an enthusiastic explorer of her own body, to which she listens attentively. The importance of her work relies on careful attention to the needs of the body and its true structure, anatomy, and physiology. Translating cutting-edge science into a safe, practical, universally accessible application is no simple task, yet in the MELT Method, thats exactly what Sue has done.

Gil Hedley, PhD, creator of Integral Anatomy

F or as long as I can remember, Ive had the ability to feel the subtle vibrations that exist in all living things. When I touch a person, an animal, or a tree, if I focus my attention, I physically sense vibrations with my hands.

When I was a little girl, my father said this ability was weird and not to tell anyone because it would scare them. When I told my mom, she took me to the doctors office. The doctor offered to cut some of the nerves in my hands to see if that would stop it from happening. Fortunately my mom thought that cutting into my hands to stop me from talking about it was a bit radical. She asked if it bothered me or got in the way of doing anything, and when I said no, she told me to ignore it and maybe it would go away.

My great-grandmother, however, told me that what might seem like a curse could become a blessing if I could learn what it was. She told me to keep it to myself until I found someone who could tell me how to use it. So I kept it to myself for many, many years.

When I was little, I was frequently grounded and sent to my room, where the only things I had to occupy me were fairy tales and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. I became fascinated with anatomyI got the idea that it could give me the answer to what I felt in my hands.

I was always full of questions. I remember asking my father why there was so little in the encyclopedia about the nervous system. He answered, How much do you need to know about the nervous system? I didnt tell him that I thought I had found what I was feeling in my handsnerve impulses.