1 617 776 9494
Email eli@elithompson.com
OFFICE IN BROOKLINE

Meet Eli Thompson

Eli Thompson has been practicing Structural Integration at the Boston Posture Center for 20 years. His background of engineering allows him to understand the complex, interdependent relationships in the body and the biomechanical problems that can arise from imbalance. Eli's years of martial arts and movement training help him guide his clients to a different understanding of their bodies and how to live in them in a softer, healthier way. Eli has been on faculty at Tom Myer's School of Anatomy Trains for 15 years. Prior to the covid pandemic, he traveled through-out the US, South America, and Europe giving lectures, teaching workshops, and mentoring teacher trainees.

Eli lives in Brookline with his wife, three kids, and three dogs.

Anatomy Trains

Structural Integration -

Resolve Long Term Pain

Eli specializes in is resolving chronic, long term pain and postural dysfunctions. Our bodies grow a strong, leathery tissue called Fascia that keeps our organs, muscles, and cells in place and supports us in everything we do. Over time, the Fascial web can grow into chronic imbalance, limiting our movement and potentially leading to pain. Anatomy Trains Structural Integration is a powerful series of bodywork sessions designed to address these imbalances and return to ease, comfort, and greater freedom.

In each session, Eli evaluates your posture and movement patterns, working with deep, slow manipulations that will alter the way you naturally organize your own body and internally experience your own anatomy. Each session builds on the last, accumulating structural change, awareness, and understanding to the point of learning a new way of living in ones own body. A new way that helps the body manage your activities and takes the pain out of life. The work is profound and the results can be transformative. To learn more, read Elis article Taking the Pain Out of Chronic Pain

Our body grows based on how we treat it. We must learn to be like our body’s farmers and nurture it
E. Thompson

Eli as a Teacher

In 2003, I completed a certification of Structural Integration at Tom Myers' school of Anatomy Trains. I am regularly awed by the power of this work to transcend not only our physical limitations but also our ingrained psychosocial habits and attitudes. It is a truly rewarding experience to witness my clients growing into themselves in this deeper sense.

Having become so committed to Structural Integration, I became a Certified Teacher in 2005. The saying "You don't fully know it until you can teach it" is true as my knowledge of the work has certainly deepened. I now travel throughout the US and South America teaching 2-4 day weekend workshops. These classes are intensives designed to introduce the theories and practices of Structural Integration to Massage Therapists, Physical Therapists, Osteopaths, Chiropractors and movement professionals such as Yoga and Pilates instructors and Personal Trainers.
Learn more about Anatomy Trains

As a side project, I used my background in Mechanical Engineering to redesign the traditional Ida Rolf adjustable bench. In Structural Integration some of the work is done with the client in a seated position. It is best performed when the client sits in correct ergonomic posture which requires that the bench be height adjustable. I realized that the bench has not been redesigned in 50 years, and none were available nationally. So, after five prototypes and much thought and effort, BENCHWORKS benches are now available to the whole Structural Integration community.
Learn more about Benchworks.

Tensegri-Teach

In 2009 I expanded my product line and created Tensegri-Teach, another small company that produces and distributes wooden tensegrity models for educational purposes. Tensegrity and Biotensegrity is a relatively new way of thinking about how the body and its tissues organize and how forces are distributed during function. It is leading us to a new understanding of human biomechanics and soft tissue dysfunction.
Learn more about Tensegri-Teach.

Structural Integration

A powerful form of bodywork focusing on postural alignment and functional ease. Strain in our tissues and joints is caused by poor postural habits, injuries and compensation for those injuries, as well as embodiment of our life's stresses.

Over a long period of time this strain becomes solidified in our connective tissue, causing chronic pain and reducing the quality of our lives.

Structural Integration seeks to correct these problems and return the body to healthy, light, graceful movement. You can also learn how chronic pain patterns develop and how Structural Integration works to resolve them, see my article Taking the Pain Out of Chronic Pain"

All sessions last about 1 1/2 hours.
Structural Integration sessions are $190 ($5 fee for credit card use).

Introductory Gift Certificates are available.

Frequently Asked Questions

Therapeutic Massage

Life is stressful! So many things can challenge us in so many ways. All this stress accumulates into our bodies as tension. The increased tightness and stiffness is often uncomfortable and aggravates any injuries or chronic pain already present. Deep Tissue Therapeutic Massage is a great way to reset your body's state. With deep, slow massage strokes I will help you let go, relax, and return to the feeling of health and well being.

Learn more about my style of Therapeutic Massage and what you can do to maximize its benefits in my article: The Art of Receiving Massage

All sessions last 1 1/2 hours and cost $150 ($4 fee for credit card use).
Introductory Gift Certificates are available.

Frequently Asked Questions

Published Articles

The Art of Receiving Massage
Yes, there is a skill to receiving Therapeutic Bodywork. The better the client becomes at these skills the more they will get out of the session.

Taking the Pain Out of Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is defined by a consistently repeating pattern of pain, sometimes constant, sometimes sporatic but always returning. It can range from nagging to debilitating. This article explores the growth process of chronic pain patterns and how Structural Integration works to resolve them.

Advancing Muscular Skeletal Anatomy towards a Fascial Based Anatomy>
Muscular skeletal anatomy has advanced in complexity and precision but has remained fundamentally flawed. It is a reductionistic process that cuts the body into smaller and smaller parts. However, from a fascial perspective there are no parts in our seamless whole. Such a systems perspective helps to explain many of the wondrous features our bodies exhibit and leads us towards a new understanding of biomechanics.

Benefits of Instructional Yoga
As much benefit as Yoga has brought to Western culture there are still big limitations to how this ancient art is being adapted into modern lifestyles. Most Yoga classes are lead, not taught. This article explores the consequences of this delema and how we may address them.

Bodyreading: Seeing is Touch at a Distance
Ida Rolf, the creator of Structural Integration, coined the term "Seeing is Touch at a Distance" to describe the power of Bodyreading as a strategizing tool. By studying how the body naturally aligns itself to gravity we can gain a unique understanding for the fascially held chronic imbalances. This article explores the potential of Bodyreading to improve the skill of any manual and movement therapist.

"Adding Sensory Education to Physical Education"
When I was in high school phys ed was a chance to run around and vent of some steam. Not learn about myself, my body, or how to live within it. This lack of actual physical education is leading our culture towards mass kynesthetic ignorance. Its no wonder many have ruined their bodies by the time they reach their 40s. What would phys ed be like if it actually tried to teach.

A brief description of the Anatomy Trains Theory.
Written by Tom Myers
Our body is a seamless whole. Tom Myers has redrawn the old musculo-skeletal system of parts into a single seamless myofascial wonder.

Anatomy Trains

Eli has been on faculty of Tom Myers’ School of Anatomy Trains since 2005. He travels internationally offering 2-4 day CEU intensives to Manual and Movement therapists such as Massage Therapists, Physical Therapists, Chiropractors, Osteopaths, Yoga and Pilates Instructors, Personal Trainers, Functional Sports Trainers, etc.

All of these workshops explore the fascial perspective of the body and what it suggests about function, dysfunction, and treatment. In a sense, they emphasis the holistic, connected reality of our anatomy, rather than the part-based, fragmented vision of Western Medicine. They give therapists a sense for how foot problems can cause back pain, neck pain, or shoulder pain. These workshops give a strategy for assessing, formulating global strategies, and planning treatment and rehab to resolve chronic problems.
Learn more.

Tensegri-Teach

In 2009, Eli formed Tensegri-Teach, a company that produces and distributes educational Tensegrity models. Tensegrity is an architectural design principle that manifests in nature everywhere, becoming Biotensegrity. These organizational principles manifest in our fascia, muscles, tissues, and our whole body and understanding these principles enhances our ability to assess and treat global dysfunctions. Tensegri-Teach models are sold by many of the Structural Integration schools.
Learn more.

Benchworks

Like many SI practitioners, I spent the first few years of my practice using an inadequate chair or table for my seated work. I finally recognized how this limited my practice and searched for a strong, stable, affordable, and adjustable bench. To my surprise I found none. So, I made one. My clients reported a noticeable improvement in my seated work and the results proved it. I realized that the whole SI community would benefit from having a bench. And so, in 2005 I was proud to present the first bodyworker's bench manufactured by BenchWorks. Learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

Testimonials