The Neurofascial Transformation Process™

Healing the Bodymind
— A Path of Personal, Relational, and Spiritual Transformation

“Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies.”

— Bessel van der Kolk

Introduction — What Is the Neurofascial Transformation Process™?

The Neurofascial Transformation Process™ (NTP™), developed by Dirk Marivoet, is an integrative body-centered pathway for healing trauma, stress, and deep-seated emotional patterns — and for fostering embodied personal development, relational presence, and spiritual growth.

NTP™ is a core element of the Core Strokes™ approach, and draws from:

• Modern fascia science
• Polyvagal-informed nervous system work
• The Energetic Breath Cycle™
• Body-centered psychotherapy (Reichian and post-Reichian lineage)
• Energetic and developmental psychology
• Mindfulness, somatics, and subtle body awareness
• Relational and spiritual embodiment practices

At its heart, NTP™ helps release what I call Neurofascial Encoding™ — the imprint of unprocessed experience, emotion, and trauma held in the fascia, breath, and autonomic nervous system.

It is both a therapeutic method and a pathway of personal evolution — restoring natural flow, relational presence, and embodied spiritual connection.

Why Is It Needed?

Many clients — and many people on a path of growth — suffer from:

• Chronic anxiety or panic
• Depression
• Somatic symptoms (pain, fatigue, tension)
• PTSD
• Eating disorders
• Sexual trauma
• Relational difficulties
• Early developmental trauma
• A disconnection from body, aliveness, and spiritual presence
  

In all these conditions, the body carries what the mind cannot integrate:

• Breath is disrupted
• Fascia is armored or frozen
• The autonomic nervous system is locked in patterns of hyperarousal or collapse
• The relational field becomes unsafe
• The connection to spirit is veiled
  

Neither talk therapy alone nor manual therapy alone can fully access these embodied, relational, and spiritual layers.

NTP™ works precisely at this interface — where body, mind, heart, and spirit meet.

How Trauma and Experience Are Stored in the Body

In Core Strokes™, we understand the body as an intelligent matrix of:

• Breath
• Fascia
• Autonomic patterns
• Energetic flow
• Relational resonance

When an experience overwhelms the nervous system:

• The Energetic Breath Cycle™ becomes disrupted
• Neurofascial Encoding™ locks trauma patterns into the connective tissue
• Fascia holds armoring, fragmentation, rigidity, collapse
• The body “remembers” — not in words, but in sensation, posture, movement, autonomic reactions

These imprints shape how we:

• Breathe
• Move
• Feel
• Relate
• Perceive ourselves and others
• Connect with a deeper field of life and being
  

Transformation must happen through the body — not despite it.

The Role of Breath — The Energetic Breath Cycle™

Breath is the gateway to transformation.

In trauma or chronic stress, the breath often becomes:

• Held
• Shallow
• Fragmented
• Incoherent

The Energetic Breath Cycle™ provides a map of how breath, fascia, and emotional flow should naturally move — and how they become blocked.

The Neurofascial Transformation Process™ builds upon the deep insights of the Natural Energetic Cycle developed by Jack W. Painter, PhD., with whom Dirk Marivoet collaborated for 25 years.

The Energetic Breath Cycle™ taught within Core Strokes™ refines and extends this lineage — offering an embodied map of how breath, fascia, and energy naturally pulse through the bodymind.

Restoring this natural cycle — from Secure Breath, through Nurturing, Exploring, Free Breath, and beyond — is a central task of NTP™ work.

Restoring full breath rhythm:

• Releases frozen autonomic patterns
• Softens fascial holding
• Rebuilds emotional resilience
• Restores capacity for safe relational contact
• Reawakens the body’s connection to flow, aliveness, and the spiritual field

The Five Phases of the Neurofascial Transformation Process™

1️⃣ Attunement and Orientation

• Establishing safety and co-regulation
• Reading the client’s breath, fascia, and autonomic state
• Orienting the client to present-moment body awareness
• Building the relational field as a safe container

2️⃣ Contact and Co-Regulation

• Establishing therapeutic contact → verbal, nonverbal, touch
• Supporting the body in tracking sensation
• Helping the client tolerate micro-movements of change
• Co-regulating autonomic shifts
• Building a field of trust and presence

3️⃣ Activation and Unwinding

• Gently activating held patterns (with client’s consent and readiness)
• Supporting fascial unwinding → tremors, movements, breath shifts
• Releasing Neurofascial Encoding™ of survival responses
• Restoring pulsation in the Energetic Breath Cycle™
• Opening pathways for life energy to move more freely

4️⃣ Reorganization and Patterning

• Supporting new patterns of breath, posture, movement, and relational contact
• Helping the nervous system experience safety in new ways
• Rebuilding relational trust
• Integrating new possibilities into daily life
• Opening space for embodied spiritual presence to unfold

5️⃣ Integration and Resonance

• Grounding the experience in the client’s felt sense
• Helping the client own and embody the transformation
• Supporting ongoing integration in body, emotions, mind, and relationships
• Creating resonant templates for future growth and spiritual deepening

What Happens in a Session?

A Neurofascial Transformation Process™ session may include:

• Breathwork → to restore rhythm and flow
• Fascia release → through touch, movement, or guided awareness
• Relational presence → co-regulating the client’s nervous system
• Tracking Neurofascial Encoding™ → and helping it unwind
• Movement and micro-movement → restoring coherence
• Verbal reflection and dialogue → integrating new awareness
• Attuned touch → supporting safety and embodiment

What Clients Experience

Clients often report:

• Relief from chronic symptoms
• Release of old trauma patterns
• Increased breath capacity
• Greater emotional resilience
• Improved sleep, digestion, vitality
• Reconnection with body as a safe place
• Restored trust in relationships
• A deeper sense of presence and joy
• A clearer connection to spiritual dimensions of being
  

How NTP™ Complements Other Approaches

Compared to talk therapy:

• NTP™ addresses embodied layers that talk alone cannot reach

Compared to manual therapy:

• NTP™ integrates emotional, relational, and spiritual healing

Compared to trauma therapy alone:

• NTP™ provides a whole-bodymind-spirit integrative pathway
  

It complements:

• Psychotherapy
• Somatic therapies
• Movement practices
• Meditation and spiritual practice
• Energy-based approaches

Who Is It For?

The Neurofascial Transformation Process™ supports clients and practitioners working with:

• Anxiety and panic
• Depression
• PTSD
• Developmental trauma
• Eating disorders
• Psychosomatic symptoms
• Sexual trauma
• Personality adaptations
• Chronic stress and burnout
• Personal growth and evolution
• Deep embodiment and healing
• Embodied spiritual integration

The Neurofascial Transformation Process™ also supports clients and therapists on a path of:

• Personal evolution
• Embodied spirituality
• Deep integration of body, mind, and spirit

It invites a fuller connection with life, presence, and the larger field of being.

Conclusion — A Path to Embodied Wholeness

Healing is not about erasing the past — it is about transforming how it lives in the body.

Through the Neurofascial Transformation Process™, clients can:

• Restore flow
• Reclaim breath
• Release trauma imprints
• Rebuild resilience
• Rediscover joyful embodied presence
• Open to spiritual depth and connection
  

This is a path of transformation:

→ Through the body

→ For the whole being

→ In relationship with life itself

→ In service of personal and collective evolution and embodied spiritual presence

The Neurofascial Transformation Process™ was developed by Dirk Marivoet, founder of Core Strokes™ and the International Institute for Bodymind Integration. An article on the Fascial Texture Typology appeared in Somatic Psychotherapy Today.

It is offered worldwide through sessions, workshops, and professional training.