Posts Tagged ‘alternative healing’
Massage Therapy with Two Eyes
Energy work and structural work are two sides of the same coin. The most effective therapy arises from an approach that respects the unity of structural and energetic aspects of both therapist and the client. The various arguments for and against energy work, for and against insistence on evidence-based therapy, are certainly passionate. The best…
Read MoreEnergy Work Defended (Against Devotees and Detractors)
Energy is too important a subject to be, on the one hand, defined only by its devotees – some of whose ideas or practices have been shown to be false or dangerous or with claims made for scientific validity where there is insufficient scientific evidence or disproof. On the other hand, energy work has been…
Read MoreEnergy and Integrative Massage in Recent History
When I began as a therapist in 1977, Swedish massage, Shiatsu, Rolfing, Aston Patterning, Reiki, Feldenkrais, Alexander work, Polarity, and Cranio-sacral therapy were what one mostly encountered. There was a broad umbrella under which they all easily co-existed. As the massage and bodywork field grew, its proliferation gave rise to new modalities, new educational standards,…
Read More3-D Massage – Disease, Disposition & Destiny
In my last blog piece, I outlined three realms of massage/bodywork – wellness, orthopedic, and holistic. We can also look at three purposes for massage and bodywork. These relate to the “3 D’s” – Disease, Disposition and Destiny. DISEASE People come to us with dis-ease. It may be a physical disease – an injury or…
Read MoreMedical Massage is Not the Best Kind of Massage
Over the last few years, some practitioners of so-called medical massage have implied it represents the highest level of our profession. First problem, most state laws say massage is NOT the practice of medicine. Many therapists persist in blithely ignoring that. Second problem, assuming the superiority of a medical approach ignores the client. The best…
Read MoreMassage Therapy – The Antidote to the Economy?
For years, I was fascinated with Systems-Centered Therapy and worked hard in a group. One thing I learned was that many of our fears are not based on reality. Rather, we often make negative predictions about what may happen in the future – a meeting might not go well next week, this new client might…
Read MoreThe First French Hippy Gets a Massage?
In 1785 Claude-Étienne Savary wrote about his experiences receiving massage in Egypt. ‘Perfectly massaged, one feels completely regenerated, a feeling of extreme comfort pervades the whole system, the chest expands, and we breathe with pleasure; the blood circulates with ease, and we have a sensation as if freed from an enormous load; we experience a…
Read MoreIf You Love the Body – poem for massage therapists
IF YOU LOVE THE BODY If you love the body you must know the bone that ribs and peoples it; deeper than flesh you feel the beauty. That will last, simply as stone upheaves in season where the winter rain rakes asters and drooping cornstalks from a hill. If you love the body you must…
Read MoreMassaging the Windows of Life: Where Your Muscles Meet Your Bones
When we do our strokes in Deep Massage, when we pause, particularly at the beginning or the end of a stroke, it creates a kind of “window”. These pauses naturally occur at the beginning and near the end of the muscle – at the origin and the insertion. As in most stories, beginnings and endings…
Read MoreARE YOU BONE-TIRED? – reflections on Zero Balancing
When we say we’re “bone tired”, what does that really mean? It means tired to our core, not just sleepy. It refers to a feeling of depletion – that we’ve drawn upon our vital stores of energy, which are now in need of replenishment. In Chinese medicine and philosophy, the energy that flows through the…
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