The “Electricity” of Touch
As many of you know, I am a strong advocate for the massage and bodywork field committing to understand energy as well as structure. My book's subtitle is "How To Combine Structure and Energy in Bodywork." I think exclusively structural and exclusively energetic...
Deep Massage for the Sacro-iliac Ligaments
For lower back pain, some of the most important structures we need to address are the ligaments. Of particular interest are those running “horizontally” - from the levels of S5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and L5 to the ilium at each vertebral level. The sacroiliac and iliolumbar...
Teacher of the Year – a diary entry and album of photos/videos
This year I received the 2012 Jerome Perlinski Teacher of the Year from the American Massage Association. I thank AMTA for this great honor and thank Central Texas therapist/fellow teacher, Ariana Vincent, for initiating the nomination and seeing that process...
Diary of a Massage Therapist: Growing Up in My Private Massage Practice
By Jennifer Shaw, LMT, cPT at Bodywork In Austin, and Guest Blogger I can hear all the birds of Austin chirping and chattering and flat-out squawking outside the window in front of me, but all I can see is the bright front yard and Eastside street. The early fall,...
WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL
Having been an artist, working first in music, then in bodywork, for now for over 50 years, I have met many wrestlers – clients wrestling with their lives, students, teachers, and therapists. And I’ve been fighting the good fight myself these years as well. The first...
REFLECTIONS ON ANGER AND DEEP MASSAGE
REFLECTIONS ON ANGER AND DEEP MASSAGE Anger’s just the natural, healthy vibration that happens when we encounter an obstacle – like water vibrating against a rock in the middle of a flowing stream. It’s no accident we so often say “damn” when we encounter obstacles!...
Medical Massage – Not the “Best” Kind?
Over the last few years, some practitioners of so-called medical massage have implied it represents the highest level of our profession. First problem, in the U.S. most state laws say massage is NOT the practice of medicine. Many therapists have gone on blithely...
A.C.T. NOW! – The Advanced Clinical/integrative Training
When I first came to Texas in 1984 I thought I'd just teach advanced trainings. I started teaching a class out of my apartment on San Gabriel and 29th. It was a group of about 10 students/therapists that included, among others, an interesting young man named, John...
Some Notes toward Rhythm’s Role – the Art of Massage #6
Just as joints and bones organize our space. so the lived events and moments spanning the pause in between organize our time. The ancients postulated celestial rhythms and frequencies in the harmonic relationship of planets and stars across the vast reaches of the...
Eternity in the Palm of Your Hand – The Art of Massage #5
Dost thou love life? then do not squander time; for that is the stuff life is made of. Benjamin Franklin Time is what we are made of - in addition, of course to space. Ida Rolf noted “gravity is the therapist” - meaning we derive the sense of balance from our...