Posted on Thu, Jan 19, 2012
In the last months I've been intrigued by a little known muscle, the pyramidalis. This muscle lies anterior to rectus abdominis, and is contained within its sheath. Its action is to tense the the fascia of the 'linea alba", meaning "white line," between the two sides of the rectus abdominis. Pyramidalis originates on the superior surface of the pubic bone and inserts into the linea alba midway between the umbilicus and the pubis (not coincidentally, at the precise level of the energy center known as the "hara" or tan-tien").
The pyramidalis obviously lies in a potent, highly charged region. Many therapists avoid working here. Many clients might misinterpret work in this area or simply find it uncomfortable. But the very avoidance of this area by both clients and therapists should give us pause. Let's at least consider what a healthy experience of this area could be like and the potential benefits from self-massage or from receiving as a client.
What are the health benefits - physical and psychological - of high quality attention to the area at and above the pubic bone? Structurally, by beginning at the public bone, you help clients experience how long their front torso actually is (similar to how good back work feels when it includes the sacrum, amplifying the sense of length to the entire spine). The fascia of the front torso extends up from the pubic bone to the point on the sterno-clavicular junction, beautifully named in Chinese medicine, "Elegant Mansion", the last point on the kidney meridian.
Working on and just above the public bone helps us feel strength in the lower abdomen. We may feel our breathing bringing healthy movement fully down to the pelvis. It may help people let go of shame, tension and anxiety in this area, and to feel more relaxed, confident, and assured in one's sexuality. It can relieve anterior "reflections" of iliac misalignment, low back strain and SI sprain. It can relieve residual muscular tension that often accompanies dysmenorrhea and continues beyond menstruation as low level cramping in the stomach muscles.
In Chinese medicine this point is known as "Qugu", "curved bone", the second point on the Conception Vessel. They consider it as indicated, among other things, for genital pain, gynecological disorders, impotence, leucorrhea, irregular menses, urinary dysfunction.
Here is the most well-boundaried and refined way I've found to work here:
First, during your pre-tablework interview, decide if this work might be relevant for this client and if he or she would likely be accepting of it. If you feel strongly that the client may answer yes to both questions, then say something like, "I think working with your abdomen could be helpful today. Would you be fine with work on your tummy?" Then, if they say yes, I would ask, "I'd like to work the full length of your tummy muscle; it begins on your pubic bone - is it fine for us to begin work there?" If they say yes, then you can proceed. GIANT CAUTION - If you feel any hesitation, spoken or non-spoken, I would say, "You know, let's start the abdominal work today just below the belly button - is that ok with you?" Then you have a graceful way to back off.
If you do have clear permission, before you work on the abdomen, ask the client to show you where their public bone is.
Then stand alongside their torso facing down toward their feet. You will work bilaterally. Rest both palms on the surface of the abdomen, fingers facing down. Allow the person a moment to feel the reassuring warmth of your hands on the whole tummy area.
Then gently curve your fingers. First go posterior-ward, about a half-inch above the pubic bone with your fingertips so you are assured when you go inferior to the public bone you will be on its superior (cranial) surface, not on its anterior surface or slipping below it. Press clearly and gently onto the superior surface of the public bone. Now add just the slightest bit of pressure onto the superior surface. Keep your palms as relaxed as possible and adding warmth to the client's experience of the abdomen. Hold this fulcrum on the public bone for usually not more than 5 seconds. You may encourage the person to breathe into their lower abdomen. Sometimes I'll say "Imagine you're breathing all the way down to your legs."
After about five seconds, clearly disengage. Then proceed with other abdominal work and torso work.
For more on abdominal work and all sorts of techniques, news ideas, detailed theory and philosophy relating to Deep Massage, I must share my excitement. My book, The Deep Massage Book, will be published this spring by Complementary Medicine Press. We are just deciding on the cover design! The book features 25 clear, beautiful illustrations and extensive instructions for all the basic Deep Massage fulcrums that I teach. It also explores the history, philosophy, anatomy, and evolutionary power that Deep Massage gives us. Of course I am excited to be bringing The Deep Massage Book to each of the classes I teach this year.
I so look forward to seeing you this year. I am doing just a few out of town classes so please note where and when these are. Note the registration information and please register early to assure your place and structure it into your new year.
February 22-24 Oregon School of Massage - Deep Massage 2.5 day class
Register: www.oregonschoolofmassage.com/descriptions.php#503
(503) 244-3420 or (800) 844-3420
March 13-17 California - teaching at the ZB Teacher Training
May 19-20 London, U.K. - Deep Massage - Back and Neck
Register: +44 (0)7526 925734 or info@bodyworkcpd.co.uk
May 21 Bristol, U.K. - Art of Deep Massage (for ZBers)
Register: 0044(0)1308 427001 or zbzanna@tiscali.co.uk
May 23-27 Gaunts House, Dorset, U.K. - Deep Massage 1, 2, 3 Intensive/Retreat
Register: 0044(0)1308 427001 or zbzanna@tiscali.co.uk
June 14 Presenting at the ZB National Conference in Chicago
see www.zerobalancing.com for more information
July 19-22 Austin - Zero Balancing II at Lauterstein-Conway School
Register: 800-474-0852 or www.tlcschool.com/courses-ce-zero-balancing-ii
Sept 28-30 Waldoboro, Maine, Downeast School of Massage
Deep Massage 1, 2, 3 - intensive in Maine w/ guest assistant Zanna Heighton from England
Register: 297-832-5531 or www.downeastschoolofmassage.net/cont_ed.html
Oct 3-6 at AMTA National Convention in Raleigh, North Carolina (tentative)
The day I wrote this newsletter, I synchronistically received this painting from recent graduate, Erica Santiago, reproduced here with permission, "Harvest Moon". I was struck by all the pyramids - you can see the blue pathway leading to the bright moon as a fantastic energy depiction of pyramidalis!
Happy New Year, Everybody. I look forward to seeing you this year and sharing new learnings and my new book with you!
Sincerely,
David Lauterstein
Preliminary Reviews of The Deep Massage Book
"David Lauterstein has written a profound, poetic and enlightened book that looks at the person as a whole being, not just the sum of the body's parts. It is a reverent, beautifully written mixture of the practical and the philosophical. David uses vivid prose to weave together touch, massage, structure and energy into a book that emotionally connects us to ourselves and others. His knowledge and respect for the human body and the human experience is evident on every page. This book is destined to become a classic in the bodywork field. Every massage therapist and bodyworker should read it."
Ben Benjamin, Author, Listen to Your Pain, Ethics of Touch, Are You Tense?
"An absolute masterpiece! Written by a true master of this ancient craft; and a joy to read."
Robert Schleip, PhD, Director Fascia Research Project Ulm University, Germany
"At the heart of this fine book is music. David Lauterstein - a voice of deep experience - sings the octave of the body's chakras to create a melody of deep-tissue protocols, bathed in the harmony of rich therapeutic contact, steadied by the bass tones of bodywork's place in our unfolding human story."
Thomas Myers, Director: Kinesis, Author of Anatomy Trains and Fascial Release for Structural Balance
"The great bodywork pioneer Ida P. Rolf described her work as "a series of principles that leaves behind it a trail of techniques." I cannot think of a better way to explain David Lauterstein's seamless way of presenting the principles of his Deep Massage method and the precise and innovative techniques that are organically birthed from them. Part poet, part philosopher of healing, and part master clinician, David-- and his new text-- is a 100% invaluable resource to all sincere students of bodywork and manual therapy."
Dr. Jeff Rockwell, D.C., clinician, author, educator Santa Cruz, Ca.
"In The Deep Massage Book, David Lauterstein transmits years of valuable knowledge and experience. An artist both of words and touch, he delightfully informs the reader. This is an important book for every therapist, student of the healing arts, or any person curious as to the deeper benefits of massage therapy and bodywork."
Dr. Fritz Smith, MD, founder of Zero Balancing,
Author of Inner Bridges and Alchemy of Touch
Posted on Sat, Dec 31, 2011
I have received student sessions for years - it's a requirement at our school (I know - tough life for us teachers!)
I commonly have the experience that, in the best sessions, one forgets the therapist is there. The touch feels so trustworthy and clear that the focus is not on the therapist's touch, but rather on the experience in one's own body (or mind or heart).
Years ago I mentioned this to my mentor, Dr. Fritz Smith, the founder of Zero Balancing.
I said, "Have you noticed that in really good sessions, the client has the experience that the therapist kind of disappears?"
He said, "Yes."
And thought about it for a moment.
Then he asked me, "But what happens when the client disappears?"
I was speechless. What did he mean? For many years now I've puzzled about this question which I barely understood. What happens when the client disappears?
This week I started to get an answer.
I was receiving a session from a student. His touch was quite reliable and there were moments in which I didn't experience him as being there. However, the session wasn't as effective as either of us had hoped. Afterwards as we talked and I had a rather suddenly deepened understanding of three distinct levels of touch and client experience.
Level One - You experience the touch of the therapist. You feel their hands, their warmth, and infer their knowledge of anatomy and technique as they work. You are more or less pleasantly touched by them. This is the level of most massages.
Level Two - You do not mostly experience the touch of the therapist. The foreground of your experience is not your experience of them; it is the experience of yourself. You feel yourself deeply relaxing. You may see visions, colors, have new thoughts, restored hope, feel "energy" flowing more freely and abundantly through your body, etc.
Level Three - You do not even experience yourself. You, the client, as the consciously experiencing subject, have disappeared. Some of our most profound touches result in the client going deeper than self-consciousness. The sense of self, the consciousness of being separate from the rest of nature, disappears. Clients may experience relevatory moments or sustained periods of what some people call unity-consciouness.
I'm reminded of a book whose title I've always enjoyed (a bit more than the book) - Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object by Franklin Merrell-Wolf.
At our best, we humans are not self-centered beings. During a great massage and at other transcendent moments, often those created by art or spiritual practices, we experience ourselves as part of a larger whole.
This leads to profound relief from what I call "reality fatigue". We, as our dreams show us each night, are capable of imagining and, history has shown us, of living in many realities. It is fatiguing to live just in this one time and space, this waking world of 2011. How refreshing and necessary to disappear into the space and time of more infinite possibilities! Letting go of the present, letting go of the self, we all have the opportunity for rejuvenative participation in the wholeness of time and space.
I hope, in 2012, to have and to provide more opportunities for people to creatively disappear and then to re-appear with renewed enthusiasm for life!
What happens when the client disappears? Who knows? :)
Posted on Mon, Dec 26, 2011
This morning I took me and my dog, Phoebe, for a walk. I guess the opening of presents brought me back to the biggest present, my own body. I'd been having a little back pain and hoped to relieve it by visualizing the sacrum and its ligaments. I could feel, refreshingly, movement in that area as we walked.
Then curiosity began to extend to the other bones. It's been a while since I spent time experiencing each one. I brought my awareness through each of the other bones as we walked, starting with the 26 vertebrae (it just seems so non-accidental that there are basically the same number of letters in the alphabet as there are bones in the spine and foot). Then through the bones in the lower body. And I felt each bone and joint moving as we walked. Then to the ribs, sternum, the shoulder girdle's bones, the arms, hands, and head.
I felt with renewed amazement how every bone and joint in the body gently moves when we walk.
Not only is there movement at each joint but of course, inside us, we are mostly flowing water being moved by breath, heart, digestion, and so on. Even lying down at rest, there is constant rhythmic movement inside us at every moment.
A few years ago I was working on a radiologist. This man had viewed every inch of the human body - through MRI's, CT scans, x-rays. I was so curious about what he'd seen.
"Of all the things you've ever seen," I asked, "what is the most incredible?"
He said, "It was the first time I saw a real-time x-ray of a spinal cord inside a living person."
"Why is that?"
He said, "It looks like it's dancing to the Rolling Stones!"
It turns out, since nerves are not firmly fixed within the spinal canal, the electricity passing through them makes them move rhythmically; they're sensually undulating in our core at every moment.
Most people don't know anatomy and even if they do, they learn it through two-dimensional, non-moving pictures.
With deepened awareness, we can renew our appreciation for this biggest present of all, the gift of living form and movement. What an unlikely priviledge in this universe, to be born in human form, to have the ability to be self-aware, and even to evolve in one lifetime because we just want and decide to.
When I am flooded with the sanity that accompanies the natural gratitude for this miracle, I wonder - why we don't as a society, more fully honor the miracle of human form and function - in body, mind, emotion and spirit?
It's not too late.
Do you believe there is some place that will make the soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing,
Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don’t go off somewhere else!
Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.
Kabir
Fata Morgana - Pavel Tchelitchew
Posted on Wed, Dec 21, 2011
If you wanted to massage your soul, how would you do it?
We all want to feel healthy - not just in our bodies. We want to enjoy clear thinking, emotional vibrancy, spiritual inspiration - things more commonly more associated with soul than with body.
Recently someone called Zero Balancing a "massage for the soul." Why is that?
The deepest part of us, even below our sense of self, is the feeling of connection with soul, with spirit. Anatomically, the deepest part of us is the skeletal system. It is the singular insight of Zero Balancing to realize that bone is a medium for soul and spirit, as well as forming the structural armature for our physical body.
There are key joints in the body for the transmission of energy, for deeper support. These are joints that are not primarily locomotor joints, such as the elbow, they are more intrinsic and connect bones critical to structural and energetic balance. For instance, there is no muscle running from the back of the sacrum to the ilium, the pelvis. But this joint is critical for the transmission of force and energy from the upper to the lower body.
There is no muscle running from one cuneiform bone to another in the foot. But these play a critical role in creating our arch and thus support our every step.
For massage therapists and other manual therapists, to address these foundation joints is a critical skill. And that is what Zero Balancing does.
The musculo-skeletal system is the medium of manual therapists. So it is critical that we have tools to address the body and soul of the skeletal as well as the muscular systems. That's what you get from knowing Zero Balancing!
We have room for just five more people in the Zero Balancing I class that is this January 26-29! Begin the new year learning deeper skills to help your clients in body and soul!
Posted on Wed, Nov 30, 2011
The more you learn about massage and bodywork, the more you learn about life as a whole. I have been a therapist now for 35 years and a teacher for 25. I have run my school, The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School in Austin, Texas, for 23 years. I’ve learned that the same principles that apply in every bodywork session apply equally to every aspect of our lives.
As a matter of fact, it seems we can only have both success and satisfaction when we attend to these things. Some of these principles are: to be centered: to meet people openly; to really get to know our clients through their tissues, nervous system, history; to take actions that will profoundly help them; to monitor and make sure we are helping; and to periodically disengage, re-examine how things are going and celebrate our successes.
I have evolved out of this learning a way to apply these principles to growing your business. Let’s call it “Deep Marketing”.
The beginning, middle and end of Deep Marketing is centering yourself. Without being centered you can’t do anything well! It is the precondition for all success in the practice and in the business of bodywork. For instance, we all know if your heart is not in what you are doing, there is little satisfaction. The same holds true for the rest of the body!
Marketing with your body means attending to the following with respect to being centered. Often when I sit down at work, I will center myself before I initiate any other work. And I connect with these seven levels of body/mind.
1) Are you grounded? Do you feel literally and figuratively supported by the earth underneath you? Realize that however high our aspirations, we are each just another animal inhabiting the earth. Feel supported by your legs and feet. What do you really stand for? Who and what principles do you stand by?
2) Are you excited? If you can’t contact your excitement for growing your business, you will not mobilize the energy required. This is associated with so-called second chakra. Awkward to say but the successful therapist cultivates an irresistible attraction to his or her massage practice. Get excited!
3) Do you use your gut in helping you make decisions? Freud said all important decisions are made on the basis of insufficient information – the mind alone is an insufficient tool. It is your gut, the feeling in the pit of your stomach, that you also must listen to. And we have to have “guts.” To be successful and to maintain it over time, takes courage, takes guts, inner resolve. Do you support yourself through your lumbar vertebrae and through sufficient breath to give you the energy and determination you need to succeed?
4) Is your heart into what you are doing? Is your heart passionately connected to where you are working? to the clients that you have? Let your heart do the talking and listen to what you truly love and want to do. There are few things more exciting than seeing someone and being someone whose heart is totally into their work and business. The person who loves their work is an irresistible force.
5) Do you feel confident in what you say about your work? When people ask you what you do, do you have words that you feel great and honest about? Word-of-mouth is most important in business-building and most importantly, your mouth, your words! I like to think that the best marketing is like a song sung because you really mean it. Take the time to let your mind and your heart participate in the co-creation of statements you make about your work that optimize people becoming and staying your clients.
6) For all the time we spending thinking, the mind is often underappreciated. Use your incredible mind, both the logical and imaginative sides, to slow down and make well-considered decisions about how you want to grow your business. And, as the previous five points have indicated, don’t let your mind try to run the show in isolation. Make all decisions asking yourself – is this grounded, am I excited about it, does my gut tell me it’s right, does my heart say yes, do the words ring true?
7) Be open to inspirations from beyond your usual self. The best ideas seem to come out of nowhere or from “on high”. Cultivate your openness to your “higher self”. Sometimes, facing a difficult decision, I will just sit with the problem, being receptive, until a solution just appears in my mind that is perfect. Some of the greatest successes and satisfactions arise from an unfathomable place of inspiration. All great art and science tell us this.
* * *
Massage and bodywork have their power by never forgetting to honor the role the body plays in lives well lived. So your success as a massage professional must arise from this same grounded place. Take refuge in the wisdom of your body and watch your great work grow and grow!
Posted on Wed, Nov 16, 2011
About a year and half ago I wrote about the process of writing The Deep Massage Book, which I've been doing, off and on, for a number of years.
So here's an update. I'm done with the writing and the commissioned illustrations from a fantastic local medical artist, Christy Krames, MA.
I've pasted the table of contents below. I am honored that it will be published by Redwing Books, one of the oldest and finest publishers of books on alternative medicine since the early 1970's. It will be out by early 2012 - possibly February. So wish me luck and pluck on this last leg of this part of the journey.
Part One
1. Deep Massage and the Renaissance of Touch
2. The Miracle of Human Structure and Energy
3. Creating a Fulcrum
4. Working Signs of Mind-Body Healing
Part Two
5. Practical Tips and Anatomical Language
6. Contact – The First Dimension of Touch
7. The Back – Anatomy, Energy, and Fulcrums
8. Movement – The Second Dimension of Touch
9. The Posterior Pelvis, Thighs, and Feet – Anatomy, Energy, and Fulcrums
10. Breath – The Third Dimension of Touch
11. The Anterior and Side of the Leg and Pelvis – Anatomy, Energy, and Fulcrums
12. Massage and the Vertical Truth – Graceful Verticality: The Fourth Dimension of Touch
13. The Front Torso – Anatomy, Energy, and Fulcrums
14. The Role of the Heart in Bodywork – The Fifth Dimension of Touch
15. The Shoulder Girdle, Arms, and Hands – Anatomy, Energy, and Fulcrums
16. Understanding – The Sixth Dimension of Touch
17. Neck and Head – Anatomy, Energy, and Fulcrums
Part Three
18. Alchemy – The Seventh Dimension of Touch
19. Session Design
20. Everything Has an End
There is so much to be thankful for! Happy Trails!
Posted on Sat, Nov 12, 2011
by David Lauterstein
I once got a greeting card, “On the Family Trip to Nirvana,” with parents sitting in the car’s front seat and two kids in the back, asking their parents, “Are we there yet?”
With this next deeper level of the nervous system, we are not at Nirvana but, in a way, we are getting there!
How do we know where we are?
The “proprioceptors” in our body give the brain read-outs for the relative lengths of muscles and fascia. They measure the tensing and stretching of muscles and joints. As a result of their information reaching the brain, we know where a foot is when we walk even when we’re not looking at it.
We quickly realize how critical this information is when our foot has “gone to sleep.” When that happens, for instance sitting cross-legged, pressure on a leg can temporarily diminish circulation and thus the amount of oxygen reaching the proprioceptors. Nerves can’t provide their critical information without sufficient oxygen for fuel. So when the foot’s asleep, we have to look at the foot to take a step with any confidence and even then it’s tricky - we wouldn’t dare walk fast with a foot asleep. Conversely then, appropriate circulation keeps the body awake and self-aware.
The sense of relative position of parts and the strength of effort used to move – is the result of specifically these proprioceptors - “muscle spindles,” “golgi tendon organs” and joint receptors. These sense respectively, muscles’ stretch, their tensing, and changes in joint position.
Proprioceptor literally means to “receive one’s self.” The proprioceptors are received by the brain in two places – the cerebrum that gives rise to conscious proprioception and the cerebellum which houses unconscious proprioception. Most of our proprioception, like most of our sensation, is unconscious.
When we are touched though, especially when a massage therapist/bodyworker engages tissue (and therefore mind) in a very clear manner, we make the unconscious conscious. First we make gentle contact and engage the receptors of light touch, and then we can thoughtfully press into the body, engaging the pressure-receptors. When we pause, even for the briefest of moments, between these steps, the client senses the deliberation, consciousness in the touch.
Then, having pressed in to the body, we begin to move, stretching the tissues. Now we have engaged the proprioceptors and even more deeply we carry on a conversation through touch with the cerebrum and the cerebellum.
By systematic thoughtful movement, we awaken the person’s awareness of where all their parts are and how they are related to one another. Through that awareness the brain assembles a picture of the whole body. So as we change the lengths of fascia even temporarily, we introduce the bodymind to new possibilities, new opportunities for shape, movement, and awareness.
Ida Rolf, when asked why she worked on fascia, supposedly exclaimed, “Because that’s what I can get my hands on!” More deeply we see we get our hands on the nervous system as well – through the agency of nerves interwoven throughout muscle, fascia, tendon, and joint.
Through the systematic engagement of touch, pressure and proprioception, we now are getting our hands on mind as well as body.
The client is receiving their self, awakening to the present moment and perhaps opening up to new possibilities, to a world in which big positive changes may take place. Maybe the trip to Nirvana is not too far away!
Once we are getting our hands on the nervous system, on the brain, once we are clearly connected to mind, what shall our touch communicate?
All this reminds me of Derek Walcott’s beautiful poem –
Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Posted on Thu, Oct 27, 2011
I hear stories of therapists out there. Some are doing great. Some are just making it. Some are frustrated.
The times they are a’ changin’. The advent of the Massage Envy’s, etc. has provided many more job opportunities, but at a lower paying rate. Some employers are requiring too many massages without a break, or put pressure on the therapists to sell products. The world economy is shifting, making it harder to have the prosperity that we want. These are difficult times (though I do remind myself regularly really how easy we have it compared to other times in history and many other places in the world.). They call for innovation and originality.
At Lauterstein-Conway we wrestle with how to deliver the education that will result in our graduates being superb, effective therapists; being able to do and enjoy the business-side of massage as well as the therapeutic; putting heart into one’s work so that the therapist connects with the person, not just with their body; being aligned and graceful in movement and mind so the massage results in optimum health for both therapist and client.
For me, what helped the most to get the satisfaction and success I wanted as a therapist was more advanced clinical training. When I really began to understand anatomy and how chronic postural issues maintained pain and how to relieve those tensions, it opened up a whole new exciting world of therapy and service.
It was when I’d had training in Structural Bodywork (with Rolfer, Daniel Blake) that I felt confident to go entirely into private practice. And I’ve never looked back – even when my boss (me) was too self-critical! :)
Then in my practice I noticed that some people remained tense even after I’d worked intelligently with their myofascial systems. I realized that some issues were due more to the nervous system’s holding than to the fascial adhesions. So I began exploring psychology of bodywork, shiatsu, and Zero Balancing.
All these provided important insights into the interaction of mind, emotion, and anatomy. Particularly Zero Balancing enabled me to relieve the deepest holding patterns, those maintained within bones and joints. In this way, addressing all the levels and causes of tension in the body, I was able to provide my clients with a completeness of positive results that were much deeper and more long lasting.
Since developing this level of practice, basically all my clients become repeat clients. Almost always they include regular sessions as part of their healthcare. I’ve been doing this now for – gulp! – 33 years and I still love to do it and teach it.
To have the practice you want, you have to make your level of service exceptional. That naturally keeps you inspired and inspiring to your clients -- to see and feel the higher devotion to your service and to their process of healing and growth.
Those are all reasons to take advantage of the Advanced Clinical Training beginning here November 7th. This is the only school in the southwest that teaches an Integrative Clinical approach to manual therapy utilizing the primary advanced modalities: Deep Massage, Structural Bodywork, Zero Balancing, Shiatsu, Psychology of Bodywork, Integrative Bodywork.
Don’t miss this chance to infuse your work, your income, and yourself with a whole new and important level of learning, success and therapeutic benefit.
Posted on Sat, Oct 22, 2011
It is not the therapeutic intention that is fruitful, but it is how we really meet that is therapeutically fruitful. (paraphrase of Martin Buber)
The nerve cells which sense pressure and vibration were discovered in 1831 by the Italian anatomist, Giovanni Pacini, who also discovered the cholera bacteria. Named “Pacinian corpuscles” in his honor, these lie deeper than the cells which respond to light touch* and deeper than most thermoreceptors which respond to temperature.
Pacinian Corpuscle
In massage and bodywork, the first living layer we contact is through light touch, which can create therapeutic benefit through the sense of presence, warmth and gentleness. It initiates a sense of contact - “You are not alone, I am with you.” It helps clients begin to step out from an isolated sense of self, which often accompanies trauma, disease, injury or pain.
The second living layer of touch is created by pressure and vibration, which engage the Pacinian corpuscles. Pressure communicates something different than light touch. We say a handshake maintained with just light touch feels like a “dead fish” handshake. Without pressure, touch doesn’t fully come alive. The sense of aliveness comes from just the right amount of pressure and quality of vibration.
Light touch is on the body, pressure is touch in the body. Whereas light touch can be unintentional, pressure usually conveys the conscious will to engage the other person. Pressure and vibration create amplified therapeutic benefit through the living choice not just to be in contact, but to be in meaningful communication. With the dialogue of two living bodies and souls, begins the possibility of learning and change.
A musical tone begins with a characteristic presence and timbre. We first sense the instrument playing, trumpet or flute. Then we hear the players’ choices regarding volume, duration, and frequency for each sustained note. Just as the optimum volume of a musical note may feel so perfect or the wonderful brightness of a certain color can take a painting into a whole new dimension, so sensing just the right amount, duration, and quality of pressure and vibration is an essential, magical element in every touch.
From now on you can enjoy consciously observing and honoring each successive level of engagement. Touch lightly, then pause, letting your warmth and presence be experienced by the client. Then press into the body and pause again, letting the client feel the beginnings of meaningful communication and the deep satisfaction that comes from being truly met.
* for more on light touch - see Oct. 12 blog "When First We Meet - Massage and the Nervous System, Part I"
Posted on Mon, Oct 17, 2011
Helen Keller was right - "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
In some ways every day is an adventure; every day a hero's journey. We don't know what will happen. We can see the obstacles and opportunities that arise as part of the incredible journeys, short and long, we take in this life. We all love the fresh sense of adventure in our lives.
For advanced students, massage therapists, and bodyworkers, the adventure of the journey to the center of the self is very key to their lives. We begin, after learning the basics, to plumb the depths of who we are. We get increasingly blown away by those deeper layers and dynamics of anatomy, the mysterious and labyrinthian ways of physiology. We understand psychology, first our own, then others, more and more deeply. And we see an infinite depth to the exploration of the relationships of energy and structure; personality and body; mind and spirit.
Once you are "hooked", there is no turning back from this adventure. In 1977 I thought, "Oh I guess I'll be a massage therapist." Thirty three years later, I feel, as I walk through this realm, that the ground keeps dropping down deeper. This paths go everywhere; the vistas ever more fascinating. True confessions, it's almost the same feeling I had when I first started to get to know my wife, Julie. Each date added a another level of appreciation of her depth - I sensed she would surprise me every day and be infinitely interesting. I am so happy to say I was right!
I am also so happy how right I and so many are about what an incredible adventure it is to set sail into the waters of advanced bodywork. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I can't imagine anyone seriously in this field being without this precious knowledge and the powerful techniques which accompany them. Reminding you - TLC's Advanced Clinical Training (ACT) starts November 7. It is an integrative training engaging us in learning about the whole person so we can be full-fledged health professionals addressing both the structural and energetic sources of pain and tension, giving you the skill levels to much more dramatically amplify the health momentum for each client.
It is already half-full. We want every bodyworker who's tapped into this adventure to take this next step. We've eliminated all your excuses not to do it. We have payment plans that will fit almost any budget. The schedule is designed for working thereapists; just one class a week Mondays 10-5, November through August. There is minimal homework with, however, deep work learning together in each class.
Helen Keller's full quote is - “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”
I and the other core ACT faculty members - Jan Hutchinson, Dena Roberts, Cindy Anderson - invite you to free your spirit, body and mind and to help those you touch to do the same. We heartily look forward to joining in this adventure with you!
Click here for information about the Advanced Clinical Training.