PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

I believe in the power of touch. Therapeutic touch relieves anxiety, helps with depression, improves circulation, increases flexibility, increases metabolism, improves the functions of the lymphatic system, and calms the nervous system. It promotes healing and a general sense of wellbeing. Truly, the issues are in our tissues.

 
Good massage is a spiritual experience, an honoring of the body. I feel like I am on sacred ground whenever I’m working with a client. 

Our bodies tend to store stress and tension. Chronic stress can cause various negative health effects on your body including your immune and digestive systems, and your cardiovascular health. Massage can be one of the best ways to relieve stress and make it easier for you to get out of your head and put aside the worry and mental activity that is occupying your attention. Healthy human touch is good for us physically and emotionally. We are designed as relational beings that benefit from human touch. I am convinced that most of humankind is needlessly suffering physically and emotionally as they wander the planet starved of touch. We might be hungering and thirsting for touch and not be consciously aware of it.

Unhurried massage helps the mind to slow down and be present in every moment. Slowing down sends a message to the body that every inch is important. 

I avoid having a rigid routine in which the massage is strictly scripted. Instead, I want to learn to listen to your body and give it what it needs independent of a preconceived agenda. Of course, a massage should have enough structure to cohesively work the entire body. But I try to massage more by intuition than by a routine.

The body is far from fragmented. Rather than compartmentalizing the body and working on one section at a time, I use longer, full body strokes, which can be more integrating and grounding, treating the body as a complete form.

Our bodies know things we don’t know, and the body never lies. Touch can help a person tap into memories and emotions that they didn’t know needed to be explored or released. Massage is a practice that has the potential to reveal new insights, new perspectives, and new sensations. It can be a discovery, layer after layer. This is the beginning of healing.