Massage and the Psyche

Massage can soothe the mind, right?

Is it just the nervous system receiving a massive stimulation of sensory nerves? Such a 'rush' of nerve endings firing produces the well documented release of endorphins and seratonin - the 'feel good' drugs of the human body.

There is another way of looking at this, though. The simplest way to explain it is through TA:

Transactional Analysis (TA) is based on the idea that there are three different parts of the psyche:

• PARENT ego state
• ADULT ego state
• CHILD ego state

These are normally represented by circles, but I don't know how to draw circles in a blog!Anyway, the point I am trying to make is this...

The stuff that creates problems for ourselves inside our heads, often comes to us in the form of Parental Injunctions like "You bad boy. I always said you would come to a bad end!" No matter what we think in our 'Adult' ego state about the unlikely truthfulness of this statement, the fact is in our 'Child' ego state we have a part of us that may still believe this. This makes for a weakend 'Adult' and an inhibited 'Child' energy - so the 'Parent' wins and we feel bad and make bad choices in life.

The purpose of almost all healing change is to form an alliance between the 'Adult' (sane and grown up) and the 'Child' (full of creative energy) in order to withstand the repeated negative historical messages that fly through our heads from the 'Parent'.

Massage has an interesting part to play in this, I think.

Receiving 50 minutes of soothing and nurturing touch is simply heaven to the 'Child'. It builds a strong bond between the 'Child' and the 'Adult' who, after all arranged for the treatment. It also lulls the 'Parent' to sleep, 'cos it is so nice and hypnotic. This is the kind of activity that, over time, can shift the power balance within the psyche so the 'Adult' and the 'Child' can get it together and repulse the weakened messages of the 'Parent'. Energy flows away from the 'Parent' and into the 'Child' and 'Adult'. So this means the more Massage we have, the more energy we have to make life work, .

Certainly this might explain why so many regular clients of NO HANDS Massage therapists seem to make as much therapeutic change in their lives as those that see psychotherapists or analysts - without any words being spoken. With the touch being about as powerful as it can get, the 'Parent' doesn't have a chance!

If you want to see Berne himself talk about the ego states, then check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxlNdOFwtV8

happy oiling!

Gerry

THE KING'S DIAPHRAGM

(Or "Why Massage Therapists should never try and synchronise their strokes with their client's breathing!")

Apart form being one of the best films I have seen in years, 'The King's Speech' will always stick in my mind for one particular scene...

It's the bit where dear old Prince Bertie has finally succumbed to the highly progressive and very cheeky techniques of the antipodean speech therapist, Lionel. I mean fancy treating a prince of the realm like an equal - typical aussie!

So the camera pans down to Bertie lying supine on the floor, with our  current Queen's mother (recently deceased and played brilliantly by Helena Bonham-Carter) sitting on his belly. Apart from the hilarity of the thought of Elizabeth the Queen Mother sitting on Bertie's Tummy, it was also the way Bonham - Carter delivered the phrase "It's rather fun, actually!" that  had me shouting "Yes!" out loud to the whole cinema and unwittingly slapping the thighs of the person sitting next to me...

Luckily it was my adult daughter sitting next to me! Well, she thinks she is adult, anyway! Myself, I don't believe anyone is adult at 19, do you? Anyway, I did sit back rather sheepishly as she glared at me for the assault...

But it was not really the humour of the scene that had me shouting out loud but the simple fact that for the last ten years or so I have been trying to explain to Massage therapists just how POWERFUL the diaphragm muscle really is. 

Teaching Massage therapists to fall onto their clients with their whole body weight is hard enough without having to worry about whether or not the client is breathing in or out. Now don't get me wrong, there are times in a treatment when a certain synchronicity of breath and movement is really powerful, but this always works best when it happens unconscioulsy, in my opinion. I will explain this in a later blog...

The real point for now, is this: so many of us were taught (wrongly, I believe) to only put powerful force into our strokes when the client is breathing out. In fact, the more we try and synchronise our movements with the client's breathing, the more stilted and cerebral our own movements become.

We kill all FLOW in the Massage treatment when we keep pausing to listen and try and discern if the client is breathing in or out. This can have a negative impact on the Massage and it certainly makes life very hard for Massage therapists learning to FALL onto their clients - the hallmark of NO HANDS.

It seems that this erroneous teaching is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the power of the diaphragm. In truth, as a client, it doesn't matter one jot whether we are breathing in or out during this or that particular stroke. My diaphragm, as was so brilliantly demonstrated in this scene from the film, is so strong, it CAN LIFT A WHOLE BODY.

For the last ten years I have been draping my whole body over a 'client' (normally a fellow trainer) during courses  - so my feet are no longer touching the ground - and asking the therapists watching to observe the client's diaphragm literally lifting my body up and down without any discomfort whatsoever.

But seeing the Queen Mother being lifted up and down on George VI's diaphragm showed it so much better. Try it out... Get your 'significant other' to sit on your belly and breathe in and out. EASY!

Happy oiling, whether your client is breathing in or out, fellow oilers!

Gerry

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BACK TO BASICS...

Just back from our first TRANSFORMING TOUCH course of the year. Fantastic students and amazing Massage. This course was a triumph for all concerned - the depth of transformational Massage being given by the last day was truly awesome....

So much more than simply releasing or lengthening the odd muscle!

It never ceases to amaze me how powerful SIMPLE TOUCH can be - especially when the practitioners are all moving like dancers...letting THEIR WHOLE BODY WEIGHT fall gracefully onto clients whose muscles just melt under the soft and slow pressure.

Like so much else in life we can get lost in our heads and become obsessed with 'busy techniques' far too easily...

But what the client really appreciates is the time to BREATHE....and for the Massage to go slow enough so that every single ripple can be FELT throughout the whole body. This is the real zone of DEEP RELEASE...

When we enter this zone, it really is the client who knows the 'What', 'When' and 'How' of release! All we need to do is provide THE RIGHT TOUCH and leave the real healing up to the client. After all, it is the client who must do the letting go - no matter how 'technically brilliant' the therapist is!

We saw more structural release in the space of just a few minutes on this course than the so-called 'technical experts' could produce in months of bodywork. Not only that, but the clients walked out of the session knowing who did the releasing! This is true 'client empowerment'. And we saw so much more than just structural release...

Arthritic conditions being 'turned around' literally overnight... Emotional blocks released... destructive thought patterns dissolved and abandoned.... energy blockages 'unclogged' so the 'Chi' can flow once more. This is the everyday experience of the NO HANDS practitioner because we TRUST THE BODY and we TRUST THE CLIENT.

Once you do this, everything is very easy - we just touch in the best way we know how....

RIGHTEOUS TOUCH

So much more than simply releasing or lengthening the odd muscle!

There is so much about MASTERY in this TRANSFORMING TOUCH course - the very first we teach - that I am even thinking of making attendance of this course mandatory for anyone wanting to join Mastery in 2012... What better way to begin your year of Mastery, than to get right 'Back to Basics'.

A great big, throaty "HOO HAH!" to all the brilliant Massage therapists who attended this course- you were truly an inspiration.

Happy Massaging, fellow oilers!

Gerry

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A GOOD SPRING BEGINS IN WINTER...

Anyone noticed just how many people are succumbing to the dreaded cough and cold 'flu bug this year?

Or how many people are simply exhausted and depleted this winter?

Or just how hard it is for so many to 'shake off' the 'flu - how it lingers?

I, and many other therapists I know, have all reported similar situations...Clients arriving really tired and depleted and requesting gentle and nurturing treatments. Needing a gentle 'recharge'. Nothing too vigorous....

So I have been thinking a lot about depletion and repletion this winter. I have begun to think how a good spring really does begin  in winter - in just the same way that a good day begins the night before....

When all of nature hibernates and the seeds lie deep in the Earth, very often what we humans tend to do is continue with our relentless daily schedules and just plough straight on much as we did in the Summer or Autumn - trying to ignore the early morning dark as we stick to our demanding work and school schedules....

And because we have not listened to the sluggishness of the body or felt the pulse of the Earth slow down in the Winter, then when Spring arrives we very quickly succomb to exhaustive or immune deficiency conditions....

But if, like the rest of nature, we listen to the 'gathering in' of Winter and allow the body to sleep longer, burrow deeper into our duvets and spend longer sitting in front of cosy fires, then when Spring comes along, we are fully recharged and ready to explode into action and life.

In my opinion, taking time to rest and recharge in Winter is simply time well invested  - if we want a truly energetic Spring...

Happy duvet Burrowing!

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WHAT THE BLINK?

Just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's 'Blink'. 

There is much of interest in this book, especially for the NO HANDS therapist. He tells the story of how the J.Paul Getty Museum in California acquired a marble male nude statue (called a Kouros) that allegedly dated from the 6th Century BC.

What is interesting is that it was a fraud. Even more interesting is the fact the the museum spent 14 months with top scientific experts examining it and verifying it's authenticity before buying it for $10 million!

Despite this, no less than three art experts all said it was a fake 'within the blink of an eye....'

One expert said that "the fingernails were all wrong". Another said "The first word that came into my mind was 'fresh'" Another expert said "That thing has never been in the ground!" 

Gladwell's main thesis is that people who really dedicate themselves to becoming truly expert in a field develop an instinct that way surpasses anything that modern science can rationally produce. He does not call it this, but he describes a 'super intelligence' that is instinct - in other words, a 'gut feeling'.

It is at this point that all the NO HANDS afficionados start nodding wisely and will be found muttering the word "HARA".

Yes folks, Gladwell has written a very 'heady' and sometimes quite complex book about something we teach at TRANSFORMING TOUCH - how to connect with that instinctive 'gut feel' and how to develop that intuitive 'super intelligence' in our Massage work. Whilst Gladwell theorises, we do.

Every time we Massage, we have a chance to deepen our connection with an instinctive and intuitive 'body wisdom' that each of us possesses. HARA is the discipline we use in NO HANDS to learn this.

All powerful Massage begins in the belly. All powerful movements begin 'in the belly'. Learning how to source each of our Massage strokes from this 'super intelligent' instinctive centre of our being (rather than in the frontal lobes of our brains) is at the core of NO HANDS Massage.

Happy Oiling to all you Massage therapists!

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THE TIME HAS COME, THE WALRUS SAID

I am just back from our fourth MASTERY weekend of the year at the wonderful Burton Manor in the Wirral. This is such a delightful course to teach as it has so many Massage therapists - all at different levels of experience, knowledge and talent. We really do learn from each other...


At the closing session, I really wanted to start with this excerpt from Lewis Carroll

The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

(From Alice through the looking Glass   1872)

And then I realised that one of our therapists had promised to memorise this...


You see, the reason for this was twofold:


Firstly, every time I wanted to recite this awesome poem, I would sit down defeated because I HADN'T BOTHERED TO LEARN IT BY HEART SINCE THE LAST TIME I HAD WANTED TO RENDER IT.... Lazybones!


Secondly, this therapist was on a real mission this year TO STOP HIDING AWAY IN GROUPS. So without any warning - and in front of over 50 therapists - I said to this therapist:


"The time has come, the Walrus said - for you to declaim your poem"


There was a look of shock in her face - that startled rabbit look - but then it had been 6 months since she had said that she would re-learn this poem for us all. Then, I saw her close her eyes and take a deep breath and BOLD AS BRASS, walk straight to the front of the group.


Now, I had only expected the stanza above (my favourite bit) but with a shaking voice and nerves of steel she began right at the beginning:


"The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night."


and proceeded (without any hesitation, repetition or deviation!) to recite the whole damn thing. Right to the final stanza:


"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one."

Of course she got her (well deserved) standing ovation - and her outcome for this year of mastery - to be seen and heard. But something else about it stayed with me - almost as much as the poem; and it was this:


She had MEANT WHAT SHE SAID when she had promised to learn this poem for the group. And she had DONE WHAT SHE SAID SHE WOULD DO. And this is at the core of what I believe constitutes MASTERY of both Massage and life:

To mean what we say, to say what we mean, and to do what we say and mean.

To my shame, I am aware that if I had not just had that urge to declaim these archetypal lines at that particular moment, her immense integrity would have been missed by me and the whole group and remained invisible to the world.


It led me to wonder, just how much of what we do - and what others do - remains invisible? And just whose fault is that? The sad truth is that what we see is just the tip of the iceberg of other people's lives and their immense beauty. Well, today, here's my mission:


The time has come, with the next person I talk to, to really look and really listen to see if they have an invisible Jabberwocky poem inside of them - something they have done that I would never know about if I did not stop long enough to really listen and look.....


I hope you have a really GREAT DAY


Gerry

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If you want to, you can re-read the whole poem RIGHT NOW

MASSAGE AND MEDITATION

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I recently watched a great clip by John Hagelin on Meditation and World Peace. It shows some remarkable evidence that correlates the amount of meditation related to the amount of violence going on…It shows that when a group of people get together and become still, violence decreases. Go see it – truly inspiring.

It led me to thinking about prayer and stillness and how much stillness there often is in the Massage room. It also led me to thinking about the effects of a group coming together – and the amazing power of that.

I think if the mind is 'still' whether we call it prayer or yoga or meditation, then something beautiful always happens both internally and externally. The stillness is something that descends. I know we have to work at it – sometimes more than others!

In the Christian tradition we talk about the holy spirit descending “like a Dove” – the very symbol of peace. Other traditions talk about stilling, or emptying the mind.

Often on courses I find myself comparing the mental discipline of NO HANDS with meditation training. Focusing our minds on the breath, on the contact and on the manner of our movement is tantamount to emptying the mind of everything else. It is in that emptiness that I find the true joy of all creation.

I suppose it is a paradox…

When I empty my mind of all the things I put in there (desperately trying to find joy?), what I discover is that the whole of creation is joy. It’s like I am frantically mending a broken down car in the middle of, say, the beautiful Serengeti national Park. I am so busy trying to get out’ that I don’t stop long enough to ask the question “Why leave?” And when I do stop long enough to look around, I discover I am surrounded by sheer and utter beauty.

So the challenge then, is to be still. Oh boy, what a challenge! All the enticements of activity, interaction, drama and pleasure are calling me away from this stillness…

Yet when I do actually empty my mind, I find I have no need of these things that entice me away. Because the landscape of silence is beautiful.

What I am trying to say is simply this:

Not all meditation and not all prayer is actually still. I believe Massage is a very powerful moving meditation. At these times we act totally in service of another, delivering the one thing that can never lie – touch. This movement and this focus on ‘the other’ actually clears the mind of ‘self’.

One therapist summarised it for me the other day:

“Gerry, I have discovered why you are always smiling in your live treatments”

I asked her what she meant.

“Well, I can’t stop myself from smiling these days and I worked out what has changed – I have gotten so used to simply focusing my mind on my breath, my contact with the client and the manner of my movements, that the whole issue of ‘me’ has gone out the window. And all there is, is the sheer joy of touch…And I can’t stop smiling – just like you do!”

I have also witnessed so many groups (in churches, in cathedrals and yes, in Massage training rooms!) share this stillness communally that I am convinced it is a thousand times more powerful when humans come together to do this stuff – stuff  that is about so much more than just the ‘self’.

Prayer is about the other

Massage is about the other

Meditation is about the loss of self

Is it too much to suggest that whenever two or more are gathered together, something powerful can happen? The lovely thing about Massage is that it takes two to tango – just like a prayer. And the goodness, the healing that is created actually vibrates outwards from the two like music travelling out of a room through a window?

And is it too much to suggest that when a whole group of Massage therapists – all driven by the desire to help others better – are focusing on the breath and the touch, that something even more powerful travels out of that training room?

I have always thought that our courses send out a powerful vibration for healing and peace. Just the same as a church. Or a meditation room. Or a Yoga class.

People everywhere, like musicians, sending out vibrations of stillness, peace and healing into the world…

Have a truly vibrational day!

Namaste

Gerry