In my last article I explained my belief that
Massage is the only therapy on the planet that deals with all five aspects of
the human being; the physical, energetic, emotional, mental and spiritual
aspects. It does this with every treatment, but only if the practitioner is
properly trained and continually supported in understanding and developing all
five aspects of this powerful therapy.
In this article I want to address the issue of
what constitutes effective structural Massage. As I mentioned in my last
article one of the main reasons that clients will turn up for their first
treatment is because “something needs
fixing”. This is most often
a tight shoulder or a neck, a recurrent lower back pain or headaches.
The response of the Massage profession as a
whole, is to identify the area of tightness and pain and apply neuromuscular,
trigger point or myofascial techniques to this area. There are two problems
with this:
1.
It displays a massive
ignorance or discount of the degree to which the traditional Swedish Massage
strokes of Effleurage, Tappotment and Friction already deliver powerful
neuromuscular, trigger point and myofascial effects on the body’s
tissues.
2.
It ignores the essential
and powerful therapeutic component of weight and gravity. The arrival of NO
HANDS® Massage heralds the possibility of delivering breathtaking amounts
of the practitioner’s bodyweight into the Massage treatment.
Regarding the first point, all good Swedish
Massage is myofascial and has a deeply neuromuscular impact on the body. All
good Swedish Massage releases the original cause of all Trigger points -
tension.
Clearly the people who teach these osteopathic
and medical techniques are missing a full appreciation of the power of Swedish Massage.
This is because many of the teachers of these were not actual Massage
therapists. They were either physiotherapists, doctors or osteopaths
themselves, or they were taught by second or third generation “structuralists”. It also suggests a Massage profession that is so unsure of itself that it receives these medical, sports physiology and osteopathic teachings as
if they are manna from heaven.
The simple truth is that Per Henrik Ling’s teachings travelled a very different
route in the non medical establishment. Whereas physiotherapy became scientific
and machine based, Massage became more and more touch focused, client centred
and intuitive in nature. One developed the science, whilst the other developed
the art. After over two centuries of listening to the client and listening to
the instincts and intuitions of the self, it seems Massage therapists must now
worship at the altar of medical science.
By reducing Massage to simply solving the
physical aspect of the human condition, we have put a bit of earth into a
matchbox and labelled it “creation”.
Thus do the structuralists act out their fear of the intimacies of
profound human touch. So great is their fear of the human intimacies involved
with the ebb and flow of intuitive Massage, that they must shun it for the
intricacies of fascial pathways and ligament arrangements.
Regarding the second point, until we had
discovered safe ways to drop the FULL WEIGHT of the practitioner’s body on to the client, it was only
possible to deliver significant weight by injuring our wrists, backs and necks.
What I have developed in my clinic over the last 25 years constitutes a
complete revolution in Massage. It is now possible to deliver unbelievable
amounts of bodyweight into the client’s
tissues without any pain or injury to either client or practitioner. In fact it
is zero strain to the practitioner as I explain in my first article.
This delivery of IMMENSE weight in a safe
professional and ethical way is the biggest revolution to hit the Massage
profession since Per Henrik Ling. This is why no other approach teaches this: it is no longer about strokes but about letting our weight down safely and
therapeutically on to the client’s
body.
With this weight and the proper safe use of the
practitioner’s body we move only
in straight lines (effleurage), circles (Petrissage) and into specific points
(Friction). In other words we have simply turbo charged the essentials of
Swedish Massage!
With this much compression and decompression and this much power behind every movement (effortless to the practitioner, mind) we
find that not only do clients experience ALL the benefits of myofascial,
trigger point and neuromuscular work, but they experience this simultaneously.
In a nanosecond. Suddenly the osteopaths are turning up on NO HANDS® Massage courses and declaring it to
be the most effective structural techniques they have ever learned.
One Harley Street (London) Osteopath with 30 years of
successful business behind him wrote:
"This course has not only transformed my touch but through the sheet elegance of the concept,the brilliance of the teaching and the support offered throughout, this has inspired me and I now look forward to another thirty years of practise and with even more enthusiasm."
Peter Bartlett
Massage therapists who are just beginning their
careers are training in NO HANDS® Massage and within less than a year are looking the same as
practitioners who have been practitioners for thirty years. I could not believe
it when I started seeing this on my courses.
So if you want to learn the latest and biggest
revolution in effective structural techniques, you will want to learn NO
HANDS® Massage. It is
a paradigm shift in the delivery of Swedish Massage and leaves the rest standing. This is why so many NO HANDS® Massage therapists in the UK report
that a significant proportion of their clientelle are coming from osteopathic
offices, and never going back.
Safe, soft, slow, ethical, professional, WEIGHT.
And lots of it.
With no strain to the practitioner. In fact, the
more weight we pour onto the client, the less strain we experience…
This is why over 3,000 Massage therapists in the
UK have learned this approach and why it is building practises right across the
country.
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