This is the sixth in a series of seven
articles about NO HANDS® Massage. After over twenty five
years of working zero strain, and training 3,000 UK therapists to do the same,
this is what I have learned about this approach from clients, students and
teachers.
In my last article, I wrote about the concept of
Healing Synergy. This method of Massage has revealed an aspect of touch
that is often misunderstood and poorly explained: spirituality. I am not
talking about religion here, or prayer or passing esoteric healing energies “into” the client from the hands of the presumably
“divinely inspired” practitioner. What I
am describing is something far simpler and much more down to Earth. Touch.
When the focus is simply on delivering deep and
powerful touch, touch that utilises ALL the bodyweight of the practitioner in a
gentle and expert manner, something remarkable happens. Instead of “imposing” spirituality upon the client, it simply
emerges.
Because this depth of touch connects us with who we really are then we see before our eyes proof
positive that we humans are all deeply spiritual beings, however we like to
language that. What actually emerges from clients after NO HANDS® Massage treatments are comments such
as “I feel whole again” or “I am in touch with my true purpose in life” or “I feel unbelievably connected with the
universe”.
If this is not spiritual, I don’t know what is.
Whilst the structuralists push and pull the body
into its “correct” shape, telling it
just how it “should be”, NO HANDS® Massage therapists simply deliver
expert touch, touch that connects and accepts. Paradoxically, it is this
powerful acceptance that is the primary trigger for personal and
spiritual transformation.
This spirituality of touch is not an idea or a
philosophy or a belief. It is simply what happens if we listen to what clients
are saying after the treatment and see how they walk. Of course, this is scary
stuff. For those Massage therapists who signed up to playing God themselves and
being “the expert” in the treatment
room, the ego must retreat to an obsession with muscle and symmetrical balance.
Just like an ant crawling around the altar during communion concerns itself
with a piece of bread. For those who signed up for providing a nice “bit of pamper” now and again, such depth can be a shock.
This is because it involves discovering nothing
less than what unites therapist and client is the same fundamental human need
for connection with something profound within all of us, some part of us that
is “bigger than the sum
of its parts”. Discovering our
purpose and our place in the universe is one way to understand spirituality.
Massage that is powerful, deep and courageous does that. It connects us with the
truth of who we really are.
NO HANDS® Massage started off as a simple methodology that enabled me to keep
on doing what I loved. It enabled me to keep paying the mortgage and supporting
my young family. But once I realised I could deliver unbelievable weight and
power through my touch without injuring myself, it forced me to see the simple
power of touch. It was as if a gentle giant walked into the treatment room and
said “Here, let me have a
go. I am a bit simple, so all I can understand is delivering touch”. I became a witness to a level of healing
and personal transformation normally reserved for psychotherapists, priests and
healers. This became a regular occurrence. All through simple, deep touch, with
hardly any words.
Not everyone and not all the time. But always
there, always an option for each client…
To download a short booklet about this three day TRANSFORMING TOUCH course click here