Category: Massage
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Get Your Body Back!!!
I always thought that personal trainers were for trophy wives. Which would not be me. Plus, I hate gyms. I see no reason to subject myself to an environment full of clanking torture devices, fluorescent lights, TV screens, hideous music, sweaty odors and the sound of grunting. Not when the free, beautiful outdoors–for running, hiking,…
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So How The Hell Do We Do That???
As some of my wise friends point out, changing the face of healthcare is a quixotic proposition. It’s all very well to saythat your doctor should be prescribing more massage than painkillers, that insurance should cover it, and that everyone should be insured. But as we all know, our broken healthcare system makes far more money by selling…
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The Smoking Gun
A widely-reported study finally traces the mechanism by which massage therapy reduces pain and promotes healing: They found that massage reduced the production of compounds called cytokines, which play a critical role in inflammation. Massage also stimulated mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses inside cells that convert glucose into the energy essential for cell function and repair. “The bottom…
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After the Fall
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by
Recently a new client, Susie M., booked a four-session package sight unseen. “When I read about your ankle, I knew you were the one for me,” she said. Susie sprained, and possibly broke, her right ankle four years ago. There was some confusion as to whether there was a bone chip floating around in there or…
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The Body Remembers
I am so thankful for the treatment that I received!!! I walked in the office a horrific mess, and Stephanie showed her concern and learned what the issue was that I was having and in four short weeks, my body responded to the gentle, yet firm work that she was putting into it. My recovery…
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When Stress Is The Problem
How many holistic healing practitioners have you encountered who piously urge you to ‘eliminate stress’? You’re not ‘living the life’ unless you’re ‘free from stress’! Just makes you want to smack ‘em. Because stress happens. If your life is entirely free from stress, you’re either a sociopath or you’re dead. You can eat healthy, exercise, meditate,…
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Massaging the Violin
Science has finally come around to studying massage, sort of: Massages Ease Low Back Pain – NYTimes.com. …Each of the massage groups received 10 weeks of treatment, and at the end of that period, all three groups had some improvement, as measured by their answers to 23 questions about performing routine activities without help —…
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What Kind of Massage Should I Get?
The spa menu! Was there ever a thing so enticing, and simultaneously bewildering? ‘Bamboo Raindrop Swedish Scalp Treatment’! ‘Ayurvedic Aromatherapy Deep Tissue Scrub’! ‘Lavender Acupressure Intensive for Neck Pain’! ‘Meditative Earth Massage with Reflexology’? How in the world do you decide which one you need? The dirty secret is, 90% of all this is marketing.…
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The Mechanics of Miracles
After twelve years of practice, I’m finally getting around to reading Anatomy Trains, by Tom Myers. It’s blowing my mind–not so much because it’s giving me new information, but because it’s describing why my way of doing bodywork has the results it does. For example, it’s a common thing for a client to come in complaining of neck…
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Why Practical?
So why did I decide to name my massage therapy practice ‘Practical Bodywork’? For entirely pragmatic reasons, of course. On the West Coast, where I got my training, everybody names their businesses things like ‘Soul Harmony,’ and gets away with it. On the East Coast, this is openly mocked. I wanted a name that I…