As always, we’ve had some great contributions, thank you! First off, Marcus Sorensen. I met Marcus recently and was touched by his sensitivity and veryimpressed by his awareness and intuition. In between medical school, massaging clients and attending Barbara Brennan’s healing school, Marcus gives us an insight how he bridges the gap between science and therapy.
Touch – in massage, healing and medicine
It is a gift to be able to put my hands on another human being.
Sometimes it is an office worker with a sore back and neck who needs massage, sometimes it is a performing artist who needs healing because they cannot sleep for worry, sometimes it is a hospital patient whose racing pulse needs to be measured, and sometimes it is a cadaver whose lung I am about to carefully lift out in its entirety during a dissection. The life of a remedial massage therapist who also attends both a healing school and a medical school can be a mind-boggle - but my hands always know what to do.
When my mind cannot reconcile all those different approaches to health and caring – allopathic, complementary, traditional, alternative, eastern, western - there is something about touch that makes it all fit together perfectly. Those who practice massage will know what I mean: you can go mechanically through the motions of a massage, or you can actually connect with the person on your couch and follow what is unfolding in the moment. Right there and then it is not about the system you have learnt or the succession of strokes you had planned – it is about the needs of that fellow human being in their subtlety and simplicity, and your hands are picking it all up from their body and tending to them as they change from moment to moment. It is real contact.
And so, I sometimes perform muscle energy techniques within millimetres of the client’s pain threshold and my hands feel the flicking of their hamstring muscle fibres as well as their emotions oscillating between worry and trust, finally landing in gentle relief as the tension melts away. Or I follow the client through a time capsule experience in a healing session where they convulse repeatedly, lost in a sea of tears in an intense past life, and my hands know the places they need to be held and help move the energy through there. Or again I gently take the hand of a blind and deaf 90 year old who is days from death in a hospital, and I simply sit with her, acknowledging through my touch that she is not alone. We are here with our fellow human beings, in whatever place that may be, together.
When a new client walks through the door, it can get confusing when massage experience says they need to do daily mobilisation and stretches, healing experience says they have some self-doubting emotional baggage to clear, and medical practice says they need Prozac and Paracetamol. On those days, it is a gift for me to put my hands on them and establish real contact, instead of having to choose between different schools of thought. Sometimes it was simply the touch that they needed, and everything then starts falling into place.
Without massage training, I doubt I would have found this middle ground that puts everything else into context. Beyond the paradigms of the systems, modalities and therapies, touch reminds me, very simply, of what this path is and why I choose to walk it.
Marcus is looking for case studies to practise Brennan’s Healing Science - “comprises a powerful set of techniques for working with the human energy field.
Through strengthening, balancing and clearing the human energy field around us, we can regain access to our innermost resources, that we might have forgotten we had. This can have wide-reaching effects on both physical and psychological wellbeing.”
For your free 60 minutes sessions, contact Marcus on 07941 254035 marcus@chaospilots.com
www.chaospilots.com
KMI Training , by Inaki Medela
Inaki, one of our Spanish students, attended the sports massage course with us in the summer of 2009 and went on to study myofascial release. He has very kindly let us share his comments about the myofascial course in which he is currently still training........
Just one week left to start the second half of Part II of the KMI training, so I'll try to tell you how things had gone so far. First day - BIG SURPRISE! We had Tom Myers being part of the teaching team for the first week of Part I and I didn't know it at all. He was introduced as the Master and was seen a bit as the Star. You could tell he knew it and also that he was all the time warm and accessible,but not precisely humble.
He introduce us every day to some of the themes that support theoretically the fascial work: SI History, Embriological - Evolutionary overviews (Something you could read about instead)He also propose some body practice exercises for us to explain/experience with Tensegrity (tension/compression ) and fascial connection ideas.
These little things more than the theory really spoke to me about the way he embodies what he teach-preach. He did a Demo and we had him around to help with the practical work and some people could treat him as well. I found the atmosphere more relaxed without him during the second week though. As I attended two workshops before the training, many of the things that we learnt were not new for me: introduction to anatomy trains, fascial touch, body reading, end game....all this make some much sense to me....
I've been into movement for a very long time and since the first workshop I knew all this work for me. My body experience/awareness tell me that the way SI understand the body is not out the ground; in fact it helps people to ground themselves, it really touches me. First Part felt as a taster, a bit incomplete itself on the practical side without Part II. Part II is being about learning all the vocabulary, going deeper into body readingand developing practical skills. Having to assimilate so many things all together is 'vertigo' sometimes but as the work itself talks about integration, all the bits will fit together at some point; I hope.
Having a deep understanding of Anatomy makes a huge difference, so I think for you both may be much easier. Part II qualifies you to practice with all those elements doing three series until you do Part III, which will be more centered on integration/transformation.
However, even for those who don't decide to take it, having part II done, give you a different dimension of body work and may complement/enhance all the skillsyou have achieved before. We have both, one model from the course and another from the outside to work the three series with - Note I write 'with' because one of the principles is that we don't work on the client's body, we work with him. Two systems working/interacting together; I like it. I think that by reading this you could perceive my enthusiasm. Although there are other little things I'm not so happy with; I do not want to dig into them as they have more to be with personal circumstances andnon-essential issues as venue choice, student number, accommodation......
Please, ask me anything you'd like to know that you think I can answer.
Ianki
If you have a question for Inaki, please contact us and we’ll pass them on.
A Day in The Dissection Lab , by Nicki Mitchell and Di Jackett
We had talked enthusiastically about wanting to see it all ‘in the flesh’ on various occasions in the past and were therefore very excited to learn of the opportunity to spend a ‘Day in the Dissection Lab’ run by
The London Massage Company.
However, it was fair to say that as the day drew nearer our previously blasé approach changed to an air of great trepidation.
We spoke the evening before on the phone and agreed to meet at London Bridge station. Being of the female gender we of course debated what we were going to wear - “something red!” Di’s other half chortled in the background. We giggled nervously, rising to near hilarity when Di suggested turning up in one of those glow-in-the-dark skeleton suits. In the end we opted for the safe option of our usual sports massage work gear.
The following morning we met as planned and trundled along to the rendezvous- a beautiful, grand building where we waited in reception as instructed.
As we were quite early we decided to have a wander round, just in case we were in the wrong place and after a couple of trips to the Ladies, found ourselves outside the basement dissection lab. We bravely pushed the bell on the door and a very cheerful lady appeared and confirmed that we were in the right place but that ‘it’ wasn’t quite ready yet and suggested we make our way back up to the main reception. We looked at each other nervously, both wondering what she had meant by ‘it’ and scuttled back upstairs, feeling a little queasy from the strange smell coming from the lab.
Gradually our group began to arrive and it was both lovely (and somewhat comforting) to hook up with
Jane Johnson our ex sports massage tutor who was to be our leader for the day. We descended again to the basement lab where we were asked to put on a lab coat and advised that no food or drink of any kind was allowed inside the lab. The earlier nervous giggling was now reduced to a much quieter apprehension as we filed dry-mouthed down the gentle slope into the lab, passing a couple of arms and legs on the way to our seats - our nostrils twitching at the strong smell of the embalming solution. As ever with Jane, the day was very well organised and we settled down, workbooks to hand, all ears to begin our day of learning and human exploration.Conscious of some of the groups’ unwary glances at the limbs on the stainless steel trolley to our left, Jane eased us in gently by handing round some human scapulae and vertebral columns and before we knew it we were embroiled in our fascinating journey around the ‘real deal’ human form.
The lab is an amazing place and not what we had expected at all. I think we both thought that we would be examining just one body, but it soon became apparent that the lab was stocked with numerous body parts in various stages of dissection, together with several complete (or nearly complete) cadavers. Donning our latex gloves and holding our essential oil soaked tissues to our noses (great idea from Di - ever the aromatherapist!), we steadily gained the confidence to delve into the non-textbook version of skin, fascia, muscles, bones, organs and the like. From gingerly sidling towards the stainless steel containers housing the cadavers, and some of us girls rather cowardly getting the blokes to do the initial unwrapping and handling, we were soon buzzing back and forth from our seats, working through and discussing various sections of our workbooks. We then eagerly went off to explore our subjects and to share our findings with great excitement.
Having decided beforehand to approach what we were to see as simply ‘pieces of meat’ to ease any potential squeamishness, we found ourselves feeling incredible respect and gratitude to the people who had donated themselves to the hospital and we were all very careful to wrap the cadavers up just as we found them, one or two of us passing a few words of comfort and thanks as we did so. They became very much real people and rightly so.
The ladies who run the two labs so smoothly were incredibly kind and helpful and nothing was too much trouble as they disappeared into their ‘store room’ to find appropriate specimens if none were already on display.
The day whizzed past and I think most of us were completely blown away by it all and nearing saturation point with the remarkable things we had seen, touched, shared and learned. We came away feeling utterly privileged and very lucky to have been granted access to such an amazing facility. Sadly the future for body-workers wishing to benefit from this incredible experience will be extremely limited – the preference now is for surgeons to work on bodies that have been frozen, giving a more ‘lifelike’ experience. Apparently we do not currently freeze cadavers in the UK so they are flown over from Germany, making it an expensive exercise which will be limited to the privileged few.
If you have ever thought you might be interested in spending some time in the dissection lab, we would urge you to do so before the opportunity is lost. It was without doubt a once-in-a-lifetime experience that neither of us would have wanted to have missed.
Sure it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if you have the stomach for it (and honestly it really isn’t that gory or scary) it will change the way you see the human form forever.
There really is nothing like the real thing.
Nicki Mitchell (
www.kentsportsmassage.com) and Di Jackett (Independent Sports Massage in Sunbury and London, Tel: 07917 869107)Things We Think You’d Like
// We’ll be running the The Day in the Dissection Lab throughout next year, 10am-1.30pm, £90.
For any students attending the day with us we have been granted access to Gordon Museum
usually reserved for the Medical Students. The Museum has a large and growing collection of approximately 8,000 pathological specimens as well as a number of important historic collections.
The lab dates for 2010 are:
January 21st
March 3rd
April 29th
May 27th
To secure your place, drop us an email: ask@thelondonmassagecompany.com
// We need two volunteers to assist Jane on the Mad About Muscles workshop, December 10th at the British School of Osteopathy in London. Assisting on the day is worth a whacking great 10 CPD points! Good muscle knowledge is a bonus. Give us a call if you can help - 0845 688 7188// We been told about a volunteer event called “Touch a heart” which is organised in the UK. It is a day of massage organised for elderly people in care homes. They are looking for as many massage therapists as possible to offer free short treatments of 15minutes on 10 December 2009. If you’d like to take part, they ask that you register online at www.touch-a-heart.org
// Jo Clements has a shop and clinic in Sevenoaks, Kent and is on the lookout for therapists able to deliver deeper, more therapeutic massage. If you are looking for somewhere to work, please contact Jo on 01732 450049, 07950 033771 or j.l.g@tesco.net
// More intersting CAM conferences coming upin February and March www.camconferences.com
// Jane is a member of the Chartered Physiotherapists in Massage and Soft Tissue Therapies (CPMaSTT), a Special Interest Group of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Each year CPMaSTT host two workshops and provide two very useful newsletters, exploring all aspects of massage. Within CPMaSTT there is a sports massage sub-group, an aromatherapy sub-group, and now a group for those therapists interested in fascia. They welcome Associate Members and with an annual membership fee of just £20 a year I feel that's really good value. If you are a massage therapist in any discipline you might want to consider joining this organisation who welcome contributions from all of their members. For more information and a simple application form contact the Membership Secretary Natalie Lejeune at: nats8784@hotmail.com
If you’d like to contribute to the newsletter, then we’d love to hear from you, as I’m sure would everyone else! We’re really pleased to be able to share your experiences so we hope you guys enjoy it too.
Take care. Jane & Zoë
To subscribe to the Newsletter or see what we're up to inside the class room visit : www.thelondonmassagecompany.com or email us:
ask@thelondonmassagecompany.com
