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Massage Continuing Education: Massage for the Face
By Jennifer Shaw, Austin Massage Therapist and Guest Blogger When I was in massage school, my instructor described massage for the face as a nice way to bring the client “back into her head” toward the end of a massage. I like that description. Often times, when receiving bodywork, we become someone headless, as the…
Read MoreAston Patterning: Posture from the bottom up
by Michelle Wald We have heard all kinds of information on posture. Posture dictators say, “Don’t slouch, don’t let your head go forward, don’t bend your spine, and don’t round your shoulders.” At the same time telling you to, “Pull your shoulders back, tuck your chin in, hold your stomach tight, and tuck your bottom…
Read MoreAdvanced Massage Modalities: Polarity therapy
By Erika Marcoux, MA, RPP, RYT Polarity Therapy has many principles and four of them are energy, chakras, elements, and touch. Polarity Therapy is a profound healthcare system that uses gentle hands-on work for relaxation, emotional well-being, and relief from physical pain. The basis of Polarity Therapy, founded by Randolph Stone, is in Chinese medicine…
Read MoreWhy Lauterstein-Conway Massage School Was for Me
Tim Sullivan is a yoga teacher and massage therapist in training. You can find him at www.timyasa.com and americainshort.com. I can still hear my father moaning at the kitchen table when I was rub his shoulders after a long day at work. And then throughout high school and college, in the library, after hours squinting…
Read MoreCancer, Treatment, and Massage
(Adapted by permission from Medical Conditions and Massage Therapy: A Decision Tree Approach, by Tracy Walton. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.) When working with clients who have cancer, I try to remember that each person will respond differently to cancer and cancer treatment. The variety of responses to chemotherapy is the most striking example. Some…
Read MoreHealing as the Yoga of Acceptance
Tim Sullivan is a yoga teacher and massage therapist in training. You can find him at www.timyasa.com and americainshort.com. On a recent plane ride from Austin to my hometown of Chicago, after stowing my yoga mat in the overhead compartment and taking a seat, my excited neighbor exclaimed, “So… you do yoga?!” She flipped her…
Read MoreUnexpected consequences of headaches for me and the world
by Christopher Fritel I grew up playing soccer so injuries and muscle spasms are quite well known to me. Rain, cold, sweltering heat, or unfinished homework; Distractions never kept us off the field, so why would anything else. Out of nowhere I started having very mysterious visual focusing problems like auras associated with migraine headaches.…
Read MoreThe Comforts of Massage: “Orthobionomy”
by Tracy Gilliam, Advanced Practitioner of Ortho-Bionomy®, Licensed Massage Therapist, Texas Massage Therapy Instructor and CE Provider I took an Ortho-Bionomy® class on a whim. The flyer that came in the mail was bright yellow – hard to lose on my desk. Not really much information about the class or the technique on it, just…
Read MoreMassage as Poetry in Motion
Tim Sullivan is a yoga teacher and massage therapist in training. You can find him at www.timyasa.com and americainshort.com. You would struggle to find a massage therapist who doesn’t find it necessary to have some sort of relationship with the energetic body. It is difficult to deny that underlying the complex systems of circulation, respiration,…
Read MoreInsight into the Purpose of Giving Massage
by Joy Sablatura, LMT, MTI Last November, I studied with the Dalai Lama at his residence and temple in Dharamsala for three days, during my four-month sojourn to India. It was part of my ‘mid-life re-evaluation’ as I was questioning myself about my work, my life’s purpose and what I wanted to create for the…
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