Modalities (Types of Massage) Observations
The modalities section of this website
was written after many months of research and many years of being in practice. There are so many different
disciplines and techniques.
These are only some of them. After
reading many websites information, they all started to seem the same.
The majority of the modalities claim to do these same things but with different
techniques. Here are some common themes:
-
Development of the Practitioner
-
Breathing Techniques
-
Meditation/developing intuition
-
Releasing repressed emotions
-
Releasing blocked energy
-
Increasing energy flow
-
Increased awareness
Many techniques were developed out of a need
to heal a personal injury or that of a friend or family member. Many
techniques were developed as a family tradition and carried on for generations.
Many of the people who developed their own technique after studying one
therapy and deciding there was a better way. Often therapies were
combined to come up with a new way of doing something and to make it their
own. Still others are just out there to make money.
After taking many workshops, can a teacher
really teach you what they are doing? If you have a class of 20 students
learning the same technique, all of them will most likely come away with
their own version of the technique, application, experience and view of
what was taught. Students often create a variation of the technique
and make it their own. No two people will ever be alike in the way
their hands feel, work and create. This is all part of the Art of
Massage and Bodywork.
I looked at many varieties of modalities
to study and ended up focusing on Zentherapy® training. This
was after receiving a treatment from a very talented practitioner of Zentherapy®.
When I got off the table I said "Wow, what did you do to me?". I
spent the next 6 years studying the same techniques and realized that it
wasn't really the technique it was the person who gave me the treatment,
as I never quite experienced the same feeling throughout the intense training.
On the other hand, learning as many tools
as possible may enhance your own system of massage and treatments.
It is important to make them your own and integrate them into your life
and work as you see is necessary. You may even find the best workshop
ever and never use the technique again. So choosing an area to study is
a difficult task with so many things available, and not enough time or
money to do them all.
To really learn a specific massage system-
I think a minimum of 5 years of practicing it is needed in most cases.
You can say you are a cranio-sacral therapist after a weekend workshop
- but what you are really doing, in my opinion, is practicing it while
you work. It takes time to integrate what you have learned, time
to practice it in your own way and make it your own work.
See also: Bodywork
and Baking Bread
