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The Art of Thai Massage: A Guide for Advanced Therapeutic Practice - Softcover

Haddad, Bob

 
9781644113721: The Art of Thai Massage: A Guide for Advanced Therapeutic Practice
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1644113724 ISBN 13: 9781644113721
Verlag: Findhorn Press, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

An illustrated guide to enrich and develop the practice of Thai massage

• Presents guidelines for effortless and effective practice, including body mechanics, breathing patterns, flowing movements, incremental pressure, and exercises to improve sensing and to strengthen intuition as you work

• Offers ways to refine and improve classic techniques that are often performed incorrectly, explains broad healing concepts behind individual techniques, and discusses the awareness and sensitivity with which they should be performed

• Answers common questions, clarifies misunderstandings, and presents ways to work with focused intention on a deeper level, and with more grace, ease, and efficiency

UNLIKE OTHER BOOKS ABOUT THAI MASSAGE, this guide offers a deep and insightful view of important and often neglected aspects of this work. Many of these concepts and techniques also apply to table massage, physical therapy, yoga, and other healing arts. This book guides the reader through the conceptual, spiritual, and practical approaches behind effective bodywork. An entire section is dedicated to awareness of breath for massage, movement, and everyday activities. Assessment guidelines help the therapist to work with others based on physical appearance, preexisting conditions, and elemental predisposition. Exercises are presented to sharpen sensing abilities and intuition, and to find, coax, and release blockages in the body. Twelve important Thai massage techniques that are often taught and performed incorrectly are described in great detail. Other chapters offer ways to create customized sequences of practice and to move from one technique to another with ease and grace. Finally, the chapter on medicinal herbs discusses the preparation, use, and benefits of herbal compresses, poultices, balms, oils, and baths, and it offers easy recipes for all of these therapies.

This manual contains information that has never been previously available in print. Full of exercises and insights to help therapists hone their bodywork skills, it reveals key principles that give way to effective treatment and explores traditional Thai massage with a special focus on intention, awareness, sensitivity, and spirituality.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Bob Haddad is a Registered Thai Therapist, teacher and author who has studied and practiced traditional Thai massage since 1999. He is the founder and director of Thai Healing Alliance International, teaches workshops internationally, and has organized international conferences on Thai healing arts.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

From the chapter “Guidelines for Effortless and Effective Work”

Some students of massage and bodywork learn many techniques over a short period of time. Naturally, they are eager to use them, but using too many techniques in a treatment can sometimes interfere with the overall healing effect.

In the healing arts, techniques are tools to reach a deeper purpose. It’s important to have a lot of tools in the “toolbox”, but highly skilled carpenters can create solid and beautiful structures using only a few simple instruments. Once we understand the most efficient ways of doing things, we can focus our attention on the whole person, and engage in a deeper process of healing.

* * *

Work only within your reach

When I first began to study traditional Thai massage, the sequences that I learned contained some postures and positions that didn’t feel good to me. The techniques were numbered, and taught in rote fashion without giving much consideration to relative body type. I remember one technique that always bothered me. With the receiver in supine position, you place your outside foot against his thigh, and you bend his leg inward so his sole touches his other thigh. With your foot wedged between his calf and his thigh, you extend your arms, lean forward and begin to work on his uppermost leg lines with your fingers. This technique was part of a fixed sequence, and everyone was supposed to do it, but my legs seemed too long to work on many of my fellow students. I couldn’t project my body forward enough to be comfortable because my foot was wedged in the receiver’s leg. That particular technique may have worked well for two height-appropriate people, but not when people of different sizes were working together. My back hurt every time I did it, but I was never encouraged to move my body freely as I worked, or to remove my wedged foot so I could reach further with my hands. I wasn’t shown how to work those same leg lines in a different way, and I wasn’t given permission to simply avoid using techniques that didn’t feel right.

Always avoid using techniques that feel uncomfortable or cause strain to your body. When you are comfortable, your work becomes easier and more effective. Move your body as you work, and work only within your reach.

* * *

The power of stillness

In some styles of Thai massage that resulted from the blending of lineages or that were influenced by Western forms or modern fusions, continual movement seems to be the thing. Techniques are sometimes carried out mechanically, and the body of the receiver is moved, manipulated, twisted, stretched and compressed almost continuously during a treatment. In basic training programs, students are taught to follow sequences, and to quickly move from one technique to another in order to memorize a treatment routine. This is a logical way to learn an entire sequence of techniques, but due to time constraints and the limitations of group teaching, many students are left without an understanding of when to stop and remain motionless during a session. Some of the most traditional and most effective approaches to Thai bodywork are carried out with extended periods of pressure, and with a variety of other static techniques.

A lesson about stillness

I remember a Thai massage treatment I received from a teacher and friend many years ago at her school in Chiang Mai. After working on my feet and my legs, she made contact with my abdomen by warming my entire belly with palm-circles and palm-presses. Then she began to circle slowly with her fingers, sensing, feeling, and stopping occasionally to press a small point inward. She continued in this way for a few moments until she came to a complete stop with only one or two fingers. She pressed slightly downward, but rather than continuing to apply incremental pressure, she released most of the pressure until her fingers came to a resting position in that place, and she remained completely still for quite a long time. Her touch was so light, as if she were gently holding a feather tuft in place. This type of touch brought me a sense of peace and solace, and after about twenty seconds I began to feel something. A slight warming sensation was arising from my stomach to the surface of my skin, right at the place she was touching. It continued to get warmer and warmer until it started to burn. The point of contact between her fingers and my skin eventually became so burning hot that it surprised me. She wasn’t “doing” anything, yet something was happening inside my body. I lifted my head, opened my eyes, and I said “hot.” She whispered a sound of agreement. I closed my eyes again, and after a few more seconds of intense heat, something happened. I felt a movement inside my belly, and the hot sensation was gone. She also sensed that a release had occurred, and she moved on to another place.

I’ll never forget the lesson I learned that day: the power of stillness. That experience taught me many things. I learned that sensing and intuition are powerful tools for healing. I also learned that by stopping all action to remain in one place, even with the slightest touch, we can encourage a person to engage in a process of self-healing. I could never have brought about that release through self-treatment. I needed to feel the support and the patience and the metta of someone whom I trusted.

Encourage self-healing

It takes time to develop the intuitive abilities and the heightened sensitivity required to work in this way. Self-discipline, non-thinking, non-judgment and awareness are important. Some people stay in their heads as they work, always processing and thinking about all the different techniques they can use. They often miss the point because they don’t remain calm and still enough to maximize their sensing abilities, and to encourage self-healing. Here are two wonderful quotes:

“The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force in getting well” - Hippocrates

“No medicine can heal us better than the power of our own bodies” - Thai proverb

Skilled therapists hone their sensing and intuitive abilities over time when they master the art of becoming still and empty, and when they direct all their sensory awareness not only to the spot they are touching or treating, but also to the whole person. Once these abilities are developed, we can begin to tune in to what the receiver’s body and energy tell us, and this, in turn, inspires us to use certain postures and techniques without thinking very much at all.2 A well-known Thai expression is “Same-same, but different.” If we apply it to Thai massage, it suggests that Thai therapists shouldn’t treat every person in the same way, or use the same routine or the same techniques every time. Try to be as “empty” as possible as you work. Feel, sense, be compassionate, surrender to your inner guidance, and remember to occasionally remain still so you can serve as a witness to each person’s self-healing.

Use resting poses

A receiver’s relationship to time and space in a motionless pose allows him to relax, to unwind, to assimilate positive energy, and to become renewed. Periods of inaction also help a therapist to remain calm and focused, and to rest for brief moments during a treatment.

After a particularly strenuous or difficult posture, or if a client had a strong reaction or an emotional release, consider using a resting pose. To calm things down, use a technique or a posture that requires little or no movement on your part, and yet continues to apply healing touch.

Therapeutic rest can be offered in all...

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Verlag
Findhorn Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1644113724
ISBN 13 
9781644113721
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande