What can you Expect From a Holistic Massage Treatment?

What can you Expect From a Holistic Massage Treatment?
Lorraine Horton

We are all different – different bodies, responses, experiences and backgrounds – that’s what makes being a Massage Practitioner both exciting and an enormous privilege. It’s probably the most honest communication we can have with each other – skin on skin. As a recipient, it is beautiful when you feel that your massage practitioner has made a deep connection with you on a physical, emotional and spiritual level – non-judgemental, intelligent touch from a practitioner who has a high selfawareness – you really cannot get any better than this in the massage world.
Holistic Massage, in essence is about sensitive communication through the medium of touch. When the therapist touches your body, they are literally in touch with your feelings and in touch not only with who you are now but also with all of your personal history up to that moment. Treatments are adapted to each client’s unique needs, physical characteristics and personality. The therapist massages the person not just the body, working “with” you rather than doing it “to” you. A true holistic massage is unique; it does not follow a fixed routine and focuses on more than just superficial aches and pains.
The skilful practitioner will understand the body’s structure, function and malfunction, know how to assess the effects on a particular client and how to then determine which massage techniques best meet these needs. In order to do this, they need to have trained in and developed skilful non-verbal communication, body language, active listening and observational skills, and a high level of self-awareness. A wide range of techniques must be learned, including gentle massage, stretches, relaxation work, very deep tissue work, passive mobilisation and stillness work – together with a knowledge of how to apply these appropriately at each massage. After all, it really does not acknowledge you as a unique individual if you receive the same massage routine as every other client, or, indeed, every time you receive a massage. In fact it’s a nonsense - because we are flowing and changing as individuals on our own unique journey all of the time!

The Benefits of Holistic Massage:

a sensitive, developed practitioner who instils trust and puts you at ease
an individual treatment appropriate to your own personal physical and emotional history/journey
physical improvements such as relaxing tight muscles, improvements to circulation, nervous function and joint mobility; this can ease many short and long term ailments, such as back pain, arthritis and insomnia
reducing stress – allowing both body and mind valuable recuperation time
emotional release and enhancing self esteem
at a deeper level, release the personal history/emotions stored in body tissues, supporting your own process of personal growth

What does quality massage training offer? If you hold a fascination about our bodies, and enjoy working from your head and your heart – you may be interested in learning the art of holistic massage. Good quality training should offer an opportunity for you to create a balance between the development of your intuitive sense – and the application of knowledge about the physical body – a unique path for your individual creativity and personal growth – mentally, physically emotionally and spiritually. As one student put it recently: “I have learned to value myself, increased my confidence, begun a loving relationship with my body, fallen in love with massage.”

Specifically, look for the following qualities in training courses:

Varied Massage Techniques from soft to very deep tissues work, joint mobilisation, stretches and stillness – intelligently applied to meet individual client’s physical and emotional needs. This means that you can treat many different client’s with varying conditions, impairments and life experiences.
Detailed Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology – integrated into massage technique learning, giving you a sound knowledge of the physiological effects of your massage. Many courses teach anatomy and physiology as a separate subject to the massage element of the training which means you are only assessed on your memory of this subject, rather than how you apply this knowledge in your massage treatment – this does not help you as a practitioner in the ‘real’ world.
Develops your Self-Awareness and Personal Growth as a Practitioner. Thus actively encouraging reflective practice so that your own personal agenda does not interrupt your therapeutic relationship with clients. Holistic Massage supports the emotional journey of clients. As a massage therapist, you cannot do this with integrity if you do not support your own personal growth issues and what hinders them and helps them.
Looking after the Practitioner’s own body avoiding over-use of hand/joints and using movement and effective body weight when massaging – otherwise careers are shortened.
Student-centred and Supportive Teaching Methods with tutors who are passionate about massage and fun too! Check out that the teachers have a long history of being a practitioner – and still are, thus bringing considerable experience to their teaching.
Preparing you for your Profession – enabling you, as a new practitioner, to feel competent and confident, e.g. the final practical assessment should be on a one-to-one basis rather than all students being assessed at once.
Easily meets future Practitioner Voluntary Self-Regulatory requirements and is involved in national standards development
Offers post-graduation support and supervision

Training that feels right to you will honour your own personal journey as a competent and intuitive Massage Practitioner – and most importantly, you’ll enjoy the journey even if it does prove challenging at time!
The Massage Training Institute (www.massagetaining.co.uk) is the only professional organisation dedicated to holistic massage. It is a national examining body which accredits training schools offering practitioner level courses leading to the MTI Diploma in Holistic Massage with Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology. MTI is a member of the General Council for Massage Therapy and is actively involved in the process of setting standards for massage training in this country. It is also involved in the current process to move to voluntary self-regulation of complementary health practitioners in the UK.
Excellent teaching is something that is taken very seriously at MTI. MTI-trained practitioners are highly regarded for the quality of their treatments, their breadth of knowledge and their excellence in client care.
Lorraine Horton is the Founder and Course Director of Meridian Professional Training in Massage and Natural Therapies. She qualified in Massage Therapy at the London School of Holistic Massage, has taught in adult education, is a Reiki teacher and runs her own complementary health practice. Contact 0121 444 8130 www.lhmeridian.co.uk schooloftherapies@yahoo.co.uk