When Touch is Not Appropriate, or, What the Bleep is Energy Massage?

Mar 08, 2009 by Jim O'Hara

Sharon came to me shortly after heart bypass surgery. Her torso’s upper left quadrant was muscularly seized up. Muscle relaxants had been totally ineffective, and she came to me as a last resort.

Since touch to this traumatized area only made things worse, I used energy work, sandwiching this area between my hands. And I waited. And waited. For what? Keep on reading.

By the end of the session, she reported that she had the most relief from pain since she had left the hospital—and wanted to book another session.

Another client, Betty, had had axilary lymph nodes removed for a biopsy, and this left her with a sore armpit area, and quite limited range of motion in that shoulder. The energy work I had done with Betty had given her such dramatic results that her oncologist at Stanford Medical Center had demanded, “Just what is your massage therapist doing?”

So, just what is “energy massage?”

First of all, there is no voodoo involved. A type of photography, Kirlian photography (not without its critics) seems to capture for us the energy field surrounding both humans and plants.

As with magnetic fields, one energy field, or its vibrations, can affect another one.

Think of the soprano singing a high note until the crystal glass shatters. The glass had started to match the vocal vibrations, which changed its own situation. This is the matching of one energy/vibration with another.

We’ve all been around people whose negative “energy” seemed to pull us down. I call them “psychic vampires.”

It is a natural tendency for one entity to match the energy/vibration/emotions of another.




But what is actually done in an energy massage session? I use a style similar to Polarity (www.polaritytherapy.org) in which my hands simply “sandwich” the area of the body in need of healing. And then I wait. And wait.

I’m waiting for the client’s traumatized area to begin matching the healthier energy field of my hands. So, it is important I do this only if I am feeling healthy. The waiting is the hard part for the massage therapist. Keep saying to yourself, “Time is my ally.”

But exactly how does this work? I see it as a “matching” of energy fields, others see it as the therapists’ hands “holding the space” for the client’s own body wisdom to take over.

Still sound vague? Probably – why not try it and learn from your own experience. No one really understands how electricity works, but we flick light switches on and off all day long, caring little about the underlying mechanism. We just want results!

Explore for yourself the various styles of energy work, known by names such as:

Polarity
Reiki
Quantum Touch
Zero Balancing

to name just a few.

Caution– most clients will want physical touch as the majority part of their massage session. Give them that, and use energy work where touch is not appropriate.

Major Caution – Beware of yourself as the Big Healer. Just who is doing the healing? Watch out for Ego perched on your shoulder, licking its chops, and waiting to be fed another helping of (meaningless) adulation. It grows Big on that stuff.

Blessings and good energy to you.

Jim O’Hara
Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork
Curriculum Coordinator, National Holistic Institute

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