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Complementary skill in know-nothing novice
Hi. I'm looking into training in massage therapy, however I have a bit of a weird situation.
I use a method of provoking my body to give me movement indications and instructions as to what it would prefer I do with it. This works wonders for diet, as well as in several other areas. I also use it when I massage. I am terrible at massage, unless I pay attention to those movement indications. That changes everything, for the better.
I asked someone to compare my massages with this to one they just received from a 20 year professional. The comparison was that I was just as good, however for entirely different reasons. The pro had skill and technique, as well as strength and stamina, but remained in areas a little too long, applied wrong amounts of pressure at times, and followed their routine. All I have going for me is I always know exactly what area to move to and how much pressure to apply. I'm frequently told I suddenly changed areas to where the subject wants me to go just before they were about to say something, which is pretty cool I suppose. I have no technique, skill or stamina. I know where to go and how much pressure to apply, but the rest I basically make up as I go along.
What I do also has limitations, I'm hoping mostly due to lack of practice. I can only get instructions in one hand at a time, so the other hand either mirrors on the other side, tries to assist the hand I'm using, or does nothing. A sort of mental stress builds up if I try to pay attention to both at the same time. Also, if the person tries directing me, that can also build up that same stress, as it feels like I'm getting two separate sets of directions. This tends to happen in the beginning a lot, as normally someone tells me to work on a particular area, but the instructions I'm getting want me to start a bit far from the area, and sort of end up drifting slowly towards it.
Another limitation is this method is linked to other social instincts, and I'm unsure if I could get it working with a general stranger. If that's the case, I'd need to sort of interview/get to know clients beforehand if I did become a professional. Either that, or have a massage routine I fall back on when I'm flying blind, so to speak.
So, my question is, with this strange skill, and the desire to incorporate it into training for an actual career, what would you recommend I do for training and dealing with the classroom setting? How would you recommend I incorporate it into a career? Since it's important in massage to listen to the client, and this basically requires ignoring the client's words and how the client's muscles feel, etc, can the two be combined at all? What would you do if you knew exactly where to go and what pressure to apply, but had these limitations too?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sadan Yagci on
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Feldenkrais is definitely up my alley, though I haven't found his works too helpful for this, at least not yet. I should definitely get the books you mentioned, and perhaps take another look at Feldenkrais.
I understand massage schools won't help with my methods. I'm mainly concerned about being unable to merge the two somehow. If it works out, it's great. If I can't merge them, it's pretty much a waste. Going back to doing with my body what I think it should do, especially as part of an occupation, would be too counter-productive to my long-term goals. I already have far too much experience shutting bodily instructions out.
Lee Edelberg said:You might find the work of Moishe Feldenkrais to be interesting and more up your alley. A book by Dean Juhan called "Job's Body" discusses some of these things though mostly from the point of view of body/mind responses to receiving bodywork. "In an Unspoken Voice:How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness" by Peter Levine is a great read about the workings of the brain and nervous system and body/mind responses. Realize that massage schools are essentially vocational and won't spend a lot of time on these topics other than to touch on them.
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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You asked for guidance from massage therapists. But we all seem to be confused.
If the "instruction" you're being given doesn't arise from sense of touch, and not your mind, what is its origin? Even doctors sometimes feel a lipoma (a fatty benign cancer) and confuse it with a cyst or even a deadly, malignant cancer. So, sense of touch must be fully developed...by education, by clinical practice on a gazillion human bodies.
Humans are not all created equal. Some of us are gifted with exceptional vision, sense of smell, sense of hearing, fingertip sensitivity. My 18 month old great-grandson was genetically gifted with exceptional proprioception (if he can stretch out and touch a ball, as young as he is, he will catch it).
But what you seem to be referring to is some special sixth sense not based on any other mammalian sense. Lots of people are convinced that they have innate psychic talents. The ability to tap into the (non-existent) brain waves of plants, for instance. Well, maybe you do have abilities the rest of us lack.
You still need to get an education. You can't understand the language of the body if you haven't an inkling of its 12 systems. A little boy long ago began reading the Bible before he could speak, and grew up to become Jesus, the Savior of Mankind. So, if God's only son recognized that He needed an education before He could begin performing miracles, isn't your superb talent worthy of even a few months of your life? You've expressed interest in learning more about Feldenkrais, correct? Well it, too, requires a course of study.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/q35qoqj
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I have no problem with education. You mistake differing interests for lack of interest.
Is what I've found some weird sense beyond the ones currently acknowledged? I haven't ruled that out yet. It's getting information across somehow. I'm just not sure how. Perhaps it's just really good at guessing based on some information it gathers quickly that it can easily extrapolate from. I don't know. I keep putting it to the test and it keeps passing. I'm just some guy who tried to go vegetarian and ended up noticing autonomic movements and sensations that are easily triggered. Everything I know about it came from experimenting, trying to figure out what in the world this is after that.
If this was an exceptional gift, it wouldn't be teachable, nor learned so quickly.
We don't know that much about the childhood of Jesus. Regardless, I keep saying I'm interested in learning. I choose my own paths, but just because they may differ from yours doesn't mean they aren't learning.
This is worth months of my life. I've already given it 2 years, and I'm sure I'll give it many more. Whether I take the massage route or not is still up in the air. I always prefer planning things from the end to the beginning. When I do that thoroughly there's a much greater likelihood that what I do doesn't end up a waste of time. Thus I am here, asking questions and mulling this possibility over. I've mulled over the feldenkrais practitioner training possibility already, a while ago, and decided against it at least for now. Perhaps I'll change my mind one day, but it has no current proven practical application for myself at the moment.
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Permalink Reply by Lee Edelberg on
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Came across this little article today. Not exactly on topic for your question, but certainly related. Maybe it will lead to something useful.
http://io9.com/sensing-your-own-body-is-more-complicated-than-you-r...
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Interesting article. I was aware that there are many more senses than the 5 classical ones. This gets me thinking more about how it does what it does and how I might trick or break it. The directional indications move in spacial relationship to the rest of the body, as well as anything external to it that is part of the query. Thus, it has to know where the body parts involved are. If the sensations in the hand are unclear when stationary, for example, rotation of the hand will clear it up, since the hand will move but the sensation will remain pointing in the same direction, effectively making it move across the hand, allowing its details to be pinpointed. Could that be transferred to a phantom limb? If there was no limb, would the sensations remain? If I lost my hand I'd find out real quick, but I don't exactly want to try it. Perhaps teach it to people who have lost limbs, some with the phantom limb problem and some without, and see how it functions.
The sensations behave normally when the person's own body is pictured doing something, as if the person is actually doing it, allowing queries about things that aren't currently going on. It already does weird things when the body is pictured as something it's not, seemingly attempting to direct the body to mimic that thing. It would likely be easily tricked. Interesting. I'm unsure of its practicality though. Perhaps it would be good to test how the sensations work in someone with poor proprioception. Something to think about. :)
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This isn't about where I think I need to go. I have to ignore that. I get impatient and confused by it. I get annoyed by it. It doesn't do what I want or follow what I think. I'm just learning and experimenting and trying to figure it out. Understanding it is my agenda. Understanding how it can best be used to help people is my agenda. Why should I check that at the door?
I am well aware my methods sound impossible and weird, the limitations sound crazy, and stating that I have found something that others haven't sounds boastful, egotistical and stupid. If I listened to my ego, I would never say anything to anyone. My ego gets nothing but shame out of trying again and again. I continue because someone must. I push my ego aside every time I try to talk to anyone about any of this, and after it gets crushed I wait again for the depression to subside before I try again, and again, and again, and again. If this was about ego, I'd never speak of it again.
Stacey L Brown said:
Frankly, with all due respect, this *strangeness* sounds like hogwash, ego, and a little intuition thrown in for good luck.
This work isn't about *you* and where *you* think *you* need to go, next. It's about your client and their needs.
Massage or touch works best, for all concerned, if you check your ego and agenda at the door. :-)
Good luck.
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I live in Florida. There's a local massage school in Pensacola that I've been considering. I don't particularly want to have to shut out the instructions during training. This thing can be unpredictable, since I know so little about how it functions. That concerns me.
Your characterization of me wanting them to sit back and shut up is uncomfortable. I don't like having to do that, at all. I'm hoping practice will eliminate that issue, but I fear it's not something I can train away. Perhaps I'll find a solution eventually, or perhaps I can work around it somehow.
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Attempting to help Yagci ihas been an exercise in futility lasting more than six months, for apparently without schooling whatsoever Sadan already knows everything he thinks he needs to know about human anatomy and physiology and kineseology to flawlessly perform the art and skill of therapeutic massage.
No one cares, Sadan, that you provide amateur massage to friends and family, but if you purport to be a professional and accept payment, sir, FL law requires that you obtain education in and licensure in therapeutic massage. Otherwise, you are committing a misdemeanor crime punishable by FL law.
I provided you with these links in July, and obviously you have yet to enroll in a reputable school:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/q35qoqj
Evidently, Mr Yagci, your only interest is in self-aggrandizement. Please do attend school, become legally licensed to practice as a professional, then, once you know what the hell it is you claim to have discovered, come back here and teach us.
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I'd rather not come back at all.
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