Oh, this is one of my favorite muscles. It’s deep, mysterious, and controversial. It’s like the occult conspiracy of soft tissues, many people have never heard of it, but it’s secretly affecting your posture, your comfort, and your freedom of movement. In my first specialty of Myofascial Massage Therapy, we learned to palpate and releaseContinue reading “The Psoas Controversy”
Category Archives: The Body
On Being a Jigsaw Puzzle
I spent much of the last year studying Zero Balancing, a new (to me) bodywork modality that works with bones, rather than soft tissues as massage therapy does. I finished my coursework in November, took the online exam last month, and this week I finally took and passed my practical exam. That is, I gaveContinue reading “On Being a Jigsaw Puzzle”
I Talk With My Hands
Typically, massage therapists show you a picture of their face, or the space where they work. I don’t touch you with my face, and the space where I work is wherever you are. So here are my hands. What do my hands say? Most often, something like It’s okay. You can let go now.You canContinue reading “I Talk With My Hands”
How Often Massage?
I find myself feeling a little uncomfortable when people ask me how often they should take massage therapy. I think of the places I’ve worked, where there was lots of emphasis on “retention rates,” which is how many of a therapist’s new clients return within a month. So, there was great incentive to say whateverContinue reading “How Often Massage?”
Epsom salts
Clinton Ober, in his book Earthing, posits that daily life typically leads to imbalance in the natural electrical charge of the body. This has to do with the difference in charge between the earth and the atmosphere. Direct contact with the earth is the simplest way that we regain balance. (I got a C inContinue reading “Epsom salts”
Rachel Creager Ireland, LMT 