#16 - Renewal

Greetings all,

The newsletter is a bit late this time, for which I apologize. I have a great excuse, and it's not even being away on holidays.

Last week I attended the LaStone course Original Body in Chelmsford, Essex, England at LaStoneUK by Lesley Masterson. The four days in beautiful Hylands Park were amazing and the people simply lovely. And of course, learning about the Original Hot and Cold Stone Massage was deeply fascinating and the beginning of a new journey for me.

I'm still collecting the last materials I need to perform the massages, and I'm looking for a location in Paris to set up my treatment room. If any of you know of a clinic or place that has space to share or rent out on an hourly basis, please don't hesitate to let me know.

By the beginning of September I should be ready to offer LaStone Therapy in Paris itself as well as my normal Massage Créatif.

This month will see a series of articles about LaStone Therapy and why hot and cold gives the best treatment of body and soul. There'll be much much more about this in next month's newsletter.


Articles this last month:

Renew yourself
As a massage therapist, but this is true for all people, it's important to renew yourself and regularly learn new skills. If you don't undertake these challenges, there's a risk of your life growing stale as well as your craft. It's healthy for your mind to expand and grow your expertise. Not only your customers or workplace will benefit, but you will also.
http://www.starkeys.com/blog/2009/07/renew-yourself.html

Clothed massage
It's easy to get the impression that you need to undress in order to receive a massage. This is not true. It's perfectly possible to receive a good and also therapeutic massage even if you're clothed. The massage techniques used are somewhat different, and the experience will be another compared to a normal unclothed massage.
http://www.starkeys.com/blog/2009/07/clothed-massage.html

Breathing
When you use the chest instead of with the stomach (diaphragm) to breathe, you can cause trigger points and tensions the upper chest and back. This can result in headaches, numbness and pains in chest, arm, shoulder and hand.For instance the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome can be caused by tensions and trigger points in some of the muscles which lift the chest (scalenes).
http://www.starkeys.com/blog/2009/07/breathing.html

Communication
When you receive a massage it's important to communicate with the therapist. Let her know if there's something that's not to your liking or you'd like changed. It's very tempting to just let go, float away and not bother saying what you like and don't like. But by not speaking up about it, you do yourself a disfavour and the massage will become a bad experience.Most
http://www.starkeys.com/blog/2009/07/communication.html

Improving your massage
The aim of a massage is to make the recipient relax so the muscles can be normalized and stress leave the body and mind. There are several things that you can do to improve your massage.Move slowly. Keep in mind that you want the other person to relax completely, so slow smooth non-jerking movements, especially in the beginning, will help them relax and get used to your touch.
http://www.starkeys.com/blog/2009/07/improving-your-massage.html

Have a wonderful late-summer.

Cheers
Pia