esalen® massage
I don't think it's uncommon for someone to complete a 28-day Esalen® massage certification course and leave saying, "that was fantastic, but what exactly is Esalen massage?"
When I studied Esalen massage – first in an informal 'apprenticeship', then as a member of the internationally-renowned massage crew, and finally as a student in the classroom – I realised I was not acquiring another 'tool for my toolbag', but the bag itself. It is this massage form that has most deeply influenced the overall approach and style of my practice of bodywork. Yet, I still find it quite hard to make a definitive statement able to encompass this meditative, boundless, and experiential practice of Esalen massage.
I give my deepest gratitude to all of the bodyworkers, innovators, and artisan practitioners who have been touched by and have so lovingly and creatively fostered the evolution of Esalen massage over the past forty years.
Esalen Massage Defined
by Brita Ostrom, EMBA Chair
The sound of the waves provides a soothing background for any massage session at Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California. This sound, coupled with the cliffside natural hot springs and the educational community dedicated to explore the "far reaches of human potentiality", inspires a unique approach to bodywork known worldwide as Esalen® Massage.
The ocean provides a slow-moving rhythm very much akin to the internal rhythms of the body. The receiver rests on the massage table, draped, and the practitioner's hands begin quietly, with presence, attending to breath, allowing the receiver to drop inward. The long, slow, t'ai chi-like strokes awaken awareness, and as the tissues open to the warm of touch, the contact deepens, nudging bound-up muscles, drawing forth expanded movement. A relaxing sigh resounds through the body, and the practitioner responds with integration strokes into related areas. The massage continues, seamlessly, wrapping the torso arms, legs, hands, feet, neck, and spirit into a united whole.
The practitioner brings a knowledge of strokes (many have roots in Swedish Massage), of muscles and bones, of movement, of listening to the body as well as the words. Prior to the session, he/she pays attention to his own physical comfort, and quiets down internal chatter to welcome inner guidance, or intuition. As he massages, the practitioner responds to the signs of relaxation: deepened breath, enhanced circulation, a sigh, perhaps flutters of the eyelids. Each session is unique, tailored by personal requests, comfort level, physical tension and release, the felt sense of intuition.
The effects of this intentional touch, loosely categorized as "wellness/stress management massage", range widely. For some, it brings a renewed sense of health and vigor, others may regain a sense of safety with regard to touch. Often old tension patterns break free and old emotions are released. It signals a return to one's nature, a switch from everyday consciousness into a calmer, more colorful space less inhabited by the constraints of time and place. An out-of-ordinary reality.
The sources of this rich work are endless: it was informed by sensory awareness, Swedish massage, oriental medicine, meditation, gestalt practice. The influence of, deeper work borrowed from Ida Rolf's teachings, Moshe Feldenkrais' sense of neural co-ordinates, Milton Trager's passive movement to awaken the mind, yoga stretches, somatic mind-body psychology, and more energetically based polarity massage and cranial-sacral work continue to "grow" the work. Each practitioner translates this into his/her personal art form.
At the heart of the session is a sense of empowering each individual to regain a sense of harmony, reverence, and balance, and to awaken inner resources for healing. It is not unusual to hear, "That was the most amazing massage I've ever received."
Copyright© 2001-2002 Esalen Massage and Bodywork Association
EMBA
Esalen Institute Highway One
Big Sur, CA 93920
e-mail: emba@esalen.org
web: www.esalenmassage.org
phone: 831.667.3018
fax: 831.667.3008