Energetic Massage

[qos]

Yesterday at work we had a Safety and Health Fair -- which included a fair number of alternative providers. One of them offered a 15 minute energetic massage given by three women working together.

I signed up, anticipating an experience that would leave me "energized." I expected tingles, a feeling of energy moving in my body, a feeling of being cleansed and grounded. That's not what happened.

One woman began giving me a foot massage that I'm sure included very specific stimulation of reflexology or energy points. That felt very good.

But the sensations were very different elsewhere in my body. A very short time into the massage I began to feel pressure and constriction around my heart and chest. I tried to relax and breathe deeply, but what I felt was a desire to resist and defend.

I told the practitioner what I was feeling. She said, "I know. Just keep breathing."

It never got all that much better.

When it was over, and I sat up slowly, I asked the woman who had been working over my chest what *that* had been about. She basically turned the question back on myself, suggesting that I consider my relationships -- or what it is within myself that keeps me from having them. She suggested that I look at issues of guilt and forgiveness.

Hmmmm. . .

The woman who was working over my head said, "You are very sensitive to energy" -- which made me smile because for so long I felt like I had no ability in this area.

I felt out-of-sorts for a couple of hours afterward, with some lingering soreness around my chest, and a feeling of vague being on edge. Finally I thought to do some deliberate grounding, which helped.

A most unusual experience.

Comments

Grr.

[aerden.livejournal.com]

*frowns* That makes me wonder if the two ladies working on your upper body really knew what they were doing. They should have stopped immediately when you expressed physical discomfort. They should not have tried to explain away your physical discomfort by questioning your emotional state. It's unprofessional, very dubious therapy, and it's just plain rude.

Chantal

Re: Grr.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I agree. Turning the questions back onto you seemed dismissive to me. I suggest she reflects on why she insists on going full steam ahead with her own agenda, rather than going only as far as a person's body is willing to go.

Re: Grr.

[qos.livejournal.com]

I've been going back and forth on that. Part of me agrees with you, but part of me is quite aware that her comments about what might be going in around my heart chakra were right on. I've had some muscle massage that wasn't particularly comfortable but was exactly what my body needed. I don't know if energetics work the same way or not.

But I definitely could have used some better up-front orientation about what might happen, and some suggestions about how to handle what came after.

Re: Grr.

[aerden.livejournal.com]

That could be, but I still tend to think that if a massage makes you feel ill, then it was a badly-done massage. You could have been having a heart attack for all she knew, but it sounds to me as if this woman wasn't really listening to a word you said. My suspicion is, she doesn't know how to massage correctly, and her customers frequently feel the same discomfort you did--which she admitted to. But instead of questioning her own technique, she questions her customers.

I'm very relieved that you're feeling better now.

Chantal

Re: Grr.

[iswari.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know what you mean. I guess it's a question of whether or not it was good discomfort or bad discomfort. Healing isn't always comfortable. Do you feel like what you were feeling was physical or energetic? Do it seem clear between you that it was about your chakras and emotional issues rather than that you were, say, having a heart attack or something? Resistance is a tricky thing. Sometimes you can't go at it head on, like that. Sometimes, you have to join with it, in order to dispell it. I'm a little surprised she worked so intensively with you in that context....

[kateri-thinks.livejournal.com]

What do you make of it?

[qos.livejournal.com]

I think her comments reflected an accurate perception about some "unfinished business" I have emotionally. But as the comments above reflect (both mine and those of friends) I wasn't entirely comfortable with the experience. As someone just noted: even if it was a truly therapeutic (not clumsy) treatment, it may not have been the right venue for her to do that particular work.

My vote on the matter

[toesontheground.livejournal.com]

The masseuse who told you the problem was with you - she was wrong, even if she correctly picked (guessed?) something in you that may have contributed.

I was thinking if it were me I'd be weirded out simply by having 3 people working on me anyway :,)

Re: My vote on the matter

[qos.livejournal.com]

I'd be weirded out simply by having 3 people working on me anyway

It's funny. That wasn't a concern to me at all. Nor did it really register that I was in a place where anyone I work with could see me -- until later that day when some of my co-workers started asking me about it.

For someone who isn't very comfortable in a lot of social situations, I felt no self-consciousness at all about this experience while it was happening.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_storyteller_/]

While she obviously read you well, or at least made a couple of good generalization statements. The sign of someone NOT knowing an answer is when they turn the question back on the student. It's a charletan's trick.

I have a split mind about it. One one hand, I have had to remove painful blocks of energy from people before and it is not always comfortable... but they knew what I was doing, and what the effects would be. I communicated with them before hand.

At best she was unprofessional, at worst she could have hurt you.

I am glad you are feeling better. If you feel you need to explore issues relating to your heart and your energy, then the most important thing is that you do it on your own terms.