Massage: An Integral Component in Holistic Care

Touch is powerful and profound. It has a crucial role in organizing our understanding of the world. As Deane Juhan points out in Job’s Body, “Just as the mind organizes the rest of the body's tissues into a life process, sensations to a large degree organize the mind. They do not simply give the mind material to organize; they are themselves a major organizing principle."

Massage is first and foremost a physical experience. Through this experience, we can reconnect with our body’s wisdom, become more aligned in gravity, and relax more deeply. Massage also: boosts immunity; increases circulation; reduces pain; improves breathing, sleep and digestion; releases postural stress; improves cell renewal; aids in the elimination of metabolic waste buildup; increases neurological responsiveness, and enhances body awareness.

Because massage is so enjoyable, many people associate it with luxury and not as an essential part of healthcare – although the ability to fully enjoy is a sign of health and also improves health. Healthcare needn’t be unpleasant to be of benefit.

Actually, massage is the most effective treatment for those experiencing musculoskeletal problems and structural imbalance. It can also be a major source of renewal and healing for people with fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, eating disorders, automobile injuries including whiplash, or post-traumatic stress - to name just a few. And it is the perfect antidote to a lifestyle characterized by many hours sitting at a desk in front of a computer.

The Myth of the Body/Mind Split . . .
ie, Why Touch is So Profound

If we look to embryology, we see that developmentally the skin is an extension of the brain. " . . . The skin- the outermost reaches of the periphery - and the brain are both generated by the same embryonic germ layer, the ectoderm. We are . . . justified in regarding the skin as the outer surface of the brain, and in maintaining that there is no fundamental difference between 'responding' and 'thinking' . . . The nervouse system is all brain" (Juhan).

Can We Be Reduced to a Bundle of Nerves?
Or is There a Deeper Foundation to Our Being?

Craniosacral Methodology also teaches us that there are organizing forces and fluids at work in our bodies, that began from the moment of our conception and laid the foundation for our shape-taking - even before we had a nervous system. These fluid tides are still at work within us! Our fluid body has a large electromagnetic field that extends beyond the usual sense of the container of our bodies. That is why and how two bodies can synch up and resonate even without physical touch, through close proximity in deep relaxation.

To learn more about the scientific basis behind energy medicine, please see Dona Eden's "Energy Medicine" and James Oschman's "Energy Medicine in Human Therapeutics and Performance."