But when Richard gave me the rundown of all the different services offered at MTW, I felt like I was taking a test for a foreign language class I never attended. CranioSacral Therapy? Abhyanga Massage? Neuromuscular Facilitation? I didn't know how to decide where to start.
One modality in particular caught my attention. Integrated Bodywork. According to the therapists, this is MTW's most popular service. When I asked Richard to explain what it was, he told me its basis is traditional Therapeutic Massage. The difference is Integrated Bodywork combines Therapeutic Massage with Bodywork techniques designed to lengthen muscles, relax tense regions of the body, and release trigger points, if present. It is an intuitive and highly customized massage experience.
My therapist for my first Integrated Bodywork Massage was Patience Williams. When we met, Patience struck me immediately as an extremely bright and funny woman. We talked briefly about books, blogging, and the future of communications. We compared stories from our respective trips to Paris, and an agreed that most Americans don't take enough time to sit down and really enjoy their meals.
Patience has been blind most of her life. Her service dog, a serene black lab named Toby, waited beside her as we humans talked about what I hoped to get out of my massage. It had been difficult for me to sit at my home computer for even an hour at a time. My shoulders and neck would tighten up and I would get a terrible headache, like I was wearing an elastic headband eight sizes too small. It's no wonder this happened. Each day while I sit hunched over my laptop pounding away whatever nonsense is momentarily so important, my body has been creating specific "holding patterns" to support me in this unnatural, curled-up pose. I like to call my posture when I'm at my computer the "T-Rex Position."
I lay down on the table and Patience began to work on me while Toby chilled out in the corner. The first thing she said to me as her hands touched my back was "Just relax and let me do the work." I instantly felt the tension I had been carrying in my shoulders dissipate. It wasn't a huge change, but it was something. That feeling of letting go and allowing someone else to take care of your body is an enormous relief in itself. Walking around tense all day takes its toll on you, and receiving a massage allows your to rest truly, to let someone else "drive" for the moment. The palpable release in my muscles the first moment the therapist's hands touch my skin seems like half the battle. For a moment I did not feel like I have to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders anymore.
In this specific, Jade version of Integrative Bodywork, Patience combined Swedish relaxation techniques (for general tenseness) with Russian Sports Massage, Deep Tissue, and Injury Massage (for the deep, painful patterns in my shoulders, hip, and knees) and added some Craniosacral Therapy at the end (for neck, shoulder, and head pain related to alignment and tension).
It was interesting how much I noticed the different modalities even during the course of the massage. There were times the Russian Sports and Deep Tissue aspects of the bodywork were so intense I found myself holding my breath until they were over. As she was tracing the line of my erector muscles (the muscles running up either side of the spine that really feel the effects of being hunched over a computer for nine hours a day), I could feel the muscle start to spasm, afraid to let go. When this happened I could feel the erector twitching and her hands being "thrown" to one side or the other, as though my brain was saying "I don't know if it's safe to let go. Get out!" A credit to Patience's skill, she rearranged my shoulder and came at the stubborn muscle from several angles until she was able to perform the therapy all the way through.
Several aspects of this massage hurt, but in that "good pain" sort of way. I could feel deep-seated tensions being addressed that had been buried for months or even years. It occurred to me at one point as I felt my left hip begin to release that this really is physical therapy. Many of these procedures are more like treatments than "services," as I had been calling them up until then.
After an intense fifty minutes, Patience finished my massage by gently cradling the back of my head and neck in her palms. I wasn't sure what was happening, but it was relaxing not to have to worry about anything, not even holding my head up. It was that same sense of release I described experiencing when we first began, only deepened and heightened after nearly an hour of bodywork. I tried to imagine what sort of energetic significance this cradling of my head was supposed to represent.
"Wow," said Patience. "You respond really well to CranioSacral."
"Huh?" I said, still half-dazed from all the endorphins. "Cranio-Whatal?"
"It's the subtle manipulation of the meninges, upper vertebrae, and bones of the skull. It helps with alignment and tension. You're very receptive to it. There's no resistance like there was when I was working on your back."
Patience and Toby left me to reconfigure and get dressed. I felt literally light-headed. Not only was I still flying from the endorphins and toxins that had just been released into my blood system, but my neck and shoulders felt like they had shed a fifty-pound weight.
That afternoon as I sat at my computer and began to work, the difference was striking. Usually I sit with a bottle of ibuprofen at my right hand, but I worked all afternoon with barely any pain. Most impressively, the terrible headache that had made it impossible to work seemed to have dissipated completely. I was truly clear-headed for the first time in weeks.
Even days later, I can still feel the benefits of the Integrated Bodywork. The headache is still greatly improved, and my shoulders are much more relaxed. The experience of Bodywork and Massage Therapy is valuable not only for the immediate physical relief it brings, but it also helps with general awareness of your body, its needs, and counter-productive habits. Since I spoke with Patience and Richard, I have been much more aware of my "T-Rex" holding pattern, and have made an effort to vary my working posture and take more time to stretch. Before, I felt like a dinosaur. Now I'm on the way to feeling human.
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