Shifting to an On-line Practice, Opening to More Possibility
As of March 18, my physical office closed (temporarily, I hope) due to the Coronavirus. Since then, I have shifted both my Therapeutic Bodywork and my Movement Education practice to an on-line format.
As always, my goals are to help clients and students Increase their Well-Being and Find their Inner Balance, and to help them find more healthful and comfortable ways to move through their daily routines.
For Therapeutic Bodywork, this has meant shifting the bodywork that I do into a Distance Healing format. For Movement Education, I am using Zoom to work with clients/students.
I have done Distance Healing with family and friends for many years, and have various trainings in techniques that relate, both directly and indirectly, to Distance Healing.
I had always vaguely planned to start offering these sessions in my professional practice, but had not yet done so. When I first closed my physical office 6-7 weeks ago, I began offering Distance Healing sessions to my current clients, thinking my physical office was only going to be closed temporarily and this would be a nice way for them to continue their treatments until my office reopened. They, and I, have been enjoying and getting a lot out of these sessions. For most of my clients, and for me, these sessions have been a wonderful experience- effective, rich, full of pleasant and affirming unexpected happenings.
Energy can move more quickly or more slowly than structure. This means that energetic contact - which is the contact we have at a distance -can also have an effect more quickly or more slowly than if we were working on person hands on: thus, and so, Time flows differently during a distance session.
I am finding in the distance healing work that I do that energy usually moves much more quickly and change occurs at a greater speed than when I am working in person hands on with someone.
In my Zero Balancing training and my homeopathic trainings we learn the import and skills of really listening to someone, and how the use of our words can affect someone.
This verbal work can play a greater or lesser role in our healing work together.
Regardless, it is an important part of our healing session.
All of this comes into play when I do in person individual Therapeutic Bodywork, Movement Education sessions, or teach classes, but these things take on different import when we are not in the same physical room, whether we are working together via phone or via Zoom.
THERAPEUTIC BODYWORK
Hands-on, in-person, in my office, a "Therapeutic Bodywork”
session could be either a Dynamic Rebalancing session, a Zero Balancing session, or a therapeutic massage session (you can look on my website for more information).
Everyone responds differently to a therapeutic bodywork session, whether it is hand-on, in-person, or via distance or Zoom.
All of the work that I do connects with the person on the Body/Mind/Spirit levels. Depending upon the specific needs that day of the person receiving the session, the session might focus more on the physical, structural aspects, or less on those, and more on the energetic aspects, or more on the Mental/emotional aspects.
Some people note that during or after receiving a hands-on, in-person therapeutic bodywork session on my table they feel/notice a lot of release/ positive change muscularly/emotionally; some note they feel calmer, looser, happier, less worried/anxious, lighter inside, muscles and joints feel better, pain is lessened or gone.
Other people notice no difference, during or after a session.
Some people feel great later that day and no different the next day; some people feel no different that day but feel much better the next day.
Distance healing sessions are the same: some people notice and feel a lot of positive change during the session or later that day, or commonly, it seems, the next day. Other people don't notice or feel much change at all, either at the time or over the next day or so.
Just as with hands-on, in-person sessions, distance sessions can be helpful for many different issues: relieving emotional/ mental stress and anxiety, physical stress, tension, or pain; injury recovery; boosting one’s immune system; increasing one’s well-being.
After Distance Healing sessions, my clients have reported that they felt, among other things, reductions in levels of anxiety/pain/discomfort; an increase in a sense of a calmness- some reported that the increased sense of calmness helped them to sort through logistical challenges they were facing; one client had reported feeling very flu-like and achey all over prior to a session, and by the end of the session she felt a good deal better. Over the next day or so, she felt increasingly better, and by the second/third day after our session, no trace of her flu-like achey symptoms remained.
Many people scoff at the idea that a Distance Healing session can be anything other than wishful thinking.
As mentioned above, people react differently to sessions, be they in-person or distance.
Rest assured, I would not be doing this work, nor offering it in my professional practice, if I did not believe it was valid and effective.
Since I am not working with anyone hands-on, in-person, right now, the only version of "Therapeutic Bodywork" I am currently offering is "Distance Healing".
Obviously, nothing will be quite as it is hands-on, in-person, but Distance Healing is just a distance version of Therapeutic Bodywork.
The choices for Distance Healing sessions are either a Dynamic Rebalancing session- which is likely to include a distance version of some Zero Balancing, other techniques, and some massage (you can look under Dynamic Rebalancing on my website for more information) - or, a "Virtual Zero Balancing" session.
The Dynamic Rebalancing session begins with a phone check -in. Then we get off the phone and the client gets comfortable, usually lying down, and I begin the next phase of the treatment session. This is followed by a phone-check-out.
A "Virtual Zero Balancing" session is done over Zoom (or Skype). The client lays down as if they were in my office, and I then literally verbally describe to the client what I am doing over the course of the Zero Balancing session. We close that phase of the session, talk a little, and are finished.
As with hands-on, in-person sessions, depending on the specific needs that day of the person receiving the session, whichever of these sessions we chose to do might focus more on the physical/structural (although differently than if we were hands-on, due to the distance) aspects, or less on those.
Distance Healing sessions are usually around 35-45 minutes; sometimes they run up to 55 minutes.
Prior to the first actual session, we will do a short (about 10 minutes) Intake session. This may be done either via phone, or Zoom.
There is no charge for the Intake session.
Until June 5, the fee for Distance Healing sessions is $50.
Movement Education:
In a Movement Education session, we explore alignment, how the weight is falling through joints, and the quality of energy with which the body is being moved or resting in stillness. The client can bring in exercises/asanas they are already working with/ we create new ones or use other ones from a variety of sources. Often we break movements down into small portions of a movement. Often we use slow, repetitive, motions.
Our goal is to create more healthful and comfortable ways for someone to move through their daily routines. Often, in order to do this, we need to create new movement patterns/habits, or to uncover older patterns that existed before certain injuries occurred. These sessions can be tailored to people just beginning an exercise program, or to those who are used to exercising.
When working via Zoom (or Skype), our format is pretty similar to what we would do hands-on, in person, in my office, taking into account the fact that we are not in the same physical room.
As with a Distance Healing session, this session would be 35-45 minutes, and the cost, until June 5, is also $50.
To sum it up:
My practice is currently only on-line.
I am offering Therapeutic Bodywork, (in the form of Distance Healing sessions) and Movement Education (via Zoom or Skype).
Both types of sessions are 35-45 minutes in length, and both, until June 5, are $50.
I will be updating and posting frequently on both of my Facebook pages: Bodywork Beyond Massage, and Dynamic Balanced Movement; and will be posting a few short videos as well.
I am excited to have this different way of working with people at my fingertips and in my hands, and I invite you to come along on this journey.
Please contact me if you have any questions, or are ready to schedule an appointment.
Be Healthy. Be Kind. To Yourself, and to Others. Believe in our resilience. Revel in Happiness.
Bodywork Beyond Massage