What sessions Via Zoom/Distance Can Offer
WHAT CAN I OFFER YOU VIA DISTANCE /ZOOM SESSIONS?
HOW CAN I HELP YOU IF WE ARE NOT WORKING HANDS-ON, IN- PERSON?
Why would you "bother" with a Distance or Zoom session, instead of waiting until you can have a hands-on, in-person, session again? **
How can I help with muscle tightness, pain, or high levels of stress, if I cannot touch you, hands-on, in-person?
I can help by offering you conscious, supportive, caring, contact.
The positive impact of conscious, supportive, caring contact- physical or otherwise- can be invaluable in our lives.
This type of contact, whether physical or not, can help us to feel supported. This sends signals to the nervous system to calm down, and to release tightly held muscles. This type of contact helps us to feel “seen” and “heard”.
Often we find conscious, supportive, caring, contact through physical touch with therapeutic bodywork. During these times when we may feel an extra need for this type of contact and support, many of us do not feel comfortable seeking out hands-on, in-person sessions.
Conscious, supportive, caring, contact, as I have mentioned before (see blog posts from May 5 and May 29) is not confined to only physical touch. We can connect in a conscious, supportive, caring way through a number of mediums- including verbally, a Zoom connection, an energetic connection (sometimes over the phone, but not always/only), or via writing.
A number of my clients are experiencing this type of contact in sessions with me either via Distance Healing sessions or via Zoom. As a result, they have found relief for post injury/surgery pain or restrictions, or for pain/stiffness after an intense workout, or for chronic pain, or for high levels of stress, worry, and anxiety.
I can help by offering sessions that help to relieve tension, either through use of movement, postural awareness, or breathing/visualization; or via Distance Healing.
I offer sessions that can help you to use movement/exercises to increase your physical ease and range of motion.
I offer sessions that can help you to identify certain postures/movements/habits that may be aggravating tightness or pain, and can teach you alternative ways of moving or resting in stillness.
I offer sessions that teach you how to free your breathing diaphragm, and use breath and visualization (including guided meditation) to reduce your levels of anxiety and stress.
In the following paragraphs, I describe a bit more about what you might expect from each of these types of sessions.
Are you experiencing tightness? Discomfort? Pain or restriction in certain areas, i.e. your shoulders, neck, or lower back? Are you experiencing higher than usual levels of worry or anxiety?
If you are, any one of the following types of sessions might be helpful for you.
MOVEMENT EDUCATION
When I am working with someone via Zoom for a Movement Education session, I do many of the same things that I do when we work together hands-on, in-person. I watch how they are sitting or standing, or doing certain movements/activities. Then we work together to help modify posture and use, and to guide them through certain movements designed to help " re-balance" their alignment and use. This can help relieve pain, tension, tightness, discomfort, and restrictions.
These sessions help you to become more aware of your Internal Landscape. Sessions can be similar to a personal training session, or an exercise class (keeping in mind that the exercises/movements I do are not usually what you would find in a “typical” exercise class or training session, but rather are taken from the worlds of dance, corrective movements, and bodywork), and work quite well via Zoom.
I can offer you a guided meditation geared just for you. I will talk you through an appropriate guided meditation that focuses on the body, with the goal of bringing you into a more conscious and comfortable relationship with your body, helping to reduce pain, stress, and anxiety.
I can also offer you the option of putting together a short self-massage or exercise sequence for you to do on your own at home.
Group classes are also an option via Zoom. If you know of anyone who would like to join you for a small group class, we can set that up. Like all of the work that I do, classes can focus on bringing more awareness and ease of movement to the participants, and on strengthening or stretching as appropriate.
THERAPEUTIC BODYWORK
Another option via Zoom is a Virtual Zero Balancing session. This starts with our meeting via Zoom. We do our "Intake" as we would in my physical office. Then you- in your own space but with us still connected via Zoom- lie down and I begin our Virtual Zero Balancing session. I will verbally describe to you what I am doing as I am doing it. This is not my favorite form of treatment, in part because different people have different levels of verbal description that they are comfortable with, but many people do find the verbal description brings a sense of awareness to the areas being worked upon, and helps them to release tension in those areas.
And, lastly, the other option is a Distance Healing session. This type of session is not via Zoom. I am still exploring a different name for this type of session, as some people find “Distance Healing” session off-putting. If you experience this type of session with me, and have a name you like better for it, let me know!
This is the basic format of a Distance Healing session:
I contact you by phone and we have the same type of conversation we would have if you had come into my physical office. This is our “Intake”. This conversation can range from a two minute basic conversation to a more lengthy conversation that explores some areas more in depth. We then get off of the phone. I ask people to go lie down for the next portion of our work, preferably doing nothing. I then give you a session as if we were in the room together.
(For more information about how/why this can occur, please see Lynne McTaggart’s book, The Field, and previous blog posts from May 5 and May 29)
When I am finished with that portion of our session, I call you back and we have a "checkout". I can describe to you what I did/found; you can tell me what, if anything, you noted.
As with hands-on, in-person work, different people have different responses, ranging from “Oh, wow” to “I did not notice anything”, and anywhere in between.
As always, please contact me if you have any questions.
** Although Gov. Baker has “re-opened” massage therapy in the state of Massachusetts, I will not be re-opening my physical office any time in the near future for indoor sessions. There are a number of reasons why I believe it is not wise for me to re-open, nor for clients to receive hands-on, in-person, sessions right now. Basically, high risk for transmission of the coronavirus occurs when people are: in close proximity, in an enclosed space, for more than 10/15 minutes. Hands-on, in-person, therapeutic bodywork is impossible to do at a distance. Please contact me if you would like more information.