Esalen Massage

Esalen massage practitioners contribute greatly to the renaissance in the art of touch. Within this delicate means of interfacing between humans, we offer our clients what we have refined in concentrated hands-on work over the past thirty-five years. Our styles have many levels of conceptual understanding interwoven with tactile sensitivity, elegant awareness and heartfelt communication. At times we spontaneously touch levels of the emotional body and even spirit.

Massage is touching with purpose. This may involve relieving muscle pain, increasing body awareness, or bringing equilibrium to a life in crisis. Tangible outcomes are experienced in the stimulation of skin, lymph and blood, relaxation of muscles and nervous system, release of metabolic waste, stretching of connective tissues and a tranquilizing effect through the parasympathetic nervous system. It is a healthy way of handling stress.

We have melded long, lengthening strokes with gentle rocking and stretching, passive joint movement, sculpting of deep musculature, delicate cranial balancing, subtle neural re-education and the precision of Chinese point work into our somatic offerings; thus each massage is unique in itself.

To allow being touched in a meditative way is a way to become firmly in touch with yourself.

August 2004

Since K.Mello, a long time Esalen® practitioner has given such a perfect description of the Esalen® Massage i am grateful that with her kind permission and the approval of the Editors of Friends of Esalen® Newsletter (published Fall 2001, Volume 13, Number 2) i may use her words to explain my work as well.

Esalen® Massage The touch That Lingers
by K Mello

For many of us, one of the highlights of our Esalen® experience is receiving an „Esalen® massage“. To watch the Esalen® massage-practitioners at work is to see living art. The respect with which they approach both this sacred craft and their clients is evident. The magnificent setting of Esalen® with the hot baths perched on the cliff above the ocean and the rhythmic sound of the surf creates a very special ambiance that enhances this process. For those of us who have experienced this soothing and healing touch, just the very mention of Esalen® massage may return us to the experience and bring a deep, pleasing body memory, which can slow the breath and relax the body.

Esalen® massage began to ripen in the early 1960's and has its origins in Swedish massage combined with the !influence of early Esalen® leaders and practitioners, such as Charlotte SeIver and her student, Bernie Gunther, Fritz Perls, and Ida Rolf, among many others. Mollie Day Schakman's „Massage and Meditation“ workshop in September 1968 was the first to offer "Esalen®-style massage" to the public. However, the three dozen or so massage practitioners currently at Esalen® have studied and incorporate into their work an amazing variety of influences, including Polarity, Traeger, Reflexology, Accupressure, and Shiatsu. Each massage practitioner puts their personal imprint into their work to create their own individual style.

It is not so much common techniques or styles that delineates Esalen® massage practitioners, but more a common philosophical approach. The most important aspect of this approach is the presence of the practitioner and the complete focus on the session. Esalen® practitioners learn to clear themselves beforehand, so that when they touch another person, they're bringing a quality of touch that is present and respectful. Esalen® practitioners develop the ability to tune into the client, be sensitive, and pick up cues that come through the body.

If there are common aspects of style or technique among the practitioners of Esalen® massage, one is the quality of touch created by the grounded presence of the practitioner. This tactile sensitivity involves contacting or entering the physical and energy fields of another person with curious compassion and respect in a nonintrusive and nurturing way. Students of Esalen® massage are taught that it is important to move through that energy field gently and with awareness before making physical contact. The first touch is held for a moment. The client begins to relax and trust in the practitioner's hands. At this crucial moment, clients will often take a deep breath and begin to relax as their internal voices say, „I . feel trusting and comfortable." Thus an intuitive connection between the massage therapist and the client is established. Another similarity among the Esalen® massage practitioners is to include pauses throughout the session as well as the incorporation of slow, flowing integrative strokes, which serve to remind the body that its parts are connected — to remind the body of its wholeness.

Intention is kept in the foreground of the practitioner's mind. This is not an intention that is trying to fix anything per say; rather, the practitioner's intention is to allow a client's innate capacity for self-healing and balance. It is a mutual journey wherein clients are encouraged to empower themselves rather than to "be fixed." The open-air quality of Esalen® massage and the interpersonal contact banish the authoritative stance of the more traditional health practitioner, allowing the client an active role in

For more information on the 28- day Massage Certification Program or other massage workshops please refer to the session. A practitioner may encourage breath, use colorful images to suggest a relaxed state, and bring the client’s attention to holding patterns, rather than simply relying on deep muscle work. Again and again within the session comes the reminder that the whole body — the whole person — is involved.

Some 33 years after the first massage workshop, „Esalen® massage“ is still being taught. From such humble beginnings on the cliffs of Big Sur, Esalen® massage is now world renown and is being practiced in such far off places as Chile, Bali, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Japan, and in small and large towns across the USA, Canada, Mexico — not to forget Switzerland.