Friday, June 25, 2010

Testimonial from Alberta

Hello Brandon,

I just had to write you and thank you. Thank you in the biggest way possible, that perhaps words cannot express in the manner that I wish. Thank you for developing a massage that embodies all practices and in such an intuitive method. I have just met a local angel who gives massages as trained by you (and Terry).

To back up, I am a yoga instructor. I have been trained through the Yoga Association of Alberta, but moreover, trained by some amazing talented yogis who see yoga moving more into the emotional heart space of dissolving the tensions in the body through "breakthroughs", and pushing past the barriers and releasing blockages (emotional, physical, psychological) through yoga. I had been told about Clare for a while in yoga, having a few students say: You have to meet Clare and have her do bodywork on you.

I've been to a lot of bodywork workshops and had a lot of bodywork done on me in the past 14 years. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis after my daughter was born, and have been on a healing journey ever since. I've lost most flexion in my wrists and a tiny erosion in my right arm is blocking some movement in my elbow. Otherwise, a good remission for the past 6 or so years.

No one has reached the depth of release in my body than Clare with your Raynor Method. All bodyworkers are scared to go deep in my body because of the RA. And it is what I needed!!!! I have only had 2 - 3 hour treatments with Clare, and it is so amazing, so compatible and familiar (like yoga) and what I've discovered is too much to write here. I discover things about my old soul in this earthbound body frequently in meditation or on the mat, but Clare gets me there in succinct fashion as well.

Its amazing, thank you. And If I thought my hands were strong enough, I might take the training too!!! It is profound, and I've spent thousands on bodywork over the years, and you, your method is what the world needs. Unconfined, from the intuitive trained wise heart, amazing!

I hope I get the chance to hug you in person someday.
Journey forward, there is so much light support for you.
Be well, take gentle care.

Shanti.
Holly Lewis
Alberta

PS ALL bodyworkers should be required to take the Raynor Method.
Sending you wisdom and strength.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Registered Massage Therapists in Ontario and BC

The term registered massage therapist is a term used to describe people that have completed a course approved by the "College of Massage Therapists" in Ontario or British Columbia. These courses tend to be between 2200 hours and 3000 hours long and cost approximately $20,000 to $30,000. The courses often emphasize only the so called "scientific" aspects of massage therapy and neglect the holistic and traditional aspects of massage therapy.

We have no problem with these courses in their particular approach to training massage therapists. We believe massage therapy is a healing art and like any art form there are many different ways to practice that art form. Of course, we personally think it's smarter to also study cultures and their massage styles, where massage has had thousands of years of history but we totally believe that these registered massage therapists in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia should be able to practice massage therapy in the way that they think is best.

However, some of these registered massage therapists and their political bodies believe that only their form of the healing art of massage therapy should be able to be called massage therapy. This is what they have done in Ontario and British Columbia. They have enforced a ban on practitioners of all other styles of massage therapy such as Hawaiian massage (lomi lomi), Thai massage, Shiatsu, Tui Na, Ayurvedic massage, Balinese massage, Indian Head massage, Raynor massage, and many other massage therapists from using the term massage therapist or describing what they do as massage therapy.

They have used the oldest saying in the book that what they are doing is to protect the public from harm. Interesting, because no one in traditional Hawaii or China or Japan or Thailand or India or in fact, in almost any other country where massage has a long and established history, has felt that they need to regulate and exert centralized control over this ancient art form that is such an important aspect of primary health care. People have been practising Thai, Hawaiian and other native massage styles for thousands of years, not with harm, but with great benefit to the culture and health of these societies.

We can see that in many situations in life especially in politics, people like to take away our freedom to choose by saying that it is for our own protection. In most situations like this the people taking away the freedom have a vested economic interest in taking away that freedom, such as we can see here with the interests of the big established massage schools generating huge amounts of money by making the courses extremely long, and we also see the graduates of these schools wanting to keep a monopoly on their profession and keep other practitioners out rather than allow the free market to dominate, fearful this may show that some people just prefer a different type of healing art.

Here in this situation the Registered Massage Therapy political lobby and the College of Massage Therapists in Ontario and BC are promoting only one culture's perspective on massage and claiming that that is the only legitimate form of massage therapy. The training that they recognise is basically a Western medical practitioners approach to massage therapy. There is a heavy emphasis on seeing the human being as just muscles, bones and blood etc rather than seeing the human being from a holistic perspective, or Eastern medical perspective, as an integrated mind, body spirit being.

There is no significant history of massage in Western medicine, other than Swedish or classical massage which goes back about 200 years, and this was originally practiced outside of conventional medicine as something similar to gymnastics or physiotherapy. This is very different to the history of massage in countries and cultures like China, Japan, India and Hawaii where massage has thousands of years of history and practitioners in these cultures have treated billions of people safely for thousands of years.

However, in these cultures the philosophy behind their massage therapy has been one of moving the chi, prana or life force in the body and by so doing this one will also relieve the physical tension in the muscles. To understand these forms of massage one must also understand the paradigm of thought behind them and these go beyond the understanding that Western medicine has of the human body.

Western medicine does not readily accept the existence of chi or life force in general, although, there are many exceptions as some more enlightened doctors have sought to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western medicine.

The fact that Western medicine does not accept the existence of the chi, prana, spirit or soul etc is fine as long as they do not try to stop people who do accept these from practicing their healing art. Western medicine is based on science and everybody that practices science in a serious manner knows that science has limitations about what aspects of life it can know and not know. The areas that science generally can't understand are termed metaphysics. See this article in Wikipedia for more about what metaphysics means.

There are many things that science cannot and does not understand. Many of these relate to matters such as the nature of life itself. What is the difference between a living person and a dead person? The body is the same but there is a profound difference that science doesn't really explain adequately other than to describe the symptoms of the departure of the life force. It does not understand the nature of the life force itself.

In relation to massage and its regulation or "registration", is that why should one particular people with a philosophy that believes their form of medicine is better than all other cultures forms of medicine, because it is based on science, even though science has no understanding of life itself,(and healing arts are actually totally concerned with the life force in most cases) force other people to think within scientific limitations. Why should this one group of people force their limited and narrow philosophy of healing on to every other person in such multicultural provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia, of a great and tolerant country like Canada.

The term "massage therapy" and "massage therapist" should not be allowed to be owned by one select group of people with a limited philosophy. These terms like painter, sculptor, healer, shaman, natural health practitioner, etc etc are terms that have been around for millennium and mean different things to different people in different cultures.

Why should a consumer not be able to choose their own version of massage therapy. Is a person aged 60 who has been trained for 100 generations in Ayurvedic massage in India, and had 50 years of experience in the healing arts, any less of a massage therapist that a 22 year old graduate of an Ontario massage college, who has almost no life experience or maturity. This is ridiculous.

Every culture has emphasized different things in training their massage therapists. In Korea and Japan many blind people became massage therapists because they had an excellent sense of touch. Having an "excellent sense of touch" is hardly even considered important in considering who will be able to use the term massage therapist in Ontario, BC or Newfoundland. Yet having an excellent sense of touch would be considered by most people to be one of the most important aspects of being a good massage therapist.

In Hawaii, being a good massage therapist may mean being a very good kahuna, or healer, with a great sense of aloha, or open heartedness, and respect for and connection with the spirit world of the elders. Being able to harness the metaphysical energies of the spirit world may be a particular gift for some people and not for others and would not be something that a Board of Massage Therapists would be qualified to recognize, only the people receiving the massage from the therapist or healer.

It is interesting to look at the history of the regulation of massage and to see that one of the first places to regulate massage in the world was Hawaii. The purpose for this regulation was to stamp out traditional Hawaiian healing methods.
The test to be a massage therapist was a very intellectual one of naming latin names for muscles etc.

Many of the best kahunas at the time could not even read or write as it wasn't part of their culture and so could not pass the test even though massage had been in their families for hundred of generations and they were considered the best healers and massage therapists in the islands. Again the reasons to suppress the Hawaiians healing methods were one particular group of people's belief, in this case white missionaries, that Hawaiian healing methods were heathen. See this wikipedia article for more information

Another example of one culture stopping another cultures healing methods was when the British invaded India and outlawed all Ayurvedic hospitals. Ayurveda has a 5000 year history of medicine to share with the world but because it wasn't scientific or in accordance with European Christian philosophy, it was outlawed.

This is something that should be relegated to the past. In today's world we should show respect for all cultures' forms of medicine and allow freedom of choice in health care to prevail which means that let the consumer pick the health practitioner of their choice according to that persons' own tastes, culture, desires and needs and curiosities etc and, of course, the reputation of the practitioner.

There is no need to regulate the practice of massage therapy as the example of countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand show where the consumer has a huge amount of choice and it is the practitioner's reputation and the quality of their treatments that influence the consumers choice of a health practitioner not a group of bureaucrats with vested interests to protect.

You can now learn Raynor massage in our online massage course.