What the aim of the blog is

I describe myself as a Complementary Health Therapist as that is the best description that I have that covers what I do.  The Sport & Remedial massage that I do is a more physical effecting treatment than the reiki, which is more subtle and generally affects the mind (though I have found that working on myself it helps with physical issues, just these are measured subjectively and not objectively so not scientifically proven)

So I don’t feel that I can merely describe myself as a bodyworker, which is what a lot of massage therapists call themselves as they know that they affect the whole body with their approaches.  There is also a desire to distance themselves from the seedier connotations of the words masseur and masseuse, which is a real shame.

Similarly I do not feel that calling myself an energy worker is right, although this is a good description of the work that I do with reiki and during the Emotional Realignment Therapy sessions I do.

At times I feel like I am straddling a fence of what I offer and do, as sometimes I am working on a purely physial level and others purely on an energetic level.  However, I increasingly find that the lines are being blurred as I am becoming more intuitive about where I am massaging having felt a need to work a particular area (and a lot of clients are surprised on how precise I can be in finding the slightly sensitive areas that they have vaguely talked about). Similarly I can feel the areas that are being worked on and the anatomical structures affected by the reiki, though I will say that I try to stop my mind getting too involved in the reiki treatments as it can interrupt what is going on.

I really see that what I do can assist/support with Western Allopathic treatments for various conditions.  One of my favourites being helping people with chronic pain in the sinus areas, who have been constantly taking medication to ease the pain they’ve been experiencing especially when they realise that since the first instance the pain may well have been held in the muscles of the sides of the head and these can quite rapidly be eased.

In fact what I think I really do is to help educate people about themselves, bring the aches and pains to their notice, and I really hope that what I do is to then help show them a way through the situation they find themselves in and ultimately in a better place.  Some people don’t realise that this is what I’m trying to do, and others don’t want to go down that path, but I might well just keep showing them the door and hope that they will decide to walk through to see what can be found on the other side.

First Blog

I have been toying with the idea of writing a blog for a while now as I have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head that I think could be worth sharing.  These are prompted by articles and books that I read as part of my continuing professional development, the similarities (and differences) of problems that I come across at the various clinics I work at and ideas that spring from conversations with clients.  

Just to be clear, I will not be revealing anything about my clients in this blog and if anyone feels I am revealing anything about them then please email me directly and let me know and I will remedy it.  However, the conversations that I have with people can trigger ideas in my head whether it be the questions that they ask about their specific treatments (what caused the pain? or what is that muscle you are working on?), or questions about the techniques that I am using and my approach to different issues.  

The continual conversations I have with my clients is part of why I love my job.  I hope to educate people about their bodies, what might be going slightly adrift (I work with theories of what is going on, and not diagnosing conditions which I leave to those that are qualified to diagnose) and reawaken an interest in themselves.  Quite frequently I am also reminded that I should be doing more to help myself, I try not to be a hypocrite, but I’m only human.

Similarly the books that I read (and as I commute by public transport I have a lot of time for reading) stimulate me in a number of ways that is great. It is something I find fascinating about the human body is that we can do so much to it over the years and it continues to function (maybe in a slowly decreasing ability) and allow us to do what we need to do (maybe not what we actually want to do) and it heals itself.  Then someone like me can, hopefully, come along and work with someone to make the body function in a better way.

This blog will then contain a number of ideas, thoughts and so on that reflect me and the way that I approach things.  It will be a mix of thoughts about Sport & Remedial Massage and Body work techniques (muscles, techniques, training information etc), Reiki (meditations, esoteric approaches, self development (my own as well as for others)etc ) and self help (exercises, postural information, information from talks that I do) If there are any subjects that you would like me to cover, then please get in touch and I will see what I can do (and I won’t promise that I will cover everything).

I will do my best to provide supporting information about claims of effectiveness, but this is not always possible.  I am also not a scientist and it has been a while since I studied statistics, so I will endeavour to not mislead people.  However this blog is partially about me having head space to discuss thoughts and ideas, and I hope that this is clear in what I write.  

My view on what I do is that it is *complementary* medicine, in that it should be seen as working alongside allopathic (“normal”, “western”) medicine and not as a replacement or alternative to. If something is worrying you about your body then please, go and see your GP or a qualified medical practitioner who can diagnose your condition.  If I can then support you in your recovery I would be delighted to help, as long as it is ok with your primary medical treatment.