by Terrie Yardley-Nohr, LMT

    Massage therapists are faced with clients every day that have been injured in some way and are seeking help from pain and dysfunction.  A therapist is faced with figuring out what is wrong and what to do about it.  One of the biggest challenges for new therapists in the field is how to address the client’s needs and provide relief.   This boils down to two specific skills: assessment and appropriate therapeutic response.  Obviously, skills are developed over time and through experience.  Additional training, however, can radically accelerate the development of a skill set.

     Over the past year, Lama Lobsang Palden has delivered a series of workshops that teach participants elements of various Tibetan breath yogas.  Included in his workshop series has been an introduction to "Tummo", the yoga of generating internal heat made famous by the Mahasiddha Naropa in the 10th Century.  Tsa Lung is the name for a variety of practices that teach practitioners how to develop vital energy (lung), or prana, in the energy channels (tsa) of the body.  

     The Healing Arts Center is launching a new series of workshops designed to provide advanced level training in a format that supports the working therapist.  The idea behind Pro Tracks is to broaden the therapeutic reach of massage therapists to expand client wellness services so as to reach a larger client base or improve employability at a higher wage rate. 
    The Healing Arts Center takes the view that massage therapists are underused in the arena of wellness and promoting health in our culture.  HAC does not teach pamper massage, but rather focuses its knowledge, experience and skill toward developing the massage therapist as a "first responder" in the quest for health and wellness.  For this reason our primary massage therapy training program is directed on pure healing modalities that alleviate stress and anxiety, treats acute and chronic pain at its source and provides the myriad of other benefits that therapeutic massage is known to provide.  In fact, "therapy" is the whole point of this healing art.

     For those interested in good health, fitness, meditation, or nutrition, they find that when they add breathwork to their practice, it transforms the results they are already getting in other areas. 
      Anyone can register for Releasing 2017 – Creating 2018, an introduction to transformational breathwork workshop, happening December 31st.  This is an opportunity for participants to discover breathwork and bid farewell to this year as they create their intention for life in 2018.

In ancient times lomi would go on for hours or even days.  Then the Kahuna, a healer, and the recipient would go to the ocean to be restored by the gods.  They would drink herbal remedies, be pounded, pinched, rolled, and sleep on the beach wrapped in kapa cloth(a traditional cloth made from pounded bark).  The recipient would then be covered in sand and warm stones and watched over all night by their family. In the morning, there would be more ocean therapy and lomi.  The process would continue for three to five days.  Upon completion of the ritual, the kahuna would consult with the Spirit of the body.  If all was in balance, Spirit would speak to one of the Kahunas and the lomi was "pau” (finished).  Huge celebrations would ensue, and all the village would come to witness the re-united body and soul.  A luau would mark the recipients complete body and spirit reunification.  The reunion of body and Spirit would affect the entire village.  One person’s healing was a healing for the entire tribe!