Aragorn said:
Spiral Out said:
Here's a "trailer" of my bodywork. I'm working on blueberry. Filmed by the talented HumbertoLVX. 9min from a 90min session in my new healing room at our home in Topanga.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHXMAxG1FyE
Sorry, I'm just being curious here, but why is the client completely naked? I've been a client myself, as well as participating in some body work courses, and I've never experienced that the underwear would be removed completely. Maybe it's just a cultural thing?
Hi Aragorn. Not sure about the "cultural thing", but this is how most massages are done, naked and draped in sheets, at least in my experience. About 95% of my clients remove all their clothes (male and female) before they go on the table and under the sheet. It's the normal thing to do in order to get the most out of the massage, especially when working on the hip and gluteal muscles. This is also what is taught at state approved massage schools where I was trained and certified.
When I see a client who is new to massage and he/she asks me how much to undress, I tell him/her that it up to them and how comfortable they feel about undressing. Some then take all cloths off, some leave their underwear on, but all women take off their bras. I never tell anyone to take all clothes off. It's up to them, but most of them do it anyway. If someone leaves their underwear on I still do hip/gluteal work, but it is restricted and I work more with pressure points and can't go very deep. Also the flow is missing a bit, but I can and do work around it.
I'm also very careful with the sheet draping and no private parts or breasts are being exposed at any time during the massage. Draping is an art in itself, especially with all the modalities I incorporate, but I've become quite skilful about that over years.
It's also about the therapeutic touch so the client feels safe. Most of my clientele is female and in the 10 years I have practiced massage, I've never had a client complaining about the draping or feeling unsafe. The contrary, all my clients feel very safe with me and appreciate the work I do.
I actually have some long-time regular female clients who ask me to work on their chest (rip cage and pectoralis muscles) without any draping in order to do more efficient work. This kind of work I've been taught at the massage schools I went to as well. We were shown how to do it with a drape and without one over the chest. There has never been an awkward moment or "sexual" thing coming up. It's all about anatomy and structure, and that's what I'm focused on.
I went through the 10 Rolfing series twice and I was always naked when the rolfer worked on me. His clientele is also mixed, some prefer to leave clothes on, others do it naked and with drapes. It's really a personal preference and no one is being judged or treated differently either way.
I also work part-time a retreat center. People from all over the world come to this place to get in shape and I provide bodywork. Same there, about 95% or more of the guests take all their clothes of when getting a massage and there is no question or awkwardness about it. Actually I can't remember the last time someone left their underwear on and I work on a lot of bodies. I really don't know about the "cultural thing" because these people come from Europe, Asia, South America, Canada, Australia, Russia, Scandinavia, and all over the US, etc......ranging from 21 to 80 years old (most of them are 35-65).
As we know, our society is deeply conditioned, and that includes the way we feel about our bodies and the shame that comes with it of being seen "naked". It's not about becoming hedonistic and running around naked, but accepting our natural body as it is without shame in a healthy and respectful manner. Massage and bodywork can help to heal our distorted body image and make us feel good in our bodies, accepting this "space suite" as the temple of our soul, so to speak. I've seen many clients over the years who have had breakthroughs in that regard and healed themselves from various diseases (physical, emotional, psychological) by connecting with their body through nurturing therapeutic touch during a full body massage. Our body image is very fragmented and not holistic or whole. We have names for bodyparts (and some parts we like and others we don't based on all kinds of strange criteria that are different for each) and different muscles, but the truth is that nothing is isolated. That's the basic idea behind Rolfing and Esalen Massage (a massage style that uses long full body strokes, giving a sense of wholeness) for example. The body should be approached as a whole organism without dividing it into parts in order to activate the body's own intelligence so it can essentially heal itself. One big thing to keep in mind is that the skin is literally the surface of the brain. I wrote about it in an article on my website:
[...]One important fact to point out is that the skin is the largest organ of the body and it is literally the surface of the brain. Arising out of the same Germ Layer on pre-embryonic development (the Ectoderm), skin and brain migrate to opposite ends of our physical structure, one at the surface, the other buried by layers of connective tissue, bone and muscle. As if recognizing its own importance and vulnerability, the brain shields itself within the organism, while the skin and nervous tissues, all arising from the Ectoderm, extend the brains reach to our physical periphery.
The significance of the brain/skin relationship is one of the most important developmental, as well as physiological relationship to understand. Developmentally, the sensations which the skin mediates to the brain orient its growth in a very direct way. A lack of sensory stimulation in the first five months of life can impede central nervous development to the point of mental retardation and even death.
This was a lesson learned in orphanages in the early 1900's, when infant mortality rates (about 90%) prompted Johns Hopkins University to research the problem. What they discovered was that infants were starving from lack of touch, because staff had barely enough time to feed and cloth the infants in their charge. As staffing was increased with the intention of holding, cuddling and physically playing with these children, mortality rates reversed from 9 in 10, to 1 in 10.
Touch is in fact food. With regards to bodywork and massage, skin to skin contact, when slowly and sensitively applied, is as vital to our development as mothers milk. The limitless potential for stimulating natural healing process through bodywork can be better understood in that context.[...]
There is a book called "Touching - The Human Significance of the Skin" as well as "Job's Body - A Handbook for Bodywork" which go deeper into this topic. I posted some excerpts from them earlier in this thread. I recommend reading these books if you want to learn more about that.
