Category: Tapestry Life Resource

Massage & Bodywork, Tapestry Life Resource

Massage and Managing Diabetes

Suzanne Hollifield-Eller
foot massage
Foot care is especially important for the diabetic. Have your therapist look for cracks and ulcerations and be aware of too deep pressure you might not feel. Image by HealingDream at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Click link at end of article to see HealingDream's portfolio.

One of my personal goals is to learn something new about massage and bodywork each day. Sometimes that is a new technique, and sometimes it is new information about a pathology or condition presented by one of my clients.

One of my regular, weekly clients has mild Type II diabetes.  She also suffers from being overweight and from arthritis, and although very active in her life, her range of motion is impaired by her ailments. Massage and regular chiropractic appointments make her feel better and help improve her ability to do the things she enjoys with greater ease of movement.

I’ve been trying to discover the reason for her toe cramps for a while now. Other massage therapists have suggested that these might be caused by mineral deficiencies (potassium, magnesium, and calcium primarily), dehydration or by the massage releasing a muscle and thus causing the antagonist areas go into spasm. My client has tried many of the suggested remedies, plus homeopathic quinine and switching to lite potassium chloride salt. She even put a cork under her pillow although that folk remedy didn’t work.

My client’s regular doctor suggested, however, that the cramps might be related to her diabetes. That led me to do more research, and I’ve learned a good bit in the last week about diabetes and massage.

First, I learned that if  the cramping is related to the diabetes, it may be coming from the drug she is using to control her sugar levels.  The cramping may also be a complication of Type II diabetes itself though it is not as well-known as neuropathy or even the skin hardening that may precede neuropathy. Ulcerated skin is one of the worst of these related complications, so while I advise using the mineral supplements with the doctor’s approval, I also want my client to be vigilant for any decrease in feeling in her feet and toes.

I also learned some general things about diabetes and massage. In general, massage is beneficial for people who have diabetes. Massage helps the client relax and release endorphins which in turn helps blood sugar levels balance to healthy levels. Similarly, massage improves circulation, which in turn improves cellular insulin uptake. Finally, regular massage improves the elasticity of the connective tissue and makes movement easier.

This last benefit got me thinking about how often the superficial tissue of my diabetic clients seems stretched unusually taut and how often even light pressure seems to cause an unusual pain response. So I began to do more digging. What I discovered is that increased blood sugars cause connective tissues to thicken and even harden. The is true of the superficial fascia and also of the deeper fascia that surrounds the muscles, muscle fibers and the organs themselves. The thickening also causes swelling because lymph flow is restricted and further inhibits the range of motion. The skin itself can become dry, calloused and cracked. No wonder my client hurts!

I always work slowly, releasing the superficial connective tissue before working individual muscles. This is the way I was taught and is also an intuitive response as I palpate the tissues. Working slowly and broadly with long strokes, myofascial stretching and energy techniques first relaxes and releases the dense connective tissue before I begin using more specific deep tissue pressure and trigger point therapy on individual muscles.

I remember this same client telling me that her previous massage therapist often made her hurt for several days before she felt better. I suspect the MT went into the trigger points too quickly and caused damage to the connective tissue by not warming and melting it first. Now that I know about the effect of diabetes on the cellular density of the tissue, I will be even more careful to warm the tissue and proceed slowly to the deeper layers.

Another thing I learned is both a benefit and a caution. Massage can cause the blood sugar levels to drop as much as 20-40 points. Overall, this is a good thing, but if the client’s blood sugar levels drop too much while on the table or just after the massage, it could cause hypoglycemia and be dangerous. That defeats all the potential benefits of the relaxing massage.

Symptoms of a dangerous drop in blood sugar levels include:

  • Excessive sweating or clammy skin
  • Faintness or headache
  • Inability to awaken
  • Certain “spaced-out” tendencies, such as slow speech or clumsiness
  • Irritability
  • Personality changes
  • Rapid heartbeat

That’s why I went out to the store and bought some fruit juice boxes to have on hand in case I have a client on the table whose sugar drops too much. However, if you are diabetic and receive massage, you should have a snack in your purse or car and always tell the therapist if you need to stop the massage and take care of your blood sugar needs.  I assure you, the therapist will be thankful. You also need to check your blood sugar levels for several hours after you leave the massage office because the effects of blood sugar lowering can continue for several hours.

Be sure to update your therapist about what medications you are taking, especially if you are taking insulin shots. The injection sites are particularly sensitive to massage, and although the tissue there may feel especially dense (causing the therapist to work there more), studies have shown that massage on injection sites can increase the rate at which the insulin enters the blood stream and further lower your blood sugar.

Finally, be sure you eat before the massage and that you are hydrated both before and after the massage. If you feel unusual, after the massage, don’t drive until you feel normal.

The beneficial effects of massage for diabetics seem to outweigh the contraindications. However, it is a must that you and your massage therapist communicate effectively. Share you needs and concerns, and realize that  honest feedback allows you and your massage therapist to learn from each other and develop a supportive rapport.

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Continuing Education, Massage & Bodywork, Tapestry Life Resource

Incorporating Lomi Lomi into Massage Sessions

Suzanne Hollifield-Eller

I just returned from the AMTA-NC conference in Cary, NC, and spent two days learning techniques of Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage from Brenda L. Griffith.

orchid at Daniel Stowe Botanical GardensIt was an amazing two days, not only because I got to network with other massage therapists, which is one of the benefits of belonging to AMTA, but because the techniques I learned easily incorporate themselves into my massage protocol. In fact, I’ve used some piece of what I learned in every massage that I’ve given over the last week.

Griffith, who is a former AMTA national president, studied with Aunty Margaret Machado in Hawaii in 1994 and 1995, and has taught classes in Lomi Lomi all over the United States. We spent most of the two days actually giving or receiving the work. The Lomi Lomi strokes are long and fluid and have been said to resemble a dance because the therapist moves her whole body to apply rather deep and yet soothing pressure through gravity and leverage.

Lomi Lomi is intuitive work. At the beginning of the session, the therapist sets her intention to help the client receive the greatest benefit and allow his/her body to balance and heal. Then using rhythmic, fluid motions with the forearms and the fleshy parts of the hands rather than relying on fingers and thumbs, the therapist uses long, full-body strokes to release blocked energy and tissues. Lomi Lomi feels wonderful to recieve, and as a therpist, I thouroughly enjoy giving the massage to others. It is almost as relaxing to give a Lomi Lomi massage as to receive one.

“Touch the body with a loving touch.
If your hands are gentle and loving,
Your patient will feel the sincerity of your heart.
His soul will reach out to yours,
And the Lord’s healing will flow through you both.”
~Aunty Margaret

Some of you will remember that a few years ago, I took a class in Huna from Angela Sherrill. Huna is the philosophy that underpins Lomi Lomi. Huna teaches that everything in the universe seeks harmony and love. Is it any surpise that one of the alternate names for Lomi Lomi is “loving hands massage”?  With long, continuous, flowing strokes over the client’s body, Lomi Lomi’s goal is to nurture the client and help him/her relax and simply be. What could be more loving?

Each of my clients who has experienced Lomi Lomi since I returned from Cary has loved it. Two of the regulars commented, “That’s new, isn’t it? I like it.”

For that reason alone, I appreciate the work. Moreover, I really like the emphasis on resonating with the client from the beginning to the end of the massage and relying on my intuitive sense of what the client needs to tell me what to do next. I also like the gentleness of the work and its profound ablility affect the tissues deeply without causing pain. Finally, I like that it follows the philosophy of Huna, which emphasizes love, tolerance, acceptance, respect, and compassion for all beings; Huna has an energy work component that I’ve been using for some time now.

This week I am planning to do my first full Lomi Lomi massage since the class rather than just incorporting pieces of it into the massages I am already giving. I’ll switch from cream to oil, and I’ll try to use most of the techniques I learned. I am looking forward to that. However, I am sure I’ll continue to use parts of Lomi Lomi, just as my teacher Brenda L. Griffith does, in nearly every massage I give.

Continuing Education, Tapestry Life Resource

Usui Reiki II Class Offered

Suzanne Hollifield-Eller
Reiki kanji and hands
Reiki is a powerful energy healing modality that anyone can learn.

Now that I’ve received my NCBTMB Approved Provider number (451254-10), I am pleased to announce that I will be teaching an Usui Reiki II class on August 7, 2010, at the Wepner Wellness Center, LLC, in Newton, from 9 AM – 6 PM for 8 CE hours for licensed massage and bodyworkers. However, you can take the class whether or not you are a LMBT if you have the Usui Reiki I prerequisite.

The cost is $150 if you register by July 23, and $200 thereafter. 

Reiki is the first modality I learned. In fact, I probably would never have considered massage school if it hadn’t been for Reiki. One of the students whom I know will be attending this Reiki II class just told me today that she is enrolling in massage school in the fall. Including myself, she is the third person I know who came to massage and bodywork by way of Reiki.

Reiki (pronounced ray-key) is an energy modality that was developed during the last century by Dr. Mikao Usui, a Japanese healer. (The history of Reiki is readily available online and is both interesting and controversial.) The word itself means “universal life energy”, and Reiki is administered by “laying-on hands”. It is a simple and powerful technique that can be learned by anyone. It is passed from teacher to student by attunement. 

The thing that continues to excite me about Reiki is that first of all, it works, and secondly, that experiments in quantum physics are proving this beyond doubt. I use Reiki nearly every day on myself, my clents, and even my dog and my plants. Furthermore, what Dr. Usui, other Eastern healers and their patients, and countless Reiki practitioners have proven by experience is now being proven in Western laboratories through double-blind studies.

One of the things that quantum physicists have proven is the existance of the Zero-Point Field, which is a substructure of energetic frequency (sometimes wave and sometimes particle) that underpins the universe. The Zero-Point Field also functions as a recording medium of everything, providing a means for everything to communicate with everything else. When you consider that on a subatomic level, cells and DNA also communicate through frequencies unrelated to the physical nervous system and that they also communicate directly with the Zero-Point Field, you have the basis for how Reiki works. 

Reiki makes use of the energy from the Zero-Point Field to balance the Human Energy Field. The attunements that Reiki healers receive (and that students will receive in my class) set intentions that, incredibly, are part of the record of the Zero-Point Field and serve to insure that Reiki does no harm to the healer or the client. It seems that the more people who hold and intention over time, the greater the probablility that the intention becomes “fixed” and affects the physical universe from its quantum origin.

Reiki kanji
The Reiki kanji: the top symbol is "rei" or "universal", and the bottom symbol is "ki" or "life force"."

If this seems to resonate with your own understanding of how things work and you’d like to take the class, please contact me through my website or my email link. 

The Usui Reiki II course outline includes:

  • Atunement to the Usui Reiki II symbols
  • Meanings and uses if the Usui Reiki II symbols
  • Self-healing teachniques
  • Working with clients and distance healing
  • Building a Reiki practice
  • Ethical considerations
  • Hands-on practice
  • Certificate of attendance
Massage & Bodywork, Tapestry Life Resource

Intention

Suzanne Hollifield-Eller
fractal
Image from TrixiePixGraphic.com Free Fractals

During our February couples massage special, I met a client who has since become a colleague and a friend.

During our first massage session, she was interested in my Theta Healing work, which I was happy to talk about since I had just finished the Advanced Theta Healing class in Greensboro. She said it nicely complemented her work with Matrix Energetics and suggested we do a phone session trade. I eagerly agreed as it gave me an opportunity to practice my skills and receive work myself. This marked the beginning of a ride I am finding immensely exciting.

My friend is correct that the Theta Healing work and the Matrix Energetics work have some similarities. In our first and second sessions, we have both cleared some limiting belief patterns she using Matrix Energetics with me and I using Theta Healing with her. We’ve also read the first books in the other’s disciplinemdash; I read Matrix Energetics by Richard Bartlett, and she read Theta Healing by Vianna Stibal so we both have an idea about what the other is referencing.

I have enjoyed Bartlett’s decidedly more scientific approach to the idea of healing in an instant. He uses ideas developed by quantum physicists to explain his work. He provides the “brain candy” I need to understand is happening when seeming miracles happen. My friend has enjoyed Stibal’s more spiritual style and finds structure in the explanation of the seven planes. We plan to continue our phone sessions.

The work has sparked me to read more about quantum physics and the inquiry into consciousness, the effect of the observer on the outcome, and the Zero-point field of random, conscious energy that may hold the key to destroy the notion that there is no God. At the very least, it confirms that we are all connected and that whatever we do affects everything else.

I began reading The Field, by Lynn McTaggart just after Bartlett’s first book. McTaggart is a journalist reporting on the scientific research into the mysterious field and its implications for us as healers and as humans living on this planet. If you like this sort of scientific confirmation of what the mystics has said since the dawn of time, I urge you to read it and then comment.

This is not the place for me to try to explain Zero-point theory though perhaps I will talk about it more in later blogs. For now, others can explain the theory more concisely and eloquently. What I want to say here is that what we think when we interact with another matters. If I, as a massage therapist, touch a client with the intention of helping him/her out of pain, that result is more likely to occur than if I give the massage thinking about the fee I will collect at the end of it. My intention influences outcome.

I am excited by the implications of this work and my research. This I have felt were true are being proven true in quantum physics. The science has far-ranging spiritual implications, and I am excited to learn more.

Massage & Bodywork, Tapestry Life Resource

Taking Care of Winter Feet

Suzanne Hollifield-Eller

 

eight toesCooler weather means losing the sandals and stuffing our feet back into socks, hosiery, and closed-toe shoes and boots. It is likely that your feet will protest, and by the end of the day, they may ache from their confinement.

Keeping your feet flexible can combat many of the aches as well as postural problems. I was surprised when my chiropractor, Dr. Matt Crouse of Crouse Chiropractic, told me that my tilted pelvis and neck problems were a result of my over-pronated, flat feet. It makes sense; the feet are your body’s foundation. If something is amiss with them, it can affect the alignment of your whole body.

The foot is an amazing structure. Each foot has 26 bones (together the feet account for a quarter of all the bones in your body), 33 joints, and over a hundred muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Both strong and delicate, this complex structure takes an incredible amount of stress with each step we take.

If your feet are bound up in shoes all day, and you don’t counter the stress with exercise, the bones and muscles can degenerate and lose tone. Likewise, the joints and tendons can freeze up rather than gliding freely as they should.

So how do we care for our feet in the fall and winter months?

Practice foot exercises and stretches.

  • A simple stretch is to sit in a chair or on the floor and thread your fingers through the toes. Press gently between each toe to relax and release the tension of the foot muscles. The gently pull on the end of the toe and wiggle it to stimulate chi. Finally, rub your fist down the foot from the ball to the heel to release the plantar fascia.
  • Pick up a pencil or other objects with your toes.
  • Raise your body up and down on your tiptoes.
  • Fill a plastic bottle with water and freeze it. Place the frozen bottle on the floor, and roll your foot over the bottle. (You can also do this with a ball—a golf ball is particularly good.)
  • Write the alphabet in the air with your toes.
  • Using a scarf, towel, or resistance band under the ball of the foot, pull the foot back in a dorsiflexed position and hold 10 seconds.

Alternate shoes each day.
Changing shoes each day allows the shoe to dry out and extends their life. Your shoes absorb about a quarter cup of perspiration each day. You can wear the same brand shoe, but I’ve found that if I change styles each day, my flat feet are happier.

Invest in a good pair of athletic shoes for exercise.
Buy the right shoe for your exercise. If you play tennis, buy tennis shoes, not running shoes and vice-versa. Buy the right shoe for your gait. Feet that over-pronate need a different shoe than feet that over-supinate. (See article in our newsletter Warp & Weft ) Replace athletic shoes when they wear-out; athletic shoes lose their support over time.

Wear moisture-absorbing socks.
Foot moisture can lead to blisters, fungus, and foul odor. Socks and foot powder can help. If blister are an ongoing problem, try putting a thin layer of petroleum jelly on your foot as a preventative.

Have your gait and foot-strike analyzed. Buy custom orthotics if necessary to correct.
Postural analysis, shoe-wear analysis, digital foot/gait scanners, and bone density evaluations can give you a great deal of information about your feet. See your chiropractor, podiatrist or doctor. Some shoe stores now have digital foot/gait scanners, and if it has been a while since you had your foot measured for size, you should have that done again as well.

Keep your feet clean.
Moisture and dirt can cause fungal infections and gritty abrasions. Don’t forget to dry between the toes.

With proper care, you can avoid both foot problems and their attendant structural effects like low back and shoulder/neck pain. Take care of your feet this winter.

Massage & Bodywork, Tapestry Life Resource

Touch for Health on the table

Suzanne Hollifield-Eller

I incorporated Touch for Health into a Swedish massage today. It is the second time I’ve done so for this client. It is so easy to balance muscles with Touch for Health, and for the second time the muscle testing affirmed what I was feeling and intuiting about which muscles needed specific work.

My client is from out west and tells me that many therapists, chiropractors and alternative/complementary health providers out there use muscle testing. Not so here in the South.

I am gratified that this client called me and asked about TFH. I offered to incorporate TFH into her massage sessions free so that I could practice working with anatomical order rather than meridian order and also could practice with a client on the table rather than standing. I’m am more convinced than ever to use TFH on my clients who have chronic pain issues. I don’t use it as often as I would like because some of the tests are difficult to perform on a draped client. Getting to practice helps me to discover the best ways to keep the client comfortable while I check to muscle.

I am fortuante to have so many regular clients who don’t mind letting me try new techniques or different ways of solving their issues. I invite comments from anyone else who uses muscle testing with their clients on the table.