Touch

I am still struck often and intensely by the power of touch.

Sometimes it is very difficult to remove my emotional response to people from my treatment. I see this as both a gift and sometimes a curse. This past Monday I treated a new client (referral from the yoga studio, cool!), and while she has a lot of health problems, her reason for coming to me was to help her with some chronic pain she's been having in her neck and shoulders. She has suffered from Fibromyalgia for years, and she now has this mysterious eczema on her hands. Sound like anyone you know? (mom).

I usually start each session with some light touch on the back - it helps to balance, and to get the client used to my touch. It's kind of an introduction. As I started the session with her, and I laid my hands on her back in two correlating shakra areas, I was absolutely overwhelmed with emotion. I felt an empathy for her pain, a connection, and a true desire - a need - to help. I sincerely had to fight back tears. It's hard sometimes to put my finger on why these things happen - maybe this was the earth and the cosmos's way of putting me in a place of healing. Perhaps it was her body/spirit telling me what I needed to do for her. Or perhaps I missed my mother, and it was the personal connection I needed to empathize with this woman's pain.

Whatever the reason, I know it is why I became a massage therapist, and I truly hope that I never lose that ability to connect with individuals. It opens my eyes to the beauty in each person, and puts me in such a wonderful place.

I am so grateful.