Adventures in Online Massage
These sessions can help with situations like these:
- If you have ongoing, intermittent pain that showed up after an injury months or years ago. Something that seems like it should have healed by now, but is still sticking around.
- You’ve been under some stress and you’re noticing how it affects different parts of your body, like your shoulders and your low back. You just can’t seem to relax and you notice how parts of you that feel fine at other times hurt when you’re stressed.
- You’re just not getting out enough and moving around as much as you like to and you’re feeling the effects of that. Physically you’re getting achy and stiff and mentally you’re just getting a bit blah and lethargic.
- You’ve had various injuries over the years and you’ve been told so many things that you should and shouldn’t do that it’s gotten completely overwhelming and confusing. You want to be able to be physically active and exercise without it being so complicated, but you don’t want to do things that are going to cause more injury.
Join me for a Free Session.
Things we can cover in a session:
- The nature of the discomfort.
- What to do about repetitive motions and overuse.
- Whether injury is factor.
- External factors like work station ergonomics.
- Ways to cope with stress, if stress is an issue.
- How to connect with the motivation to change.
Over many years of being fascinated by and learning about what it means to live in a body in a world full of sensations I have learned many things that don’t require touch as a medium to be shared.
- Our sensations are a pathway for us to be fully alive and to explore our world.
- Our body is largely under voluntary control, we just have to find a path to re-inhabit it.
- Everything in our experience is us; beliefs, memories, material, movement. Since these aren’t separate they don’t change separately.
- People have their own answers inside them, it’s only a change in perspective that’s wanted.
I know we live in this model of health care where it’s all about fixing. Finding someone with the right answer and the right tools who can fix the problem we’re having.
Even in a relaxing, touch-based massage session there can be that “fixing” energy…we’re going to find the “bad spots” and fix them.
But that’s not how it works. We neither get fixed by someone else, or fix others. We only ever guide them and show them what’s there, like talking to a friend who’s really good at listening…so good that when we talk to them we end up finding our own solution. In contrast to talking to the other friend who always wants to give us advice and tell us what we should be doing…
If we think about massage as a way of having someone fix us by applying pressure, then online massage seems impossible. But if we think about massage as a way to be helped into having a new experience of and a new way of relating to our body, then it starts to seem real.
Here’s what people are saying:
At first I wasn’t sure what to expect from our online session, but afterwards I was pleasantly surprised to feel more ease and flexibility in my body. Roselie helped me to tune in to my body, to locate what needed attention, to understand what was contributing to my tension and stress, and to ask what I wanted to experience instead. She then led me through a series of simple and fun movements. Over the last few days, I’ve been having a lot of fun incorporating these movements into my daily routine, and I’m noticing much more ease in my body. Thank you, Roselie!
Abundant Good
I had imagined the session format as a "touch the part of the body I say to touch" and that pain relief would come from copying and learning the moves. But there were a surprising number of questions to answer about how things were for me and my body, questions that I had never thought to ask myself. It felt new (and good) to give my body attention in this way and also to be walking towards improvement through movement (rather than self-touch or manipulating parts of my body I had imagined when I thought of a session with a massage therapist). Another new experience was moving my body in a way that was investigative (rather than diagnostic or analytic). A sense of surprise here too: you mean I can improve my body functions without first diagnosing what's wrong? This was a particular delight because I aim to conduct my relationships this way but had somehow not imagined I could relate to my body like that too. I'm genuinely eager to try the recommended movement exercises, even though for me physical exercise generally registers as a chore and not something I'd volunteer for otherwise. I think it's because of how lovely it felt to be with my body in Roselie's way (through curiosity) and because I'm intrigued by the new ways of seeing things I discovered when Roselie was asking her questions. I feel curious and hopeful about what might become possible next.
Gentle Power
I didn't know what an online session would be like, but I found myself moving from my pent up work day state to a relaxed and therapeutic mind state with the introspection and gentle guided movements Roselie led on the spot in response to my experiences. I'm delighted and look forward to deepening my awareness of my body's sensations. This feels like an important part of a healthy life.
You might come to your session with a distinct idea of something you would like to have some help with, or you may show up just feeling curious and wondering if a little more ease might be possible from this novel format.
New to Video Conferencing?
I use a simple platform that you can access just by clicking the link. It’s not necessary to download an application beforehand.
Some things that will make your session more smooth:
- Be in a place without distractions and with a little bit of space around you. Space to spread out you arms and legs and turn in a circle should be plenty.
- Having some lighting in front of you, like a lamp or a window and no lighting right behind you. Sometimes it’s better if I can see you. At other times it might be more helpful for you to look at me.
- Have a chair handy.
- Depending on what we’re working with it might be helpful to be able to lay on the floor, but is not necessary.
Is there a catch?
I’m a bit dubious of free stuff myself, so I’ll be completely upfront.
It’s true that I’m hoping some people might find working with me truly helpful, and might continue working with me after this in no longer a free offer.
I’m also hoping that people will learn about me and what I do and share it with other people they know who might be interested. It would be helpful if there were a bigger pool of people in the world who knew about what I do.
Outside of that, I’m just giving this away because it feels easier and lighter right now, and I want to keep it easy and light and give myself permission to learn and experiment.
If you want to help me with that, that’s awesome.