Through a bodywork that has touch as its main element, Gestalt psychology created a new form of exploration of the person that helps to expand self-awareness: the Californian Esalen Massage.
Having just returned from one of the residential training courses offered by the Spazio Massage School during the summer, I am ready to write about this massage, which, as most of the students commented, is not a massage in the common sense of the word, but rather a massage by another name.
The intention of this work is to bring the person’s attention to his inner self, on a path of awareness, to cleanse ourselves of the tensions and burdens that we have been accumulating, a space of emptiness to be able to find ourselves again with ourselves.
Only by reconnecting with the haven of peace that awaits our deepest being will we feel that well-being. True well-being comes from feeling our own presence, companionship, compassion, acceptance and love for who we really are.
Each trip is unique because each person is unique in their experience, so each session is adapted to the type of response and the need of that moment. For example, it is common that one of the first perceptions that we encounter is the stress that keeps the nervous system due to having kept it on permanent alert, but some of them will need stillness and support to relax while others need more movement or pressure to unload.
Thus the masseur creates and listens to what works, in a harmonious combination of relieving tensions in the musculature, lightly mobilizing the joints and gently stretching the tissues on a base of long integrative movements, we explore the limits creating new spaces and accompanying in the observation of what happens in them.
Basically what is done is to put the person’s energy into circulation. Through deep breathing, the natural movement of energy is awakened, which will help to unblock the contracted areas where stress, for example, or other physical or emotional ailments are accumulated.
As we receive sessions we will be able to go deeper on this path, a relaxed nervous system and an increasingly open body will allow us to release the most ingrained tensions, which are part of the structure that we hold, mental patterns with which we respond unconsciously (control, containment, fear …) and we will dive into the consciousness of existence.
María Lucas Esalen Californian Massage Therapist and Spazio Massage School collaborator.
