About Clothed Massage

One of the characteristics of NO HANDS® Massage is our refusal to be seduced by the dark side of “clever massage techniques”. Because we regard human beings as much more than simply “physical machines that need fixing” we prefer the power of touch to trigger the innate power of self healing within each client over the ‘cleverness’ of the practitioner. Although this approach has repeatedly bruised the ego of many a Massage therapist, the simple fact remains that it most certainly is what works best for clients.

This means that instead of focusing on sometimes invasive and frankly, highly unpleasant and painful ‘techniques’, we focus on the quality of the touch itself. The medicine that NO HANDS Massage delivers is therefore the medicine of touch itself. This means we are not restricted to oil on skin, but can deliver touch that works equally well through oil, towels and clothing. Touch works powerfully (and differently) across all three mediums.

Clothed Massage is an excellent example of the unique NO HANDS Massage approach to powerful and transformational touch. Just one simple movement delivered with awareness and power for just a few minutes can create a “whole body release” normally associated with a full hour’s treatment. This awareness of the different dynamics to the depth of your touch is most easily experienced with clothed Massage. Although it translates to oiled Massage, doing this with enough skill to avoid damaging your back or the client’s body takes considerable training and practice. This oil, towel and clothed work is the bread and butter of NO HANDS Massage training - where I have shared what took me almost 15 years to discover through my clinical practice in just a few short trainings.

The simple truth of the matter is that the human body is literally festooned with sensory touch receptors that all respond differently according to thousands of pressure receptors found in the skin.

This means that our touch does so much more than simply release muscle tension and warm up fascial lining. Mindful touch of the kind that comprises 100% of NO HANDS Massage training is quite literally a massage of the brain. The only real ‘origin and insertion’ of all 633 muscles in the human body is the brain. This is demonstrated by the power of every client to easily  ‘hold on’ to their tension even when faced with the most technically proficient practitioner.

For the really experienced and successful bodyworker it is never a question of ‘which technique’ to use, but rather an issue of seduction. “How can I seduce and lull the mind of this client into the abandonment of their long held and much cherished patterns of tension?” This is achieved through the quality, pace and depth of the touch - a touch that must be calibrated to the unique situation of this particular client on this particular day.

This is what I call Righteous Touch - a touch that sends signals of safety, care and above all, of simple human recognition throughout all 50 trillion cells of the human body in a single shiver of delight.

At the end of the day, it is a question of feel, of instinct.

It is of course, a question of HARA.

What to get started on your NO HANDS journey? You can “dip your toe” with our one-day DYNAMICS OF DEPTH course or, if you’re ready to jump right in, our 3-day TRANSFORMING TOUCH course is the place to go. For more information click here.