Should a Massage be Deep, or Light?

Searching for the best massage could easily take you a lifetime. It could also get you nowhere - or worse, set you back. So how can you "cut the corner" and get the best massage, for you, and for your clients?

Simple: get the best massage for you. Learn how to deliver the best massage for your clients.

Rather like a piece of music that is played at a uniform volume throughout, if touch is applied at a consistent depth it simply becomes “white noise”. In other words, the client’s attention wanders away from the experience of touch and is likely to drift back to the ever present rumination of their conscious mind. This is simply to return them to their ever present state of disconnect.

The purpose of all meaningful and powerful healing touch is to connect. Breath. Touch. Body. Soul. Taking the client’s attention away from the disembodying realm of conscious thinking and seducing him into the untapped depths of the unconscious and ever dreaming body is surely one of the greatest gifts of effective bodywork.

Hence the ever present demand in a NO HANDS® Massage session for both client and therapist to focus on the breath and the touch and avoid ANY distracting conversation. This is in itself a powerful contrast to many other therapies (and therapists). However our approach has yet another “ace up the sleeve” to make our sessions deep, powerful and transformative…

This is achieved through the simple mechanism of “contrast of depth”. By having the expertise and confidence to travel through the many layers of touch, from the very lightest whisper to a full blown ‘flattening’, the informed practitioner can literally enthral and eventually entrance the client into a  different world, a non verbal place where the powerful decompression of body, mind and spirit becomes possible.

This is all made possible through the fact that we are referencing our touch through the relativity of what has just preceded it. In other words deep is only really felt as deep, if it has a reference point of lighter touch preceding it. In the same way light is only felt as light if it is preceded by a deeper level of touch. It is this relationship of each bodywork movement to that which preceded it in the exquisite dance of healing touch that gives our work true potency.

To have the skill and bodywork repertoire to be able to spend time exploring the higher frequencies and ‘overtones’ available through the very lightest of touch as well as to explore the ‘basso profundo’ notes of  the deep ‘full bodyweight’ compressions unique to NO HANDS® Massage, is to thrill and expand the client’s perceptions of both herself and her connection with others. This is healing at the deepest core of the human psyche; a healing of our relationship to both self and other.

It is not the depth or the lightness that really matters here. It is the fact of their contrast and the professional delivery of a skilful transition from the one to the other. Nor is it just a question of pressure variation but above all an issue of exquisite timing. Knowing when to change and contrast the amount of pressure and how much time to spend on such a transition lies at the very heart of transformational touch.

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

It is of course, a question of HARA.

Want 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 NO HANDS Massage CORE Training is the place for you.