The 8 Minds of NO HANDS

By Master Karen Lakeland

I still remember the first time I was taught the 8 Minds and I love the simplicity of them. I still have a copy in my treatment room so I can keep them at the front of my mind.

EMPTY YOUR MIND

Be like a baby and open to learning new information every time you start each stroke.

So often I am multi-tasking and trying to think of the next thing and the next thing.  Just reading this brings me back to the here and now. Think of my client and what learning I will get from giving THIS Massage, here today, now ...

LEARN AS A CLIENT

The essence of NO HANDS is the feel of it.  The more often you feel it, the more you know.

This is something I have given myself the space, time and money to do right since my first Practitioner course in 2006.  I really believe that I have learnt more on the table from feeling the Touch than I ever could have got by attending courses alone. I have done swaps in the past but as I got busier and busier with paying clients my time got more precious so I pay for regular treatments every month.

CHANGE ALL MOVEMENTS

Be willing to expand and open all your movements throughout the treatment.  This will change your Massage.

For me this brings to mind freedom of movement, thinking of going outside the boundaries of movement I had pre-set for myself – it’s taken many years of letting go.  This is where the dancing bear in book one of the Trilogy really comes into its own, the postural keys are all there and it really is a useful tool for my toolbox – should I choose to remember to use it!

HEAR YOUR OUT BREATH

It is counter – cultural to breathe out loud, but FLOW is essential in NO HANDS and without hearing the breath we cannot do this.

The breath is so important for flow in our work. Although we breathe all the time, hearing the out breath is not something that would normally happen – unless we had been exercising perhaps!

FOCUS ON P.O.C.

With all your weight on the client it is essential that you are 100% aware of your Point Of Contact all the time

Point of contact = soft. Whatever part of the body I am using, I need to be thinking and focussing on the idea of soft and going slow enough for it to BE soft.

WORK WITH WEIGHT

There are no ‘techniques’ to NO HANDS  - it is your weight that does the work.  The real magic is in the dance of weight and gravity.

Gravity is the key, even the lightest Practitioner can still go DEEP if they let go and fall in their weight.

GO SLOW

To do all of the above you must go slow enough to feel everything.

This was often my ‘Growing Edge’ when I did support sessions before I became a Master and it is STILL something I try to be aware of. Going slow makes SUCH a difference to the client in my experience.  When I am a client I can feel the stroke going forever and it’s heaven when my therapist works slow enough for me to feel what’s happening in my tissues.

MAKE CLIENTS WORDS YOUR ONLY REALITY

Listen to what your clients say and avoid putting any theory or interpretation of your own into the client’s mouth.  Listen to the words they use to describe their experience.

There would be no point in me asking the questions of how my client wants to feel and what they notice after their Massage as they walk if I wasn’t interested in what they said.  I do not KNOW what is going on for my client: only they know that. At the end of the day it is their experience of their Massage and how they feel that counts NOT what I might think is or isn’t going on.  The client is the expert of their own body and what happens within.

Download your copy of the 8 Minds to print