I don’t know if you’ve ever got a massage or a bodywork session of some kind. 

If you have, you have your own experience if you enjoyed it and if you had a personal learning from the session.

If yes, when was the last time? Can you recall this experience? Was it meaningful for you? How did it shape and inform you? Has it had an impact afterwards?

If you haven’t had a bodywork session, the following might give you an idea of what you can gain from it. 

When giving a bodywork session, my goal is always to offer guidance and support through touch for a person to connect with her innate body wisdom and physical abilities in an empowering way.

You could say that the likelihood that you’ll have a learning and empowering experience this is higher if you go to a professional where this is part of the intention. You might, however, also experience this with a regular massage, because the therapist treating you, is very aware and has a natural talent for this.

Either way, maybe you know what I’m talking about.

Today, I’d like to give you a glance at what it is like for me in a session with a client and what my intention is in bodywork.

Everything starts with attention and perception

I perceive my client from the very beginning when she walks into the room.

When she talks about the situation she’d like to change or what she notices where she gets stuck.

With my trained eye I can see where in the body I notice extra tension, stiffness, a lack of energy or weakness etc.

I also tune into the atmosphere the conversation brings. I pay attention to her overall posture and how this could be connected to the mood or emotion emerging while speaking.

This offers a lot of information that can be subjects of further exploration. Sometimes, addressing it is enough to move out of a reactive state. Or I teach some embodied practices (=exercises with the intention of increasing body awareness).

Within a few minutes I gain a lot of information from my client’s whole being.

And then there’s the part of the bodywork. It is very powerful as it allows a person to go beyond your usual limitations because you have another person going through it with you, all the way.

The INTENTION of the touch matters

Bodywork sessions are powerful because you have the practitioners full attention and intention to support you in what you experience in the moment as well as the guidance towards the next step.

When the client lies down on the massage bed, I already have a lot of embodied information about her.

Yet, I don’t touch with the idea that I know what the person needs.

I might have noticed a very narrow shoulder girdle or a held diaphragm, but I don’t approach the body with an attitude of ‘I know what’s best for you.’

Touching with curiosity

Instead, I touch with curiosity, with a spirit of inquiry.

It is my attempt at better understanding the person and the body and looking for ways and types of touch that support i.e. the letting go of tensions,  emergence of accumulated and stuck emotion.

I am learning how my client is using her body in the given situation.

This adds deeper levels to the experience. And additional physical references to recognize in everyday life if she is in a reactive or responsive state. More body awareness brings more choice. 

You could say my hands are touching with the question:

‘What do you need?’

That by itself can already be enough for something to shift in my client’s body.

I assume that most of us have a tendency to neglect our own wellbeing as our attention is drawn to stress factors outside of us or other people. 

Receiving the message through touch that being is enough and that there is space for whatever wants to emerge to emerge, is liberating for the body. And as a result also calming for the mind. 

The knowledge rests in you

I couple of days ago a client spoke to me of ‘my knowing hands’ and how good the sessions are for her.

Of course, I was very happy to hear that, but it also made me smile because I know that the ‘knowledge’ is in my client’s own body.

I’m just the listener. And by listening deeply, with my hands and my whole being, my hands are like amplifiers that allow my client to experience herself in a process of self-discovery and transformation.

My client has an opportunity to experience herself in a different, new and more complete way. She’s gaining back parts of herself.

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Do you want to get a first-hand experience of what a body-based coaching and bodywork session can to do for you? How it can empower you to trust yourself, your perception and physical abilities (like sensing, letting go of tensions, having clarity)?

Download this voucher to get your first session for only €65.

This offer valid in May and June.

 If you’d like to book a session, get in touch with me by email at hello@bodies-at-work.com.