What is Medical Massage/Manual Therapy?

I am a graduate of The Blue Heron Academy of Arts & Sciences in Grand Rapids, MI; a state licensed, post secondary school. I have a Professional Manual Therapist Certificate (1200 hr.), a Master Herbalist Certificate (600 hr.), a Medical Acupuncture Certificate (600 hr.), and a Reiki Master Certificate (Reiki I, II, and Master level attunement). My Reiki Teacher was Danielle DeVoe of Frankfurt, MI. Blue Heron Academy is a post secondary, holistic medicine academy owned by Dr. Gregory Lawton, DC. The Academy is licensed by the state to legally certify me as a massage therapist. I sat for the AMMA Diplomat Exam in May 2002 and passed. This is the most difficult massage exam given in the country. Our training and testing standards for soft tissue work are the highest in the nation. In the past, I have worked in consultation with DC’s in their offices, billed insurance, and had my own private practice for 6 years. I am exclusively an independent practitioner now.

Medical Massage

Medical Massage is a soft tissue therapy protocol that combines deep tissue massage with manual joint mobilization. We use a dry hand with traditional and original techniques designed to reduce pain, spasm, and inflammation in a non-invasive, non-painful manner. It is not the same as physical therapy, but is not completely dissimilar. It is more. It is related to chiropractic but there is no adjusting and the whole focus of the treatment is soft tissue work, not skeletal. It is related to relaxation/therapeutic massage in that we treat the soft tissue, but we do not use oil and we do not do full body massage. Our focus is always clinical/medical at the injury site and sub-clinical conditions that precede it. Medical Massage has two main treatment goals; the reduction of inflammation and the re-establishment of normal range of motion in joint and connective tissue. With our techniques, we are able to penetrate tissue to the periosteum; the origin of many pathologies. We accomplish all of this with the use of our hands, nothing more. We are trained at length in anatomy, especially the muscles, but specifically in ligament pathology, location of ligaments and nerves, and how to tactilely evaluate the soft tissue and treat it accordingly. I have been in practice for 6 years and have seen this work on hundreds of patients where physical therapy, therapeutic massage, surgery, or drugs, have failed. This is not always the case, but many times it is. Reason being, the way I work is so different than others. Medical Massage includes therapeutic modalities such as heat (infrared lamp) and cold, range of motion assessment, postural folding with deep manual therapy, Chinese herbal liniment post-treatment, some therapeutic exercise programs (although if a patient is seeing a PT covered by insurance, they cover this), and stretching.

Patient Management

Patients are seen for therapy with acute, sub-acute, chronic, and chronic-active conditions. They are treated for their specific presenting symptoms and may need to initially be seen 3 times a week, for 2 weeks for nerve re-education. I then re-assess and possibly cut back to 2 times a week. Eventually, treatments stop when the patient is fine. They can then call me as needed. Specific clinical treatment goals are established for each patient based on how old the injury is or what the condition is. The goal is usually a decrease in pain and increase in normal function for longer periods of time. Sometimes, it is to wean off a med with side effects and commence with herbs/food to treat, which I can do with their Dr. if requested. I have a pre-pay plan that offers discounts as an initial incentive to commit to 10 treatments. This works well. I also have a strict 24-hour cancellation policy that you sign at your first appointment.

Your Dreams Can Help You Heal

You'll see at the bottom of this page a list of book recommendations. Included in that list is "The Secret History of Dreaming" by Robert Moss. He's also written many other books on dreaming which I'm sure you can find online. This is a very entertaining and interesting read. He highlights Joan of Arc, Lucrecia de Leon, Harriet Tubman, Mark Twain, Wolfgang Pauli, and Winston Churchill as the famous people whose lives and work absolutely hinged on their connection to their dream life. Your dream life is, the 8 hours you spend sleeping. Metaphysicians, such as myself, believe that it is when you are physically asleep that you are most spiritually awake. And when your are physically awake, you are most spiritually asleep-or in the illusory trance we call life on Earth-and a very far stretch-reality.

This book has changed my life. When you read about someone's extraordinary life, it's very important to internalize and meditate on the truth of it. If that individual can do it, so can you, in your own way. I now keep a dream journal next to my bed and upon waking in the morning-just lie still in a very relaxed mental state and let my sleep world spill over into my waking mind. It is a fascinating transition, and one that you have to work at. It's a kind of meditation. The mind is a most powerful thing. The power of the mind, the will, and the attitude in healing is well documented. Any doctor, no matter what they believe, will tell you that. In the holistic healing field, it is especially significant. In order to find balance in the body, first you must balance the mind. Remembering, mining, your dreams will aid you in that quest. It is not an overstatement to say that the individuals who regularly remember and heed their dreams, change the course of human events and themselves. Change is the only constant in life. Dreams are constant also. Whether you remember your dreams or not, you dream every night. Your dreams are truly a gift from Source. Who you are in spirit, the needs and desires of that spirit, what you have to share with the world, is given to you through your mind. What we really need to live a fulfilling life and heal from our past and the regular struggles of this Earth can be found in our dreams. I encourage you to take the time each morning to be patient, to pray and ask that your Higher Power help you remember your dreams, respect your mind and your body and what it has to say to your soul.

What is Reiki?

"Rei" is Japanese for Universal. "Ki" is Japanese for Life Force. Ki is the same word as the Chinese Qi (Chi). Ki is Qi. The Tao Te Ching elucidates some of these concepts very well. Ki is invisible energy-like the wind. You know it's there as you can feel it blowing, you can see that it moves "things" and you can feel the temperature of it, but the wind is invisible. Reiki is the same. I "allow" the Ki to flow through me as a channel into your body, through my hands, in the places where you need it most. My hands hover over your body (most of the time) and you may feel heat (sometimes very hot), cold/cool, or a magnetic pull. The temperature varies at all times. I am an attuned Reiki Master. I suppose a modern analogy would be like an ordained minister of the Church-but we won't get into quite divergent theology here. My teacher was Danielle DeVoe of Frankfurt, MI. I had unforgettable lessons and attunements in the year 1999 and 2000-as my son Alex was growing in me and as I gave birth to him. The two were definitely connected.

Healing is what I have to offer you-and thus myself. So, it's a win/win situation. Reiki affects the etheric body that is the eternal you. I just finished reading James Redfield's "The Tenth Insight". In it, he states the 11th insight which refers to a method for healing. He says, "There is a latent power of the mind within all of us that mysteriously helps to affect what occurs in the future. It has been called faith power, positive thinking, and the power of prayer. We are now taking this power seriously enough to bring a fuller knowledge of it into public awareness. We are finding that this prayer power is a field of intention (Wayne Dyer), which moves out from us and can be extended and strengthened, especially when we connect with others in a common vision." That is not specifically Reiki, but it is related to it.

If you come to me with a vision of yourself, or wanting me to mirror an image of your healed self back to you, it will increase the Reiki energy that is available to me to aid in your healing. So your mind is instrumental in your own healing. I am aided on all levels to affect your body on all 7 levels that correspond to your chakras. The chakras are energy wheels that anchor your eternal self to your physical body. 1st chakra is the etheric body, 2nd chakra is the emotional body, 3rd chakra is the mental body, 4th chakra is the astral body, 5th chakra is the etheric template body, 6th chakra is the celestial body, and the 7th body is the ketheric body. You didn't know you had 7 bodies did you? These energy centers, depending on the condition of your Ki, pulsate at a certain speed and color. These colors change from day to day, even hour to hour. Some clairvoyants read auras, but I think it's a bit of a waste of time as they change so rapidly and don't really tell you anything lasting about yourself. Change is constant in the universe and that includes us. But luckily, you always have a choice.