Traditional Thai Massage

Ova’s Intention:
1. Giving a relaxing, restorative, wholistic therapeutic massage treatment.

2. Providing an interactive, client mindful massage, that is sensitive to the wants and needs of the client.

3. Communicating with the client to insure a comfortable, consistently professional and safe environment for massage treatments.

4. Allowing the practical expression of compassion and loving kindness to help balance and promote a sense of wellbeing.

5. Understanding that our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical environment interacts with us to affect our wholistic health.

6. Informing the client of ways to maintain and improve the healing process between treatments.

• Traditional Thai Massage
• Jin Shin Do Bodymind Acupressure®
• Reflexology
• Deep Shiatsu Backwalk
• Orthopedic Sports Massage
• Cranial Sacral Massage
• Reiki

Traditional Thai Massage Benefits:
1. Creates more flexibility in the joints

2. Clear toxins and eliminates pain

3. Relieves stress and restores energy

4. Rebalances the structural functionality in the body

5. Quiets the mind and refreshes the spirit, like yoga

What is Traditional Thai Massage?
Nuad Boran Thai, Traditional Thai Massage, is “the practical expression of loving kindness”.

Thai massage is practiced on the floor mat, in loose, stretchable clothing, without oil.

Traditionally, Thai Massage starts at the feet for grounding and moves up the legs, to counteract the pull of gravity by moving the energy up.

The massage, based on yoga, utilizes sequences of stretches, yoga positions with the breath (pranayama), rhythmic compressions to soften the muscles and connective tissues, relax and activate the para-sympathetic nervous system, and acupressure to warm and open the energy (sen) lines to all functions of the body. Thai massage is a rhythmical, meditative, flowing “dance” of the therapist’s palms, fingers, thumbs, elbows, knees, and feet.

The Founder and History of Thai Massage
Jivaka Komara Bhacca, Father of Thai Medicine, story:

Prince Abhaya, son of Bimbisara, was riding through the city when he saw a flock of crows circling and cawing loudly around a small bundle. Stopping his carriage, he investigated the sound and found a newborn baby who had been left among the garbage along the roadside, the illegitimate son of a courtesan who felt she couldn’t raise him.

Prince Abhaya was transfused with compassion for the newborn baby that still clung to life despite his ugly surroundings. He decided to adopt the baby as his own. He named him Jivaka, meaning, “will to live”, and Komara Bhacca, meaning , “adopted by a prince”.

Jivaka Komara Bhacca, pronounced Zhivago, grew to be a preserver of life, whose name is found in the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhists, 2nd-3rd centuries B.C.. Many Thai people consider him to be the “Father of Thai Medicine”, and his prayer is the one recited before and at the end of all Thai Massage Classes in Thailand today.

Thai medicine can be traced back more than 2500 years. Thailand was deeply influenced by the surrounding countries of India and China: India with language, literature, religion, royal administration, and massage; China, where records date back 3000 years, with medicine, food, art, and architecture.

An active sea route between S. India and S. China dated back 2000 years. There was the famous overland silk trail between China and India, which passed through Burma to the Northwest of Thailand. Traders, travellers, nomadic hill tribes, and immigrants brought information integration from other nearby countries. Traditional Thai Medicine is made up of four branches: Spiritual ceremonies and/or magical practices, the laying on of hands, diet, and medicines (orals, salves, compresses, and vapors).

Jin Shin Do Bodymind Acupressure®
This massage modality is a unique synthesis of Japanese acupressure technique, classic Chinese acu-theory, Taoist philosophy, Qi Qong (breathing and exercise techniques), Reichian segmental release theory, and Ericksonian psychotherapy theory put together by Iona Marsaa Teeguarden in the 1970s. It is built on the premise that to attain complete healing, we must be willing to relax, allow our emotions to manifest, whatever they may be, and then they can be usefully integrated into a harmonious whole person. During the acupressure session emotions, images, colors, etc. may arise, and often all that’s needed for the transformation to take place is to be aware of them, and share that information with someone, perhaps the therapist.

What is a Jin Shin Do session like?
The treatment begins with a client consultation and assessment (using classic Chinese theory, pulse reading, and acu-point palpation). The treatment to follow is then customized to the client’s wants and needs.

Jin Shin Do, being a relaxation therapy, starts with the therapist’s fingertips holding gently to firmly on acu-points in a customized pattern to open, tonify, and connect the implicated meridians, or energy lines. This is done through the client’s clothing while laying comfortably on the massage table. Acupressure uses fingertips as acupuncture uses needles; the same energy lines are used as in acupuncture to eliminate pain, relax, open blocks, balance and harmonize the energic systems of the body (such as, kidney/bladder, stomach/spleen, liver/gall bladder, etc.). Acupressure rejuvenates the body’s own natural self-regulatory sytems to heal and strengthen, without the aid of extreme, invasive techniques or chemicals.

With the physical healing comes an awareness of the emotional/mental components. The verbal body focusing technique is used to facilitate the process of listening to the inner self, connecting with your own inner wisdom, to transform and become a happier, more fully functioning person. We each have the power within us to heal. Many times all we need is to listen and be aware of what our inner voice is saying.

Reflexology
Based on an understanding that the energy lines of the body terminate at corresponding points on the head, hands, and feet, and by massaging these extremities we can heal the body.

Deep Shiatsu Backwalk
If you like deep, this is for you. The massage is practiced on a floor mat, fully clothed in loose clothing, no oil, using the therapist’s feet and knees carefully and thoroughly placed to achieve deep tissue release, pain relief, and functionality restored in a balanced wholistic way. The client determines how much pressure is beneficial. If the client is able to relax and breathe with the pressure, then it is helpful. For the client’s wellbeing, no pressure is applied beyond the tolerance of the client.

Orthopedic Sports Massage
This technique is often used when a muscle, or a muscle group, around a joint, is cramping, and limits the mobility of the joint. A combination of pin and stretch, resisted stretches, and other sports techniques are used to restore function at the site of injury in an easy, painless way. I often add these techniques into my other massages when I see a joint problem that would respond well to these techniques.

Cranial Sacral Massage
Listening to the rhythms within the neural pathways to find restrictions and blocks, and then using gentle holds to encourage the body to release and return to balance. It is a very nurturing, relaxing experience, which is beneficial to use on anyone from birth to old age and for any trauma, stress, or nerve problems.

Reiki
A light, laying on of hands healing to focus positive life force energy which creates a calm, clear, grounded feeling. Reiki is Japanese for “Universal Life Energy” that allegedly originated in Tibet and was rediscovered in the late 1800s in Japan.