Traditional Thai Massage

Benefits of Thai Massage:
1. Promotes relaxation and relieves stress
2. Clears toxins stored in the tissues
3. Eliminates pain
4. Restores energy
5. Creates flexibility in the joints
6. Rebalances the structural functionality of the body
7. Improves the health and efficiency of the
organs and systems of the body
8. Quiets the mind and spirit, like yoga

What is Traditional Thai Massage?
Nuad Boran Thai (Traditional Thai Massage) is "the practical expression of loving kindness". The
massage, based on yoga, utilizes sequences of stretches, yoga positions with the breath (pranayama), rythmic compressions to release the soft tissue, relax and activate the
para-sympathetic nervous system, and acupressure to open and balance the energy lines and all functions of the body. Thai massage is a rythmical, meditative, spiritual, flowing "dance" of the therapists palms, fingers, thumbs, elbows, knees, and feet.

Thai massage is practiced on a floor mat, using no oil, in loose clothes.

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

Other Massage Modalities offered:
Deep Shiatsu Backwalk - practiced on a floor mat in loose clothing, oilless, achieving deep tissue releases by the therapists careful application of acupressure with her feet.

Hawaiian Lomi Lomi - A style of oil massage developed by and for the ancient Hawaiians utilizing hand movements and long flowing forearm strokes in wavelike rythms to traction the joints, reduce inflammation, detox, re-balance the body, and open the connection with the spiritual.

Lomi Lomi with Pohakus (Lomi Lomi is the massage technique, Pohakus are the stones) - Receive a soothing, grounding, relaxing massage with warm stones in ocean-like rythms stroking the body into deep relaxation.

Swedish - An oil massage using a combination of hand movements called petrissage, effleurage, and percussion to milk toxins, soreness, and stress from the body, acheiving a state of complete well-being.

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.

Orthopoedic/Sports Massage - A combination of pin and stretch, resisted stretches, and other sports techniques used to relieve pain and restore function at the site of injury, in an easy, painless way.

Jin Shin Do (Jin=Compassion Shin=Spirit Do=Way) - By a gentle but firm, holding of key acu-points on the body, a system originating from Japan, the patient experiences "deep" relaxation and a return to balanced wholeness from the physical to the spiritual.

Cranial Sacral - A soft, nurturing experience that opens, calms, and balances the nerve pathways. This modality can be used on any person from birth to old age for any trauma, accident, nerve problems, or other stressful situations.

Reiki - Japanese for "Universal Life Energy", a laying -on-of-hands healing energy style that allegedly originated in Ancient Tibet, and was rediscovered in the late 1800s in Japan.

History
Traditional Thai Medicine can be traced back more than 2500 years ago from the Vasrayana or Diamond Healing Lineage of Tibet. Thailand has been 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 date back 2000 uears. There was also 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 the 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).

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 Thais consider him to be "The Father of
Medicine".