Wellness at Lamennais

Starting today, I now offer Advanced LaStone® Therapy, Stone Medicine, Shamanic Journey, Ceremonies and Wellness Workshops at 5 rue Lamennais, 75008 Paris.

This marks a milestone for me as it is my first independent place to work from. Until now I've worked from home, visiting people at their home, or worked freelance for others. Now I finally have the opportunity to truly create my own space. I can now implement everything I want to give into the massages.

What does this mean? What can I offer you?

First and foremost I can offer Advanced LaStone® Therapy, which includes:

Creative Stone combines relaxation, deep tissue and energy work into one session. Of all my treatments, this is the one most closely resembling "normal" massage.

The stones are used actively to massage with. Long strokes connect body and mind, and encourage relaxation. Hot and cold stone deep tissue massage releases muscular tension, providing wellness and pain relief. Elements from Stone Medicine may be added, depending on the wishes of the client.

This is a good all-round massage, which is adapted and tailored to suit your needs of the moment. Great for regular massages after exercise or for general wellness. Ideal if you have an area or two which needs deep tissue work, while wanting a general relaxation. This is currently the massage I give the most often.

A massage can last from one to two hours, depending on how much work you want done, and what our focus and intention is.

Original Body embodies what LaStone® is about. Massage with stones, spinal layout, chakra stone placement and energy work are all combined into a relaxing, renewing and energizing session. Original Body aims to unify body and mind, releases stress and tension, and encourages the client to begin a spiritual journey.

This is a great introduction into LaStone® and geothermal therapy. Good for a singular session, aiming at general wellness and relaxation. Original Body can last 1 hour or 1½ hour.

Cocooning/Castle Building is a half hour session, where you are covered with hot and cool stones while receiving a foot, hand or facial massage. The result is deep relaxation and comfort. It is great for stress relief or when you need a break from a busy day.

Stone Medicine - Inyan Pejuta - is the name for ancient Native American stone massage and wellness practices. The knowledge has been passed down for generations. Stone Medicine finally found its way into the modern world when Jenny Ray (or White Bear Medicine Woman - a Santee Dakota Sioux Shaman) met with Mary Nelson (the founder of LaStone®).

From the teachings of Jenny Ray I can offer you:

Bury the Soul is an adapted version of an ancient Native American ceremony. In many ways it is a simplified version of the Sweat Lodge and the results can be just as profound.

For an hour you lie on the floor, covered by stones of all temperatures. As the session progresses, various animal spirits are called to join in while you connect deeply with Mother Earth. Tapping stones, drumming, and other sounds fill the room, as you are invited to give to Mother Earth all that which does not serve you. When you emerge and shake off the stones, you are as reborn, leaving behind your old self.

Bury the Soul can be a very strong spiritual and emotional experience.

Balancing the Water Fall helps energies and water in the body reach an equilibrium. You are guided through a visualization, while cold stones are applied to energy points on the body. The water fall you are visualizing changes progressively. Blocks move out of the way, debris change position, colours become more vivid and the water begins to flow freer.

This Stone Medicine practice is useful if you have emotional or spiritual difficulties with communication, as it helps you find ways to communicate more effectively. Balancing the Water Fall may also benefit persons with an imbalanced or damaged nerve system, when the ability to communicate orally is impacted.

Balancing the Water Fall is an intuitive session, working with energies in the body. The results are entirely between you and Creator. It is not a treatment or medical therapy claiming to be able to cure anything. A session usually lasts between 45 and 60 minutes.

The Three Relations is a facial massage combined with energy work and ceremony. Using warm and cool stones, I bring you to a place of deep relaxation and well-being.

The different stone patterns used throughout the session will help you in many different ways: for building strength, gaining empowerment, dealing with grief, finding grounding, handling difficult emotional situations, various forms of separation, depression, post traumatic stress, building confidence and connecting with Mother Earth.

At the end of the session, you will see your Sacred Symbol. We will talk about the symbol and its meaning, and what thoughts you might want to share.

Related to Stone Medicine is Healing Hands. This is a Native American approach to healing and energy work. I place my hands on your body, letting the energy of Creator flow through me to facilitate your healing and wellness.

The work is very gentle and can be received by anyone. Research has shown the power of touch therapy. Here we take touch therapy a step further and bring in the ancient ceremonies of the Native Americans.

The possibilities at Lamennais are endless and I very much look forward to let you experience wellness sessions that will truly touch you.
Next week I will talk about the workshops I can offer.

Advanced LaStone Therapy

Image by Taunaki via Flickr

An Advanced LaStone® Therapist or Practitioner has a solid grasp of how to work with stones. You must complete at least three full length LaStone® courses, earning 12 points in the internal system.

The first course is always Original Body, which introduces you to the stones and how to work with them. Following courses are advanced and can spread over a wide range of different techniques. These ranges from deep tissue and sports massage, reflexology to energy work and Native American practices.

I learned the basics of geothermal therapy and how to work with stones during my Original Body course. That taught me to give wonderful relaxation massages, which works deeper and more profoundly than the massages I gave before. It was a sneak peek into the world of geothermal therapy as well as energy work and some Native American traditions. I then knew stones is the way to go for me.

Afterwards I completed the Deep Stone course, where I really learned how to work with cold and how to do very effective deep tissue work. This added an incredible range of tools and techniques to my massages. Being able to really release those deep tensions in the body and make people feel rejuvenated and energized after a massage. This is when I really learned how geothermal therapy works and why cold is so important to use in every stone massage.

The third course I completed was Sacred Strokes I. This is where I learned about the Native American approach to stone massages. I learned about energy and emotional work, and how to implement those aspects into my normal massages. My relationship to the stones grew and became stronger, my understanding deeper. So now I have regular intuitive leaps when working with the stones, coming up with new ideas and techniques which are just perfect for the person in that moment.

Now I give stone massages which are a combination of relaxation, deep tissue and energy work. Sometimes a massage is mostly focused on the physical aspect - the release of tensions, dealing with sore muscles and provide relaxation on a physical level. Other times my massages are mostly emotional and energy work - supporting people in letting go of stress and worries, preparing them for tests or helping them deal with a difficult emotional situation.

The Deep Stone course prepared me for the intense physical work and the Sacred Strokes course taught me how to work with the emotional and energy aspects of bodywork.

Why cold stones

Image by Taunaki via Flickr

Marble for cold stones massage

When I first mention to people that I use hot -and- cold stones they usually pause, apprehensive of the cold. Who can blame them. When I say cold, most people instantly think of cold weather, snow, an ice-cube down the back, freezing fingers and a bunch of other uncomfortable things.

A massage is after all meant to be comfortable, relaxing and an enjoyment. Warm stones are pleasant, but why add the cold to the experience?

There are many reasons for this, which I will briefly cover in this blog post.

Overheating
The most important factor is overheating. Using cold stones in combination with hot stones prevents overheating. A stone massage with only hot stones is like sitting in a sauna for an hour, without a cool shower afterwards. It leaves you sluggish and sleepy, your alertness is reduced and it might even feel uncomfortable to you.

These are all warning signs that the core temperature is too hot. The body focuses on protecting itself, by lowering the blood supply to the brain and instead direct cooler blood from the surface of the body towards the internal organs. This is why you just want to lie down and sleep if a stone massage has been too warm for you.

By applying cold stones the blood stream is cooled down and excess heat is removed from the body. When cold stones are used right, you're refreshed and energized after a massage, while maintaining the benefits of relaxation and released tensions.

Inquire and ask questions
If you encounter a stone massage where only hot stones are used, do ask the practitioner questions. Where did they do their training, what is their reason for only using hot stones, do they know of the potential health risks, how do they deal with overheating and how much hot do they apply to their massage.

Obviously, if they only use a couple of hot stones to release tensions in particular tight tissue and the room is cool, the risk of overheating is minimal. If they on the other hand use only hot stones during the entire massage, then there's a great risk of overheating. Be critical and ask your questions before the massage begins.

I have a client who had only tried hot stones and she absolutely hated the experience because she became overheated from the treatment. I introduced her first to cold stones and then at the next massage convinced her to try the combination of hot and cold. Now she just loves massage with hot and cold stones, and while preferring the cold, she wouldn't want to be without the hot.

Therapeutic use
Therapeutically there are many reasons to use cold. Cold helps to relieve muscular tension much more efficiently than hot does. It reduces inflammation and scar tissue, and cold promotes mobility. The combination of hot and cold helps flush out waste-products and kick starts the lymphatic system.

The overall health benefits can be compared to spending a time in a hot sauna and then jump into the snow or icy lake. I must say though that it's much more comfortable to receive the hot/cold flush on the massage table than jumping out into the snow.

Energetic balance
On an energetic level the hot and cold works like yin and yang. Using both in combination brings balance to the massage, and can open up for strong spiritual experiences. The alternating temperatures can also help release emotional tensions, and it promotes an increased body-awareness for the receiver.

Cold feels good
If cold stone feels outright uncomfortable and makes you squirm, it is because it isn't used right. A stone needs to be cold, not just cool - all depending on location and use of the stone. Often a stone which isn't cold enough will feel horrible, while a stone that's chilled properly will feel hot and comfortable.

How the stone is used matters greatly. If it is moved too quickly it will feel terrible. The trick is to move slowly, and that's very slowly. This way the cold also gets time to penetrate the muscle tissue and really work its magic.

Finally, the tissue needs to be warmed up before applying the cold. The cold is applied to draw out excess heat, not to make you feel cold. If there's no excess heat in the tissue worked on, then the cold stone will only serve to cool down the muscle instead of bringing it to the natural balance.

Demand the best
So please, for your own sake, insist on a stone massage that includes hot as well as cold stones. Make sure you get a practitioner who is educated in the safe use of hot and cold, and who understands the underlying mechanisms and reasons for using both. If you're uncomfortable with cold, do tell your stone practitioner and the appliance of cold will naturally be adjusted accordingly.

Enjoy your next stone massage and see what difference cold makes.

How to treat your massage stones

 
Image by Taunaki via Flickr

Sunbathing stones.

There are several things you should take into consideration when you take care of your massage stones.

Sanitation is the most important factor and must never be neglected. I wrote about general hygiene a while ago, and will here share the official guidelines from the Geothermal Therapy Association. They have worked with Centres for Disease Control to come up with recommendations for stone massages.

In short, only use each stone once and clean them by the end of the day. Or use chlorine tablets in the hot water and use pure alcohol to clean cold stones before returning them to the cooler.

You can read a detailed overview in the Massage and Bodywork Professionals forum here.

Looking apart from sanitation there are other aspects which you must pay attention to when you take care of your stones. The stones should feel smooth and soft after cleaning. Oil and grease which might stick to the surface must be removed. Sticky stones are just as disgusting for the client as dirty sheets. So make sure that you wash and scrub them properly to clean the surface and not only for health reasons.

If stones are really dirty from long use and improper care, they can be tossed in the dishwasher or in extreme cases be cleaned with chemicals.

Finally there's the spiritual and natural aspect to the stones. Remember that they're considered living beings - the Stone Tribe - by the Native Americans and they should be treated with respect and honour.

Stones which are not treated right will eventually stop holding the heat and become unpredictable no matter how good your heater is. They become "dead". They just don't feel the same. I've experienced this with stones used by people who have no respect for them nor knows how to treat stones.

Ideally, after each use the stones should lie on the ground and soak up sunshine. This allows them to recharge their energies and give to Mother Earth what they took from the person they've been working on.

From a more scientific point of view, what happens is that the stones get a chance to reset to their natural state. There is quartz and iron in the stones which is affected by the magnetic field, by temperature and the heater. The sun warms the stones, enhancing the process.

Of course, this is not possible or practical for most practitioners and we have to adapt and adjust our rituals accordingly. Being honourable and treating the stones with respect goes a long way, but once in a while they do need to recharge.

When you can't place your stones outdoors in sunshine every day, the next best is on the floor indoors. If not every day, then every week or every month. Give your stones a vacation and allow them to release what they do not need.

I have a client who pointed out to me that my stones needed to be recharged - him not knowing anything about the stones and their spiritual aspect. He simply could tell that they weren't as potent as previously.
No need to say that I as soon as possible lugged all my stones back home and gave them a long vacation on the floor over the midwinter holidays.