Biodynamic Massage– What is it? Let’s find out how it can help you. Hello! My name is Heather Alison Cook, owner of Yarrow and You Therapeutic Bodywork located in downtown Aurora, Oregon. I have been a licensed massage therapist for 13 years. My office is located amongst all of the amazing antique shops that people come to shop in this little historic town. It’s just southeast of Newberg and Wilsonville. I am not too far from Canby and Woodburn.
I recently took a continuing education class called Biodynamic Massage. I regularly get this type of bodywork from a colleague, and I said to her recently, “I really want to do what you do…it seems so effortless.” She is in her sixties, loves what she does, and doesn’t see herself stopping any time soon… She says, “It gives me energy–to work this way, it doesn’t make me tired.” Naturally, I wanted to know more, so I enrolled in the class!
Biodynamic Massage is a form of bodywork created by Todd Jackson, “Bio=life, dynamic=force or factor that influences a process of growth, change, interaction, or activity.”
Usually, while working, the practitioner has an “intention” of what to do and how to work. It can sound something like this in our head, “Well, her pectoralis is tight and her traps are tight and this fascial line is pulling over here and if I release this muscle here and allow that fascia to let go over there…that might be why her neck feels kinked, etc.” Lots of thinking. Lots of doing. (On my part)
There are countless ways a bodyworker can work on the body. All with the intention to fix, to heal, to change. Biodynamic Massage is different. Different from the practitioner’s point of view anyway. It may not feel so different from the client’s view– it may just feel like a really, really good massage! I know that is how I feel every time I leave my therapist’s office!
In Biodynamic Massage, the practitioner moves with the client’s life force. I know, woo woo. But… biodynamic massage has its roots in craniosacral therapy, which comes from osteopathy. In many other countries (besides the US), Canada, the UK, and France for instance, craniosacral therapy is valued as a legitimate healing modality and osteopaths use it widely.
As the practitioner doing biodynamic massage, I am listening to the subtle life force/chi without having an agenda. I have to let go of having any motives and solely listen to what your body is saying. Which way does the tissue want to move? Rather which way is the tissue moving? Is the tissue guiding me to massage up the back? Does it stop, does it go quiet for a while? I listen with an open heart and connect my life force to yours, and let that guide my hands. It’s true Jedi stuff.✨ And cool as hell! ✨
As the practitioner, I am palpating your tissues to see what is here now. Which way are we going now? I stay present with and go with what your body tells me. For me it is like a meditation, staying fully present moment to moment. And since learning this technique and how to connect in this very deep but subtle way to my client’s system time just flies by! Its astonishing!
For the clients, however, time seems to slow down. It’s a time-bending tool. (See why it’s so cool?) But that is just my opinion. The clients I have worked on so far report a much deeper relaxation and feeling great post-massage!
The way I am connecting in allows your system to guide the treatment process dynamically. Uniquely. We are simply recognizing the health in the body in the present moment. Again, moment by moment, and when we do that, brute force is not required. There is probably some kind of quantum mechanical explanation for what is actually happening, but all we need to know is that it works!
In Biodynamic Massage, we use oil to massage an area where the body is directing us. Deep pressure may be used to work with the muscle, fascia, bones, organs, and connective tissues, or a less intense massage stroke might be needed. The system might pause in one area for a while, or there may be a nearby area that is connected to that tissue that is calling for attention, so the body will bring us there next, and so on.
This is what is called homeostatic reorganization. The body is simply reorganizing=healing itself. Or at least attempting to try. Now, isn’t that amazing— that your body is capable of doing this? I think it is!
If you’re in the Aurora area and want to book a Biodynamic Massage session with me, just go here to do that.
I hope you find yourself on the table soon here at Yarrow and You Therapeutic Bodywork or at your own lovely practitioner’s office to receive some bodywork for your overall health and wellbeing!
Happy Spring!!