Awhile ago I was contacted by a massage student to show her some things on Lomi Lomi massage. Through that contact I was led to what I did today. Today, I talked to a massage class on Allied Modalities at the north campus of Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ).
I had been warned by the teacher that this group was very left brained (more technical, less intuitive). My goal was to teach them about energy, demonstrate Reiki, and if time demonstrate Lomi Lomi and Myofascial Release (MFR).
I started out by talking about massage and what kind of things they could expect to see changing in their lives as they enter the field to work. I truly expect that many of them won't pass the test, and that less than half that do will not be practicing after five years, and less till after 10. This just seems to be what happens in the industry as therapists get tired, or worn out, were injured. The biggest problem for therapists that are working is that they wear out their hands really quickly. This is one of the reasons I took Lomi Lomi massage because it works mostly with the forearms.
After I talked a couple minutes on things like this, I told them what they're going to be getting into this class, and since I wasn’t sure anyone had used the proper terminology, I was going to tell them what they were in for. I told them that I was the fruitcake that was going to take them for walk on the weird side. Everyone laughed, and I think that was what really woke them up.
After that, I started talking about energy fields and auras, and seeing and feeling energies. They of course, were expecting a lecture class, and seemed a little surprised when I told them to stand up because they were going to be working. I had them seeing the energy field around others, and feeling them with their hands. At this point, I did the famous blindfold trick.
I blindfolded someone, and made them walk through the room around the people that I had arranged. For extremely left brain students, they did pretty well. Most of them were not as open as could be, and walked into most of the people that were in their paths. But there were a few that, after they bumped into a person or two, seemed to start to sense the others in their paths and swerve around them. I think there were all surprised about doing it, as well as the fact that some of them could do it.
Since I was taking more time than I really thought I would be, I demonstrated hand scanning as well a site scanning, and told them of the uses they would have of them. After that, I talked about Reiki and did a short Reiki demonstration. I noticed that during the demonstrations, I was starting to lose some of the people as they were fading off to sleep, or paying attention to other things. Unfortunately, this is not something I was going to do as class participation.
After I'd finished Reiki, I asked my victim how she was doing. She told me that she had a headache. She told me that she didn't want to interrupt what I was doing to tell me that, so she just put up with it. (I figure she was overwhelmed by the energy and wasn’t properly grounded.) I simply laid my hand above her head, pulled out the negative energy, and threw it away. She looked at me with wide eyes and told me that her headache was gone… several times.
For the next demonstration, the teacher volunteered to be my victim. I talked for a few minutes on the two types of Lomi Lomi massage, the temple method, and the method taught by Auntie Margaret. Even though my victim was completely clothed, I showed a little bit of the arm sweeps and the arm movements that are prominent in Temple Lomi Lomi. Then I showed a couple moves from the method taught by Auntie Margaret. I told the class that this method has some very nice pleasing moves like the Temple Lomi Lomi, but the real workhorse of it is static compression. I started doing the advanced compressions on my victim's back and shoulders. When she got up off the table she told me she wanted to come for a session. Cool. (I guess I need to learn that Lomi routine Alice taught, or come up with one.)
Unfortunately, I ran out of time and did not get to talk about MFR. As in all things, we learn the first time we do things, and if we do them again, we make changes. Had I known this was going to work like this, I probably would have offered to teach two classes instead of just one. I would've taught energy on the first class, and then demonstrated Reiki, Lomi Lomi, and MFR on the second. With the latter two, I could have actually done some teaching rather than just demonstration.
In talking, after class, to the student that was responsible for getting me there, she told me that everyone really loved it. (Part of the problem with state run schools is that they do not understand the Allied modalities class. In a regular massage school they hire different teachers with different backgrounds and have them teach a class or two, or maybe a week just to introduce the students to the styles that they practice. In state run schools, they hire one teacher to teach the entire class. The problem with this is that most teachers only know a couple modalities. Unfortunately, the schools will not pay for guest speakers.) At any rate, my contact told me that they had somebody come in that talked about Body Talk, who did nothing but talk about Body Talk for the entire 3 1/2 hours. She told me that the class was starved for information. Even though I felt that I gave them way too much in such a short period of time, they enjoyed it because at least they were getting information.
Since then, I have put in calls to some of the other schools and offered my services as guest speaker for their allied modalities classes. Although this is not something that I would get paid for, it could attract students to take my Reiki classes in the future. Since they can earn continuing education credits from me, this could be a big plus for both them and me. I'm still waiting hear back from all of them.
At any rate, this was a new experience, and a fun one. I hope to do this again at several other schools.