On becoming a Certified Massage Therapist

Starting today I begin my journey to become a CMT. This program will run through next June so I expect to be pretty busy till then. The path I've been on to get here is an interesting one, at least to me anyway.....

When I first started taking yoga classes oh so many years ago, I never really thought about being a Yoga teacher. After 6 years with same teacher one Winter day I asked her what she thought of my practice. She told me I should consider becoming a teacher and explore some other styles of Yoga. A couple months later I started taking classes from her teacher, and tried a couple others. My eyes were opened, I had no idea how much more there was to the world of yoga. But that was nothing compared to what was to come.

In the Spring of that same year I signed up to take the training to become a Yoga teacher. It was 10 months, taking yoga classes every week, teaching 1 time a week, studying and sampling the style of the month plus 1 full weekend a month of workshops. It was an amazing time, I learned so much. At the graduation ceremony my instructor gave me my Sanskrit name, Prithu. He told me it meant, "The Great." After some research I found that King Prithu is considered to be the first ruler of the earth. A great and wise King, his kingdom prospered under him.

During my first years as a student my teacher would offer adjustments to help get you into the right position. Sometimes those were about alignment, other times they would be what are known as feel good adjustments. Such feel good adjustments would often seem like a mini-massage. I learned in my training that these techniques were an important part of the overall experience. I wanted to learn more, there was something about these techniques that went beyond the benefits of the physical practice.

I went on to become certified in Restorative Yoga and Thai Yoga Bodywork. Restorative yoga has many of the same effects as the feel good adjustments, and as the student you relax even more than a normal yoga class. And there are even more of these feel good adjustments such as a side lying twist stretch. Imagine laying on your side, the knee of the leg on top is bent so your knee is out in front and keeping you from rolling forward. Standing over you I place my hand on that bent knee and your shoulder, and gently push the shoulder back toward the floor. It is a very nice stretch, one you can't do on your own. And that was the key to these adjustments, these are things you really can't do on your own but they feel great.

Thai Yoga Bodywork is all adjustment - 2 hours straight of my performing a sequence of techniques that hit most every part of the body. The arms, legs, back all get attention - thumbing & palming of pressure points with manipulation of most every joint in your body. To this day Thai is still my favorite practice.

What I have also experienced is Lomi Lomi and Esalen Massage. Both of these go beyond a typical massage in a much more profound and deeper way. In a normal massage the therapist works on one part of the body at a time. An arm for a few minutes, done, on to the leg for a while, done and so on. Each body part when done rarely gets revisited. In Thai for example the first hour is all about the legs, but even in the second hour the legs to get occasional attention. In Lomi Lomi very long strokes are used, sometimes going up the arm to the shoulder and all the way back down to the foot. It is like your whole body is getting the massage, not just parts. It is a far more whole body integrated approach.

Esalen Massage comes across like a melding of Thai techniques, traditional massage and some Lomi Lomi thrown in for good measure. I had my Easalen massage at Esalen in California. I started out sitting in the hot springs which are situated on the side of the mountain above the shore. It is very relaxing and peaceful sitting in the water and hearing the waves crash below. When it was my time, the therapist directed me to a massage table that sits on the deck next to the tubs. So here I was, nude, in the sun getting what was an amazing massage.

With that as a backdrop I begin on this new part of the path in front of me. One day I hope to learn Esalen and Lomi Lomi, but for now I start this step toward being a CMT. It is going to be alot of work, but I have a very supportive family, and my wife is already a CMT and will be a great resource to me -- so I'm sure I'll do fine in what seems like a natural path for me to follow.

Namaste,
Dan