Grieving is more than just sadness. Grief often comes with feelings of being disconnected. Massage therapy is a way to connect without the need to "do anything,"
for clients experiencing grief.
Grief can feel extremely isolating.
When we lose someone we love or lose our sense of identity through career loss and divorce sometimes it feels painful to be present, and we can check out.
Grief comes in stages and it comes with not only emotional pain and discomfort but also very often PHYSICAL discomfort.
This might look like chronic tension in our chest or back. It may also look like achy joints or back pain. Or it may look like foot pain that we have never had before.
Even though there may be no apparent "cause," for the physical aches and pains, they often will show up around the time of our loss or the upheaval in our lives.
This tension in the body can be a clear reflection of the tension we are experiencing in our hearts and minds. Often that we are having trouble expressing or feeling.
Massage therapy, craniosacral and therapeutic touch can help grieving clients to get in touch with what is happening in their bodies and also in their hearts.
Allowing yourself to be "held and cared for," in a space where no one NEEDS ANYTHING from you, even for just an hour, can allow you to feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders.
Very often our expression of grief is met with an instinct and attempt to "fix it," by those who love us most. Although this is done with the best of intention, it isn't what most of us really need when grieving. At Body Alchemy we are skilled at just "witnessing," and holding space without treating that grief and sorrow as something to be fixed. We just "hold space," for our clients.
In my 15 years in the profession, I have had clients walk though my door an hour after the death of a pet or parent, and every time it is the same. They walk in with tears in their eyes, grief weighing heavy on their heart, and ask to just be "cared for." Every time it has been my honor to sit with their tears, as we move through a massage or bodywork session.
I have heard every single time, that the ability to receive this loving touch, without the need to talk or "say," anything...is deeply healing for them. Their families and friends, although loving and well meaning, can be overwhelming during loss, and the bodywork studio is a place where they can just REST.
Working with clients experiencing grief is near and dear to my heart. And one of the greatest gifts of my career.
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