Lakota

Lakota is a half wolf who lives in my house and is in danger of being put down because his owner is losing her home and she doesn’t think she can find him a home.  I have just learned that 100,000 wolf hybrids are put down each year because of situations like this.  He is a beautiful, sweet being who sleeps on my bed and after 5 months now sleeps on the bed with my cat. He needs a constant, steady owner. If I wasn’t in such limbo myself, I would take him in a heartbeat.

 

Please spread the word and email me if you have any leads.  Wendy726@verizon.net  Thanks,

Wendy

Mandala sea flower

Mandala vision

Mandala celebration

Mandala global

After speaking with the Murrieta, CA police dept….

I am confused.  My understanding of bodyworkers in California getting state certified was so we wouldn’t have to pay every city or county we worked in!  How many other jobs ask that of their employees?  Does that mean I need to pay a business license fee (about $75 in Murrieta) if I work in Wildomar, Lake Elsinore, Escondido, Fallbrook, Menifee and Moreno Valley?  As it is many of us are getting paid less than we received when we started.  (In 1982 when I began doing massage therapy professionally, I would not accept work that paid me less than $30 an hour. ) And sadly, places like Massage Envy came into the area advertising $39 massages.  The public response is of course to expect that from any bodyworker.  I would be the first person to suggest people pay less money for healthcare and I hope we get a non-criminal health care system soon.   I hope massage therapy becomes covered by insurance, as it is all over the world.   This all feels wrong to me.  I will get back to you after I consult with the California bodywork certifying agency!

Yoga & massage news

 YOGA CLASS

With Wendy Hammarstrom

 

 

Thursdays, 7-8:15 PM

Beginning November 12th

Korrie’s Pilates Place

34859 Frederick St.

                                  Wildomar, CA

East off the 15 Freeway at Baxter

(Level above Pizza place)

Community class/donations

 

Increase your flexibility and strength along with conscious breathing, for increased vitality and focus. For anyone who wants to learn how to relax.

Wendy has been teaching massage and yoga on the east and west coast since 1973.  She is a Licensed Massage Therapist, has a BFA in Dance from Temple University & was co-founder of Inland Holistic Health Association.  She has written about health and wellness for Awareness Magazine, Neighbors Newspaper, High Country Journal and the Californian newspaper.

 

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Massage or yoga gift certificates

Holiday price: $50   *********************************************************

Call 951-677-5962

Blog: www.WendysWellnessWorld.WordPress.com

Good news!

Good news!As a result of hard work of many dedicated people  including lobbyists, California now has  state certification for massage therapists.  After becoming certified,  massage therapists can work anywhere in the state of California.  Before now, massage therapists paid for a city license and then were unable to work in another city unless they paid that city’s fee.  (Or in some places, there was an extra fee for crossing county lines.) Many states in the US have state certification, and soon it will be nationwide.

As a result of this I will be offering massage therapy at Korrie’s Pilates Place (formerly A Balanced Body Center) in Wildomar, and at The Herb Peddlers on Main Street in historic Lake Elsinore.

More good news:   With a lot of help from friends, writers, editors, etc., the book I have been working on for six years is almost finished!

Yoga class:  I am still not in my home on Via las Flores.  The lawsuit with the bank is still pending.  So I am gathering students for a  class at Korrie’s Pilates Place.  Evening?  or noon hour?   Or if you know a home or business that would like a class there, contact me and we can work out details.

If you would like to host an infant massage class, a pet massage class or mandala creating class, talk to me!

And as holidays are approaching, I am offering gift certificates for massage or private yoga, for $50 for an hour, or $25 for thirty minutes.  This includes house calls.  I welcome working with the elderly, hospice patients, people with physical challenges and special needs, and those recovering from accidents and trauma.                   

Call me at 951-677-5962 or email me at Wendy726@verizon.net.

I hope you are well & enjoying the beginning of cool weather,

Wendy Hammarstrom

Blog: www.WendysWellnessWorld.WordPress.com  

Website: www.WendysWellnessWorld.com

Who is Massaging Our Wounded Warriors?

I have noticed that we as Americans often look through the elderly as they pass by, and we avert our glance to avoid making contact with a person who has injuries or deformities. I think we as a nation are treating returning soldiers in a similar way. Don’t look at them when they return in caskets, and don’t look at them when they come home alive. Sweep the whole issue of post-war needs under the rug, and keep sending more men and women out to fight. Why isn’t care for our soldiers of primary concern, and how does bodywork fit in?

I surprised myself when I called nearby Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California for information about therapeutic programs and modalities for returning veterans. As I was waiting on hold, I found myself struggling with thoughts such as, do I really want to hear how veterans have suffered and are continuing to suffer? Do I really want to know the situation? It felt very charged to me, and then I realized one of the reasons.

When I was the age of many of our veterans my father suffered a stroke while riding his bicycle in the New Hampshire Mountains. When paramedics reached him, part of his skull was smashed and his brain was protruding out his right ear. The doctors had to remove part of his right frontal lobe. My father was not a veteran; during World War II he was a conscientious objector doing civilian service, jumping out of airplanes to put out forest fires in Montana.

But what I hear about the “epidemic” of brain injuries in Iraq war veterans reminds me of my father’s recovery process. After being in a coma for forty days, he regained consciousness only to experience a tearful phase, followed by an angry and violent period during which time he had to be tied to his bed, and then a defeated and self-destructive stage. Gradually he began to recognize faces, gain clarity about the meaning of words (he would ask for lawnmovers at suppertime, when he meant peas), and learn how to walk again. My father spent his last forty years in recovery. He had many dark days and there were also times when we were graced with his warmth, wisdom and humor. (He used to carry a small wooden cube with him to show people how much of his brain was removed.)

Of the thousands of Iraqi war veterans who have returned home, many are suffering from head and neck injuries that also have long-term implications. Although the new body armor protects soldiers’ bodies, their limbs and minds are still vulnerable. Many survive but as did my father, suffer from memory loss, headaches, attention deficit disorder, depression and anxiety.

My father did eventually see a psychotherapist and received medication that at times helped some of his symptoms. He also received some massage therapy and breathing and relaxation exercises fsrom me, at a time when I was just beginning to learn about ways to help myself. He was open to receiving acupuncture for chronic pain as well, and even traveled to India to visit a Swami MD friend for help.

But how many veterans suffering from brain injury, or even more common, post-traumatic stress syndrome, are receiving help? According to the National Center for PTSD, of eighty percent of American Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who had serious mental health problems, and acknowledged it, only forty percent said they were interested in help and only twenty percent reported receiving formal mental health care. This reluctance is partly from a fear of being stigmatized, as many soldiers are told to suck it up, soldier on or deal with it. In addition, the veterans fear if they admitted they had PTSD symptoms they would be required to stay at their base to receive treatment rather than reurn home.

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Amost five hundred thousand Vietnam veterans suffer from prolonged cases of PTSD; another three hundred and fifty thousand struggle with moderate PTSD symptoms. As many as thirty percent of the homeless in the US are said to be Vietnam vets suffering from PTSD.

According to one author, “Vietnam vets are still checking the perimeter of their safety zone for danger.”

To be continued…
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“Of all forms of inequity, injustice in health care is the most shocking and the most inhumane.” Martin Luther King

The Ethics of Massage & Bodywork

In my 30 years of studying and practicing massage and bodywork, I have watched this country go from keeping massage at arm’s length to reaching out to it. Today, there are over 46,000 massage therapists certified by the American Massage Therapy Association, working in 27 countries. There are 60,000 massage therapists and bodyworkers Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, and a multitude of other bodywork organizations.

Thirty-three states have state licensing, and California finally is one of them. State licensing is a way of ensuring the quality of practitioners, which will (soon, we hope) encourage health insurance companies to reimburse for massage treatments.

But we still haven’t fully embraced the field of bodywork. Why is there still a shroud of mystery around it and a distrust of the massage therapy profession?

One reason is that the boundary between therapeutic massage and sensual or sexual massage is still unclear. In many Yellow Pages, including one of our local Temecula books, all types of massage come under one heading. So who is to know which therapist to go to? I have been told by several new clients that they went to get a sports or relaxation massage, only to be offered more.

For many people, that would be upsetting. But it can devaste people who have already had their boundaries violated physically, emotionally or mentally.

Bevery Susan Johnson, a massage therapist and educator from Alaska, says, “Each of us has our own energy cocoon (and needs for space), and it is not appropriate for someone else to be in our space without our consent.”

And that is why the ethics of bodywork is a required course in all massage schools today.

The National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, or NCTMB, requires members to abide by its code of ethics and defines ethical practice as “acting in a manner that justifies public trust and confidence, enhances the reputation of the profession and safeguards the interests of individual clients.”

The NCTMB requires that practititionres “always be responsbile not to engage in sexualizing behavior and therefore not engage in any sexual conduct or activities even if the client attempts to sexualize the relationship.”

I think also our society is touch phobic partly because our Puritan forefathers frowned on pleasure, and partly because healthy, nurturing touch was not modeled for many of us when we were children.

Recently I saw a television movie about the man who killed his pregnant wife and was having an affair with a massage therapist at the same time. It was the first time I have ever seen a massage therapist shown in a positive light on television.

My wish is that Americans and others become educated and enlightened and realize that therapeutic massage and bodywork sessions are a safe place for healing.

Pet Massage

Rosie has Cushings syndrome and diabetes, among other health challenges

Gardens of Hope

In 1986 I met with a bodyworker trained in New York City by the renowned shiatsu master Ohashi. She was showing me how she worked with, what was to me at the time, an unusual client. Duke was a great mastiff puppy from New Jersey horse country who was receiving deep muscle massage around his leg and hip joints to increase circulation to lessen the chance of sprains and strains as he grew.

Duke enjoyed every minute of the flexion and extension, friction massage, acupressure along his spine, and energy work he received. I was impressed by this and even more so when the therapist, a small woman, introduced me to her next client, a very large brown horse. She used the same shiatsu pooints and meridans that she showed me on Duke. As with working on Duke, she began by quietly sitting and waiting for a sign to begin. Then she visualized the horse’s spine, scanning vertabrae at a time, for areas that were deficient in healing energy. Based on that and how the horse would press into her hands, she would begin work. This was clearly a dance of mutual respect, trust and appreciation.

Soon after that I learned of Linda Tellington Jones, founder of Tellington Touch (TTOUCH) healing for animals, one of the better known systems used especially for horses but not at all limited to them. One of Linda’s clients was a python at the San Diego Zoo named Joyce who suffered from a recurrent respiratory ailment. After spending hours using TTOUCH on Joyce along with some assistants, Linda pointed out that this was a result of her inability to stretch to her full eight feet. Joyce made it apparent that she was grateful, in front of a room of two-hundred previously skeptical zoo personnel by rising up cobra sytle in front of Linda and flicking her “third eye” with her tongue. She also rested with her head over Linda’s heart.

Michael Fox, VMD, author, former director of the Humane Society of the United States, who writes a syndicated column for the Washington Post, and is co-founder of a wildlife sanctuary in Southern India, has also done work with wild animals in addition to extensive work with domestic animals. He told me that when they brought in injured animals at the wildlife sanctuary in India, he would call in one of his therapy assistance dogs, or a previously rescued wild animal to comfort the newcomer. This, and from the his staff being trained to give gentle strokes, the laying on of hands and prayerful presense stimulated the animal’s will to live.

Most pet owners I speak to say they instinctually massage their pets. Learning specific points and techniqes can be helpful for degenerative and chronic conditions such as arthritis and stiffnesss. Massage therapy can be used as an adjunct to other treatment including as a stimulant to enhance post-operative recovery; as a catalyst for convalescence from sickness and as an adjunct to intensive care in cases of shock and severe debility.

Massage increases endorphins, the body’s painkiller hormones, and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which brings the body into homeostasis or balance. The benefits are the same in animals as they are in people.

Other benefits include improving circulatory disorders, especially impaired heart functions in old age; reducing obesity and hypothyroidism; improving liver and kidney function; and reducing stress and anxiety. This last benefit works both ways. The pet massage giver also has a decrease in stress and anxiety.

I have a client from Hemet, CA whose chihuahua lies on her for the second half of the massage when she is face up. I am not allowed to leave the room until I have spent a minute on Angel’s spine. Another client in Fallbrook has a large Shepherd-Rotweiller who is beginning to experience pain and stiffness in his joints. Bo always presents the hip that is giving him the most discomfort.

Animals know our intentions and rarely will refuse help from us, unless the memory of the problem is so painful they can’t bear it, or if they have been mistreated. Pamela Hannay says, “Each horse I have worked with lives in my heart and continues to be my teacher.” We must show them the respect they deserve, give them the opportunity to let them do the work they are best at and let them by our teachers.

A bodyworker’s question: Is social networking good for our health?

Today’s blog is a rambling blog, from computer break down to finishing a book, to the role of communications via cyber space, to finding our center.

Mercury has been retrograde the last few weeks, which means machines, cars,  and communications break down.  I am told we have the opportunity to look back at old or recurring issues. (Do we have to?)  Today it is going direct again so things should begin to feel a little smoother.   My computer decided to pass over during this retrograded Mercury.  Thus,  two and a half weeks later I am catching up with LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, Facebook, WordPress blog, my emails, and haven’t made it to Digg or Delicious yet.  And need to pay the website domain before they make it public again.  Why do we use these methods of communicating and networking and how do they help?   Why is it so difficult for massage therapists, yoga teachers, dancers and artists to stay in that left brain flow?  I welcome any feedback and ideas.  I have gotten a few bites from all this work, but very few.  I always have enjoyed making connections between individuals and groups, so that in itself is rewarding,  but why do I feel like I am waiting for it all to happen?  Is it where I live?  A quasi-cultural wasteland?  Would the time spent on the computer making contacts  be better spent on the phone making follow up calls?  Actually speaking with people?  My animals think my time would be better spent massaging them, and so do my friends and family.

Soon,  thanks to the return of Microsoft Word and Outlook express (and the people that use it) I will have a finished e-book, or self-published book about my 30 years in the wellness field working with special, unusual and wonderful people (and animals.)   My book has gone through years of stops and starts, revisions, critiques, editing, stalling and blaming it on single motherhood, more revisions, editing, stalling, blaming it on losing my home, but  I think it is about to take shape.   Have others out there had help from social networking with selling books?  I have gone from 1000 pages to 500 pages to 250 pages.  It was about me and my life as part of a tapestry, then it was a compendium of knowledge, then hundreds of hands-on techniques and exercises, then my grandmothers stories of living in Greece, and soon will be the perfect balance of them all. 

I was initially dismayed at the thought  life without my computer, but during the two weeks or so without a computer I slowed down.   I felt like my internal compass was navigating, and my brain wasn’t a constant whir of input and ideas.   How do we keep our “center” while remaining receptive to the world outside? 

centerpoint

“There exists no circle in the world which is not made from within a single point which is located in the center…and this point, which is located in the center, receives all the light, illuminates the body, and all is enlightened.”  From the Zohar

 

Hara-finding your center

In 1970, when I took a ceramics class at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, I quickly discovered that I could not center clay on the pottery wheel.  After months of attempting to keep my clay creations from leaning to the left or right, I decided to ditch that idea and make pinch pots instead.  Over the next few years I studied tai chi and ten years later my studies took me into the heart of Kenpo Karate and White Crane Kung Fu.  It was those movement systems that taught me about finding one’s center, also called hara or tan tien.

The hara, also called “one point”, is said to be located just below the navel and about an inch inside the body.  It is a protected area and considered by many to be a sacred space.  It is not surprising that this is the womb area, and is immediately below where the umbilical cord connects mother and infant. Another factor that makes this area important is that the psoas, a major walking muscle and the only muscle to connect the lumbar spine to the legs is nearby. The intestines, located in the center, are where 95% of the serotonin is manufactured in our body.  The gut’s own nervous system or mini-brain has more nerve cells than our brain’s central nervous system.  The number of nerve fibers that carry messages from our GI tract to our brain is nine times more than those that travel from the brain to the GI tract.  Therefore, a calm gut or hara means calm mind and body.  (I have noticed when I take immodium to slow down motility, my mind relaxes also.)

As a yoga/movement instructor I emphasize that students become centered through mat work, stretching, conscious breathing and attention inward.  By focusing on the center, yoga practitioners are able to generate heat and healing energy throughout their body, at the same time bringing the person into the here and now, with less focus on worries.  The squat, the Iyengar standing and balance poses, dog pose, seated forward bends, and many others stretch the legs and open the hips to develop strength and flexibility in the lower body which encourages us to extend and open our upper body.  And what is the connector here? Our center – of gravity, balance and equilibrium.

Skilled dancers of all styles also move from their centers. In Contact Improvisation, dancers move with others in a constant flow of losing their balance, falling, catching and supporting, often with movements that mirror those of infants learning to move and to trust.  Many forms of movement originate from our center, and that includes bodywork.

The minds of skilled bodyworkers are focused and free of distraction so they are able to be totally in the present with their clients.  They may reach this state before beginning a session by consciously inhaling and consciously exhaling, and using energy awareness techniques such as yoga, meditation or focusing on a mandala.  This creates a free flow of healing energy so that the massage recipient experiences more than simply the physical sensations of having muscles rubbed.  They often experience a renewed sense of wholeness.

I am fascinated by the concept of hara and or center because I know what it is like to be not centered physically, a good example being last year when I was moving a large box in a dark garage. I fell backwards and literally flew through the air and landed on my hipbones. Also there were several times I tripped over grapevines in the hill behind my house which resulted in my completing a somersault mid-air.  I also know what it is like to lose my center emotionally/spiritually.  I know what it is like to “fall out of rhythm” as Brooke Medicine Eagle says, and to be helped back into my rhythm with the help of bodywork and movement.

The center is the starting point when I begin creating a mandala and my calligrapher neighbor has shown me the difference between making a line on paper, and making the line from your center.

Centering is a foundation of my Quaker upbringing and of yogic philosophy.  In Quaker worship, we meditate by calming our thoughts, centering and opening to divine communication.

When I was a child, an elegant family friend always impressed me with her graceful manner and movement.  After her husband died, she immersed herself in Zen Tea Ceremony.  When I bumped into her in New York City decades later, she was still striking, graceful and moving from her hara.

Infant massage class photo

Mandala 3

Mandala 15