Polarity Balancing

The theory is that when these poles are out of balance or reversed, it causes ailments and mental and physical disharmony in the body.

The head of the body is supposed to be the positive pole and the ankles are the negative pole.

Maybe I'm just bitter because I broke a toe in a polarity class (during the break) but most of the information I learned in polarity was sort of obvious to me.

Then again, like many therapists, I came in with my "lights on" so to speak (already psychically open and aware). I intuitively and automatically weave energy work into all of my sessions, even with clients that don't believe in such things, because everything is energy. It's impossible not to do so.

Usually it is simply by setting intention before the session and asking that the energy/lifeforce that I use in the session be for the greatest good for all. I feel that by doing this the massage is impactual on both a physical and energetic level.

Polarity balancing is more specific than what I am describing, but in my opinion is not much more powerful than what my own energetic techniques accomplish. It just emphasizes the energetic side of massage more than the physical.

However, if you are not naturally energetically inclined, polarity balancing is probably one of the better energetic modalities to work with, and I do feel that to really give a great massage, it is important to have an energetic awareness as well as a physical one.

The two cool things I have become aware of through integrating a bit of polarity into my work are:

• The most powerful touch is usually the most gentle.
  I get clients who want me to dig as deeply as possible into them with my elbow, and that can be somewhat therapeutic (if the muscle lets me in), but often it is the most gentle touch with the focus of intention that works ten-fold.

• Sometimes the healing is more powerful if integrated with words and sounds
  Polarity Balancing sometimes involves asking a lot of questions. Sometimes they seem like random questions like:

  "What image is coming to your mind?"

  "An orange."

  "An orange? How big is the orange?"

  "The size of a basketball."

  "A basketball? Does this image have any meaning for you."

  "No."

  "No meaning? Ok. Is the orange solid or hollow?"

  And so on...

  The body holds on to stress and trauma a number of ways, and one of the ways is through images, colors, sensations. By having my client describe such sensations and images, it moves whatever that image/sensation is holding out of the subconscious into the conscious mind.

  Though the image or sensation may seem random and not have any logical reason for being called forth, by speaking on it the client releases energetic connection that the sensation/image is holding.

  The client does not need to know what it means in order to release the subconscious block the image is holding.