Training & Education from 1999 to date...

• Remedial Massage (Diploma in Remedial Body Therapies) Island Health, Hobart 1999 and 2000 (Two years - evening classes).

  Remedial Therapy is best defined as anything that works! So it can use any of the many techniques available: such as MET (Muscle Energy Technique), MLD (Manual Lymphatic Drainage), Trigger Point therapy, Ortho-bionomy, knowledge of Anatomy and Physiology + much more mentioned elsewhere.

  I use these skills in an integrated way every day.

• Reflexology (Part of my Diploma course.)

  I studied Reflexology over a number of years, but I now prefer other techniques instead. I no longer use Reflexology as such.

  However using the many different reflexes of the nervous system is fundamental to my work.

• Theta Healing - Numerous 1-2 day courses.

  Whilst this was important at the time (~2005), it was superseded by RPT (Reference Point Therapy) which was taught in Melbourne.

  From Theta Healing I learned the powerful significance of our beliefs, thoughts and memories - conscious or subconscious - and a way of getting past them. And the role of such beliefs in making us better - or worse!

• Reference Point Therapy (RPT) - Numerous 1-7 day courses.

  RPT extends the work of Theta Healing, but has a more coherent structure, and from these RPT courses I developed an interest helping people with the peaceful healing of Trauma.

  The methods I use are not themselves traumatic, and so those methods do not reinforce the trauma.

• Feldenkrais - Classes in Awareness Through Movement (ATM).

  I attended weekly classes over 10+ years, and several 1- day workshops.

  ATM is one of the best everyday ways of maintaining your body-mind connection and balance I have come across. And none of the classwork requires conceptual learning. I learned the value of small movements; while paying close attention to any sensations in my body; then waiting for the nervous system to process that experience, while I lay still, on my back. Every time I left that weekly class I felt "I am back together again!"

• Buddhist philosophy - The depth of enquiry found here is amazing!

  Buddhism, it seems to me, is not properly a religion. It is a mostly well-founded philosophy of mind-training, and is coherent with (the best) modern therapeutic research. However, I do not call myself a Buddhist. I studied by reading books. And there are many forms of Meditation on offer - apart from Buddhist ones.

• Cranio-Sacral Therapy (CST) - 3 day training in Sydney, with the Upledger Institute of Australia.

  This was the starting point in my training in subtle-sense palpation. It allows me to feel the subtle pulsating rhythms of the cranio-sacral fluid around the brain and spinal cord. That is the major benefit I got from it. I decided that there was not a ready market for CST in Hobart, and today I would not claim to be that type of therapist. CST was developed by, among others, John Upledger (USA) who first trained in Chiropractic before developing CST.

  Subtle-sense-palpation finds further use in Ortho-bionomy.

  Note: There are several other varieties of CST - such as Bio-dynamic CST.

• Ortho-bionomy: (Numerous 1-3 day courses)

  Ortho-bionomy was developed by Arthur Lincoln Pauls (ALP), an Osteopath from the US. Its highlight for me was its effective but gentle approach, which it shares with Feldenkrais and CST, and the multiplicity of types of reflexes of the nervous system, which it identifies and treats differently. This is where my Cranio-Sacral training came in handy! Ortho-bionomy can be described as a gentle, non-manipulative, sensed/tactile conversation between the sensitised therapist and the your nervous system (by sensing and responding to reflexes of various types). It occurs mostly under non-conscious control. The therapist must be mentally still, to sense and respond to subtle signals.

  Note: Do not confuse "reflexes" as used here, with Reflexology.

• Reiki - Over several years I trained in Reiki on 1 & 2 day workshops.

  Reiki offers hands-on (and hands off) energy healing of Japanese origins. I no longer think of myself as a Reiki practitioner, but I know and respect some local therapists, including esteemed former colleagues at Breeze.

  Note: Reiki connects with Ortho-bionomy at its deepest level ("Phase 7").

• Volitional Release (VR123) This three-level therapy is the culmination of my decades of reading, attending courses and professional practice, and I have evolved this new therapy into my current practice.

  I will teach VR1 to you in your first session, so that you can use it to accelerate your response to bodywork. This introduction takes only 10 minutes - and is a wonderful investment! It also will help you get the maximum benefit, not only from your massage, but also any other therapy - and in living your life!

• General statements - from experience.

  • When it comes to therapy it's mostly a case of: Horses for courses

  • That is: Who you see matters, and who you are matters.

  • Whist it seems there may be no guaranteed outcomes in a therapeutic context, I suspect this might be true in any field of endeavour, including Life!

  • What I suggest you do is: "Go with your inner-heart feeling."

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