Despite the fact that NO HANDS® Massage started life in 1988 as a zero strain way to deliver Swedish Massage, the plain fact is that it now resembles conventional Massage about as much as a space shuttle resembles a bicycle. I believe that this is down to three key characteristics:

1. SENSORY AND SENSORIMOTOR STIMULATION

Most of the strokes used in NO HANDS® Massage involve four or five times more touch and sensory stimulation than conventional approaches to Massage. This means clients are getting off the table after a treatment having literally received a SMORGASBORD OF TOUCH. This sensory nerve stimulation results in a massive release of endorphins that raises both the physical and mental RESILIENCE of each client - something that is simply not possible through other approaches. This is what enables clients to report that our treatments empower them to deal much more effectively with the stresses and strains of everyday life.

This sensory stimulation  is also matched by the high volume of ‘sensorimotor nerve’ stimulation due to the sheer physical power and force of our movements. These movements use more bodyweight and power than any Massage approach in the last 2,000 years of the profession’s history. What is truly unique about these movements is that they are completely painless for both client and practitioner. This means that bones, ligaments and muscles are all being moved in such a way that the brain is able to ‘re-set’ their positions for optimal effectiveness. This is down to the simple HOMEOSTATIC and self-rebalancing nature of all human beings. This is most often seen when clients have a ‘wobbly walk’ after the treatment - indicating a powerful resetting of previously dysfunctional ‘length and tension’ patterns throughout the body. This ‘wobbly walk’ normally disappears after a few minutes - once the ‘re-set’ is completed.

2. VOLUME OF DEPTH AND WEIGHT

A core philosophy that lies at the heart of NO HANDS Massage is that it is primarily a DECOMPRESSION THERAPY. This is made uniquely possible through a training that teaches practitioners to pour ALL their body weight into the client’s tissues without any pain or discomfort to the client whatsoever. This compression is one reason for the intensity of our trainings as each therapist is encouraged to move much more like a dancer than a conventional Massage therapist is trained to do.This core philosophy means that clients may experience more compression on their tissues than at any other time in their life. One of the most common statement made by clients is “I stick with you because I simply cannot get touch this deep anywhere else” - a testament to the sheer volume of depth and weight provided by our practitioners.

However, what happens next is the real key…

Because our practitioners are trained to decompress these tissues in a unique and truly expert way, the client can release phenomenal amounts of tension during this decompression phase of each movement. What we witness is a profound ‘unwinding’ of the client’s tension patterns that can travel through all levels of their being. It is this unwinding that probably accounts for the tremendous transformational power of NO HANDS Massage.

Nothing is told about this to the client beforehand and there is no ‘transformational agenda’ or expectation placed on the client. With us, it is the client who informs the practitioner of the depth and scope of the transformation experienced from this DECOMPRESSION THERAPY after the session, not the other way round. What is common, however, is that as clients repeatedly experience their own innate power for self healing, they often arrive for sessions with clear transformational agendas. This is one reason why clients tend to stay with NO HANDS Massage practitioners ‘for life’ as most bodyworkers are simply not trained to handle this level of personal transformation. This is why our training courses are "a little different" from other bodywork approaches.

3. A FIVE DIMENSIONAL TRAINING

The main reason for the success of NO HANDS Massage is the high quality and duration of our training. This is due to our particular emphasis on providing clients with an innovative ‘Transformational Touch Therapy’.  This requires a training that is all about the specific sort of TOUCH that enables clients to release tension and dis-ease from across all of the FIVE dimensions that constitute a human being, namely: Physical, Energetic, Emotional, Mental and Physical. I call this PEEMS and this 5-dimensional approach is in stark contrast to the more popular 1-dimensional emphasis of most Massage training courses on Physical only release. It is my own view that:

“THE ONLY PLACE YOU WILL FIND A ‘PHYSICAL ONLY’ CLIENT IS IN THE MORGUE”

 This unique training is as much about our own awareness as it is about powerful techniques. It is as much a healing journey for the practitioner as it is for our clients. For this reason it can easily take up to three years to complete and some therapists may need even longer due to their own personal healing journey. What makes this training unique amongst bodywork trainings is its high level of support and its use of communication and self awareness techniques used in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy to empower both clients and practitioners alike.

To complete this training as a Transformational Touch Therapist, you progress through the four levels at your own pace: from Practitioner, to Advanced, to Therapist, to Master. For most practitioners, this training is a life transforming and life empowering experience. This is because the first and most basic rule in the ‘house of healing’ is that “You cannot take your clients anywhere that you have not been yourself”. To facilitate our client’s decompression, we must first allow our own decompression across all five dimensions of our being. It is this decompression that allows our intuition and instinct to flow safely throughout every session. This is because, at the end of the day, all effective bodywork is largely a question of feel, of instinct.

It is of course, always a question of HARA.

What to get started on your NO HANDS journey? You can "dip your toe" with our one-day DYNAMICS OF DEPTH course or, if you're ready to jump in, our 3-day TRANSFORMING TOUCH course is the place to go. For more information click here.