I have been practicing and studying massage, bodywork, holistic therapy and energy healing for over 20 years now. Over this period of time I have trained extensively in a wide range of massage and bodywork therapies covering Eastern energetic, meridian based bodywork such as Shiatsu, Thai Yoga Massage & Chinese Tui-Na acupressure; Western modalities such as Sports & Remedial massage, Deep Tissue & Myofascial Release, Reflexology, various head and face massages; and including lesser know techniques such as Lomi Lomi massage, Pulsing and Ayurvedic massage. This practical study has been combined with continuous self exploration and expanding study of our psychological and emotional nature which has lead me into Numerology and Astrology, Reichian and other forms of psychotherapy.
Over the years my practice has been through many stages, each with their own flavour and emphasis. Being eclectic in nature, I have brought these many techniques together into my own style of working. Underneath the changing ways of practicing, the essence of my natural way to work has been emerging, alongside a growing understanding of human nature, our desires, motivations and fears and especially how these aspects shape and are reflected in our physical bodies.
The bodywork I now offer is a psychotherapeutic, emotional and energetic exploration of who you are, through your physical body and using verbal dialogue, with the intention of facing and embracing the parts of yourself you have avoided and struggled with endlessly. This may at first seem like an unattractive prospect yet it is a way to truly releasing old pain, tension and various anxieties that have existed hidden under the surface for years.
I always enjoy the direct, grounded and honest engagement when working with the physical body and through it the emotional, psychological and spiritual self of each person.
Below you can click for more information on some of the individual techniques I incorporate into my practice
Massage and bodywork can help in so many ways. In essence, it helps to restore balance, health and harmony in all areas, whether psychological or emotional, and of course physical. Here you can read more about the healing benefits you may receive through massage and bodywork
Through massage and bodywork, and the soothing, nurturing quality of touch it offers, I intend to bring balance, peace and rejuvenation to your body, your mind and spirit. It can often kindle a new lease of life in a person who feels exhausted, in pain, stressed or anxious.
Being the physical creatures that we are, touch, and therapeutic touch in particular, are so fundamental to maintaining our health, and to restoring health where illness has developed. In my work with people and their bodies, I see no limitation in how massage and bodywork may help to bring about integration and transformation – whatever the physical condition of your body, mind or emotions. This translates as more ease, freedom and peace in your body – and less tension, pain and fear.
I wish to offer soothing touch in the non-physical sense of being met, accompanied and accepted for who you are, by another, in that moment. This means you will have the space and freedom from judgement (from another) and may relax and feel comfortable for whoever you are. People often reveal to me parts of themselves they rarely do to others, and this is an honour for me. It is where the healing occurs, for when we reveal the truth of ourselves, we will release the mental tension of having to constantly assert and present our version of ourselves, and this then allows our faithful bodies to relax and rest.
I work according to your needs and wishes. But as is the case with life in general, the more open, willing and receptive you are, naturally the more you will gain from a session. So it really comes down to where you place your attention. What are you inviting? Do you wish to truly offer yourself to change? Its okay if you do not – massage and bodywork will still be deeply beneficial to you – its just the unknown potential will be left untouched.
“Massage is something that you can start learning but you never finish. It goes on and on, and the experience becomes continuously deeper and deeper, and higher and higher. Massage is one of the most subtle arts – and it is not only a question of expertise. It is more a question of love… “Learn the technique – then forget it. Then just ‘feel’, and move by feeling. When you learn deeply, ninety percent of the work is done by love, ten percent by the technique. By just the very touch – a loving, conscious touch, something relaxes in the body. “If you love and feel compassion for the other person, and feel the ultimate value of him; if you don’t treat him as if he is a mechanism to be put right, but an energy of tremendous value; if you are grateful that he trusts you and allows you to play with his energy – then by and by you will feel as if you are playing on an organ. The whole body becomes the keys of the organ and you can feel that a harmony is created inside the body. Not only will the person be helped, but you also.”
To be embodied is to feel. To feel one must be embodied. There is a direct correlation between how grounded or comfortable we are in our bodies and how much we feel. This may seem peculiar, the idea that we do not feel, but the fact is most of us have only an idea of how we feel, of how we should feel which is always very different to the truth.
This leads to denial and to the endless pursuit of an infinite number of ways in which to numb our feelings and ourselves. It also leads to manipulation and a desire to control the world around us, for when we do not directly express our feelings and needs, we project onto others and use deceit to get what we want.
Needless to say we cannot connect very well with others when we repress our own feelings and therefore separate ourselves from the world around us and a full experience of it which can only occur through feeling. So with our minds we say we want intimacy, let beneath the mental idea of ourselves we are doing everything we can to prevent receiving the love we state we want.
Connecting with our bodies helps us to connect with our feelings. Every single one of our repressed feelings, memories, thoughts, ideas and beliefs about ourselves and the world is imprinted upon our bodies. These then shape the posture of our bodies and are then broadcast to the world in an assertive statement of ones idea of oneself. The body is the keeper of secrets, the repository of all that our minds refuse to face.
This is why our posture become distorted and disorderly, and our bodies contracted and painful. Stress, in all its manifestations, springs from resistance and avoidance of what is, our minds imposing upon our bodies and our lives what ‘we know’ and our idea of the way it must be.
Our society teaches us, and rewards us for our disproportionate allocation of our energy and life force into the mental realm. So quite literally, most of our energy is locked up in our heads, depriving our bodies of vitality whilst burdening them with a myriad of limiting ideas and beliefs that are experienced as physical limitations within the body.
This is why massage and bodywork, as well as physical practices such as yoga, are so fundamentally essential to becoming aware of your body and mind, your relationship to your body and from there embodied and comfortable within your fleshy physical parameters. We can then feel fully too. It is this aspect which is one of the gifts of massage and bodywork. A session can do wonders to reduce a build up of tension, but without the change that comes from awareness and responsibility and a consequent release of mental control, the same physical tension will return again soon enough.
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London, East Sussex, UK & Worldwide
+44 (0)7958 561 467
enquiries@jag-reeves.com
Skype – jag.reeves