Speaker: Sara Johnston
Describe what is different in your practice and/or your life, now that you have finished the intensive.
Sara Johnston: All right. So what's different now? Um, post class, um, a few weeks out and I've had a lot of bodies to work on and play with, um, and consider how I wanted to carate how I wanted to um incorporate the work or adjust my style. Um I think the funny part is I heard the call that I needed to go and what ended up happening was that it was exactly the class I've been avoiding. Um I generally always talked uh in most sessions, I always was client led. So they would need to carry the conversation. But um most of my clients wanted to talk um male, female um about all sorts of things. And um, since I've been back, all of those clients have started being quiet except for like one out of 10, I haven't quite yet figured out what the change is that is holding the space differently for them to quiet down and tap in. But um that's a huge one just seeing my clients change to me holding this space differently and may not even quite understanding how I'm holding this space differently. Um But it's obviously palpable because I don't ask them to be quiet. I just put my hands on and they silence. It's pretty, pretty wild. Um And I think part of it before was I was avoiding actually allowing clients to integrate and process. I um absolutely did not want an emotional release. Um I'm not looking for it now, but I'm giving people the time to process and integrate. So however that whatever that looks like for them, um which is probably what people were feeling before was that I was not giving them the space nor was I inviting them to process. So they just verbally processed and did whatever in their body, um the other elements. So in the way and to be literal, the way that I'm changing, that is that I'm trying to find moments to pause. My motions are much slower after the class than they were before. Um I might do one long pass rather than three depending on the length of the massage. Um And just make that one pass ultra worth it. Um And in those moments that the client is taking a deep breath, I can feel I'm sinking in. This is an integration moment. I am am trying to be more aware of and pause or move slowly or breathe with them. Um And I'm hoping that right, this is creating a a healing space for them, for them to feel held and loved. And my also interesting shift. My sessions have always been challenging. I love doing torturously deep work. Um I typically deny sessions to people that just want to be petted and touched lightly. I find that very um un kinesthetic interesting. Um But the way that this class has changed the challenge element um is that I'm like still super muscle specific mechanic style. Like I want to do a yummy treatment session. Like I want this to make them not just feel relaxed but go. Oh The thanks that pain in my shoulder is gone. Um So it's still still my, one of my top priorities, but I'm scanning through the muscles and through the body and doing my yummy treatment style. But I'm also trying to get lost in their body to um really, really tapping into that intuitive process of I feel like sludge here. So let's just slow down and hold and breathe and um give the spot more time and it's fine if I'm not being symmetrical on left to right because none of us are symmetrical left to right anyways. Um So that's a, that's a big one. And I, I think, I guess one of the ways I would say is that um this sounds a little bit more woo and a little more extra than I typically talk about massage, given that muscle mechanic kind of mentality and being anatomically specific and all of that. But um I almost feel like in this way that I'm trying to describe holding space for people differently and I'm getting quiet is, is that I'm taking my kinesthetic work and I am elevating it. And what is that elevation? I think it's to hold the whole human and right, like when clients walk in and they say their shoulders hurt and their shoulders are sore like 100% of everyone which they acknowledge, right? They know um the shoulders are where we hold tension and they are ST I, I've noticed in a, in a couple of clients that I've been paying attention to, if I can get their shoulders to release the tension and release the, the pain in a way that's more nervous system affecting rather than just trying to dig in to the muscles and force them to change or, um, release or however, you know what I'm talking about it. But, um, I feel like my clients have left more floaty and uh flying and a little freer than some of my work before. Well, to be continued, I'll let you know how it changes.
