My Services
Soothing hands offers you a number of techniques, including deep tissue massage, Swedish massage, hot stone massage, pregnancy massage, cupping, chair massage, Integrated Energy Therapy, Reiki, crystal healing and sound healing. If you want a particular type of massage or energy technique, please ask us about it. Often, though, we don’t separate them, just as you don’t fix a broken chair with only a hammer. So it is with us – we have a variety of techniques that we will discuss with you to mix and match and give you a treatment customized to your particular problems or desires.
Therapeutic Massage
Come and experience the healing effects of a therapeutic massage. Julie will find your areas of tension and work with you to find relief.
Pregnancy Massage
Prenatal massage is specifically tailored to the expectant mother’s needs. Using a combination techniques, prenatal massage eases backaches caused by muscle tension and shifts in posture to accommodate increasing weight. It also increases circulation, reduces swelling in hands and lower legs, and improves skin elasticity, which can help to reduce stretch marks. The human touch is comforting and provides much needed nurturing and emotional support.
Hot Stone Massage
If you’re always cold, you’ll love hot stone massage! It uses ultra-smooth, flat heated stones to apply pressure and gentle heat to the body, usually along points of the back, or sometimes in the palms of the hand. We handle the stones with our hands first, to make sure they are the right temperature. The heat of the stones penetrates deeply into the muscles, helping to release muscle tension, improve circulation and calm the nervous system, rebalancing your energy.
Deep Tissue Massage
Do you suffer from injury-related muscle pain? This technique focuses on the deeper layers of muscles that are severely knotted or overstressed. Using direct and deep pressure, it aims to break up adhesions that surround injuries and chronically tight muscles, thus relieving pain and restoring normal movement. Deep tissue massage targets specific problems areas more than whole body relaxation.
Swedish Massage
Want to just relax and destress? This is the classical “relax and feel good” massage. The long strokes used in this type of massage soothe and gently knead the outer layers of muscle tissue, helping to release tension, reduce pain and lessen joint stiffness. In one eight week study, it significantly improved knee function in patients with osteoarthritis (Robertshawe P. June 2007 “Massage for Osteoarthritis of the Knee” Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society 13 (2): 87).
Chair Massage
Need a massage for a group of people after a golf tournament, for a tradeshow booth, a fundraising event or in the workplace? We can come to you with our chair. You sit fully clothed, face forward, on a special ergonomic chair, and feel totally comfortable while we use a combination of Swedish and deep tissue massage techniques to target muscles in your neck, shoulders and back. It’s a quick and easy way to increase employee productivity at work, to encourage visits to your tradeshow booth, and to make people attending your sports event love you!
Energy Therapy
Crystal Healing
Crystal healing has been used in different cultures throughout history: the ancient Egyptians, the Hopi Native Americans, and Hawaiians to name a few. It is a technique that uses stones and crystals as healing tools. The idea is that crystals are electromagnetic conductors. The human body is also an electromagnetic energy system. So crystals interact with our energy centers and can create energy vibrations that heal, restore balance, and clear negative energy. Different types of crystals have different vibrations and healing properties that stem from their mineral content, color frequency and geometry.
Integrated Energy Therapy
Just like matter and energy are interrelated, the human body is an energy field as well as a physical collection of organs. Although it is not as visible, energy flows through your body much the same way as blood; and just like blood, the flow of energy can be restricted as a result of negative experiences or emotions. When the memory of a negative experience or emotion stays with you, energy blockages occur. When energy blockages build up, your body reacts with anything from muscle aches and pains to general malaise.
IET clears these energy blockages and gets your energy flowing. It removes the negative memories and feelings that you no longer want and replaces them with positive energy. You feel better, because you are no longer carrying around those garbage bags. Your emotional issues get out of your tissues.
In an IET session you lie fully clothed on a massage table with relaxing music playing in the background, while Julie uses a gentle therapeutic touch at key energy points along your body to release negative memories, clear blockages and rebalance your energy. You leave feeling relaxed and refreshed, ready to engage with life!
Sound Healing
Sound healing dates back to ancient times. It uses sound vibrations from either the human voice or from instruments to help reduce stress, alleviate pain and create a sense of peace and balance. The basic principle is that everything, including our body, is in a state of vibration. For instance in your brain, different frequency patterns can make you feel focused and able to concentrate or totally relaxed. Certain sound frequencies coming from outside the body can actually impact the sympathetic nervous system, slowing heart and respiratory rates, disrupting the pain reflex and creating a sense of relaxed well-being.
Reiki
The word Reiki is a combination of two Japanese words – Rei which means “Light or the Higher Power” and Ki which is “universal or life force energy”. So the characters which combine to create Reiki actually mean “spiritually guided life force energy.” It is a holistic therapy that works in conjunction with the energy meridians and chakras, bringing healing on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels. The belief is that the energy will flow through the practitioner’s hands whenever the hands are placed on, or held near a potential recipient.