UpClose & Personal - Complementary Therapies

At the 2001 ISPA Convention in Palm Springs, California, we learned there are three trends currently leading the spa industry: Ayurvedic, aromatherapy, and stones. This is the first in a four part series of articles about stones. The purpose of these articles is to distill what practitioners, leaders in the spa and wellness industry, and clients know or should know about the efficacy and elegance of stone therapies.

The use of stones for healing is ancient. In 1993, Mary Nelson introduced LaStone Therapy (www.lastonetherapy.com) to the spa and massage world. Like a stone dropped into the proverbial pond, this ripple in the ocean of spa and massage continues to make waves. Clients rave about the therapeutic results, wellness centers and spas report a surge in business, therapists' careers are prolonged, and repetitive stress injuries are reduced. The experience of a stone treatment can be a profoundly healing reconnection with the elements we are made of: earth, air, fire, water and ether (spirit).

Stones are adaptable to a myriad of uses. Reflexologists, aromatherapists, aestheticians, occupational and physical therapists, chiropractors, Oriental body workers, light, sound and vibrational therapists, Reiki and polarity practitioners, sports and medical massage therapists, even therapists to the Hollywood stars now use stones.

Our first article avoids answering the question, "What type of stone therapy should I employ?" It also begins a discussion of the cutting edge of "The New Stone Age": the application of cooling temperatures in massage with chilled marble stones. Our aim is to answer the queries, "Why cooling temperatures?" and "Why marble stones?"

A second article will outline how to integrate the use of chilled marble stones into a hot stone treatment. A third article will consider the practical experience of Paula Marzella, a LaStone therapist living in Vermont, whose post-event treatments for elite cyclists includes ONLY chilled marble stones. Rick Bresett will, in a fourth article, discuss his role as the marble stone innovator at LaPolar Stones (www.lapolarstones.com).

As a practitioner and senior instructor with LaStone Therapy, I admit to a certain bias. My experience with other stone modalities is limited. And I am open to new learning. As I tell my students, "I am not the teacher...we are all mirrors and teachers for one another."

It is the philosophy of LaStone Therapy that stone massage is not a property or possession. As Chief Seattle said, "Can we sell the air?" LaStone Therapy is the Original Hot (and cold) Stone Therapy and we appreciate all expressions of this art form. It is human nature to learn by imitation, to create, and to be entrepreneurial. We celebrate the variety of stone modalities as a testament to the efficacy and elegance of stone therapy. Once ripples in the proverbial pond rebound and the winds of change exert their refreshing influence, the direction and shape of stone-created-waves-to-come are impossible to know. So, the goal at LaStone Therapy is to skillfully surf "the wave" of stone modalities by offering the highest quality information and instruction available in the field of geo-thermo-therapy.

The most therapeutic application of stones in a massage or spa treatment is in their heated and chilled forms. To offer only hot stone massage is just half the picture. The use of hand-crafted, polished, white marble stones to deliver cooling temperatures is a natural balance to the dark, ocean tumbled basalt used to warm and sedate the body.

Cold, used alone on the body, is a powerful decongestant, pushing fluid and wastes out of overworked, chronically tense, or inflamed tissues. Cold can interrupt the pain-spasm-pain cycle. In cooperation with heated stones, chilled marble stones create a dramatic movement of fluids within the body. This is healing due to the cleansing and nourishing effect of vascular gymnastics (alternate constriction/dilation of blood vessels). Cold offers a challenge to the body, so it is strengthening (tonifying) to the immune system.

Chilled marble stones are not as powerful as ice, which has a property called the latent heat of fusion. This energetic property accounts for the power of water to expand when frozen, as well as the power of steam to burn (latent heat of evaporation). Water, frozen and evaporated, is extreme in its effects on the body. This is beneficial in the right measure, as evidenced by steam baths and cryotherapy. In massage, cold marble stones have the advantage over ice, in that stones do not desensitize the skin, as ice can, so soft tissue manipulations and mobilizations will not be taken beyond the client's tolerance.

At room temperature marble is eleven degrees Farenheit cooler than any other stone. This begins to answer, "Why marble?" Please read our next article to hear the full story. We will also outline how to integrate the use of chilled marble stones into a hot stone treatment.

The future of this series will unfold based on the comments and questions of the reading audience, so please contact me.

Email Jill at jill@lastonetherapy.com

About Jill Pingree Dew

Jill Pingree Dew has been an instructor of Original Body LaStone Therapy workshops since 1998. She trained directly with Mary Nelson in Tucson, Arizona and primarily with Patricia Warne, the person most responsible for the introduction of the cool application of marble stones within hot stone massage therapy.

Jill is currently Director of Educational Programs at the Stone Clan Educational Center in Montrose, Colorado. Founded by Rick Bresett, owner of LaPolar Stones, and Patti Templin, former Human Resource Director for LaStone Therapy and a master instructor, the Stone Clan Center offers continuing education workshops primarily for LaStone Therapists. Jill is originating a 600-hour massage therapy program at the center, the Western Colorado School for Body, Mind and Spirit.

Jill's teaching experience goes back to her childhood where her favorite pastime was to play school. In 1986, Jill earned a B.S. degree in Secondary Education at the University of Maine Farmington. She taught high school social studies and coached field hockey, basketball as well as track and field. She taught Swedish and Therapeutic Massage as well as Anatomy and Physiology at the Connecting Point School of Massage and Spa Therapies in Telluride, Colorado, under the direction of Toni Nurnberg.

Jill has been a student of yoga since 1987, training at the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. At the Peaks Resort and Spa in Telluride, where she was a massage and spa therapist for five years, she also taught yoga, meditation hikes, and movement therapies. Her continued education includes classes in Hydrotherapy with Dr. Reinhardt Bergel, Core myofascial massage with Dr. George Kousaleous, Ayurvedic studies with Tara Grodjesk, Dr. Pratima Raichur, and the Himalayan Institute, Breema, Sound therapy with tuning forks and Human Voice Healing with Wayne Perry, and Melody's Crystal Light Healing Methods. She is a Master Reiki (Usui and Tera Mai) practitioner and teacher. Jill has been an AMTA member and certified by the NCBTMB since 1991. She has been a recreation director, ski instructor, whitewater raft guide, and director of a summer day camp. Her home in the Rockies allows her to pursue skiing, golf, hiking, and mountain biking.

Jill's teaching style is compassionate. "My intention is to create a nurturing, non-competitive environment where each person is supported to learn in their unique style and pace. I am not THE teacher...we are all teachers for one another." Jill is available to travel to spas and wellness centers to teach LaStone Therapy. You can contact her at jill@lastonetherapy.com or at the Western Colorado School for Body, Mind and Spirit at (970) 252-8385.