UpClose & Personal

Fifteen years ago, when in Portland, Oregon, conducting one of my first workshops, I noticed that some of the attendees were treating me with unusual deference and respect. It seemed as if they were thinking that, because I was presenting a workshop, I was somehow a ‘great and gifted one.’ Someone once told me that a presenter’s seeming expertise is directly proportional to the distance they travel from out of town. I’d come some 300 miles from across the state. Maybe that was the reason for my new-found esteem. I was mulling this over and thinking about how to deal with it, when one of my newly found ‘disciples’ asked me what I called this massage work that I was showing them.

My response was that, although a number of unique improvements to bodywork were revealed to me early on in my exploration of positioning, I didn’t want to give a name to my work. As far as I can tell, there are only so many ways one can apply touch, stretch, or resistance to a body, no matter what you call it. I explained that, although what I was doing may appear to be unique, it’s simply soft tissue manipulation, rooted in the basics of Swedish; an eclectic blending and adaptation of a variety of different, but similar, approaches with the consideration of positioning added.

As the workshop continued, a question was asked, “Do you eat meat? (O, great master)?” Which didn’t have anything to do with the workshop.

At that point I said, “Hey, whoa, wait a minute here. Don’t do this to me! And don’t do this to yourselves! If you give up power to me, you’re shortchanging yourselves. What I have to share with you today are possibilities. I didn’t think all this up. It’s simple stuff with the adaptation of positioning. These approaches are rooted in basic massage, applied with the fundamentals of touch; an eclectic blending of techniques. Some of this I developed from basic massage, some of it I learned from my clients, and some of it I learned from other therapists who have worked on me. No doubt, you guys will teach me some things today.”

That early workshop experience caused me to include in all of my following workshops a clarifying statement that goes something like this, “Look at what I share with you today and what others have to offer with an open but discerning mind. I’m not here to tell you this is the way.I really don’t want to give a name to what I’m showing you. Just experience this and see how it feels. What I have come to doing is rooted in objective reality, is measurable, explainable, and can be articulated in anatomical terms. What makes sense to me, as far as hands-on applications are

concerned, has a clear and valid explanation. Of course, additional to the massage applications, positive suggestions can be very powerful and can play an important role.”

What I have found is that there are gems in all approaches, but you have to find them. You have to identify them based on the model of your world as you understand it. Identifying these gems is just the beginning of developing the power of your intuition.

Then, you adapt, practice, and refine. When techniques continue to make sense to you within the context and understanding of your work, then they become yours. Not everything I share may be appropriate for you. But again, you may find elements that you can add to your repertoire. And likewise, I, no doubt, will learn from you.

Working and learning in this way, and practicing with continual questioning, seeking, and examination, can develop a powerful, intuitive approach to very effective work. I always recommend that, rather than give up power to someone else, develop your own power. Empower yourself with humility and honesty. And to do that, examine all that you’re being told. Seek truth. And realize that we all learn from each other.

Tom Owens

There are several things I’ve become aware of in the realm of massage education. First, ‘massage’ seems to be a word with which few practitioners and educators want to be identified. Somehow, if we admit being a massage therapist, we feel as if we’re instantly relegating ourselves to Second Class esteem. For many of us, more important appearing letters and designations after our names seem to be necessary.

There is a massage education industry with a large, eager, cash-ready audience. And there are many similar massage methods bearing different, technical-sounding, trademarked names. And there are new, trademarked massage constructs coming out of thin air, constantly. These numerous educational offerings disguise the similarity of relatively simple massage techniques. It’s also interesting to me that, if an educator has a certification ‘higher’ than massage, we are willing to accept, unquestioningly, the credibility of their offerings, despite the fact there may be no rational explanation for the purported effectiveness of their approaches to treatment.

Some methodologies marketed in the massage education industry seem to have more to do with an almost religious promoting of educator's (seeming or apparent) mastery. And some have more to do with psychotherapy or hypnotherapy than having much of anything to do with massage. How confusing for a massage student today! With such a variety of technical-sounding offerings, massage has become an amorphous, jumbled confusion of seemingly-complicated methodologies when, in fact, all of them deal with the same simple elements of touch.

In our eagerness to elevate our ‘massage’ to a more highly-regarded status, many of us do all we can to distance our work from Swedish massage, and in so doing have wandered from some of the basic precepts of massage. Swedish massage seems to have been relegated by many to the same category as the shoeshine, despite the fact this is our heritage. Of course, Swedish evolved over many, many generations and is simply a collection of techniques that were repeatedly found to bring results. To achieve the best possible outcomes, you can’t ignore the relaxation component. Deep relaxation, of course, accelerates the healing process.

It seems to me that if ‘massage,’ as a comprehensive body of work, and as educational offerings was demystified, more clearly defined, and understood, the image of massage would significantly improve. A clearer, objective identity for massage could gain increased acceptance by the medical mainstream. This could significantly change the prevailing allopathic model, much to the benefit of everyone.

ABOUT TOM

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1942 and raised in Southern California since 1946, Tom attended Long Beach State College, traveled for a year in Europe, and completed his life's first career with Campbell Sales Company by 1967. At Campbell Soup Tom attained the position of account executive in Los Angeles, the world's largest prepared food market. Opting for early retirement, Tom moved to Breckenridge, Colorado where he worked as a miner and ski lift operator. During this time he obtained his real estate license, pursuing his second life career as a real estate agent selling undeveloped ski area property. Later he was involved in construction in Colorado, California, and Oregon.

After moving to Oregon Tom discovered his interest in massage and in 1975 built his first massage table using the plans in George Downing's The Massage Book. In Oregon Tom became co-manager of the Ashland Community Food Store, a community owned cooperative. He spearheaded the purchase and renovation of the building that for many years was the home of "The Co-op". During that time his involvement in a local skills bank led to Tom's third life career, forestry contractor, as owner of Northwest Forestry. During this time Tom practiced massage as an avocation. In 1980 Tom moved to Hawaii for a time and while there was inspired by his landlord, a massage therapist, to pursue massage as a full time vocation.

After moving back to Ashland, Tom received his massage certification and eventually added massage instruction as well as hypnotherapy to his private practice. During this time Tom was constantly looking for better ways to meet his clients' needs. This continual search for improvement led to a unique massage table design that eventually incorporated specific elements of anatomical support that optimized his clients' comfort. His clients frequently asked him if he could make them something they could use at home that would make them as comfortable. In an effort to do this, Tom extracted the specific, supporting design elements from his table and made a stand-alone, anatomical support system. This eventually became known as the bodyCushion. That was 14 years ago. Now there are more than 65,000 bodycushions in 67 countries and numerous leading educators have adapted the bodyCushion to their methods.

Tom's exploration of positioning has been ongoing for more than 25 years. He claims the bodyCushion has been his greatest teacher and attributes most of what he has come to realize about positioning and bodywork to his ongoing exploration of positioning possibilities using this tool. He is currently developing a new video series, its foundation being his current, available video series, "New Approaches to Muscle Therapy". This series, and a book by the same name available in Japan, evolved over many years of presenting seminars throughout Japan. He says, "What makes these approaches new, or different, is the consideration of positioning." He says his new series will contain numerous discoveries made since the current series was produced some 7 years ago. Tom's mission and the mission of Body Support Systems, Inc., Tom's company that manufactures and markets the bodycushion, is to educate about the significant difference positioning can make, and the noticeable improvements when included in a process of therapeutic intervention.

Tom’s email address: OWENSBODY@aol.com