My Bodywork Practice & Community
Class
Offerings
4-Rivers Massage Therapy and Bodywork— Specializing in the integration of Body, Mind, Emotion and Spirit
Gently Touching ~ Gently Healing
I am currently in private practice specializing in Therapeutic Massage, Warm Stone Therapy, Massage for People Living with Cancer, End of life, and Body/Mind Interrelationship. I have immense passion for what I do, and feel deep gratitude for the people that allow me into their world through the gentle art of touch. Please take a look below at the depth and diversity of my work.
Swedish Massage is the most well-known or “traditional” type of massage. Works well for pain management or for the client who wants to relax.
Subtle Touch approach offers a safe space to rest, breathe and just “Be.” The touch offered is very gentle and slow, at times using long flowing strokes that feel like water gliding over the body. The client will also experience cradling of the muscle, which invites the tissue to relax and soften—a sense of being held. This approach assists in slowing down the client’s world and invites inner attentiveness.
Esalen Massage combines long, flowing gliding movement with gentle rocking and stretching. This method offers general stress reduction and mind-body-spirit unity. It is a personal service rather than a medical treatment. For fragmented bodies living in a fragmented world, this method offers the client a sense of wholeness. The client will experience the magic of slowing down, quiet and non-doing. People who have experienced Esalen massage agree that it is extraordinary. (You may visit: www.esalen.com)
Warm Stone Therapy offers a unique way to use “mother earth” in a massage to bring about emotional and physical well being. Warm stone massage is a combination of hot stones with Swedish massage strokes, creating a very nurturing, relaxing and effective treatment.
Massage for People Living with Cancer offers specialized massage that incorporates reflexology, gentle touch and warm stone application with healing oils that stimulate special points on the body to support and enhance the inherent healing abilities of the body. This form of therapy provides relaxation along with helping the body to cope with common side effects of surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. The practitioner also offers a safe and honoring space for the feelings and emotions that often accompany a cancer diagnosis. These sessions are typically 75 minutes in length.
End of Life Touch Therapy offers gentle therapeutic touch during this fragile time of a person’s life. Gentle hand massage has been shown to calm anxiety, worry and fearfulness. Kathy offers a presence that holds gentleness, compassion and a listening heart to those she holds in her hands. Kathy also offers massage therapy for the family care-givers.
Bodywork in the Spirit of Hakomi offers healing work that explores the emotional holding behind the physical tension. Hakomi is the therapeutic expression of a set of universal principles: Mindfulness, Unity, Wholism, Nonviolence and Organicity. The premise of this approach is gently working with the body’s sensation, breath and movement, which is the body’s form of speech. This body speech often arises from our unconscious. This can manifest as aches and pains, chronic health conditions, or postural habits. Often our held beliefs, feelings and past experiences constrict muscle tissue, causing chronic muscle tension and pain. As I touch a client, I recognize that I touch a whole person with a unique history that has formed their body. This approach invites the client space to explore how the mind, body, heart and spirit weave together to form their world. This integrative method of working can result in profound and lasting change. Each session integrates transformation-oriented bodywork with insightful dialogue. (You may visit: www.hakomiinstitute.com)
Community Educational Class Offerings:
Couples Full Body Massage offers a day filled with rest, rejuvenation, and reconnecting with your partner through the gentle art of touch. The day begins with instruction and a demonstration, followed by experiential learning. This process of seeing, doing and experiencing allows you to learn each technique from the “inside out”. Our world today is filled with speed and endless obligations. Couples often feel distant from each other—too busy with life. We long to feel connected, intimate and close. Now is the time to redress the balance and return to each other by rediscovering one another through therapeutic touch. This class is like a clearing in the forest, offering a space to just be with each other, offering each other undivided attention and care. Please join me in a day that promises to be a great escape from your busy world: a nurturing place to rest!
Kathy has been offering this class for the past 10 years. The class is well received and enjoyed by all.
Your Body as Beloved Partner is an invitation to recall the quiet and reconnect with your bodies and the spirit within. How do we live with ourselves in peace, harmony and wholeness? It is the practice that is the heart of experience and transformation. Our bodies are a vehicle for this practice. If you are like many women, you have somehow lost the connection between your spirit, intellect, emotions and your body. You may feel disconnected, tired, and out of balance. You may have begun searching for a way to heal this imbalance.
Our time together will introduce you to simple, yet profound ways to increase your bodies’ awareness and reconnect to the spirit within. I hope to offer you a space of ease and gentleness, fostering a greater sense of comfort and connection with self, spirit and the gift of solitude.