Esalen Massage: When You Knead To Be Touched

Bien sur, you've been massaged. But, have you ever really been kneaded?

If you're the type of person seeking something that massages your spirit as well as body, try Esalen Massage.

Esalen massage is a specialized form of massage originating in Esalen Institute, in Big Sur, California. Like most forms of this alternative medicine modality, it is effective for pain relief, energy release and stress reduction.

But this U.S.A-born, West Coast-style variation of a century-old Swedish Massage helps the person integrate body, mind and spirit.

Unlike Swedish massage, which was developed as part of sports medicine and focuses on affecting specific muscles, joints and organs to increase mobility, Esalen is derived from Gestalt psychotherapy.

Esalen is about touching, caring, energy awareness, and spirituality, because, much like Energy Balancing, the premise behind Esalen is that touching is a basic need. As essential as air, food or water.

It involves a caring-giving-receiving open relationship between practitioner and patient, and it is often done in the nude.

But there is no need to fear that it is an extreme derivation of therapuetic massage. These practitioners will stretch the daylights out of you to feel safe.

It combines sensory awareness, Swedish massage, oriental medicine, meditation, rolfing, yoga stretches, somatic mind-body psychology, and other energetically-based polarity massage.