Although anatomy and physiology are part of standard massage therapy training, I’m not medically trained to the extent that doctors or physiotherapists are, so can’t pretend to diagnose the precise physical problems that people come to me with, and certainly can’t claim to have a reliable treatment for them. When I feel some empathy for a person though, I want to help them with a kind of love delivered through my hands. Some clients say they feel heat, some describe it as energy. I don’t understand it and I struggled with the feeling for many years, but I’ve learned to trust my own instinctive approach to massage and now have confidence that what I feel is something real and valuable. Here is a description of massage by Osho, the Indian guru and spiritual teacher, which matches my feelings extremely well, and saves me trying to put them into words myself. If you come to me with your mind open to receive touch, this is what you will feel:

“Massage is something that you can start learning but you never finish. It goes on and on, and the experience becomes continuously deeper and deeper, and higher and higher. Massage is one of the most subtle arts - and it is not only a question of expertise. It is more a question of love... Learn the technique - then forget it. Then just 'feel', and move by feeling. When you learn deeply, ninety percent of the work is done by love, ten percent by the technique. By just the very touch - a loving, conscious touch, something relaxes in the body. If you love and feel compassion for the other person, and feel the ultimate value of him; if you don't treat him as if he is a mechanism to be put right, but an energy of tremendous value; if you are grateful that he trusts you and allows you to play with his energy - then by and by you will feel as if you are playing on an organ. The whole body becomes the keys of the organ and you can feel that a harmony is created inside the body. Not only will the person be helped, but you also.

Conscious Touch is needed in the world today because 'love' has disappeared. Once, the very touch of lovers was enough. A mother touched the child, played with his body, and it was massage. The husband played with the body of his woman, and it was massage. It was enough, more than enough. It was deep relaxation and part of love. But that has disappeared from the world. By and by, we have forgotten where to touch, how to touch, how deep to touch. In fact, 'touch' is one of the most forgotten languages. We have become almost awkward in touching, because the very word has been corrupted by so-called religious people. They have given it a sexual colour. The word has become sexual and people have become afraid. Everybody is on guard not to be touched, unless he allows it.

Now, in the West, the other extreme has come. Touch and massage have become sexual. These days massage is just a cover, a blanket, for sexuality. In fact, essentially, neither touch nor massage are sexual. They are functions of love. When love falls from its height, it becomes sex, and it becomes ugly. So be prayerful. When you touch the body of a person, be prayerful... as if God himself is there, and you are just serving him. Flow with total energy. And, whenever you see the body flowing and the energy creating a new pattern of harmony - you will feel a delight that you have never felt before. You will fall into deep meditation. While massaging, just massage. Don't think of other things, because those things are distractions. 'Be' in your fingers and your hands as if your whole being, your whole soul, is there. Don't let it be just a touch of the body. Your whole soul enters into the body of the other, penetrates it, relaxes the deepest complexes. And make it a play. Don't do it as a job. Make it a game, and take it as fun. Laugh, and let the other laugh, too.”