Alicia discovered the healing power of touch while working as a hair stylist. Today she spends her time connecting with and helping people through the practice of massage.
Alisha's Story
"Shampooing hair was my foray into massage."
When I first got into doing hair, I was an assistant at a large salon, and I was doing a lot of shampoos. I became really proficient at giving really good scalp massages. I had this ability to connect and create a release for people, even in the busy atmosphere of a salon. At that point I realized I wanted to pursue massage so that I could spend an entire session, an entire hour, working on that intimate level with a client.
"A huge part of a good massage is how you're able to drop into connection with that other person's body."
In a massage, connection comes when you're connecting your limbic, or feeling, systems. For me, a lot of my intuitive awareness happens when I drop in and really feel the other person's body with my hands and my body. I can actually feel where a person is tight, where the blood flow is constricted, where they're warm, where they're cold, where energy is static in the system, where there's a lot of tension and contraction. The whole point is to create opening wherever there's contraction.
"It's a bustling world that we live in, and I think it's important for people to take time to relax and put themselves in the care of others."
Human touch and human contact is very nurturing. Sometimes we forget that in this society. It's wonderful to relax out of your mind and really be in your body, be in the sensations of your body, be in the physicality of your body and just release tension. The fact that you're being touched and nurtured and you're having incredibly positive, nurturing attention being put on you by the therapist is very significant to the receiver's psyche and being.
"For me, health is motion."
When your joints are able to move, your energy is moving. Anywhere where there's a strong contraction or a static, tense area, that's where things get jammed up. That's where things calcify, that's where you get those knots in your muscles that are really painful.
A really good therapist is able to address those issues. They are able to address when there is repetitive injury or where there is misalignment in the system. A lot of times when a muscle is pulled, it's pulling the bone out of alignment, and it's pulling the system out of alignment in some way. When people have pain, there's often something out of alignment. Something's being pinched or some kind of sensitivity is being created. A good therapist can get in there and create release in the muscle so and create relaxation. All of the blood and warmth can circulate back into the area. There is blood and circulation and nourishment, but there's also energy moving through there. The movement returns.
"I transformed when I was able to help other people."
Massage therapy has been so fulfilling for me, and I get so much out of it because of how much I am able to help other people. I can see the transformation that happens in people over time as they get work done. Their body opens up, and they have relief from pain. That's one of the most rewarding things for me. It's really a beautifully clear form of intimacy.
