Feature

Massage is the message

A movement is underway to take massage into the community. Frank Chalmers sheds his inhibitions and investigates

Committee room nine in Manchester’s imposing Victorian town hall is the last place you might expect to find a group of people massaging each other’s near naked bodies -- at least in broad daylight.

But with the heating turned up and the net curtains decorously drawn, it has become the launchpad for a pioneering project aimed at taking the therapeutic benefits of massage into the community.

The philosophy of the Community Massage Foundation, which uses the town hall as a venue for regular two-weekend courses, is that everyone is a potential masseur.

’No previous experience is needed -- simply a desire to learn to trust your hands in a creative way so that you can massage friends and family (your community)’, its prospectus says.

Benefits arise on a number of levels. By alleviating someone’s muscular aches and pains you can help their body unwind and relax. Decision-making and concentration become easier, sleep improves and general wellbeing is enhanced.

Massage also helps prevent illness by supporting the heart and circulation, and cleansing the body tissues to prevent the build-up of toxins, the foundation says.

’Providing the environment is safe and supportive, and there is a lack of intention to do anything other than give or receive massage, then the body is free to connect on whatever level is appropriate,’ explains project founder Gerry Pyves.

Apart from its ‘foot doctor’ concept of healthcare, what makes the Community Massage approach most strikingly different from most other massage courses is the emphasis it places on safety and security as opposed to just ‘technique’.

On the first morning of each course, participants are taken through the principles of an unwritten contract that must be established between the giver and receiver, if the massage is to work.

Feedback from the receiver is encouraged, to ensure the masseur is exerting a compfortable level of pressure and the pace is not too slow or fast, and clear boundaries are drawn on acceptable areas of touch.

’People should feel in control of what is happening and that nothing is being done to their body that they are not happy with,’ says one of the foundation’s many women masseurs, Christine Evans.

To allow for receivers who might be reluctant to have a body massage, the foundation also teaches fully-clothed ‘dry’ massage, foot massage and facial massage.

This sensitive approach to the potential concerns of givers and receivers is mirrored by the foundation’s avoidance of the unnecessary and expensive trappings that often lead to massage being seen as a playtime for the elite.

Instead of expensive oils and flashy massage tables enveloped in an aura of mystery, Community Massage offers common sense advice on how to make massage a relaxing and satisfying experience in any home.

Course members are taught to massage on the floor, with receivers lying on a sheet -- though a duvet can be put underneath for extra comfort -- on top of which is spread a large towel. A pillow or cushion covered by a towel is placed under the receiver’s head and shoulders, and a rolled-up towel is laid under the ankles for comfort.

Expensive Body Shop massage oils are rejected in favour of supermarket grape-seed or sunflower oils, which actually have a better consistency. They are also remarkable odourless, although perfume can be added if desired.

Acknowledgement is even made of the hairier specimens among us, for whom the delightfully named Mason’s Dog Oil is recommended, because it avoids discomfort from hair being pulled during massage.

According to one of the masseurs the dog oil, which is similar in consistency to Vaseline, was originally developed by a Lancashire man who used to massage his arthritic greyhounds, although the label on the jar claims: ‘This product has not been tested on animals’.

The massage techniques taught on the courses revolve around variations on two basic strokes -- effleurage, a flowing type of stroke along the length of muscles, and petrissage, which works across the grain of the muscle, going deeper and helping circulation to get to the more knotty areas.

Nearly all participants on the courses are delighted to discover they have an aptitude for giving massage, and many become confirmed converts. ‘If we have time to learn, we are all naturals,’ explains Gerry Pyves.

But what most people find even more surprising is the power of the emotions released when they receive massage and find their bodies relaxing totally. While this can sometimes be unsettling, it is usually a welcome revelation.

’We are living in a culture in which the emotions are suppressed and pushed back into the body,’ explains Gerry Pyves. ‘Sometimes massage seems to switch us back on to our emotions without warning. Receiving well is harder than giving.’

Learning to give -- at the cost of £120 for a two-weekend course and follow-up evening -- may be a hard enough step for many potential masseurs, but the foundation does consider bursaries, and Gerry Pyves is confident of the life-long value of learning massage.

’It means people like me, professional masseurs, will eventually become redundant, but in our place there will be a new culture of community massage.’

’Perhaps in Manchester massage is at last finding its heart,’ he says. ‘Ordinary people who are not necessarily ‘into’ alternative lifestyles are now discovering that their body is their best healer.’

The Community Massage Foundation, which also offer advanced massage courses to professional masseurs, can be contacted at 15 Brunswick Road, Withington, Manchester M20 9QB. Tel 061-434 5210.