Glossary

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Pfrimmer Deep Muscle Therapy

This technique utilizes deep cross-fiber strokes applied with the thumbs and fingers. Developed by Therese Pfrimmer of Canada, this is a deep muscle therapeutic technique. The technique was discovered in an effort to help herself recover from paralysis. The work enables free flow of lymph and blood, as well as improving joint movement and removal of waste products/toxins from the muscle tissue. Conditions that benefit from Pfrimmer Deep Tissue Massage include arthritis, multiple sclerosis, headache, and fibrositis, among others.

Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy

This therapy involves a fusion of hatha yoga, bodywork, and psychotherapy. It is holistic art based on the ancient science of yoga, combining elements of contemporary body/mind psychology with assisted yoga postures. It is a totally client-centered process, and it establishes inner balance by awakening the healing life force within.

Physiohelanics

Energy work designed to address the total person, Physiohelanics uses the body’s own energy systems to enhance healing. Treatment begins with cleansing, balancing, and repairing the etheric energy field that surrounds the body and is followed by treatment focusing on connecting major and minor energy points (chakras) in the body.

Touch from the practitioner is very light and usually targeted toward areas that require cleansing and clearing. Throughout the 35-40 minute session, the healer channels energy rather than using her own. Physiohelanics was developed by C. Diane Ealy.

Phytotherapy

This technique utilizes massage, mud packs, wraps, baths, water, and steam therapies, and/or inhalation treatments using natural herbs and floral extracts, plant oils, and seaweeds.

Pilates Method

Pilates is a series of movements, done from a sitting, reclining, kneeling, or standing position, designed to increase strength and flexibility, release tension, and relieve chronic neck and back pain. Developed by German-born Joseph Pilates in the 1920s, this method combines elements of Eastern and Western disciplines, including yoga, t’ai chi, and ancient Greek and Roman exercise protocols.

Specially designed apparatus are used for stretching and strengthening exercises and can be calibrated to the client’s needs. Repatterning movements and proper breathing techniques are important components of the training. The Pilates method is used in physical rehabilitation and is popular with athletes and performance artists, as well as those seeking to improve body conditioning.

Point Holding

This acupressure technique requires several practitioners to apply pressure to specific acupoints for up to two hours in order to remove blockage and stimulate emotional release within the meridians. The technique was developed by Karen Peterson and John Walsh.

Polarity Therapy

Polarity therapy is based on universal principles of energy—attraction, repulsion, and neutrality. The interrelation of these principles forms the basis for every aspect of life, including our experience of health, wellness, and disease. With this understanding, polarity therapy addresses the interdependence of body, mind, and spirit, the importance of relationships, and the value of creating a way of life in harmony with nature.

Founded by Austrian-born naturopath Dr. Randolph Stone in the mid-1950s, polarity therapy is a clothes-on, noninvasive system complementing existing modalities with an integrated, holistic model.

Polarity is based on the belief that positive and negative poles exist in every cell. The body is gently manipulated to balance the positive and negative energies. In addition to physical manipulation, blockages and toxins are eliminated through a cleansing diet and simple exercises. Treatments are suggested in a series of four.

Click here to find a Polarity Therapy practitioner

Postural Integration & Energetic Integration

Postural integration and energetic integration were developed by Jack Painter in the late 1960s and have spread to Western Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. These approaches focus on the unity of tissue, feeling, and awareness. Breathwork, deep fascia manipulation, emotional expression, and meditation are used in a unique synchronicity.

The two methods are similar, but postural integration focuses on systematic work with layers of fascia, while energetic integration focuses on melting bands of body character armor. The client will experience not only extraordinary energy releases and tangible changes in body shape and flexibility, but also major shifts in awareness and feeling.

Pranic Healing

Pranic Healing is a new science of bioenergetic healing. Developed in the Philippines by Master Choa Kok Sui, it is a practical, easy-to-learn, healing art using prana, a vital life force, to correct energetic imbalances underlying most physical, psychological, and psychospiritual ailments.

Pranic healers are trained to use their hands to accurately evaluate the energetic condition of the aura, 11 major chakras, and corresponding minor and mini chakras. Healers then seal holes and cracks, clean out devitalized energy, and energize with fresh prana. Advanced practitioners are trained to deliver healing down to the cellular level. Removing devitalized energy before energizing makes healing more efficient and helps clients avoid healing crises.

All work is done off the body and sessions are painless. Pranic Healing can be performed on its own or as a complementary therapy to modern medicine and other healing modalities.

Different levels of training are offered:

  • Basic Pranic Healing teaches seven fundamental techniques to heal simple and moderate illnesses.
  • Advanced Pranic Healing specializes in healing severe ailments and teaching the correct proportion, sequence, combination, and use of colored pranas.
  • Pranic Psychotherapy focuses on the healing of mental and emotional disorders and working with the root and web of chakras to disintegrate and transmute negative psychic energies.

It took 20 years of experimentation and research to develop Pranic Healing, which synthesizes the best techniques of the Tibetan, Chinese, India, and Filipino healing systems, and is now practiced in more than 30 countries.

Prenatal/Pregnancy Massage

When performed by a trained perinatal specialist, many methods of massage and somatic therapies are both effective and safe prenatally and during labor and postpartum periods of women’s pregnancies.

Prenatally, specific techniques can reduce pregnancy discomforts and concerns and enhance the physiological and emotional well-being of both mother and fetus. Skilled, appropriate touch facilitates labor, shortening labor times and easing pain and anxiety.

In the postpartum period, specialized techniques rebalance structure, physiology, and emotions of the new mother and may help her to bond with and care for her infant.

Specialized, advanced training in the anatomy, physiology, complications, precautions, and contraindications is highly recommended, and many practitioners require referrals from physicians prior to therapy. Click here to find a pregnancy massage practitioner.

Process Acupressure

This integrated therapy combines traditional acupressure with Zero Balancing techniques and psychological processing to enhance psycho-spiritual growth. Process acupressure offers a hands-on method of influencing the body’s mental and emotional systems to stimulate balance, well-being, and expanded consciousness.

PUSH Therapy

PUSH Therapy was designed to eliminate pain originating from chronic tension. Therapists learn Soft Pressure Stimulation to treat tissue on a layer-by-layer basis. Techniques are administered with the therapist’s body in a completely relaxed state—no muscular force is required—and without using the hands.

The PUSH Treatment Plan teaches therapists to eliminate chronic tension using four unique and dynamic therapeutic tools:

  • Treatments that follow specific treatment protocols that ensure consistent results
  • Self-treatment methods that help maintain results between treatments
  • PUSH Mobility Training that replaces rigid muscle patterns with new supple patterns and make the positive changes permanent
  • Specific education that teaches clients how pain and tension develop, and how to prevent its return.

PUSH trainings modules are dynamic and educational. Each student who takes the trainings is taught how to eliminate chronic tension, eliminate pain, and enhance athletic performance, all while maintaining a completely relaxed state and without using the hands.