For the Practitioner:

As a practitioner you will feel blessed when so many of your clients tell you that they haven’t felt this good in years.

Furthermore, even though it is an active massage, it doesn’t feel like work. Instead, it is an expression of feeling truly alive.

This massage teaches you how to conserve energy, to bring your whole body into your work and avoid exhaustion and other chronic ailments in the hands, arms and shoulders that are common in other massage forms.

You receive the blissful benefits of yoga & gentle stretching that are at the core of both giving and receiving.

History

The origins can be traced back 2,500 years to India and the spread of Buddhism. The founding father of Thai Massage, Jivaka Kumarbhaccha, was a celebrated yogi and a doctor in the ancient healing tradition of Ayurveda (which is a science that recreates harmonious living). Of all the famous people Jivaka attended to, the most distinguished was the Buddha. As such, this ancient massage spread to Thailand with the passage of Buddhism across the Asian continent.

Traditional Thai massage developed over millennia within the environment of Buddhist temples. It flourished as a way for spiritual people to share the benefits of meditation and compassion in a physical form.

The Ayurvedic Link

The therapeutic basis of Thai Yoga Massage is strongly rooted in the Indian healing tradition of Ayurveda. The word ayurveda derives from two Sanskrit words: ayur, meaning "life," and veda, meaning "knowledge." As such, ayurveda functions as a guide to the proper maintenance of life.

According to Ayurveda, each individual is composed of one or a combination of the three doshas (elements) of vata (air-ether), pitta (fire-water) and kapha (earth-water). Tapping into the ancient knowledge of the tridoshas enables practitioners to treat each person according to their unique constitution.

One method of Thai massage approach is to reconnect each Thai Yoga Massage posture with its tridoshic composition. The rhythm and intensity of each pose is guided by Ayurvedic principles of constitution: slow and gentle for vata, nonvigorous and relaxing for pitta, energetic and fiery for kapha. Every time a person is brought into a yoga posture one or all of the doshas is activated. A recipient’s energy can be balanced by applying postures of the opposite nature that will strengthen his/her weaker dosha(s); for example, for a fast-paced nervous vata type the practitioner would apply slow, gentle soothing postures.