I do long massages. My sessions are at least 90 minutes long; often they're as long as two hours. Tell me if you have a time limit, so I don't go over it. If, on the other hand, you're someone who always feels that massages are too short, be sure to tell me that.
I do mostly in-home massage, evenings and weekends: I bring my table to you. I do some work out of my home, but I think it's usually it's better for people to be in their own space. And it's much better not to have jump up and drive after a massage.
I work mostly in silence. There are some kinds of work that require talking: for trigger-point and some kinds of stretching I need feedback. And I always want to know if something is causing discomfort. But in general I find that talking, during a session, tends to keep the work shallow.
Ordinarily I do one massage each evening, and two or three each Saturday and Sunday.
I'm trained in Swedish, Myofascial, and Trigger-Point massage. I've absorbed bits of Tui Na, Shiatsu, and Polarity, along the way. I know enough Chinese theory (meridians, accupressure points, and five-element theory) to have passed the National Certification (NCTMB) -- but that barely scratches the surface. I love Thai massage, and have incorporated a few moves from it, but a real Thai massage is very different from what I do. For Thai you'd want to go to someone else.
I'm not the person to work on a newly-injured neck or back. Muscles that are inflamed or in severe spasm don't need massage: they need rest. They may benefit from chiropractic or physical therapy, and maybe alternating ice and heat. But come to me
before you throw your back out. Massage is better at preventing this sort of injury than at treating it.
Chronic pain is another story. I have a gentle, skilled hand with conditions such as Fibromyalgia, CFS, Crohn's Disease, and Lupus, which cause generalized, chronic pain and aching.
Stubborn, mysterious pain is often caused by knots -- trigger-points -- in nearby muscles that don't themselves hurt (or at least not until you press on them.) So knee pain may be caused by trigger-points in the thighs, low back pain by trigger-points in the glutes, neck pain by trigger-points in the back, etc. Often this kind of pain is misattributed to arthritis, tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and so on. If I find such things, I can teach you how to work on them yourself, and keep yourself pain-free.
