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How long
have you been doing Rolfing ®? Since 1999.
I was working in Maine 2 ˝ years ago. And then I went sailing. I
thought I’d go to the South Pacific for several years but only managed
2 years out of Maine down in the Caribbean and up the Atlantic.
Did you
learn to sail here in Maine? No. I’m
originally from Bellingham, Washington. I grew up on the west coast and
was supposed to take a trip down to South America. Then I went to San
Diego and paid to work on my first sail boat. I cruised around Panama.
I knew nothing. I was by myself. I think the guy liked to get you to
pay for his expenses. We traveled up the eastern coast of Central
America where we got chased by gun boats in Nicaragua. We had one big
storm in a 33-foot Irwin. We ended up out of water, downed engines, in
this big storm. We contacted a cargo ship, full of Asian mariners. They
threw us a line but our boat couldn’t take the haul. They sent over
their lifeboat which was as big as our boat! Then they helped us out,
and we made it to Florida.
Did you go
anywhere else besides Central America? We went up
the Nile in uncharted waters. We were the only out-of-the-ordinary boat
on those waters at that time. I spent years sailing but got out of it
due to health problems. But in my travels, I met lots of wonderful
natural medicine doctors. I never expected to heal the way I
did.
What was
your health problem? I had
health issues that scared me due to an autoimmune
disorder. I was used to being unhealthy since birth. No natural
immunities. Once I went homeopathic everything changed. I did
acupuncture and Chinese medicine among other treatments to get my body
back in harmony. Once back on track, the body healed and it was
amazing. In ‘92 – ‘93 I didn’t know anyone doing the kinds of therapies
I do now. I studied massage before learning Rolfing.
What is
Rolfing ®? What Rolfing
does is work with the fascial tissue that grows around the bones and
connects muscle to sinew to organ. You feel it, but ideally you want to
reach a point not to feel the pain. It’s about changing habits and
outlook. After doing Rolfing, my scoliosis cleared up. I had
unbelievable changes in my body, but I didn’t know how to approach it.
At this time, I was in a void. My marriage had ended and my dynamic
lifestyle was gone. I supplicated to the universe to give me guidance.
I knew my change could only come with proper diet and therapy. Then I
saw an ad for a healing arts program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In spite
of the people telling me it was expensive, no housing, etc., I landed
in Santa Fe and found a house 3 blocks from school. Talk about the
synchronicity of how things fall into place! There I studied polarity
therapy and massage.
What is
polarity therapy? Created by
Randolph Stone, it’s energy work of Ayurvedic and Asian techniques.
It’s about moving the energy to achieve balance -- a combo of a lot of
different modalities.
How did you
come to be in Maine? I was hired
as a property manager for a Texas Billionaire who had places in Maine.
I thought, “What will I do up there?” but as it turned out, I met the
most amazing people: granite carvers, inventors, creative folk who led
simple lives but possessed interesting talents. I wound up setting my
own massage and Rolfing® practice and
met with great success.
Needles to
say, I was much more intrigued by Christina’s stories of fighting
30-foot waves off of Bermuda and riding barn-sour mules in the Valley
of the Kings in Egypt than what her skilled hands were doing to my poor
body wracked and knotted by endless hours hunkered over a computer
keyboard. As I lay face-down on the massage table I felt the burn of
the Rolfing® technique. Christina worked the
stiff muscles in my neck, shoulders, back, and legs -- quite the
penetrating massage! I’ve been returning faithfully every week for more
much-needed corrective massage and a dose of thrilling storytelling.
Copyright
2006. All rights reserved.
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