Artwork on this blog is by Isobel Williams www.isobelwilliams.blogspot.co.uk
It was my first Christmas helping out at Crisis Homeless London.
I signed up as a yoga teacher but ended up giving Thai Yoga massage sessions to the guests. I made a poster saying 'Back problems?' and not surprisingly I instantly had a queue.
It's normal for me to treat clients on a floor futon but all I had with me was yoga mat. I'd brought some bright coloured muslin and a very Kitsch plastic lotus flower that I use for burning incense sticks and set up a sacred massage area in the foyer. I was on full view to everyone who passed by and it encouraged the guests (95% male) to join the queue.
The first thing I was aware of was the body language as they lay supine on the mat. Arms and hands were crossed over their stomachs. It was a type of body language that said 'no entry' a type of protection zone. I noted it but left it. I knew as they experienced the massage they would gain trust and surrender to their own process of self healing.
I mainly worked on their backs and necks, massaging muscles either side of the cervical spine up into the head. I could see the surrender and the relaxation. I could sense they didn't want to get up. I wondered when was the last time they were touched? Sometimes life has it that we don't experience touch for years. The healing power of touch.
Everyone relaxed quicker than I thought and I could feel they were so grateful. I used my feet, elbows, hands and thumbs to massage deep into their backs. Trying to slide a gentle thumb under a scapula which would not move. I could feel the bottoms of the feet as I pressed in with my thumbs, so solid, even in the young. At first I noticed that their arm skin was young and soft and then my eyes gazed down to the marks and scars. Faces were worn but hands were young. It was very hard to determine an age.
One guy must of been in his 30's and already his back was curving as if he was getting Kyphosis. I told him what I saw and gave him a simple exercise to do everyday to help bring his back up and straight. I will always remember his face staring at me, totally concentrating on my words and obviously unaware of the curvature. I do hope he does those excerises.
As Bob Haddad writes in his book Thai Massage and Thai Healing Arts,
'When we work with compassion and patience, we respect the individual before us on the mat, we break away from self imposed constructs of what we think that person needs, and we encourage the session to unfold with the loving-kindness that is so essential to traditional Thai massage'.
As I massaged the guests I was so fortunate to have a fellow volunteer and Artist
See more sketches from the day on her Blogspot.
sketching my massage sessions. At the end of the day Isobel gave me some of her wonderful drawings. It meant so much to me to be given this artwork. What a wonderful reminder of my day at Crisis Homeless London 2014 and a very rewarding day of healing.
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