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How do you spell relief?
When it comes to beating stress, more and more people are seeking out alternative treatments
BY DAVID VALDES GREENWOOD

Relax yourself: Where to get the treatments

THERE ARE LITERALLY hundreds of holistic and alternative therapists in Massachusetts, so choosing the right practitioner may seem overwhelming. Below is a brief list of places to try each therapy. They are all established clinics, group practices, or spas, not individuals. If you’d like to find someone with a private practice, Web sites like www.byregion.net/BostonHealers can give you a list of those nearest you, as well as brief summaries of their credentials.

Rolfing: Firm Touch, 56 Bennett Street, Brighton, (617) 510-1617.

Shiatsu: Charles River Shiatsu, 180 Mass Ave, Arlington, (781) 643-1545.

Reflexology: Chi Wellness Longwood Clinic, 1520 Tremont Street, Boston, (617) 989-8658.

Reiki: Wellspace, Fresh Pond Mall, Cambridge, (617) 876-2660.

Mud bath: Candela Day Spa, 28 Arlington Street, Boston, (617) 426-6999.

-- DVG

THE FIRST TIME Mary-Ann Greanier went to see a Rolfer — the casual term for a structural-integration therapist — she thought, "This is just nonsense. This is crazy. But a week later, I was back for more." She had sought out the intense process, which gives your body a muscular workout it won’t soon forget (see below), after hurting her back in an accident. The anxiety caused by the injury had so permeated her that she "was holding [her] body in fear all the time," she said, "and it needed to be released."

Greanier is one of millions of Americans who turn to alternative therapies to alleviate their combined psychic and physical stresses. Why seek out a Rolfer or try out any other non-traditional healing practice? The answer is that the West is beginning to understand what the East already knows: many of our physical ailments are rooted in emotional, mental, and spiritual matters. While doctors can treat a broken bone with a standard protocol, you can’t treat a wounded soul with a one-size-fits-all approach.

Among the creative options for relieving stress and finding balance, yoga and basic massage are perhaps the most well known. But a host of alternatives to these awaits the seeker of calm in Boston. Rolfing, shiatsu, reflexology, Reiki, and mud baths are just a few of the options available locally for those who seek a more holistic path.

Rolfing: Get cracking

Rolfing is a form of musculoskeletal manipulation that works systematically across the entire body. The Rolfer uses intense manual pressure to release a client’s tension, realign joints and body segments head to toe, and alter the rigidity of connective tissue. The goal is for you to feel the difference in your muscular and connective systems. As anyone who has been Rolfed will tell you, what you may feel at first is pain — but pain that turns into awareness of positive change.

What a Rolfing regular will also tell you is that Rolfing is not intended to be a one-hit wonder, so to speak. The full regimen can involve a series of sessions working throughout your entire body. Of course, that’s not required, but you may find that once you have felt the post-Rolfing physical fluidity in one part of your body, you wouldn’t dream of skipping the rest.

Rolfing attracts a diverse crowd: athletes who not only want to stay limber but "in the zone"; people who want to improve their ability to "meditate" by removing physical obstacles; practitioners of dance, yoga, and the martial arts; and those who simply need to release the pent-up stresses in their bodies.

Shiatsu: Point breaks

For those wanting a gentler version of healing touch, shiatsu may be the answer. A traditional Japanese healing therapy, shiatsu is a form of acupressure point massage. The therapist exerts finger and palm pressure to specific points of the body to unblock what are called "meridians," the specific channels that allow "chi" or "Ki" (energy) to flow throughout your body.

The goal can be as simple as stress reduction or as specific as battling a particular problem across the gamut of emotional and physical issues, from depression to whiplash and beyond. Devotees of shiatsu also suggest that regular sessions act as preventive medicine, a way of not allowing stress to build up in their lives.

For the modest, it offers another bonus: shiatsu is done clothed. Dress comfortably, as your position varies along with the process itself, which traditionally takes place on a mat or futon at floor level. Your practitioner will assess your needs and may offer a variety of approaches, pressing on the meridians with palms, thumbs, fingers, elbows, knees, and feet, to more dynamic rotating and stretching of limbs. As in Rolfing, the idea is that the physical release will have an emotional yield, allowing you to leave invigorated in both arenas.

Reflexology: Balancing act

Honing in specifically on the feet and head, reflexology is an ancient healing art, practiced in China, India, and Egypt for centuries. Chinese medicine suggests that the feet and head reflect the health of all other parts of the body and that by focusing on these two areas, you can tend to your overall wellness.

The theory is that stress, injury, and disease create a state of "imbalance," which interrupts the natural flow of energy within your body. A reflexologist is trained to detect such imbalances through touching your feet or head and then, based on what he or she has learned, manipulating that imbalance through applied pressure.

The Chinese treatment is more likely to emphasize foot reflexology. Indian treatment focuses on the head and neck. Most sessions are under an hour and require no preparation on the part of the client. The pressure may be intense once a diagnosis is made, but that is what allows for concentration on solving a particular imbalance. You may better understand the phrase "spring in your step" after your foot is released from reflexology, and the effect after head reflexology is often described as "airy" and "clear headed."

Reiki: What’s your frequency?

For those wanting a more distinctly spiritual approach, Reiki blends hands-on healing with a belief in channeling healing energy into wellness. Your Reiki therapist may help you learn simple meditation and become attuned to energy. The goal is to help clients achieve holistic ways of seeing their lives, understanding how essential the emotional is to the physical.

The session may be disconcerting at first, especially when compared to tangible physicality-based therapies. A practitioner places both hands on or close to the client. That’s it — at least visually. What Reiki enthusiasts describe is energy direction; the therapist is channeling energy from the universe directly to the recipient, whose own body determines how much energy it needs and where. The idea is for the recipient to feel this exchange and learn to recognize its effects.

Reiki is intended to be a portable skill — once you have become familiar with it, you channel energy for yourself and can pass the skill on to others. When stress or illness approaches, in theory you can step up to the plate and channel the appropriate energy to fend off the harmful effects of either. But be advised: Reiki takes a good measure of faith. You have to accept that which you cannot see; with any luck, you will feel the difference.

Mud bath: In with the good, out with the bad

Of course, not everyone is on a deep spiritual quest into the unknown. Sometimes, you just want to relax. One approach that manages to blend the primal with the luxurious, with no stop for soul-searching along the way, is taking mud baths. It’s an ancient homeopathic treat that was good enough for pharaohs and peasants alike, and it’s widely available in various forms today.

In theory, the reason a mud bath feels so good is that an exchange is taking place. Your body acts like a sponge in this treatment, drawing out the minerals in mud or clay and absorbing them into your system. At the same time, mud draws out impurities, helping to detoxify your system. How this actually occurs may be a subject of debate, but spa-goers claim to feel rejuvenated and deeply relaxed.

A word of clarification: most mud baths are not actual baths. Though you may still sink into a thermal mud pool in Costa Rica, for instance, most spas today approach the treatment as a mud wrap, in which the mud is applied to you by a partner or you apply it yourself, slathering the mud over much of your body. The mud is left on to dry, facilitating the exchange of nutrients, and then washed away. You may look dirty for the duration, but you’ll emerge clean and refreshed.

David Valdes Greenwood can be reached at ambobean@hotmail.com

Issue Date: January 30 - February 6, 2003
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