20 Massages in 2 Months - Massage #3

Rose - Healer Anonymous

I received massage #3 of 20 in 2 months from Rose at the Center for Well-Being in Monroe, WA.  During Massages #1 and #2 I learned that muscle release alone is not enough to keep the numbness in my right arm from returning and that deeper work is required. I also learned that the numbness seems to be caused by a conspiracy of tension in back, neck and shoulder muscles, including muscles at the side of my neck. Due to my aversion to having the sides or front of my neck touched this presents a conundrum.

This is my first massage with Rose. Actually, Rose is her middle name and I use it at her request. On Sunday, before our massage, she left me a voice mail expressing discomfort with having her name used in this blog.  She suggested that I use another therapist if using her name was imperative. I had never met Rose. I wanted to respect her preference and I was also unsure of how to write the blog without her name. It seemed like she and I should talk it out so I biked from church where I had just attended services to the Center for Well Being to see if I could catch her. While I waited I checked at the front desk to see if another therapist was available that afternoon. In order to stay on track I need to receive 3 massages this week.  All the other therapists were booked up.

Rose invited me back into the lounge area where the therapists grab a bite to eat between clients. As we sat down to talk Rose’s last client, dressed as if she were heading out to the ski slopes, came in to the lounge smiling. She hugged Rose, thanked her enthusiastically for the massage and handed her a folded yellow piece of notebook paper with some writing on it – an address maybe. Richard Oliver was also in the lounge. He ate standing up, over by the window, a plate of brown rice and black beans. Rose held a bowl in one hand and wound spaghetti coated in tomato sauce around a fork with the other. (I contemplated what I would eat for lunch when I got home).

I told Rose about my goal of receiving 20 massages in 2 months and my intention of talking about the uniqueness of each therapist and progress on highlighted issues including the stubborn numbness in my right arm. Rose listened.  She responded that using her name was an issue of privacy and also of her relationship to technology. I pointed out that anyone could find the identity of the therapists at the Center by going online. She countered that she was considering asking to have her name removed from the Center’s on-line materials.

I recognized Rose's authenticity. She values her privacy and wants to determine her relationship to technology. I also appreciated her consistency about not wanting her name published and that she was willing to claim her power by asking for what she needed. Although she did not articulate it I sensed a connection between her massage practice and her demand for privacy. Her stance recalled traditional ceremonies in which privacy is central to healing. Not only are ceremonies not for public consumption their content is not revealed beyond what participants can directly observe. For those blessed with healing powers (medicine people or lodge holders, for example) revealing too much is seen as a relinquishment of power or an act that puts one at risk for having the spirits withdraw this power. It is within the context of privacy that healing occurs. Privacy also protects the purity of the ceremonies.

I envied Rose. Up until a few months ago I held personal and spiritual privacy as one of my core values. I remembered the way privacy protects and creates the safety necessary for deep spiritual and personal exploration. I remembered how much I relished the purity of self that can be accessed when unobserved. I didn’t want to put Rose out of her cherished place. I told her that a couple of months ago I didn’t know what a blog was and that now I had one. She offered to let me use her middle name and also suggested talking about our conversation in the blog. She went off to do another massage and I returned home to await my massage with her at 3:30 pm.