It’s All Connected – 20 Massages in 2 Months (Massage #9)

Aiden Savoie-Gavosto, massage therapist

I received Massage #9 of 20 in 2 months from Aiden Savoie-Gavosto at the Well-Being Center for Health in Monroe, Washington. Click here to read more about Aiden’s practice.

Before the massage Aiden and I talked about the changes in my neck and shoulder and the need to focus on feet and ankles. In addition to the physical discomfort I also mentioned that as with the neck my feet and ankles held some past life memories.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said, “If there’s connection between your neck and feet.”

I had not considered this possibility. However, as Aiden worked my feet, energy began to move in my neck.

As a spiritual healer I work primarily with the unseen – the realms of feeling, thought, consciousness, and spirit. When puzzling over an issue I will see it first in spiritual terms. During the massage, Aiden rattled off the Latin names for muscles and explained how my pigeon-toed feet play out in the physical, in the realm of the body.

(Please forgive me if my descriptions are less than technical. I am a spiritual healer, not an “anatomesiologist,” the term I have coined for an anatomy expert!).

“Physically,” Aiden began, “You say you’re pigeon-toed and that this affects the alignment in your hips. This could mean that you have a medial rotation. I am the opposite, my feet point out. I have a lateral rotation of the piriformis. For myself I have a lot of tension in my hamstrings, gluts (short for gluteus) and lower back so I get these areas worked a lot.”

(I looked it up. The piriformis is a hip muscle).

Aiden said that there are several legs muscles, including the gastrocnemius – that calf muscle that is often so sore in my leg – that attach in the heel and foot area. He pointed out that between all these muscle connections and the body’s fascia - that net of connective tissue that extends in all directions and surrounds all organs and muscles – it’s all connected.  He also emphasized that even though we all share the same basic body structure, each body and person is unique.

Aiden likened the connection between my feet, hips and neck to a bed sheet which if pulled in one corner changes shape in the far corner on the other side of the bed. 

(Aiden’s bed sheet metaphor got me thinking. What if I could overlay the Jin Shin Do acupressure points in Avery’s handouts over a, map, or even better, a 3D representation of the body's anatomy. Would this reveal an interface between the spiritual and physical realms?)

As he worked my right ankle he smoothed the muscles in the direction of the heart. Through the burning sensation of fascia waking up I felt my defenses come to the surface: anger and a desire to push away. Because I trust Aiden, and because of what I had learned with my neck, I decided to let my defenses dissolve so whatever is underneath can be revealed and healed.

While my right ankle and foot held anger and blame, the left foot told a different story: one of hopelessness and futility. Neither, as yet, told the story of what had happened to cause this relationship between right and left, male and female.

Aiden pressed into a band of muscle in my gluts. As he worked, the same emotional patterns found in my feet expressed on the right and left in my hips. This is not surprising given what I had discovered about my right shoulder and the rule of my inner – attorney, that skeptic and curmudgeon who allows my feminine, the one who has less problem relating to the spiritual, limited room to dance. As Aiden pressed into each hip, I drew in a sharp breath but before it became audible he had adjusted the pressure so that I could both release and relax. He was paying very close attention to how I was reacting to his touch.

I asked him how, as a massage therapist, he gathers information about what each unique body needs. He replied that he uses his knowledge of the body and his intuition. He emphasized that he listens to his client and observes how people carry themselves because gait and posture carry clues as to what is going on with the body.

(For more on Massage #9 see next post!)