Amy Waite, AMTA-CT Education Chair
At our next Chapter Meeting / Education event on November 9th in New Haven, your AMTA-Connecticut Chapter has contracted Martha Griffin to present an insightful 3-hour, NCBTMB approved continuing education class entitled “Working with the Energy, Emotions, and Beliefs of our Clients: Massaging Your Way to the Soul”. This class is offered at no cost to CT chapter members!
Martha Griffin has had a long career in the healing arts beginning as an LPN. She served the AMTA on both local and national levels as Connecticut’s Sports Massage Team Director as well as on the AMTA Sports Massage Education Council and was a Chief Examiner. She in continually evolving as a practitioner by studying Neuromuscular Therapy, Jin Shin Do, Kinesiology, Polarity, Craniosacral and most recently: Reiki. Martha has taught at the Connecticut Center for Massage Therapy, the University of Hartford, as well as the Institute of Healing Arts and Sciences. We appreciate the knowledge, enthusiasm and experience Martha offers as a seasoned massage therapist and educator.
Explore to know more about her upcoming class in the following letter penned by Martha …
Have you ever had a client for whom massage doesn’t seem to provide lasting improvement? Have you ever felt that no matter how well you addressed a client’s problems, they didn’t really seem any better afterwards? They tighten up as soon as they get off the table. Or they become very emotional? Why is that? “What is going on?!”
When I started as a massage therapist over 30 years ago, I focused on the physical: feeling and responding to the muscle tension of my clients. One day after I had released the tension in a client’s low back, we started talking about her mother and I noticed that the tension in her low back not only returned but got even tighter. Over time we found that other parts of her back, shoulders, and neck also had connections to people in her life. In fact, each area of her body that held a specific emotion and tension was associated with a specific person or relationship.
We all hold and store memories in our bodies. Often these memories are tied to emotions we don’t want to feel or remember. Emotions flow like energy through the body. Blocking emotions by not wanting to feel them blocks energy in the body. How can we address the emotional energy so we can release the physical holding?
In this workshop, participants will learn to sense energy flow in their clients. Exercises will be used to experience physical and energetic connections within our own bodies to better understand our clients. These exercises will be done seated, so no tables are required.
We will also engage in discussions and exercises to explore what we think and believe and how this effects our bodies and keeps both clients and therapists stuck in limiting patterns. Therapists will receive tools to assess clients and support them in finding balance and recognizing opportunities for change.
This workshop is an opportunity to step beyond the clinical analysis of body alignment into an integrated view by learning to listen to the story of your client’s body. In this way, exploring the physical body is a compass to understanding our clients and ourselves. All that is needed is an open mind and interest in healing.
During my many years as a massage therapist I have found that the journey of discovery for myself and my clients is never ending. I look forward to the opportunity to share my healing insights with you.
— Martha Griffin
AMTA-CT Fall Chapter Meeting and Education
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Best Western Plus – 201 Washington Avenue, North Haven, CT 06473
8:30 — 9:30am: Doors open for social time, coffee, tea and fruit.
9:30 — 11:00am: Business Meeting please note: there is only 30 minutes between the meeting and class, we suggest bringing a light snack or purchasing a light lunch at the hotel.
11:30 — 2:30pm: Education (3 CEUs) — Working with the Energy, Emotions and Beliefs of our Clients: Massaging Your Way to the Soul, Presented by Martha E Griffin, LMT