Years ago, I graduated at one of the top clinical social work programs. I landed my first job in Boston working with inner city teens. I quickly found doing psychotherapy or any form of talk therapy with teens was a challenge. These young adults would sit across from me and say very little, making the hour pass painfully slow. Out of desperation I began recreational activities with these teens, and soon found that movement helped to get these teens to communicate with me, and even work on some of their issues. This discovery led me into fitness and massage therapy.
Combined with my academic background and work experience, I have learned that the integration of the foundational theories of counseling and psychotherapy, energetic modalities (heavily based from Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine), and massage help individuals achieve optimal physical and emotional health. Unlike common counseling and psychotherapy sessions, which focuses only on the mind, the mind and body therapy does not neglect the pain and ailments we also have in our physical bodies and energetic systems.
We are all bodies of particles and atomic structures- an energy body. We are also a skeletal, organ, and muscular structure. Throughout our life our energetic, skeletal, organ, and muscular bodies are affected by gravity, hydrostatic pressure, the environment, and a variety of physical and emotional stressors. It is my opinion that optimal health is not achieved unless the whole person is treated.
In order to treat the whole person, sessions are structured to integrate counseling, energy and massage work. The session begins with a discussion about current issues one may be having, followed by energy and massage work; and then ending with a debriefing.
I have found much success with this work for myself and my cleints. One client stated, “I had years of psychotherapy and nothing helped until this. – D.M.”
Please call or email to set up an appointment or for further inquiries.
Laura J. Ward, MSW, LMT