Dancing Hands

Stone Therapy

Have you ever felt during a massage that the masseuse was just not strong enough to push through the ridges of tension in your shoulder blades, and at the same time not gentle enough to melt the tension between your toes?

Then try La Stone massage therapy, a post-modern combination of gentle massage with ancient tools of penetration.

La Stone massage therapy blends the ancient Native American art of stone massage with modern massage techniques to create a massage experience unlike any other you have received on a massage table before.

The Native Americans used rocks which were either heated or cooled to relieve the body's pressure points as a form of alternative medicine for the mind, body and soul.

The Native American art has been refashioned to meet the stresses of today's world.

La Stone therapy was born when well-known massage therapist Marie Hannigan combined the age-old native tradition to encompass heat therapy, the medicine of basalt stones, with the energy work performed by a therapist. Ms. Hannigan felt that she was unable to work deep enough with her clients, and found her hands were getting tired and compromising her ability to perform deep tissue work. Ms. Hannigan claims that a spirit came to her and told her to refashion La Stone and teach it throughout the world to help bring clients deeper relief and better health.

The La Stone massage experience is like no other, as it is meant to pleasure the body, as well as the soul. To begin, the therapist lays a stack of cards on the table and asks the client to choose one with the left hand. According to Native American folklore, the left hand guides the energy out of the body. The card it picks will serve as your energy card throughout the session. The cards usually contain pictures of different animals on the other side. The therapist will then read the significance of this animal and what it meant to Native American cultures.

The massage therapist begins the massage with the normal hand massage; the focus depends on the client's preference. The massage will then progress to the stones, which are black basalt stones. The stones are heated to a temperature between 125 and 150 degrees.

The stones are used in one of two ways. The first is similar to a heating pad. The stones are placed under soft towels and the client lays on them. The second way is as heated tools. The therapist will use the stones as an extension of their hands to deeply work through muscle tension. La Stone encompasses both hot and cold sensations. Some of the stones are cooled instead of heated. The cooled stones, white in color, are also multi-purposed, and can be used to sooth inflammations, to comfort tired eyes, or as part of a technique called "the chase" which involves both temperatures as part of the therapy.

The heated stones are placed all around the body's energy points, including the hands, in-between toes, along the back, the stomach, on the eyes, forehead, etc. These energy points are referred to in the field as chakras.

La Stone massage therapy is just beginning to emerge as a popular form of massage therapy. It is truly a unique and exhilarating experience.

 

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