I recently attended one of the Raynor Massage advanced courses, held in Putney, London and taught by the creator Brandon Raynor himself. It was an intense 5 days learning new techniques and practising them. I should point out that most of these techniques are not used on new clients, only on returning clients who understand what is involved.
Proceedings kicked off with a face/head massage demo, important for relaxing a client at the beginning of a treatment session. We learnt how to find the “eyebrow band” which can hold a lot of tension. Other important tension points to focus on are the little bump near the top of the ears and the area at the top of the head.
Next was a demo of a thumb massage using a chopstick. The chopstick is used to bring awareness to the client of tension in the thumb. The client breathes deeply to remove the tension (which is “bad energy”). If the pressing of the chopstick is painful, this indicates that tension is present. As the tension gets removed, the chopstick becomes less painful. The thumb becomes looser after it has been massaged using thumbs, fingers and other massage tools.
During this demo the technique of assisted belly breathing was shown. Deep breathing is the key to Raynor Massage. At times, the therapist may need to help the client get rid of the tension by encouraging deeper breathing.
The following day I got to experience a “chopstick massage” for the first time on my right thumb and then on my right big toe (both were tight with tension). It was a weird feeling, my left arm started tingling all over in both cases (presumably due to “bad energy” being stirred up). I was deep breathing all the time, but at times my belly felt very “heavy” (again, due to “bad energy” being moved around the body).
At the end of the session my thumb felt a little looser (but needed a lot more work!) but the big toe was definitely much looser than it had been before! The down side was that when I got up from the table I was light-headed and a little nauseous (due to all the toxins and “bad energy” stirred up). But on subsequent days I felt okay after similar sessions. You really do need to experience this process to believe that it works!
Other techniques learnt included massaging a client on the floor using the feet, and loosening joints through adjustments to the hip, foot, leg, thumb, fingers, wrist and back.
New tools I came across included an acupressure pen (a metal pen with different diameter balls at each end, good for massaging fingers and hands) and a jade scraper (good for massaging the sole and sides of the foot).
The final day was spent “speed massaging”. We split into two groups, one group receiving and the other massaging. Every 20 minutes those massaging swapped to another receiver. It was interesting to experience the different styles and a great way of picking up new tips. The course ended with Brandon presenting us with our Advanced Diploma of Raynor Massage certificates.
YouTube links for demos:
Brandon massaging Dave's head and arm in London September 2023
25th September 2023
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