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Treatment Information

On this page:  Fee Schedules and Policies | Bodywork Sessions | Private Lessons | Appointment Request Form | Session Description | Typical Treatment Session Description | Download a Brochure (PDF)

FEE SCHEDULES AND POLICIES

Bodywork Sessions

As a matter of personal principle I do not now, never have, and never will charge anyone anything for serious treatment work. Under no circumstances will I ever condition my working on someone based on their ability or inability to pay for the session. Treatment sessions are always on the basis of strictly voluntary donations to help defray the out of pocket expenses of our research road trips. I do charge prevailing market rates for doing standard Swedish Massage, but not for serious treatment work.

 

Treatment work by voluntary donation
Massage Sessions
In Call
Out Call
1 hour minimum $75 $150
Add $25 for each additional half-hour

Private Lessons

Private Lessons
Individuals or Couples
2 hours $200
3 hours $250
4 hours $300
Groups of 3 or more: individual/couples rate for first two plus $50 for each additional person

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Appointment Request Form

At your first appointment, you must complete a Health Intake Form.  You may download this form and complete it in advance.  The form is in Microsoft Excel format. Health Intake Form

Name:    
Email:
What day do you want an appointment?
Monday   Tuesday   Wednesday   Thursday   Friday   Saturday   Sunday  
What time of day do you prefer?
Morning   Afternoon   Evening  
Where would you like the appointment?
At client's home.   Mike's home.   At Client's Work Address   Other (Please Specify)
Please describe the nature of the problem for which you would like treatment.

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Session Description

A typical session includes Craniosacral Therapy, Acupressure, Polarity Therapy, Therapeutic Touch, and Directed Energy. As warranted or suggested by the client's situation, elements of Lymphatic Drainage, Visceral Manipulation, Acutonics or other modalities will also be integrated in the session. Energy work is done with the client fully-clothed and generally supine on the table for the full session.

Sessions start with a brief health history and physical assessment. This includes postural analysis, looking for things such as leg rotation, elevation or depression of the shoulders, hip rotation, scoliotic curvatures of the spine, leg length differences, etc. It also includes discussion of the client's particular needs for that session.

A typical treatment routine starts by assessing the spine and rib cage for possible sublux issues. If detected, they are treated with Directed Energy. Forceful thrust adjustments are outside my scope of practice and are NEVER done.

This is followed by evaluating the cranial rhythm and doing Craniosacral work as indicated. Focus then shifts to a combination of Acupressure, Polarity, and Directed Energy to evaluate and treat neck and shoulder problems such as whiplash, thoracic outlet syndrome, frozen shoulder, or rotator cuff tendonitis or bursitis. Work is then done on the arms, back and legs, with specific attention paid to sciatica, SI joint, piriformis, and contracted PSOAS issues.

Lymphatic Drainage is particularly helpful pre and post-surgery as the work helps cleanse toxins, allowing a cleaner incision and promoting faster healing with reduced scarring. It is also useful for reducing edema and treating Rosacea. Many cases of Acid Reflux can be successfully treated with Visceral Manipulation.

Skip to: Top | Fee Schedules and Policies | Bodywork Sessions | Private Lessons | Appointment Request Form | Session Description | Typical Treatment Session Description | Download a Brochure (PDF)


Typical Treatment Session Description

You may be wondering what to expect with your first treatment session. The following is a description of a typical treatment session. Just exactly what do I do for/during an actual treatment session? How do I go about it?

To a certain extent, it depends on whether I am doing a very specific problem treatment or a full systemic routine. By very specific, I mean something like treating a headache, sinus congestion, indigestion, sprained ankle, sore shoulder, whatever, but very specific in terms of condition or location.

Specific treatments more often than not are with acupressure, polarity, or a combination of both. They also tend to be fairly short sessions of five to fifteen minutes at the most. Using my own family as an example, one common problem is subluxed ribs. I use polarity and generally have the rib back in place within two minutes, longer if more than one rib is out. Minor vertebral subluxations get treated the same as ribs, just a slight variation of hand position. A full spinal adjustment can be done in about 10-15 minutes. Headaches? Acupressure – and generally busted in less than two minutes. Sinus congestion? I start with specific acupressure points and finish with a lymphatic drainage facial treatment. This takes longer – usually about 20 minutes. For basic joint pain (knees, shoulders, wrists, and elbows depending on which one is hurting), I just use the polarity X technique and can usually get the pain level down to zero within 3-5 minutes.

As for “set up” – it doesn’t matter a bit to me. For something like a lymphatic facial, because of the delicate touch required and length of time to do the routine, I generally would need or want someone on the table. For the other stuff, I could care less – sitting, standing, hallway floor in a casino, sitting in an airplane, standing in a line at Disney World – makes not one bit of difference to me. As long as I have room to work and not too many extraneous distractions around me, it doesn’t matter. We were at a wedding reception in 2004 for one of my nephews and I ended up working on eight different people, just standing in the backyard. None of the “sessions” took more than 5-10 minutes but included four full spinal adjustments, one demo on treating migraine headaches, one Acid Reflux treatment, and two stiff necks. And all while people were milling around us, drinking beer, laughing and talking. Like I said, I am not particularly fussy about “set up.”

Full systemic routines, however, are an entirely different matter. These depend on the type of “treatment” I am going to do and how general or specific that treatment will be. It can be anything from a basic, Swedish relaxation session to a full-blown, purely energetic routine. In some cases, I absolutely need to have the person on a table, others I can do seated or even standing. Some routines or treatments require skin on skin contact to properly engage the tissue, others can be done totally off-body with no physical contact at all, and every variation in between. And by inference you can take that to mean that the type of treatment dictates whether standard massage draping is necessary or whether everything is done fully clothed.

I am going to stress the above point because one of the hang-ups I run into with people not really familiar with bodywork is the common perception of massage in a spa setting – naked on a table with strategic body parts covered by a sheet or towel. Specifically, the two issues are modesty and body self-image and the question is “do I have to take my clothes off?” The answer is “it all depends on the type of session you want." If you want a standard Swedish relaxation, fluff and buff, session with oil or gel – yes because trying to use oil or gel through clothes just doesn’t work.

And there are some treatment techniques where skin to skin contact is required, such as standard myofascial release. On the other hand, I can do MFR just as effectively with energy techniques and do them through clothes. Lymphatic Drainage and Visceral Manipulation depend to a certain extent on the strength of the energy field of the person I am working on and how “on” I am personally at the time. The stronger the field of the person I am working on, the greater my ability to sense it off-body. I have also found that my ability to sense things off-body is very greatly affected by the energy around me. Specifically, I find that I can more easily do things in a classroom where there are other energy workers present than otherwise, simply because the energy amplifies and acts as a power booster for me. Having said that, there will be times when doing either LDT or VM where I would want the greater sensitivity of actual physical contact. There are other times when I wouldn’t need it at all. It just depends on the circumstances at the time.

I would categorize full systemic sessions as some combination of the following:

Full sessions take anywhere from an hour to up to three hours, depending on what is involved. Really “serious” treatment work might involve two or three sessions of two or three hours each.

The reality of the way I work is that I never end up doing just one thing – my hands and intuition won’t let me. Even if I am just doing what my wife and I call a Fluff and Buff Swedish Relaxation massage, my hands will automatically go into “treatment mode” if they pick up an area that needs work. What do I mean by “treatment mode?” My hands get very, very warm and I get energetic sensations in them – they tingle and pulsate. I can control it in that, by getting myself grounded and centered, I can in essence put them in treatment mode. By the same token, if I am in a proper grounded and centered state of mind (which should be the case ANY time I put my hands on someone), they will go into treatment mode by themselves.

So, let’s now describe a typical full session (as in 1-3 hours). I am going to start by asking you questions. What hurts? What problems are you having? Any specific goals you have in mind for the session? Anything in particular you would like me to address? Have you had any accidents, injuries or surgeries? What meds are you taking? I am then going to do a visual assessment. What is your posture? Do you have any spinal curvatures? Is your pelvis tilted or rotated? Do you have the appearance of shortened leg? Is your head/neck tilted or rotated? Are your shoulders even? Are your legs/feet laterally or medially rotated? Depending on what I see, I might do a gait analysis by having you walk so I can check your arm swing and heel strikes. I will also do a spinal assessment by running a thumb down the center of your spine and then along each side of the spine. This tells me whether you have any subluxed vertebrae or ribs. All of the above give me clues as to what problems you might be having and how to address them. Does it look like you have fascial restrictions? Contracted muscles? Subluxations?

For the actual treatment work, I generally start by having someone on their back on the table. As part of my pre-treatment assessment, I sometimes do a Therapeutic Touch scan to see what I pick up intuitively. If I don’t do that, I generally start the table work by doing a Craniosacral assessment for the same reason. Do I sense any areas of blockage?

Actual work starts with a full body acupressure/polarity release routine. This is usually about 70-80 percent acupressure and the rest polarity and takes about an hour depending on what is involved with specific joints like shoulders and knees. I do this because very few people have had it done before and everybody needs it. It opens up the energy channels in the body, helps remove energetic blockages, reduces muscle tension, and releases fascial restrictions, all at the same time. It also preps the body for more specific treatment work. Intermixed with this, I might detect a cranial imbalance and toss in a couple of Craniosacral releases as well.

The next step might be a full Craniosacral session or more extensive lymphatic work or some visceral manipulation. Or it might be a full spinal adjustment using polarity or a PSOAS release. Again, it all depends on the individual circumstances. For cases of heavy energetic blockages, I might add from 30-60 minutes of Chakra balancing before getting into specific treatment work.

I almost always end long sessions (particularly for the ladies) with a lymphatic facial. It is incredibly relaxing and something I find that they all really, really like. I then cap it all off with an off-body Chakra Balance and close the meridians at the base of the head.

Basically, I never do two sessions in a row in exactly the same day. Every person I work on is unique and I treat everyone that way. (Which is why I could NEVER work in a spa setting where the spa dictates the precise routine you HAVE to follow). But this should give all of you a bit of an idea of what to expect.

Skip to: Top | Fee Schedules and Policies | Bodywork Sessions | Private Lessons | Appointment Request Form | Session Description | Typical Treatment Session Description | Download a Brochure (PDF)


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Phone: (317) 297-7263
Cell: (317) 508-8556
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