Becoming a Preferred Provider Massage Therapist in Washington State

So I have been checking into doing this lately and since my school never passed any real information on the topic I had to do a little digging around.  After a short period on google I came across Larry Swanson’s site.  He pretty much lays it out in laymans terms and give you all the links you need to get started with the process.

The random coincidence is that Larry is from Seattle, he’s on biznik as well and even though we have not personally met I have stomped roots by dancing my ass off to his drumming at certain festivals and events.

Anyway his site is very informative on a lot of stuff massage, dance and drumming related and I recommend visiting it, plus he has a cool “Random Seattle News” blog that is very genuine.

Stress..What can you do about it?

No matter who you are, you experience stress to some degree.

However you do not have to let it control your life. You can learn to manage your response to stress. By gaining more awareness and control over your body’s automatic response to anxiety-producing situations, you can reduce the negative effects of stress in your life.

HOW STRESS EFFECTS YOU

You react unconsciously to situations you find threatening your daily life. Your stress response primes you for fight or flight by causing certain physiological and psychological changes to take place:

· Your adrenaline, heart rate & perspiration increases

· Breathing becomes shallow

· Your immune and digestive system is inhibited

· Your blood flow to extremities and internal organs decreases

· Expressing emotions becomes difficult

· You become emotionally shut down, causing internal trauma

· You become feeling mentally burdened or overwhelmed

· You show signs of sluggishness or depressive states occur

· Persistent unwanted physical conditions occur

You can understand why accumulated stress and tension can spoil much of the pleasure and productivity you find in life.

WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT STRESS

Relaxation is the key to stress. During a relaxed state, your endocrine and nervous system activates changes to slow your heart rate, improve circulation and digestion, and relax your muscles, which also produces healthy release of emotions and mental clarity.

There are many activities that can trigger a relaxation response, such as exercise, deep breathing, meditation, or listening to soothing music.

WHOLISTIC HEALTH CARE

You could transmute your stress while receiving gemstone and sound healing infused with aromatherapy and Reiki, all while indulging in a therapeutic and relaxing massage. An indulging massage can help DECREASE physical, emotional and mental stress, while INCREASING vitality and awareness for greater productivity.

In addition you can learn about certain Eastern Elements, such as Qigong, which can greatly enhance your quality of life.

A program of regular relaxation through Wholistic Wellness will put you in touch with your body, teaching you to monitor its signals and needs so you’ll know when you should take time out from the anxiety that worries you. In this way, you can avoid the damaging effects of chronic stress and gain some control over your sense of well-being.

The Relaxation Response

When working with the public in many fields I have always found that for myself and for others, just taking a few minutes to get out of your environment and take some deep breaths, seems to be the best medicine, without having to “pop a pill”.

Studies show relaxation is the antidote to stress, creating the relaxation response. During the relaxation response your bodies heart rate slows, circulation and digestion are improved, and your direct stress response muscles are relaxed.

There are many activities that you can do to trigger the relaxation response i.e. exercise, deep breathing, meditation, listening to soothing music etc. However, the best method to reduce stress is to receive a therapeutic and relaxing massage on a regular basis.
Massage can dramatically reverse the damaging physiological effects of stress by helping to:

• lower you heart rate and blood pressure
• improve circulation & digestion
• raise your skin temperature
• heighten you sense of well-being
• cause your anxiety level to drop

During a massage, your tight muscles tend to relax and the pain associated with chronic tension is relieved. Increased circulation will supply more oxygen and nutrition to your muscless and help rid them of metabolic waste. Blocked, deadened areas are thus able to respond to sensory input again. Massage also stimulates release of the body’s own natural pain killers-the endorphins.

When people tell me, “I am just so stressed and wound up, I don’t know what to do…” I always tell them, “You should get a massage.”

As shown a massage is a good way to reduce stress, but it is not the cure all. Consistency is the key. Depending on your environment and situation you should receive massage on a regular basis (1-4 times per month) and you should take action with a good self care program. A solid program of regular massage and proper self care will put you in touch with your body, teaching you to monitor its signals and needs so you’ll know when you should take time out from the things that worry you. In this way, you can avoid the damaging effects of chronic stress and gain some control over your sense of well-being.

The Healing Power in Therapeutic Quality Gemstones

When people find out that I work with gemstones (or as most say, crystals), I tend to get a lot of questions. To be honest I don’t know everything about crystals, infact I know very little, compared to how many minerals exist. However I do know and have experience with enough to do good healing work with my clients. I study and practice a fairly new form of crystal healing. This method has taken a lot of the esoteric or “Woo Woo” out of the practice, although still keeping it very intentional and sacred, and combines it with scientific research, backed up with thousands of clinical studies from the last 20 years. This method provides a systematic approach to a form of energy medicine that was unapproachable in the past by most. If you are interested in learning more about the healing power of therapeutic quality gemstones, I teach ongoing classes, that is taylored around your needs. You can also visit the organization that put gemstone therapy on the map for the medical community.

Gemstones Embody Healing Energy

Gemstones, with their powerful energies and profound resonance with the human body, are the perfect energy medicine tools. Like other forms of energy medicine, gemstone energy medicine uses the body’s inherent healing force to nourish and heal us on a multidimensional aspect. Each type of gemstone embodies a unique energy that can focus and amplify this healing force and produce specific therapeutic effects.

Today, these potent tools for transforming health are being embraced by large numbers of people and have excited the interest of physicians and medical researchers. Gemstone therapies work—both as primary treatments and as complements to other healing modalities. Emotional maladies, mental complaints, and acute and chronic illnesses of all kinds have responded to gemstone energy medicine in unprecedented and exciting ways.

How can therapeutic gemstones accomplish all this? Physicists tell us that all matter is energy in physical form. Gemstones are certainly no exception. Formed over eons, often at high pressure, the Earth’s gemstones embody intense concentrations of energy. Today, we employ the energetic and physical properties of gemstones in many aspects of technology—for example, we use gemstones in lasers to perform delicate surgeries and in computers to propel information around the globe. Similarly, we can use certain gemstones to focus and amplify the body’s innate energies to uplift our health.

 

Quality and Shape:
Keys to Unlocking a Gemstone’s Healing Power

 

Efforts to use gemstones for healing have a long history. In many cultures, ancient and modern, people have sought to uncover the therapeutic powers that lie within the crystalline structures of gemstones. Over the centuries, people’s attempts have met with varying degrees of success and failure. Yet, when using gemstones for healing, something was often missing. Until recently, humans have been unable to discover a systematic way to unlock the full therapeutic powers of gems and to achieve consistent, long-lasting results.

 

Key #1: Quality

 

To discover why success with using gems for healing was elusive for so long, one place to look is to the gemstones themselves. Essential to the success of any form of medicine is the nature of its therapeutic tools. To be most effective and reliable, medicine must be pure and high in quality. The purity and quality requirements of the gemstones can be far superior than any other medicine around, due to the extreme longevity of the medicine itself. Meeting these strict requirements can make or break a gemstone’s therapeutic worth. For gemstone energy medicine to be effective and consistent, the use of only therapeutic quality gemstones is required. Every gemstone has different requirements, for example, as some will be optical, where as some will be cloudy. No matter what the quality requirements, another key point is consistency. That is consistency within the single sphere itself and consistency on the whole necklace.

 

Key #2: Shape

 

Research and clinical experience have also shown that a gemstone’s shape profoundly affects the way it can express its energy—and thus its ability to deliver its healing properties. The ideal shape for a therapeutic gemstone is the sphere. Cutting a raw gemstone crystal into a sphere exponentially increases its ability to reach and heal the deepest, energetic aspects of our being, where the root causes of disease and distress lie. Therapeutic gemstone spheres radiate an incomparable energy that can affect all dimensions of our being, physical and subtle, and hence heal and transform us on multiple levels.

 

Together, these two concepts—the selection of only the highest consistent quality gemstones and the use of gemstones cut into the proper shape—represent a simple, yet seismic, shift in understanding how gemstones can work therapeutically. Proper selection, shaping, and use of gemstones transform them into therapeutic power tools.

 

Why Necklaces?

 

It has been discovered that one of the most powerful energy medicine tools available today is the therapeutic gemstone necklace. Some people might find it hard to imagine that an object resembling ordinary jewelry could affect our health and well-being so profoundly. Yet a therapeutic gemstone necklace is one of the most potent and consistent ways to deliver the healing benefits of gemstones.

 

When you wear gemstone spheres around your neck, their energies can radiate deep into your entire body and aura, or energetic field. There, the gems work on dissipating the energetic clouds and other blockages that obscure your natural radiance, limit your positive growth, and lead to ill health. At the same time, the gemstones’ energies uplift and nourish all aspects of your being. Thus, a therapeutic gemstone necklace can energize and inspire you, help restore your health, and initiate enduring changes.

 

Solid Necklaces

 

A solid necklace contains one kind of gemstone and provides the pure essence of that gemstone’s healing energy.

 

Combination Necklaces

 

A combination necklace brings together two or more kinds of gemstones to create a new healing tool with unique benefits. When gemstones are harmoniously combined in the same necklace, they fulfill purposes and provide benefits that are not available when worn in separate necklaces. In this way, combination necklaces are like herbal formulations: a harmonious combination of herbs or gemstones produces a synergy that can be greater than the sum of its parts.

Sound Therapeutics

Do you have intense emotions around certain music? Have you ever danced to really awesome music for hours until your legs were cramped? Have you ever thought about music or certain sounds and frequencies included in massage, or as a session of it’s own?

I have always been curious of the healing aspects of sound. Then about 4 years ago I started experimenting with sound and how it made myself and others react. When I decided this is what I want to bring to people, I purchased my first set of crystal bowls, and began doing sound healing sessions. 2 years later I have more tools, experience and knowledge and now I am creating new systems of healing with sound, gemstone, aromatherapy, Reiki and massage.

At no time in our history has there been greater desire, interest and need for alternative forms of health care. Along with the growing list of modalites, Sound Therapeutics is at the top. This approach draws on science, music, metaphysics, ancient truths, philosophical traditions, and both Eastern and Western medicine to create an integrated and harmonic approach to health care and healing.

Throughout time and across all cultures, music and sound have been an integral part of ceremony, ritual, and healing. In every cosmology and mythology sound is a major link, the carrier wave between the world of the spirit and the people of Earth. The Australian aboriginal cultures believe that the Earth was sounded into existence through the didgeridoo. In Shamanic traditions, incantations, drumming, and rattling are used to induce dreams and visions of creations. In the Old Testament there is a record of David playing the harp to treat King Saul’s depression and in ancient Hellenic culture the pain of sciatica and gout was eased with flute playing.

Today, we know that when we listen to music or hear certain sounds that it evokes powerful emotions that can pump us up, make us sad, or help us to understand and express our feelings. It is this growing recognition of the power that music and sound play in therapy, healing and life that is giving rise to the new field of Harmonic Medicine.

Sound Therapeutics is an energy-based non-invasive treatment that is similar to acupuncture when using tuning forks. Precision calibrated tuning forks are applied to specific acupuncture points to access the body’s Meridian and Chakra energy systems. These tuning forks represent a natural harmonic series based on the orbital properties of the Earth, Moon, Sun and planets. Their rich resonance and vibration connects with and supports the body’s natural frequencies. It brings us into alignment with the cycles of the Cosmos known since antiquity as the Music of the Spheres. The tuning fork is struck and then placed on the body or held near the ears. The sound waves of the forks vibrate and travel deeply into the body along energy pathways, affecting human physiology and reaching places not easily accessed by traditional medicine. Applying the forks stimulates and balances the body’s physical and subtle energy field to promote healing and inner harmony. Listening to the forks speaks to us deeply by connecting with our vestibular system, within the inner ear canal, and accessing our sense of motion, balance, space, memory, and healing.

Along with the tuning forks, other natural sound devices can be utilized, such as crystal bowls, Tibetan Singing Bowls, tingshaws, bells, rattles, drums and voice. To add even more benefit to a session, gemstones, aromatherapy and acupressure can be added to the points along with the sound.

 

“Music creates order out of chaos; for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.”
–Sir Yehudi Menuhin

“More than anything else, rhythm and melody find their way to the inmost soul and take the srongest hold upon it.” –Plato

“Every illness is a musical problem, and every cure has a musical solution.” –Novalis (16 th Century)

“There is no greater and living resonator of sound than the human body. Sound has an effect on each atom of the body, for each atom resounds.” – Hazrat Inyut Khan

Gemstone Therapy Classes

While there is a set curriculum based on Level I-III, which when completing all 3 levels will qualify you to become a Certified Gemstone Therapist, there are tons of electives. If you don’t think you can commit to a whole level, contact me and we can set up an elective class to fit your needs.

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Level One Enter the Crystal Cave: Basic Gemstones- gives you a broad look over 7 weeks at the capabilities of Gemstone Therapy as a spherical modality of effective crystal work withhigh standards of practice. It wakes up your ability to sense and palpate the energetic aspectsof human anatomy, physiology and pathology present in the aura. It initiates you into awareness of yourself on an auric level and connects you to crystal intelligence that corresponds to 6 different aspects of your multi-dimensional self. This includes Physical, Supra-Physical, Emotional, Causal, Mental, and Intuitive aspects. The advantage of this is that it can help you do what you already do better regardless of your occupation.

Level One is really an introduction but it is also your initiation into true healing-quality gemstone therapy backed up by study, science and clinical research. Both Logical and Intuitive methods are used together to create a very fun and engaging form of energy medicine with endless applications.
From Level One you can continue on to complete your training with Levels II and III or you may branch into electives, or both. In Level One you learn about the True Healing Properties of 6 gems.

Level Two Gifts of Gaia: The Earthstones- works more specifically on the physical body and grounds Level One and focuses on upgrading and grounding the skills learned in Level One. We will also work with more focus on the emotional body too but physical body will be primary. In this level we take everything up a notch and you learn two stones per class instead of one. This class is 8 weeks including the exam as the 8th. It is in this level that you learn how to turn your body into a crystal tool of Wisdom and Healing. This is also where you learn to work with multiple energies gradually to create more effective forms of treatment. We build upon the foundation you started by adding more exercises and techniques and physical initiations. It in is this level that the stones that make up the vital organs of the living earth are revealed!
This level is the best one to take electives in because it is the most grounded level and will support special studies of your own interests best, so take advantage of this and sign up for what electives you want most. If you double up with a class mate for your elective you can still pay the group rate.

Electives are $25/hour group or $50/hour private for enrolled students only. Novices pay double that for electives or private classes.

Level Three Rays of Life: The Stones of the Color Rays- is where you take what you have learned in the last two levels and you prepare to work at a higher order of learning and healing for it is the Color rays that help create life itself and make it possible to heal on many levels at once. Here you are being prepared to do this on others and take your practice to new heights of effectiveness or discover the deeper secrets of the Multi-dimensional self and apply this in your life. The eighth class includes a powerful initiation that balances all three levels. This is nine weeks including final exam as the 9th.

Important Details and Time-Commitment ~ Each level ends with a class that balances all the previous energies of that level so you are strongly encouraged to complete each level. If you take the certification path of doing all three levels this is a 24-class commitment. Classes are typically 3-4 hours 6:30pm – 10pm-ish. The exam classes of each level are a little longer (5-6 hours), may start earlier, and include a written and practical exam. Classes run weekly on a nearly every week schedule on the same night each week.
After Passing the Level Three Exam, you may receive a Certificate of Completion as a Practitioner of Gemstone Therapy there is a ceremony for receiving this title. You may buy your books online. Other names for “Wisdom of the Gemstone Guardians” include Gemisphere Luminary, Gifts of the Gemstone Guardians.

Level One Pricing as of May 15, 2007
Tuition: $50/class = $350 (7classes) OR Prepay and pay $300 (private classes or make-up classes are double the price)
Books: Wisdom of the Gemstone Guardians, Gemstone Energy Medicine (both by Michael Katz).
Stone Pack: $25 (6 high-graded, healing-quality beads suitable for sensation & Acu-Gem-Therapy)

Level Two Pricing as of May 15, 2007
Tuition: $50/class = $400 (8classes) OR Prepay and pay $350 (private classes or make-up classes are double the price)
Books: Wisdom of the Gemstone Guardians, Gemstone Energy Medicine (both by Michael Katz).
Stone Pack: $40 (14 high-graded, healing-quality beads suitable for sensation & Acu-Gem-Therapy)

Level Three Pricing as of May 15, 2007
Tuition: $50/class = $450 (9classes) OR Prepay and pay $400 (private classes or make-up classes are double the price)
Books: Wisdom of the Gemstone Guardians, Gemstone Energy Medicine (both by Michael Katz).
Stone Pack: $150 (8 high-graded, healing-quality beads suitable for Color-Ray & Acu-Gem-Therapy)

The Earth mama is alive with great CHI or life force that has the power to sense and interact with the body, mind and emotions via the human energy field. Like silent saints, the gemstones of Earth are the attractors, concentrators and movers of this life force. When the most precious and pure of these living gemstone species, are shaped into spheres and extracted without harm, they become a potent form of energy medicine. For it is only in the last short time that humans have been ready for the awesome power and awareness that is catalyzed by the spherical form.

Gem, Tone & Touch Therapies for Whole Body Wellness

Providing Wellness Planning for you and your business

CJ Stone

Wholistic Practitioner

206-491-0346

info@cj-stone.com

Guide to using Therapeutic Quality Gemstones