GMRA ShortDemo for Clients video from Peter C K Smith on Vimeo.
We love the number of pioneering trainers, especially of Light Touch Therapies, that are becoming part of ThinkTree Hub, with approaches that are mould-breaking and good for both clients and therapists. We’ll be introducing you to more of them. For starters, here is what the Gentle Muscle Release Academy are doing to help clients and extend the careers of massage therapists.
What would you think if I told you that, instead of working really hard on a client much larger than you whose muscles are very tight, sore (possibly also injured) – leaving you tired and sore – that there is a much easier, effective and gentler way to go about it. As if that wasn’t enough, what if it was more pleasurable for both of you than simply grinding away at hypertonic muscles?
With GMR it is possible for you to be able to release all the major muscle groups on the front of your client’s body from toe-to-head, release their arms, shoulders and neck … and then all the major muscles down the back of the body without breaking a sweat. Our experience shows that you can return mobility in a chronic frozen shoulder back to 75% plus in one session.
Of course, no therapy can do everything and fix everyone, including Gentle Muscle Release (GMR) but what if you knew how to show your client how to do most of the ‘work’ – especially if they are a beefy 20-stone rugby player and you weigh 9 or 10 stone?
Sometimes, therapists are taught a massage routine when they are training, and end up doing the same routine countless times, all the time wondering, if there was something more they could do. One of the main issues in body work is that clients armour and guard their muscles as a way of protecting themselves. With GMR, the aim is safely and painlessly to help people to release this physical guarding and protection with minimal effort, whether it is frozen shoulders or wonky knees.
As a holistic therapist, I have been using certain Light Touch Therapies (LTT) since 1982. In 2016 I stumbled on some information that truly shocked me: I heard that 78% of massage therapists and bodyworkers work so hard that many of them injure themselves to the point that some are forced to retire earlier than they want, crippled by exhaustion, RSI, back and neck injuries and worse.
It was this that, despite being nearly 68, prompted me to share Gentle Muscle Release with the world. There are many great Light Touch Therapies out there. Unfortunately, however, they have not sneaked into massage training, because conventionally, I think we can all agree that massage is not seen as a primarily problem-solving intervention. If you have a client with a problem, then the standard procedure is to refer them to a physiotherapist, osteopath or chiropractor; it is not ‘your job’.
YIN and YANG
Those three professions I picked out at random above, are all ‘Yang’ therapies. By this, I mean the therapist is essentially ‘doing’ something to the client. They are more ‘male’ in essence, if you like.
For me, massage is, ideally, a more ‘Yin’, more ‘female’ approach. Likewise, Gentle Muscle Release (GMR) doesn’t seek to ‘do’ to the body, it facilitates release by the client’s own brain.
I hope you would agree that massage therapists are moving to a new level. Every profession is constantly in a state of growth or flux. The whole world is changing. Why should the massage profession be any different? As Leon Chaitow said of Gerry Pyves’ wonderful NoHands Massage®: “It is not revolutionary it is evolutionary.”
I am confident that the same will come to be said of our approach with GMR, which we have been teaching through our Academy for the past two years. Working with ThinkTree, we have now achieved a level 3 Diploma Accreditation. Now that the brakes are off, there is nothing to stop GMR going mainstream, all we need is enough skilled practitioners.
Our Strategy
We need help to bring GRM to the 100,000 therapists in the UK. First we need a growing number of Diplomats (GMR Dip). These people will have completed the current Introductory Course which will deliver 10 CPD points over 3 weekends, resulting in learners proving their competence in the core ‘releases’ via 3 weekends: Weekend 1 will be followed 2 weeks later by Weekend 2; 7 weeks after that, Weekend 3.
Body Untangling
Thereafter, those wishing to increase their skills will be encouraged to learn more advanced and complex releases and will learn to enhance their ‘muscle memory’ by repetition and the development of their skills by more actively learning how to analyse and thereby ‘untangle’ the bodies of their clients. They will have merited the Advanced Diploma (GMR Adv Dip) and will hopefully decide to go on to the next step.
Becoming a Trainer
It is at this stage that we are looking to building a core of motivated and excited trainers who can spread the word.
Revolutionary teaching resources
It has long been our aim to provide a step-by-step, release-by-release video that people will be able to access on their tablet or computer or phone through a password-protected ‘Back Office’. Therefore, in between the initial weekends and for ever, this resource will be accessible 24/7 and 365 on demand, at no extra charge.
It will be a great ‘refresher’ that can be watched in its entirety or, for example, “Release 21, the Neck”.
Who are we reaching out to?
People with vision. Open-minded people fed up with hurting, people who would like not to hurt any longer and return to active work again. We are also reaching out to newbies, and highly experienced therapists, people wishing to take their skillset to a whole new dimension! There will be much more detail on our website, which you will appreciate is very much a work in progress. We have a trainer to student ratio of 1:6 as part of our commitment.
Taster support video
We have created a ‘taster’ video that we will be using to explain to clients how GMR works (see above). Once the clients understand the way it works, once they see it with their own eyes and when they feel the difference, they can begin to appreciate that the difference in just a short 2-5 minute session on their hands and fingers, can be achieved – potentially – with every other muscle in the body!
I love the reaction I get from working on experienced therapists. Last week a Bowen Therapist probably said “WOW!” at least 25 times and could simply not believe how she felt after a whole-body session.
Saving the best till last: not only is GMR gob-smackingly amazing: GMR is simply FUN!
Peter Smith is the founder of the GMR Academy.
www.gmracademy.co.uk pcks@gmracademy.co.uk