Looking after your Body in Massage Dynamic Bodyuse for Massage Practitioners by Darien Pritchard
Massage practitioners can find themselves stiffening up and creating strain in their own bodies as they work. Unfortunately, the way that practitioners use their bodies as they massage has been neglected in much massage teaching until recent years. The focus has primarily been on the techniques, with little or no consideration given to the practitioner’s ease and comfort in delivering them. And teachers are often obliged to teach a set routine, with no adaptions to the specific build and abilities of the individual student.
Darien Pritchard has been a bodyworker for three decades, including twenty five years of training massage professionals, five of teaching professional massage in a university degree course, and twenty of teaching a range of professional development courses for massage practitioners. His ‘client-responsive’ approach to bodywork has been inspired by the study of yoga, Tai Chi, creative movement/dance and training in the Feldenkrais Method® of movement awareness.
Darien has been a pioneer of ‘Hands-Free’ Massage (using the forearm and elbows) in the for over two decades (without which he couldn’t have sustained his career). At the same time, he developed RhythmMobility® bodywork (rhythmic techniques for release, flexibility and energising) in his practice, combining elements of massage and the Feldenkrais Method® with his love of rhythm (enhanced through dancing and playing music).
Darien is a past co-director of the Massage Training Institute, a wide organisation of massage schools, and has served on national organisations working towards recognition and regulation of professional massage in the , most recently on the General Council for Massage Therapy. He coauthored the student text Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology for Massage (Corpus Publications, UK, 2001) with Su Fox, and wrote the career-maintenance reference book Dynamic Bodyuse for Effective, Strain-Free Massage (Lotus Publications, UK: North Atlantic Books, USA: 2007).
Contact details:
T: +44 (0)29 2045 4506
E: darien.pritchard@virgin.net
Interested in a copy of Darien Pritchard’s books?
Darien Pritchard’s books are available in through Bacchus Books in Gauteng.
For more information or to order a copy write to:
bacchus@telkomsa.net or call
011 679 1539.
You can also write to
P.O. Box 6376, Cresta, 2118.