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a renewed altar and featuring Shelby Schue & reflexology
by Anna the Walk In Wellness blogger 

The sweet twang of sitar music greets me as I walk in to the Tuesday Wellness Clinic, and all three tables are occupied; after a few minutes pass, Shelby Schue finishes up with her client, and it’s my turn to get a reflexology treatment.

If you’ve ever worked with a reflexologist, you may already know this: it’s all about the feet, but it’s not about the feet at all.

This isn’t my first experience with Shelby; during my initial treatment a couple of years ago, this gifted therapist told me straight out: “Don’t think only about your feet. That’s my job. Reflexology is a whole-body experience.”

To be honest, all I could think about at the time was the screaming pain in my feet, which were trying to adjust to tile and concrete surfaces after living most of my life on wood or laminate flooring and carpet.

My feet weren’t happy. Every day was another avalanche of misery, with each step carving a fresh and nasty notch into my sensory awareness. But in spite of the fact that I was focused on foot pain during the treatment Shelby gave me that day, something amazing happened.

After thirty minutes of her attention, my feet made a complete recovery. It felt like a miracle, and I haven’t had any trouble with sore feet since that day.

So I’m not necessarily looking for another miracle when Shelby takes my foot in her hands. She asks me if there are any particular issues I’m working with on a physical level, and then gives me a little background on reflexology.

Here’s the scoop: toxins pool up in the feet, and reflexology work opens up neural zonelines so blood can flow freely, increasing circulation. This relaxes the inner body as well as the feet, including vital organs, glands, muscles, and bones. It relieves constriction, allowing the entire body to come into balance.

It’s news to me, but all nerve endings start in the feet. No wonder we get ticklish! But she says people never have trouble with that when she works on them.

“There are over seven thousand two hundred nerve endings in each foot,” she tells me, pressing a thumb (or finger?) into the soft tissue on the bottom of my left sole. Her touch is firm, and within a minute or two, she finds a tender spot.

And I have to warn you, when she finds a sensitive area, it’s like her ears perk up. Or her hands. Shelby moves in deeper, exploring the flesh under my footskin, kneading and working it until I get squirmy under her touch.

She lightens up when I start to pull away, and then we talk about what part of my body each area is associated with; I am not surprised when I find out one tender part is a direct line to my adrenal glands, which have certainly been under the gun. Tender spots usually indicate issues in the interior of the body.

Though others are getting massage treatments only a few feet away from me, Shelby and I are in our own little reflexology world. I don’t feel self-conscious talking with her about what’s going on in my body; I’m enjoying the fact that it’s all about me.

Not only my feet. Me.

Shelby has been practicing reflexology for forty-six years; she opened one of the first health food stores in Vermont and shortly after that, she saw a reflexologist working and was intrigued. She bought a book, studied, and began practicing on people’s feet for $5 a session.

After a couple of years, Shelby began giving workshops, appearing on television, and doing radio shows. In the mid-eighties, she added rebirthing work to her repertoire. Shelby served on the board of New Mexico Association of Reflexologists for a number of years, and has given workshops all over the country.

Obviously a diagram of the human foot, along with all the neural connections to each part of the body, is clearly imprinted on Shelby’s soul. Her fingers follow the pathways, pressing, probing and kneading. Some of it feels soothing and some of it doesn’t.

By the end of the treatment, I know what organs are struggling and could use my support, and none of it is truly surprising. The areas of concern are mostly what I would have expected, if I had to guess.

When I walk out the door, the spots that were so tender under Shelby’s firm touch have calmed down; my feet don’t feel much different than when we started, but I’m in a state of heightened awareness when it comes to my physicality.

It feels like I’ve had the benefit of an intuitive translator who let me know exactly what my feet were trying to tell me. I have ideas about changes I can make to help my body cope with life’s challenges, and I imagine the benefits of increased circulation and improved energy flow to the adrenal glands and other areas that need attention.

So don’t think about your feet when you get a reflexology treatment. Think about the big picture, and let your interpreter clue you in; you’ll feel like you’re getting an internal massage, and walk out knowing more about what’s going on inside than you ever would have thought possible.

Who knows? Maybe you’ll even get your own miracle.

Renewed Altar and more from our blogger Anna on treatments at WALK IN WELLNESS Clinic

Walk In Wellness- Community Clinic @ Studio de La Luz

Welcome Anna- our new blogger!  Reporting on the Walk In Wellness Clinic......
Welcome to the Clinic & meet each therapist one by one- as Anna reports her personal experience.

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Walk In Wellness Clinic

#1

From the outside, Studio de la Luz looks bigger than it is; when you walk through the door, it’s clear this colorful and carefully decorated space takes up only part of the building you see from the street. But there’s plenty of room for setting up treatment tables, and if you can spare half an hour or so between 10 and 4 on Tuesdays, you can taste the talents of local healers for the price of a modest donation.

The weekly Tuesday Walk-in Wellness Clinic hosted by Studio de la Luz in the historic Hot Springs District of downtown Truth or Consequences offers community members a convenient opportunity for a treatment session short enough to fit into your lunch hour. And if you enjoy it as much as I did, you may just decide to put it on your calendar as a regular gig.

When I arrive, there’s an open massage table, and two other clients are already receiving the ministrations of skilled therapists. These aren’t private sessions, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that the low-key atmosphere, complete with soft background music, damped down my awareness of sharing the space with others.

Under the competent hands of a therapist, the tension drains out of me, and the atmosphere in Studio de la Luz feels supportive in all the best ways: the music is soft and soothing, clients sigh in pleasure, and conversations are low. Outside sounds are muted, turning this little studio into an insulated arena where talented givers and grateful takers can interact.

And I’m happy to be on the receiving end of a wonderful massage: the therapist working on me specializes in acupressure and muscle release. I do my share of sighing, and by the time I get off the table thirty minutes after my arrival, my shoulders have quit reaching for my ears. I’m in no hurry to slip back into my regular routine. And the bonus is that it seems I’m breathing more easily and deeply than before I walked through the door.

The range of modalities offered by local therapists is truly impressive. Clients might enjoy a reflexology treatment to make the feet feel spry again, get an energetic tune-up with craniosacral work or acupressure, or simply experience the relief of surrendering to strong and competent hands those muscles and soft tissues challenged by getting through each day.

With a suggested minimum donation of $15, the Walk-in Wellness Clinic is a bargain designed to make alternative wellness services affordable for those who might not have the budget for hands-on treatments like these.

Take it from me, it’s worth your time and money to make a point of walking in to the Studio de la Luz next Tuesday and checking it out.

Anna Mareci

#2  
Julia Masaoka LMT- Massage Therapist/ Cranial Sacral Therapy

The low-volume Native American flute music playing when I walk in the door at Studio de la Luz kicks off my personal relaxation process. I see someone else getting what I would usually call a foot rub, but I suspect it’s more likely to be a reflexology treatment.

Julia Masaoka’s table is free, so I don’t need to wait. Julia is a licensed massage therapist who is also certified in CranioSacral Therapy. She originally learned massage in the 80s, and returned to school to get further training later; at this point, she has more than thirty years of experience as a bodyworker.

After going back and forth between Asheville, North Carolina and Truth or Consequences for a few years, Julia now lives here full-time, and says her work at the Wellness Clinic is a blessing on multiple levels.

She asks me if there’s anything she should know about what’s going on with my body before inviting me to lie face-down on the massage table.

Then, despite my mentioning only the stiffness in my lower back, in a very short time, she discovers the tightness I carry between my shoulder blades. Gently and firmly, she works the area until the muscles begin to release their tension.

As the session goes on, Julia’s massage encourages more tight, tense muscles to uncoil. Her hands move expertly over my skin and soft tissues, working where my neck meets my shoulders, giving my upper arms light and soothing pressure before she spends some welcome moments helping my lower back to remember what it feels like to “let go.”

She’s especially careful working with my neck, which turns out to be another spot in dire need of attention; if you’re like me, you may have become an expert at ignoring your body’s signals that it would welcome a helping hand or two. Using a technique called “Polarity,” she systematically eases the knots in soft tissue around the cervical spine, facilitating a better balance from side to side.  

Julia’s an expert at coaxing out the jangly energy, and I do my part by focusing on allowing the release of tension. She tops it off with a few minutes of CranioSacral work at the end of the session. Julia says this will help balance CranioSacral fluid, leading to a relaxing effect the nervous system, something I know I need.

Later, I find out CranioSacral Therapy can help banish headaches, improve learning disabilities, decrease neck or back pain, relieve sciatica and TMJ, as well as a long list of other potential benefits. And it’s incredibly soothing; if you’ve ever found yourself rubbing the back of your neck and noticing tension in the neck and shoulders, you may want to check out this type of therapy.

Julia tells me to take my time sitting up. I move slowly, fighting the urge to yawn; soon, there is no resisting, and for the next few minutes after my massage, I am overtaken by yawn after yawn. All the tasks that seemed urgent to accomplish this afternoon slip down on the priority list, and suddenly the most important thing is this pleasant reconnection with my body. After all, it’s my best friend, and it’s much happier after Julia’s massage.

“I enjoy helping people feel better,” says Julia. “And the camaraderie with other therapists is uplifting.”

It’s easy to see what she means. The little studio feels saturated with calm energy, and I toy with the idea that there is a synergistic healing effect of several gifted professionals working with clients at the same time, in the same place. I like the sound of my theory, and I encourage you to test it out by walking into the Wellness Clinic next Tuesday.

#3  Teina Wells LMT    Massage Therapy/ Asian Fusion Bodywork

Last week I invited you to share my experiences at Studio de la Luz Tuesday Walk-In Wellness Clinic, which is open from 10 to 5 weekly. I arrive a little before 3, and under the first-come, first-serve rule, I land on Teina Wells’ table. Reading over the long list of skills she’s gathered over decades as a holistic health practitioner, I feel certain I’ll be in good hands.

Originally trained at Mueller College of Holistic Studies in San Diego, Teina has a generous deck of cards to pull from in serving clients. She is well-versed in Eastern healing arts, including traditional Asian bodywork. Teina uses a variety of modalities, such as acupressure, Spinal Touch, pain relief methods, full body Swedish massage, and myofascial release, to name a few.

“I’ve trained in so many different modalities, I can’t even remember where I learned what any more. I draw a bit from this and bit from that, mixing it up to get what feels right in the moment with each client,” says Teina.

I settle on the table, face up, wondering how it will feel to receive a treatment in a room with several other people occupying it already, and no telling if more clients might walk through the door any minute. In the past, I’ve only had private massage therapy sessions, which this is definitely not.

But it’s simple to start with a focus on the practiced touch of competent hands holding my head. Within a few minutes, Teina’s expertise has emptied my mind of any concerns about sharing the space with other clients and therapists. It feels like she has somehow drawn an invisible privacy curtain around us, and I close my eyes in pleasurable anticipation of what might come next.

Though I could never single out any of the techniques Teina uses to accomplish this, the tension in my jaw begins to decrease almost immediately. Did I have any idea how tight my jaw was? No. But I can surely feel the changes as they take place.

Next I get some attention to my scalp and temples, and then the base of my skull. By the time she reaches the spot where neck meets shoulders, I’m getting a bit drowsy. I can still hear the soft and calming music in the background, and ever-so-faintly, traffic passing by on the street, but it’s laughably easy to tune that out, along with the muted conversations around me.

I don’t usually think about the strain of everyday activity on fingers or toes, but it’s a relief to feel Teina working each digit over lightly and quickly, and my wrists and ankles get the benefit of her touch, too. At her request, I turn over, thinking that the part where she works on my back will be the best.

And it’s wonderful. Teina moves her talented hands along my spine, lingering in the places where tightness tends to build up in me. Anyone who spends hours on the computer knows how that spot between the shoulder blades can get, and whatever blend of modalities she applies is blissfully effective: my skin fairly tingles as the chronic stiffness drains out of my tissues.

But I can’t say for certain that the work on my back was the best of it; in fact, I’m not sure there is any way to separate one part of the massage from another, because everything Teina has done seems to have contributed to that overall feeling of relief.

Maybe this massage can help me understand what “Holistic Health” means; the dictionary says holism is based on the idea that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. And the massage Teina gives me feels like much, much more than pressure in one place, followed by the smoothing and soothing of tissues in another.

Instead, it seems as if Teina’s touch has reminded my body, mind and spirit of the inherent unity that can get lost in the shuffle; her mix of modalities has hit my sweet spot, relieved my tension, and left me with a pleasant buzz of wellbeing, which feels like the perfect gift to take with me as I go back out into the world.

And when I leave Studio de la Luz a few minutes later, I notice my shoulders have quit trying to reach for my ears, and I’m breathing more deeply and freely. Maybe I’m even walking with a lighter step. One thing’s for sure: that was a half hour well spent.

 

The evolution of Studio de La Luz

 Greetings everyone,

Studio de la luz is approaching its 14th year anniversary. It is a pleasure to share about the growth that has happened this past year. 

As founder and caretaker of this sacred community space in a very special community - I am  happy too  be able to turn over its stewardship to a community minded sister yogini as my life moves to other parts of the country. I had to be able to let it all go- the surrender we aspire to, but that is so big- and in the willingness, what happened was the affirmation of the value of the space and the desire for its life to go on and the readiness of the  right person to step forward. 

Melissa McKinstry is now guiding, managing and enhancing the programs,classes and activities at Studio de La Luz. Such capable hands and heart, it is thriving like never before!

You can contact her by email   missymckinstry@gmail.com or by phone (575)740-4689

Many, many Blessings!
Sincerely, Wendy Sager Evanson

February 2016

,

Inner love, inner light.
Happy Valentines Day- Namaste......... remembering and celebrating! 

Studio de La Luz wishes you light, inner warmth, comfort  a  spark to  enliven your body, mind and spirit. You are Perfect, you are LOVE. lets join in remembering- take a breath and marvel at being alive.

JANUARY 2016

GREETINGS & HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM STUDIO DE LA LUZ

Isn't it a balance, the abundance and simplicity project? 

 Blessings abound and may there be plenty of open space and time to receive and appreciate the goodness everyday. May your altar within be celebrated and respected.  

Join us this year, and continue to explore vitality, embodiment, yoga, sound healing & toning, Reiki share circle, Hands on Wellness bodywork clinic and community healing circles. Come move and come be still, play and recuperate, be inspired and  be well. PEACE

DECEMBER 2015

    e

May we, through honest & courageous observation, listening, opening and connecting- realize this and passionately be active on behalf of the beautiful wholeness- which we are part of. Listen closely, it is a sublime and mighty power that holds us together. 
Like a whisper, and a tsunami.

 

photo taken at the dentist office. thank you Dr. Felts for posting on your wall.

Blessings Everyone

DANCE AND SING
be strong and alive
tender and wild

May the Season be full of love and light