I had the best massage, of my life at The Well. I knew nothing about Ashiatsu, other than it…read morelooked like a more painful version of shiatsu, which I was not a fan of. However, after suffering for 17 years with a chronic neck and shoulder issue, all roads led to Duluth, and to the Ashiatsu room at The Well, where I was lucky enough to work with Aine O'Leary, their resident genius. Aine created a safe, incredibly harmonious space from the moment I stepped in the room, allowing me to explain why I was there, and what I was hoping to heal, while being both gracious and generous in hearing me out. Sometimes, when you tell a therapist about your specific issue, all you get is a standard massage. But there was nothing standard about the massage I received, from Aine. There really is no way to describe it, without experiencing it, but the silly metaphor I have is that normal massage is like being kneaded like you're bread, while Ashiatsu (at least as far as Aine practices it) is like being surfed on, like you're a wave. The energy isn't just moved around your body . . . it's gathered by the force and power allowed by the human foot and flushed out of you. Aine targeted the specific area - shoulder and neck - but not by routinely working it. Rather, she would start with a small area on my back, and then use her foot to gather all the pain in my back, and through steady and very deep pressure, push it out of my body. The experience was very musical to me - in the sense that the feeling would start small, and then build and build to this crescendo of feeling as all the deepest pains in your muscles were completely straightened out, loosened, and lengthened, until pain I didn't even know I had, were both addressed and released. Gone from me now, days later, as I write this. The entire experience, from beginning to end, was absolutely fantastic. None of the pain of shiatsu, but all of the benefits. I walked out feeling not only looser, and happier, but lighter, somehow taller. My energy, which had been so tied to negativity, which in turn had been so cramped into my muscles, had now re-tuned into something more at ease with the world around me. I can't put it any other way. Aine healed me, at least for the time being, from something I didn't even know was hurting me. I went home that night, feeling so happy I cried. As if I hadn't felt happy, in so long, and only now, in the absence of this pain that was so deep within me, I was now free to have my old life back. The happy life, I had thought impossible to access. And THAT is what I always want, from any form of healing - to not just feel better for the moment, but to regain the hope that I can feel better from now on. So thank you, Aine. You are a true healer. Thank you for helping me. Can't wait for the next session!
