Sherri Anne Mills Myofascial Release and Massage

To encourage my client’s increasing health and vigor requires all of my sensitivity. When I touch them I must be grounded and open-hearted. My intentions must be clearly apparent. I touch my clients with great care.
There are levels of touch in this life. The moment that I meet someone, although there is no physical contact, I experience the feel of their energy field, of their personal space. It is a tangible experience for me.

Then there is light touch. It is almost more difficult than any other, as it requires great attention. As I increase the pressure of my touch, I feel greater responsibility for the well-being of my client, but it also becomes more possible to feel the needs of the fine structure of that person’s skin, muscles and fascia.

My hands act like radar. I experience them feeling, but also seeing. Seeing with an inward—and outward focus, as the information in the tissue reveals itself. My hands see, and they also listen. When I touch a client who is in a stressed state, I sense that person’s whole body as it arranges itself in relation to the problem. I search for those areas within my patient where there is a lack of subtle movement. I collect the data, but not intellectually. I am in a sort of a light trance, as I feel for these immobile or dense locations, yet still maintaining my own fluidity of movement, which interacts with that inactive tissue. Together we can release the (fascial) restriction.

I must invision the body as a whole—with these blockages, and also without these blockages. I must all but dance with that tissue, so that the whole person begins to move more homogeniously. Sometimes these are large areas and sometimes tiny. Waiting is essential. I must wait for the troubled tissue to soften or melt. Sometimes I must wait a long time, as the area needs to rest—and then It responds to a revisiting.

I am not just working on a body part. This person is a total gestalt, a whole, a body plus a mind. To succeed, I must gently allow my patient to feel comfortable and safe, as well as open to self-express . This is so even at the very beginning of the session when I drape my patient. I make certain they feel covered. It is like wrapping a baby. The mother is always paying attention to the baby for its fluctuations of mood or comfort. I assist my patient to abandon their ordinary state of tension, as we all need internal surrender. We all need to surrender to our own bodies. We all need to allow our bodies the freedom to let go.

With my energy, I can touch at a very deep level, far deeper than the hand-body interface—the point of contact. Then, I slowly wait for the body’s communication and gradually discover the needs of the tissue. This is not a thought. This is a dance between my hands and another’s flesh. If I touch without massage oil, there is more potential to follow the fascia. It becomes a shifting three dimensional process. So touching is a meeting of two minds, two consciousness’—two embodied souls.

Warren Grossman, Ph.D.
Healer, author, teacher of healers

Sherri Mills has been my massage therapist since I had a laminectomy four years ago. She is a dancer and knows the physiology of movement thoroughly. She approaches massage holisticly.Her technique is gentle yet penetrating. She is open to methods from other cultures. We discuss diet, nutrition and exercise. She is always searching for better, more effective, individualized treatment for each patient.

Emiko Custer
Kendal at Oberlin
May 20, 2006