Hot & Cool Stones

 

stones_img01Stones are thought to have been used as an aid to massage for thousands of years. The ancient Chinese were using them to ease muscles over 4,000 years ago, as were Ayurvedic practitioners in India. Native Americans used them in sweat lodges to ease pain & purify the body, and they were widely used by healers in early South American Mayan & Aztec cultures.

Modern Stone Therapy came to the UK from America. The use of heated stones in massage was reborn with the introduction of LaStone Therapy, created by Mary Nelson, in 1993.

The stones are basalt for heat or marble for coolness; mine are river stones from South America which have been polished over centuries by the water’s currents.

Heated stones are amazing to help relax tight, tense & painful muscles, & to warm the body right through, while cool stones can soothe & relieve inflammation & swelling. One massage stroke from a stone is said to equal ten normal massage strokes!

Stones can be used as a complete therapy in their own right. In this style of treatment there is an element of ritual; the stones are first laid out on the treatment table in specific patterns, then they are oiled & used in massage and finally they are placed on key areas of the body to continue releasing their energy. They can also be incorporated into other massage styles purely for their heating or cooling powers.

A stone therapy treatment will bring you profound relaxation, and because the tissues are warmed & softened will enable me to release deep seated tension with minimal discomfort.