Ojai Massage

02/18/2025

Depth
is the unsheathing of the practitioner’s core from its sleeve
so the receiver knows immediately the quality of touch: “doing” strength? Creature power? Something withheld? Tension in the sinews connecting practitioner hands to shoulder to core?
Depth is accessing all layers at once. It’s the pinning of the superficial against the core so all layers receive new, loving information.
Depth is not deep, deeper, deepest. Depth is holding the 3 dimensions of shape and revolving, vectoring, shearing, waiting, and following.
Depth requires emptiness so breath and blood can flush through.
Depth is immediately known but is not made sense of until the breath of the receiver wraps around the intention of the giver.
Depth is not the domicile for that part of you that you wish was touched, rubbed, pummeled, exposed, set free.
Depth is the afterglow of 2 energies floating into each other at just the right angle.
Depth is the skin of the cheek descending into the yoke of the shoulder. Depth is the scalp setting free the locked cathedral doors of the mouth’s upper palate.
Depth is not always deep. But deep work is a portrait of depth’s beginnings and endings.

Photo: Bamboo Stick Massage with James

01/12/2025

Here’s to a New Year in our Valley. Deep gratitude for this collection of bodyworkers and therapists. As our Valley absorbs those escaping from the fires, and emotions churn and rise, let’s keep the ground intimate beneath our feet, let’s keep gravity as an ally to our bones, let’s keep our shoulders soft and our faces free of tension so we can speak truthfully and hold, with great expanse and relaxation, the myriad of emotions we are all feeling right now.

Here’s David Whyte reminding us of the intimate reciprocity between I and Other, inside and out, known and unknown.

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden transgressions.
To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you courage.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness
and ease into the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

We are offering discounted sessions to those displaced by fire. Please let your friends in need know ❤️

12/13/2024

Considering a both thoughtful and sublime Christmas gift? One where the only trace is feeling good, feeling bright, feeling free? Then perhaps a treatment with one of our amazing therapists is the way to go! Head to our website and browse our full list of offerings. Afterpay is also available when you purchase a gift card 🥰

11/03/2024

Restorative stretching—accessible poses held for long periods of time—allow the lines of tension through our body to MOVE. To New Space in our bodies: we surrender. Meditative breathing and the open palm of gravity are guides through this microscopic unfolding of the Whole Body.
There to provide bodywork and hands-on loving & therapeutic touch during the poses are Rosie, Brad & Robyn.

09/23/2024

Did you know that your the same fascia that wraps the soles of your feet imbibes your total back body to the top of your head?

Your posterior chain carries the strength to hold you upright, to move forward with vitality in your life — when you are in rhythm with your body, when you are able to move fluidly and spontaneously, this hydrates your fascia, keeping your muscles, bones, ligaments and blood healthy.

When we stop moving our bodies, they become stiff sore and tired, mis alignments occur: we begin to move with less ease.

Fascia contains 250 million nerve endings, making it the largest sensory organ in the body so we must keep its communication system open by tending to it daily by moving, breathing and releasing.

What are some ways you can encourage whole body brightness and vitality this week?

Our recommendations are:
- take cold showers, flush the lymph and dry brush
- spend 10 minutes making circles with all the joints in your body, creating synovial fluid and hydrating your joints
- spend 4 minutes in a forward fold and feel all the layers of your back body unravel

Ofcourse, our favourite treatments in the studio are:

- fascial unwinding with Robyn
- detox massage with Angelique
- 4 handed integration (two therapists)
- deep tissue with all our amazing therapists

Take good care of yourself and celebrate this powerful and radiant body you inhabit.

07/30/2024

In a world that is craving connection, creativity and buoyancy: spaciousness unravels intensity, mere eye contact is medicinal, touch is tender and supportive.

Our human nature needs to be protected, listened to and honoured ~ how can you make yourself the peaceful environment that allows for this to unfold for others?
What are your allies and resources for creating a harmonious atmosphere for your self and your friends?

For us it’s simple, it’s nature, it’s the ocean, the horizon, seeing sky and feeling the breeze. It’s a cool drink on a hot day. It’s closing the eyes down and sending the breath, it’s experiencing sweet and therapeutic touch from practitioners who maintain a safe space, it’s sharing a meal with a favourite person…

There are so many ways to feel good! And we hope that this is a reminder and inspiration to carve some space into your day to be blissfully buoyant.

07/30/2024

07/21/2024

Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.

Mary Oliver

Hello to a beautiful new week, from OM.

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07/10/2024

Join OM therapists, Rosie & Brad this Saturday for a resplendent afternoon of rest at Light and Space, Ojai.
Inside the cocoon of long held poses, you will be anchored deeper into your practice with therapeutic zen thai gestures, a modality that combines thai, osteo and shiatsu as well as structural integration and anatomy trains techniques.

Therapeutically, the combination of yin and bodywork hydrates the joints, supports a flush of fresh oxygen & dynamism to areas of the body needing attention. Physically, it’s wonderful for restoring, detoxifying & balancing the entire system.

Physiologically, it holds hands with with your well-being by facilitating the release of stored emotions & stabilizing your nervous system.

We hope you can join B & R for this wonderful experience.

07/05/2024

We hope you find ease and joy in movement and rest this holiday weekend. May it be fluid and explorative! Play with the way you experience and take up space. Jump and splash in the water, crash through a wave, tumble upside down, find a new way of moving, of breathing of staying in a state of ease even when the world attempts to tease you out of it.

There are a couple spots for treatments available if you feel there are some knots that can use a little hand being untied.
🌞

05/06/2024

We love you moms. Thank you ❤️
Gift Cards can be mailed, emailed, or picked up at the studio.

05/06/2024

Does it fit around your hips like pants with a stuffed pocket?
Does make your b***y tight like you put a finger in a socket?
Does gravity feel like a weight vest—invisible,
or split between toes and neck—a body divisible?
Does it pull down your sitz bones and your core like sap?
Do you try oh so hard to keep your belly off your lap?
Does your pelvis move in one direction?
Is it stuck in your abdomen from an old C-section?
Where is gravity when you get up in the morning?
Is it in your low back as a familiar warning?
Maybe you don’t notice,
because life is so fast and cerebral,
that you’ve been living in a shack but you could build a cathedral!
Close your eyes and bring your feet together,
Barefoot is preferable so you can feel the tether:
Feet to Earth and crown to sky
Stay there until you’ve stopped asking why.
It’s a practice in being human and whole,
And see what happens when you connect pole to pole.