The Gong Lab

The Gong Lab Corporate & private Health & Wellness events:Gong Baths, Sound Baths, Sound Meditation, Sound Healing

If you haven’t heard, there’s been some plan changes!Due to visa complications we’re staying a few months extra and my l...
12/05/2024

If you haven’t heard, there’s been some plan changes!

Due to visa complications we’re staying a few months extra and my last day of work is extended to March 30th.

And our destination has changed to Portugal, with a short stay in Wales

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Let's have a wonderful, comfortable, cozy winter!

Book yourself in for a beautiful session

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Gong Baths for individuals or up to 4 people

De-stress and reset with a Deep Relaxation Massage

Pain/Injury/Post-Surgery work

Migraine/Headache/TMJ work

Stress/Anxiety Sessions

Grief & Loss Sessions

Sacred Bodywork

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1 - 3 hour sessions available!

You are invited to experience a bodywork that is different than anything you may have previously experienced.I incorporate everything I have learned and experienced over the past 33 years as a Professional Massage Therapist, including all I have learned on my travels.My strength lies in addressing y...

This is one of the most difficult, somber farewells I’ve ever had to write, one that tells you:This is why I’m leaving t...
11/09/2024

This is one of the most difficult, somber farewells I’ve ever had to write, one that tells you:

This is why I’m leaving the country at the end of the year.

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I am asking for words of love and support. If you want to support me in other ways, I speak to that at the end of this message.

I respectfully ask you not to comment if you support Trump, or if you feel I’m ‘over-reacting.’

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First of all, I did not make this decision. This decision was made for me.

It has been clear to me that if Trump won the election, I would have to leave. Those of you who do not understand why, I’m too tired to explain or educate you.

Some of you know that I, and my immediate family, are products of WW2. After the war ended, my father ended up in Paris where he met my mother and married. He didn’t have any documents, including the work papers that were required for him to make a living. He falsified his birthdate after being refused visas to the U.S. and other countries, qualifying him for a visa for Australia, where my siblings were born. I was later born in England.

My parents were Jewish. In 1944 my father, at the age of 14 was taken from his town, Uzhgorod, to Auschwitz. The population of his town (which is now part of Ukraine) was 9,576 before the war in 1941. In less than two months, nearly 440,000 Jews were deported from Hungary in more than 145 trains. Most were deported to Auschwitz. *Photo below is my father, note the tattoo from Auschwitz on his arm.

My mother, (*photo below, note the Star of David on her top identifying her as a Jew), was in hiding in Paris. I always thought she looked a little like Anne Frank. The 3rd photo is my uncle, my mother’s brother. Note the tattoo from Auschwitz on his arm.

My parents didn’t / couldn’t escape in time and my father lost all his siblings, his parents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grand-parents, friends, teachers, everyone.

As a child I bore my parents pain with anxiety, nightmares of the nazi’s knocking on our doors and created escape plans and fantasies.

I ignored my parents warnings about humanity. I preferred to believe that the world had changed, that they were no longer capable of such horrific acts. I just couldn’t accept their distrust and their bleak view of humanity. That was not the kind of world I could live in.

With all this, I messed up a lot before finding my healing path. I’ve done a lot of that over the years and I’m big time into self-awareness and growth.

As an adult it’s been difficult to reconcile a world that had understood so little from that depraved event. How could the world not have completely reconfigured itself after that?!

The “Never Again” was always in the back of my mind but there was a part of me that considered that paranoia, and I wanted and needed to feel good about life, so it stayed on the back burner.

I never dreamed that what’s happening in the world at large, and what people are choosing to vote for in America, is actually happening. Every day (although it’s only been four days, it feels like an eternity), I feel like I’ll wake up from this nightmare, and I cry my heart out because I won’t wake up from this, and the world will be forever changed.

Of course it is happening in other parts of the world too, ignorance is more than accepted, and fascism seems to be the renewed political party.

And then there’s the incident in Holland just a day or so ago, 2 planes had to fly in to Amsterdam to rescue the Jews who were being beaten and attacked after a football match. The news called it a pogrom.

What’s going on is sickening. The world is in tough shape right now, and it’s going to get a whole lot tougher.

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Einstein moved to the United States in 1933, after fleeing N**i Germany. At the time he commented, "As long as I have any choice in the matter, I will live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law are the rule." He became an American citizen seven years later.

How sad it is, that if he were alive, after only 91 years after his arrival in the U.S., together we would have had to flee the country that has stood for so much, for so many.
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Do I think they’re coming for me specifically, as a Jew? History tells us that ultimately it does always seem to go that way, and current trends are certainly pointing is that direction.

In my tribal history, those who left were more likely to survive.

For those who stay, the women, the minorities, all those who will be targeted, my heart is with you. I cannot bear to be witness, to be so close, to the persecution of others.

I’ve had enough trauma in my lifetime.
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Many of you know that my husband, Blane and I, closed our business in 2016 and traveled the world for 3 years, returning right before Covid. This time I close my business and leave with a sense that this time I will never return. And this time I am totally unprepared in every other way possible, including financially.

Initially I will be staying with my gong mentors and friends in Wales. After that, it’s anyone’s guess.

If you’d like to help me, I could sure use the help! Please consider booking a session before the end of the year. If you’re already coming in, please consider coming in more often.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your love and support.

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Please note, I will be away from November 19th - 28th. Hand in Hand Massage and The Gong Lab will be open until the end of December.

For those of you wondering, Blane has not decided if he’s going with me. He’s in his second semester of his second year at Lesley University. As I am the sole source of income, he’s exploring how he can possibly stay here and continue his studies without an income. The free safe haven for him to live fell through at the last moment.

Due to big changes, tonight at 7:30pm is probably my last Gong Bath! And is definitely the last at The Yoga Loft in Marb...
11/07/2024

Due to big changes, tonight at 7:30pm is probably my last Gong Bath! And is definitely the last at The Yoga Loft in Marblehead. Spaces are still available and your nervous system needs love & kindness more than ever!

As the sound and vibration from the gongs washes over and through you, it’s not unusual for participants to completely let go, traveling on the wings of sound and going on an amazing journey!

The last Gong Bath of the year at The Yoga Loft is Thursday, November 7th at 7:30pm. Our nervous systems needs love & ki...
11/06/2024

The last Gong Bath of the year at The Yoga Loft is Thursday, November 7th at 7:30pm. Our nervous systems needs love & kindness more than ever.

As the sound and vibration from the gongs washes over and through you, it’s not unusual for participants to completely let go, traveling on the wings of sound and going on an amazing journey!

  was so much fun this morning! I started inside and moved outside because of acoustic challenges. I met some lovely peo...
11/05/2024

was so much fun this morning! I started inside and moved outside because of acoustic challenges. I met some lovely people and taught a few how to play with vibration mallets.

If you’re voting in Nahant on Tuesday, you’ll see me with my gongs as a participant of ‘Play for the Vote’ a non-partisa...
11/03/2024

If you’re voting in Nahant on Tuesday, you’ll see me with my gongs as a participant of ‘Play for the Vote’ a non-partisan organization dedicated to making voting a more welcoming and positive experience.

*Play for the Vote will be on NBC Nightly News tonight at the end of its 6:30-7pm broadcast.

This Saturday at 4:30! Join me for Gong Bath Bliss iat Common Ground Yoga in Framingham!
10/24/2024

This Saturday at 4:30! Join me for Gong Bath Bliss iat Common Ground Yoga in Framingham!

For those of you a little further afield, I have a Gong Bath Bliss scheduled this month in Framingham at Common Ground Y...
10/11/2024

For those of you a little further afield, I have a Gong Bath Bliss scheduled this month in Framingham at Common Ground Yoga at 4:30 on Saturday morning, October 26th. Registration in the link.

10/05/2024

The next Gong Bath Bliss is October 10th, 7:30 - 8:30 PM at The Yoga Loft Marblehead. Registration link in comments.

The Magical Mystical Gong Lab presents a sound healing event extraordinaire! Presented by Monique Illona, the owner of MMGL and Hand in Hand Massage in Swampscott, Monique is the only certified B Love flumie instructor and player on the east coast. This way of playing gongs create melodic sounds and vibrations and participants often have a deeply relaxing experience that can reset the nervous system. This gong bath experience is similar to a sound bath except that only gongs are played.

The term ‘bath’ is used to refer to the experience of sound and vibration washing through and over the mind and body. Participants lie on a yoga mat, often using a pillow, blanket, eye mask, anything to make themselves comfortable. As the sound and vibration from the gongs washes over and through you, it’s not unusual for participants to completely let go, traveling on the wings of sound and going on an amazing journey!

This event is great for any age and ability, including the hearing impaired. Yoga props and blankets are provided. Please bring your own mat. The gong bath is an hour long with extra time set aside for questions, sharing, or just quiet and peaceful rest afterwards.

Please join us for this specialty offering

If you’re looking for a different kind of bodyworker, someone who gives you the time and attention you need before the s...
09/25/2024

If you’re looking for a different kind of bodyworker,
someone who gives you the time and attention you need before the session even begins
someone who consciously addresses your muscles, your nervous system and brain function
someone whose work mirrors their grounded, calm, centered and focused nature
someone who listens and feels with their hands, eyes, and ears and responds with the pressure and techniques your system needs
someone who creates each session specifically for you
someone who incorporates sound and vibrational healing for its immediate effect on the nervous system so you can truly relax, mind and body
and someone who has 64 years of life experience and 33 years experience as a Professional Massage Therapist
who has taught massage here and abroad

and who is the author of A Dual Path: Sacred Bodywork and Practices…. we’ll, you’ve arrived, and all you have to do is click the link below to read my testimonials, get all the information you need and book yourself in for anywhere from a one to three hour session! The longer the better for your nervous system!

Know that whatever you are coming in with, whether it’s headaches/migraines, TMD/TMJ, physical pain or injury, surgery recovery, postpartum and other depressions, stress/anxiety, grief or loss, or you just to float around in the ether, this is the place for you!

I take no more than 3 clients a day and accept bookings 7-days a week. My beautiful office is located in the lovely seaside town of Swampscott.

Please contact me if you have any questions at all, - Monique

09/19/2024

Gong play . . .

Today I scheduled my first gong sound bath in a school! Why address student stress and anxiety only on a 1:1 basis when ...
09/19/2024

Today I scheduled my first gong sound bath in a school!

Why address student stress and anxiety only on a 1:1 basis when the sounds and vibrations produced in the way I was trained to play gongs has such an immediate and profound effect on the nervous system and is perfect for groups!?

It’s been my goal to bring this cutting edge approach into schools so I’m very happy that has begun today.

If you know of a school that might be interested feel free to comment here or message me. I’m absolutely willing to travel.

Address

45 New Ocean Street
Swampscott, MA
01907

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