Ayurvedic Yoga Massage
for Women

In practical terms, treatments work on the whole body, with more emphasis on the areas that need more work.

• A session starts with an oil massage. This gradually warms up and softens muscle tissues and fascia, relaxes the body and mind, helps breathing and improves circulation.
• We work specifically with the breath to help the nervous system to relax.
• We use natural oils (if I know you're Dosha type the oil will be specific to you) and a powder from the ground root of Acorus calamus, a wetland plant in the sweetflag family. This gives a pleasant exfoliating feeling, but mainly helps improve circulation and warm up the tissues, intensifying the benefits of the massage.
• The oil massage is supported by gentle mobilisations, tractions and assisted (passive) yoga stretches - I'm doing the work; not you. These help lengthen the tissues in a functional way, useful if you’ve had injuries. Through these gentle movements we help relax the tendons and ligaments, and improve the circulation and promote natural healing in joints.

• Ayurvedic Yoga Massage works with both oil massage and movements, meaning your body gains all the benefits of both. Therapists take time to understand your needs and your limits so you never feel over or under worked.
• Combining working close to your limits and using breathing to help activate the parasympathetic nervous system helps release tension from even the most ‘stuck’ parts of your body.
• Massaging, moving or stretching tense muscles can cause pain, resistance or agitation. The mindful touch and deep, relaxed breathing that AYM offers helps retrain the nervous system to not react in this way. This is great for moving you out of chronic pain.
• This whole-person approach to Ayurvedic Yoga Massage gives a lasting feeling of being centred, where you are less likely to feel agitated or restless, and experience increased clarity of thought.
• The approach aims to help you develop body awareness.

This depends on the individual: how quickly your body responds; how many parts of the body need deeper work; and your priorities/what you would like to get from your session. If you’d just like to relax and have an amazing full body massage experience then we’d recommend 90 minutes. If you’d like to start working deeper on different parts of your body then it depends how many parts of the body you’d like to work on, how quickly they respond, and whether you’d still like a full body massage as well as the deeper work. Generally, muscles will respond faster if (i) they haven’t been tight for a long time, and (ii) the body is used to yoga/bodywork/something where we feel some pain, breathe into it and then feel better. Then your brain associates being in that condition with relaxation rather than with danger/injury. We can work effectively on some people in 15 minutes, if they’re experienced yoga practitioners and we only work on the tightest part of their body. Many regulars prefer 2-3 hour sessions so they can have a full body massage with extra time to work deeper on the areas needing more attention. It’s really open ended as there’s always more that can be done!

Ayurvedic Yoga Massage is a wonderful experience for the therapist (me) too. Initially we use a sequence to warm up the body, which allows the session to become a moving meditation. Even new practitioners can experience this, by working to a set sequence that they plan at the beginning of a session. It is also a wonderful technique for other therapists to learn as a compliment to their style, and for yoga teachers to offer at the end of a yoga private.

Ayurvedic Yoga Massage is also wonderful for therapists to offer as we work on the floor. So we can use our body weight to offer pressure, and use several parts of our body such as hands/palms, thumbs, knuckles, elbows, fists, feet or knees. So we can always work in the best direction, with the best pressure, and using the optimal surface area so that we can manipulate tissues as necessary, without creating unnecessary pain sensations for the client, and without stressing any joints or muscle groups for the therapist. We also change positions frequently, and look into body dynamics in the training, so offering massage can be a healing experience for the therapist too, not just for the client. Almost like attending an easy yoga class, even though offering AYM is by no means a substitute for a yoga practice.

Traditional Thai massage is given with the client fully clothed, so it’s not an oil massage. In AYM we can warm up and soften the soft tissues and promote circulation quicker through oil massage, and particularly with the use of calamus powder. Once the soft tissues are warmed up with the oil massage, we find that the stretches work better. This is the brilliance of AYM, and specifically of Kusum Modak who developed this method.

Ayurvedic Yoga Massage combines massage with tractions, mobilisations, rocking, and assisted stretches. Because it is dynamic we see where the body holds a lot tension, and we can work on getting the nervous system to release where we need it to with whichever tools seem to work best for each client. It's often nothing short of miraculous.

During the session, clients are typically undressed to their underwear and draped with soft cotton sheets called lungies. These sheets are continuously adjusted to ensure that the client remains covered at all times, with only the area being worked on exposed. Your comfort and modesty are always prioritised throughout the massage experience.