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Does your body play as well as you do?
Performance enhancing using individually tailored IMT sessions as a powerful way to embrace body-mind utilisation to success
Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar LicMT LHS LNCP LCPS
In a world where excellence is a prerequisite, especially where performance excellence is required, most of us tend to violate our physiological balance. As a musician, an artist, an athlete or a performer - your body often carries much more tension and stress then it ought to. Even when goes unnoticed in the immediate functioning, our body has a major role in our functional successes (and failures). You are responsible, and obligated to your well being.
High-performance professionals often suffer from repetitive strain injuries (especially around the joints) and pains that become chronic, when not given the means to recover and rehabilitate. The fact that most of the playing postures are not physically 'natural', that actors often use unnatural movements, further stresses the body. Athletes too put uneven stress on their bodies. You may know some people that carry on performing until they break (injury, strain, spasm or illness). In-fact, many people do.
The high levels of concentration and stress that accompany high levels of performance (and not only high levels) are a burden on your body, to the extent of deteriorating your abilities. Competitions, concerts, plays, auditions, tests and even rehearsals and classes can be a threat to your health when carried out incautiously.
The following treatment that Integrative Massage Therapy (IMT) offers is personally tailored to the client's needs and is threefold: Intervention, Prevention and Education.
Intervention: IMT treatments help to ease pain, to remove spasms and strains, to improve joint's flexibility and to enhance movement. IMT improves blood circulation and encourages energy-flow, while increasing the sense of well-being. IMT sessions intervene in ad-hoc situations (such as injuries, pains and spasms, but also stress), as well as in the administering therapeutic processes that we create together - for long-term results.
Prevention: Series of IMT sessions, carried in fixed intervals, help to improve your performance, to deal better with stress in the short-term, but mainly to bring a substantial improvement and excellent use of your physical potential in the long term. Prevention exercises also include visualisation and active imagining techniques, postural-movement examining and stress-management exercises.
Education: It is possible to be both an excellent performer and a healthy (or at least, not a suffering) person. Along with the IMT sessions, you will learn to identify your bodily needs and respond to them in a satisfying manner. You will study stress management techniques to improve performance and to reduce stress levels; self-hypnosis techniques (including mental-rehearsals), which are guaranteed to improve performance; and exercises for proper use of your body.
The first Performance-Enhancing IMT session:
The first session is meant to examine the possibility of working together. Its purpose is to assure you that you can benefit the most from the therapeutic relationship through IMT and performance-enhancing procedures. It will typically include: Introduction; going through personal and medical history as well as professional-goals; Posture examination; Relaxation exercise; full body massage session.
The following Performance-Enhancing IMT sessions:
We will go on to tailor an individual programme for you. The IMT sessions will thus include creating a programme with the following elements: Massage-therapy sessions; Visualisation and active imagining; Relaxation techniques; Self hypnosis; Stress management techniques; How to obtain feedback. You will be able to notice your improvement, and to enjoy the advantages of touch-therapy.
Asaf
Rolef Ben-Shahar
Integrative Massage therapy
Hypnotherapy & Psychotherapy
Potters Bar
asaf@imt.co.il
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