Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/465652
F r e e m u s i c d o w n l o a d s f o r C e r t i f i e d m e m b e r s : w w w. a b m p . c o m / g o / c e r t i f i e d c e n t r a l 87 understanding of the human body and the unique bodywork needs of professional athletes. What sort of work was this guy doing that had top-level athletes singing his praises? It's called the Zone Technique, and it can be employed effectively by bodyworkers of all types, including craniosacral therapists, massage therapists, and reiki practitioners. ORIGINS OF THE MODALITY The Zone Technique was created in 1931 by Thurman Fleet, DC. The philosophy behind this technique is similar to that of craniosacral therapy (CST): to balance the body's systems so it is better able to heal itself. Like CST, the Zone Technique can be used as a stand-alone therapy or as a complement to other modalities. It is based on the belief that there are six zones, or systems, within the human body, and that all aches, pains, diseases, and other discomforts in the body are the result of disturbances in one or more of these six zones. Each zone has a corresponding brain center and point along the spine. The practitioner locates the imbalanced zones on a client's head and then stimulates the corresponding point or points along the client's spine. The stimulation of the zones can be as gentle as the light touch of a reiki practitioner or as strong as the deep palpation of a sports massage therapist—it all depends on the practitioner's skill level and training. BALANCING THE BODY Goldman was raised in a family that believed in holistic health and wellness. "We ate organic food before most people even knew what that was," he says. "Our health-care professionals were a chiropractor, a homeopath, and a naturopath, and that's it. So I was always in tune with natural health and healing." From an early age, Goldman knew he wanted to be a healer of some type. He earned an economics degree in college, but later decided to enroll in chiropractic school. "When I arrived at school, I was curious why what they were teaching was so limited, compared to the chiropractic work I had grown up with. I called my family chiropractor and asked him why his healing results were so much better than what I was being exposed to in school. He told me that he had learned a technique called the Zone Technique from Dr. Thurman Fleet in San Antonio, Texas." Goldman researched Fleet and the Zone Technique, and found a chiropractor near him who had also been a student of Fleet. Goldman contacted the practitioner and spent the majority of his four years in chiropractic school learning the Zone Technique alongside his standard chiropractic training. Goldman started using the technique in 1993. The results were so profound that many of his fellow colleagues, and even some of his chiropractic teachers, started seeing Goldman for their own treatment and asked to learn the technique from him. Goldman believes the technique is as effective as it is because it "does not treat symptoms; it balances the systems of the body so that the body can heal. Then the symptoms just go away." Another aspect of the Zone Technique that makes it especially appealing to a wide range of bodyworkers is its adaptability for inclusion into other modalities. Nearly any technique can be used in conjunction with the Zone Technique—acupuncture, energy work, neuromuscular, reiki, and sports massage are just a few of the bodywork modalities THE ZONE TECHNIQUE Creator of the Zone Technique, Thurman Fleet, DC. Image courtesy www.concept-therapy.org.