Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/81195
D "Any word I use has got barnacles on it … I really need to invent a new language; but if I had, nobody would have understood a word we said." F.M. Alexander, creator, Alexander Technique 58 massage & bodywork march/april 2012 Don't assume that I know anything, or that we agree on anything. The word research carries certain assumptions for you and me, and it calls up certain images in our minds. It puts a fence around our discussion that prevents us from getting anywhere new. So we need to cast the word aside for a moment and look at some bigger things: the power of language, the forces of money and prestige, and the responsibilities of being a healer. Let's begin with gratitude. I am a bodyworker, and my job involves sitting in a quiet room where people come to visit me. They talk about their lives and bodies, share their healing processes, and create a beautiful trust between us. I begin the rhythm of my session, so familiar and yet always so different, and I get to watch amazing changes unfold. I see my hands moving like those of my massage teachers. I recall the fi erce patience in their eyes as they transmitted to me what was once given to them. I look around my treatment room and can't believe my luck for fi nding such work. Could a person be so enthralled with his job and yet desire more? Well, I do. I want more from the bodywork profession, and I suspect that you do, too. I want more longevity, more respect, better compensation, and better results. This yearning is not in spite of my gratitude; it fl ows from it. How can my sessions be so diffi cult to describe to a physician? How can such obvious benefi ts remain obscure to the millions of folks out there with