Early Influences
My childhood desires to become an astronaut or scientist first fueled my interest in science. Into my twenties, I explored meditation, motorcycles, theology, Zen, racing cars, and slalom waterskiing. In 1985, I graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington with a BA in Math. I began graduate school in Bellingham, WA for a master's degree in Math, while I taught business algebra. Later I taught algebra at a middle school while intermittently working in the construction industry for the next 14 years. As a union laborer and carpenter I mastered the shovel, zoom-boom forklift, theodolite (transit), plan reading, scheduling, layout, and safety.
Construction and math both influenced my movement toward bodywork, where the therapist is a master craftsman who lessens tension across joints at various angles.
The Window to Hands-On Therapy
In 1992, my first wife began seeing a physical therapist, Randy Nakasone, for daily pain she’d experienced as a result of a string of car accidents. In her second session, I watched Randy miraculously reduced five years of my wife’s pain in one 45-minute session.
Randy played blues music in his office. He studied my wife’s spine, hips and neck in standing, seated, prone and supine positions. She rested on a table as Randy slowly flexed her body in different positions. Sometimes he asked her to contract certain muscles as he palpated areas of her body. Other times he just held her in position for two minutes. When he asked her to stand and express how she felt, she was surprised to notice huge differences. It was fascinating to watch my wife gradually heal, step-by-step.
The second time I watched Randy work, I asked how I could learn what he practiced. He recommended the Brian Utting School of Massage in Seattle, where I would gain the anatomy necessary to prepare me for understanding the Osteopathic Techniques that he was using. Though I had never received a massage, I knew what I wanted to be.
Massage and Osteopathic Training
The Brian Utting School of Massage was geared toward medical massage. Each class was designed from the ground up, and regularly adjusted, so it integrated anatomy with technique in a "big picture" fashion. I was so enthused by the program that I began taking continuing education (CE) courses before graduating from the 800-hour program in 1994. Two years later, I had accumulated another 200 hours of training in osteopathic techniques.
I took four 24-hour courses from Rich Phaigh, a sports massage therapist who worked with runners at the University of Oregon, Eugene. From Rich I learned assessment and correction for most of the joints of the body (including individual vertebrae, the sacrum, atlas and axis). He treated imbalances using hold-relax stretching, or MET, which was developed by doctors of osteopathy (D.O.s). Rich’s training was heavily influenced by the book, Functional Soft Tissue Examination and Treatment by Manual Methods, by Warren Hammer, D.A.B.C.O., whose work I have continued to study over the years. The following year I went to Eugene to observe Rich Phaigh in his practice for a 40+ hour week. Rich also came to my office in North Bend and provided services for one day which I observed.
The remainder of my training focused on craniosacral therapy provided by French osteopathic doctor, Bruno Ducoux. From Bruno, I learned about slow, gentle palpations of the body’s motions including the head, limbs, and organs. Bruno’s work was heavily influenced by John Upledger, D.O., with whom he had exchanged treatment. I also observed Bruno do several sessions outside class.
From 1994 to 1999 my massage therapy practice focused mainly on medical massage, serving clients with pain from auto accidents, injuries, fibromyalgia and tendonitis; chronic low back, hip, neck and head pain; and other conditions. I became one of the first preferred providers of massage therapy in the state of Washington; I could bill health, auto and on-the-job- injury insurance companies for clients’ massage therapy treatments. About half of my practice was billed to insurance from 1995-1999.
I have observed several other Osteopaths in their practices: Tom McCombes D.O. in Issaquah, WA, Stephen Davidson D.O. in Phoenix, AZ, Theresa Cisler, D.O. in Tucson, AZ, and Bruno Chikly, D.O. (hon) in Scottsdale, AZ.
In 2011 I demonstrated my melting the atlanto-axial joint technique on Dr. Bruno Chikly and he found it effective to receive. Then I explained to him my belief that muscles also shorten and lengthen in a pattern like cranial motion. He asked if I had any proof, and I said only my hands.
In 2011 I attended a 25-hr training in Dr. Chikly's Brain curriculum. We learned how to assist the brain to heal by using hands-on the head and hands-off techniques. The course was titled, Brain Tissue, Nucleai, Fluid & Autonomic Nervous Stystem B1.
Discoveries
When I moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1999, I was shocked to find little demand for medical massage. I began working the Gainey Village Health Club and Spa. The spa area was comprised of 20 treatment rooms and a tai-chi/yoga studio. Before each massage I asked clients about their chief complaints. Most would laugh and say, "I’d just like a massage!"
I grew bored giving the same recipe massage to every client. Gradually, I learned how to provide craniosacral therapy with one hand, and muscle massage with the other. The more I practiced, the more popular I became, until I was the most requested therapist for several years straight. In 2002, I published this discovery as "Melting Muscles," in Massage & Bodywork magazine. (you can read the original article on my published articles page.)
Ever since I attended Bruno Ducoux’s and Rich Phaigh’s classes, I had been puzzled by the atlanto-axial (A-A) joint. This joint allows the head to rotate left and right on the neck, in the motion of shaking one’s head "no". Though Rich believed that hold-relax stretches worked less than 25% of the time, he taught them anyway. He also taught students "motion palpation", to assess this joint for its specific range of motion.
Bruno, on the other hand, knew how to adjust all the subtle joints of the head, but did not apply craniosacral technique to the motion of the A-A joint. I knew that if I used the motion Rich taught, while slowing it down to Bruno’s pace, something would work. Within seven years I perfected the technique. In 2003 I published this discovery as "Treating the Atlanto-Axial Joint With the Help of Cranial Motion," in Massage Therapy Journal. (you can read the original article on my published articles page.)
I believed the articles were enough to teach the world these techniques, but practitioners began contacting me asking if I would teach it. I began teaching Melting Muscles and Melting the Atlas and Axis in 2002. These classes were most popular in Pennsylvania, Baltimore and the Midwestern United States.
Learning the Healing Relationship
From 1995-1999, my first wife and I directed a healing center called Natural Essence, located in North Bend, WA. Here many healers worked together, one of whom was Stephen Bruno. I was immediately impressed by Stephen’s ability to create a trusting healing relationship and I began attending his workshops, classes, and individual lessons. In three years I had spent about 2000 additional hours learning about natural healing from Stephen.
One of the first CE classes I taught, "Equal Relationships in Healing and Business," was directly based on Stephen’s teaching of equal relationship. I continue to consult with Stephen on a regular basis. His healing/coaching web site is www.moon-rock.com.
After 17 years as a healer and 9 years teaching therapists, I now believe that the success of healing is based 5% on technique and 95% on the safe, equal relationship created. Similarly, the success of education is based 5% on content and 95% on process. When people feel supported they can leap forward to be their best.
Current Practice
I see clients for individual sessions at my home office in northwest Tucson. Several times each month I teach CE courses in Tucson at Cortiva Institute or at A Rich Experience. Other portions of my work week are spent writing articles, shooting and editing photos and video, developing new classes, and completing home-study workbooks and DVDs. I sometimes travel to other states to teach courses. While teaching I often take time to shoot photos in nearby natural areas and go jogging. In Baltimore, I visited Poe's grave and Poe's house. In Juneau, I swam in a glacial lake out to touch a floating iceberg.
Personal Life
My daughter, Sarah Emily, just finished her philosophy degree at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She now teaches Math. We often talk for hours about Plato, life, the universe and everything.
In 2008 I married Traci Moore, a fiction writer and writing coach. That year, Traci and I moved to Tucson, Arizona. We jog together in our fivefingers, we visit the Oro Valley Library weekly, Antigone Books, Bookstop. We eat mostly raw vegan foods and our favorite restaurant is Tasteful Kitchen on Stone. Traci's web site is www.tracimoore.org .
I enjoy hiking Pima canyon with a camera or two; visiting alligator juniper trees; and listening to jazz, chamber music and audio books. One day a week I spend on creative arts including dance, fiction, haiku, memoir, nature audio recordings, photography, sonnets, photoshop, poetography, and wacom tablet painting. All photos presented on this website were taken with my camera.
