Insurance Coverage is Changing for Massage Therapy!

The process of regulating Massage Therapy in Alberta has started, which will ensure that every massage therapist has the same standard of education. This will create credibility and recognition of how important Massage Therapy is to maintain and improve health and wellness. Currently the only standards in place are: a minimum of 250 hours in order to receive a practitioners licence from the city of Calgary (which is an unacceptable amount of education!), however, most reputable clinics, spas, holistic centres, etc. will only hire therapists with 1000-2200 hours of formal education. Once regulated, 2200 hours of formal education will be the standard.

 

SunLife, Manulife, and Alberta Blue Cross are being pro-active when it comes to covering massage, and they have decided to only cover therapists who have their 2200 hours. SunLife has already implemented this, Manulife will as of October, and Alberta Blue Cross will follow suit as of May 2013. Many therapists have 1000 hours of education, so please check before you book an appointment if insurance coverage is important to you!

* What this means for you at Omnia Wellness:

If you have massage coverage, you will be able to claim a massage with me!!

When you come to Omnia Wellness for a massage, have no fear, I am recognised by all three insurance companies as a fully accredited therapist. I have received my 2 year, 2200 hour, diploma for Massage. If you know of anyone who is with these insurance companies and needs to find a therapist that is covered, send them my way!      

Using Your Voice in a Treatment

I place a really high value on my clients getting what they want from a treatment, which is why it is important to use your voice before and during a treatment. I have heard some pretty interesting 'horror' stories that have happened in a massage treatment, and the most common factor is they went to a therapist that didn't listen to what it is that they wanted. Which creates the loss of your voice, which is not the way it should be, and is definitely not what I am about!
I want each person to get what they want out of their treatment, I fully commit to respecting you and what you want as best I can. So please just tell me what will make you the happiest for your treatment and together we can create the right plan to do so!

Pressure is often the most important thing that will ensure your happiness with a treatment, and it is something that is completely subjective. Each person has their own sense of what is light pressure and what is deep, myself included, so we will have to work together in the first treatments so I can fully understand the depth you prefer and be able to recreate that every treatment that follows. Let me know at anytime if I can adjust my pressure to create the most effective and comfortable way to treat what ails you.

Comfort is another thing that is important. I strive to create a safe and comfortable environment to allow the healing and relaxation process to flourish. I have a table warmer to help keep you warm and comfortable (it can always be turned up or down), the music that is playing helps to calm the mind (it can always go louder or quieter), and I encourage you to choose whether or not conversation or rest is what your feeling like in each treatment. Proper draping techniques are used here, which means that only the area I am working on will be uncovered and at no time will you ever feel like you are being exposed (or be exposed).

And if you tell me which of the tea's I have is your favorite I will make sure that I have that one ready for you when you come in, and/or have a cup ready to go for you at the end of your treatment!

I love my job!!!

I know that not everyone gets to say that they love their job and that I am especially blessed that I get to do what I love and that it involves helping people feel better!

I have had a really great time being able to really do what I love to do and I think it shows in my treatments. I love being able to combine knowledge of Eastern and Western modalities and create a unique treatment that I enjoy giving.

I have had some great feedback about how my treatments are incredibly relaxing and they put you in a meditative like place, all while treating the specific reason of why you came to see me in the first place (often it is because something hurts!) I am grateful for the encouragement and motivation to continue to strive to be the best Holistic practitioner I can be!

The Tricks of Meditation

Meditation is amazing, especially when there are such peaceful and beautiful places in the world, and in our own back yards. I think that there is a common misconception about meditation and how you have to sit still and silence your mind. I know that when I first started it was next to impossible to sit still and quiet my mind. As soon as I started to try to meditate I noticed what areas in my body felt uncomfortable, and often those feelings were exasperated by trying to sit cross-legged and perfectly still! Then my mind would inevitably wander off to random thoughts, then they would become less random and then before I knew it I was off on an internal rant about one thing or another. So feeling like I was a poor meditation student, I started researching it, I knew that I couldn't be the only one to start out like this (at least that was what I was hoping!!) and I was right!

So here are the tricks:
First off, throw out all of your misconceptions about meditation, it is a PRACTICE, practice allow you to figure out what works the best for you, and don't be hard on yourself if your practice doesn't look like someone else's.

When you start your practice utilize a space that you enjoy, it doesn't have to be a specific place that you go to every time, it can be out in your garden, in your bathtub, on the side of a beautiful river with the mountains in the background, at your desk at work, in your car, sitting cross legged in the middle of your living room, the possibilities are endless.

When you find your space, unplug yourself, turn your phone off ( or if you only want to meditate for a short period of time, set an alarm and turn your phone to airplane mode so no calls, emails, facebook or twitter alerts , or text messages can come in, but your alarm can still be heard)

If sitting doesn't appeal to you, walk. You can walk back and forth across a room, around the block, by the river, on a treadmill. I don't recommend lying down, often this leads to sleeping! Check out Qi Gong it is a moving meditation that is incredible, plus it forces you to focus your mind on the movements so less distracting thoughts come in.

If you are having trouble quieting the mind, get a guided meditation, or listen to music that you find really calming. Focus on your breathing, a good technique is to count to 4 on the inhale, count to 4 while holding, count to 4 on the exhale ( you can use a higher or lower count if it feels better for you). If you are a visual person picture white light entering your body as you inhale and allow it to grow brighter with each inhale, or picture your favourite place in nature, or use your imagination and create a space in your mind that you can come back to time and again when you meditate.

Most importantly - Allow yourself to take time for yourself, you deserve it, and everything that you need to do can wait, I promise the world will not collapse around you and everything will still be waiting there for you when you are done. You don't need to meditate for an hour (unless of course you want to) to start aim for 5 minutes or 15 and increase the length of time when it feels right to, and when you have time to.

Ok, now go and try some of it out, and if anyone has any technique that works for them that they would like to add, leave a comment!

Grateful

Starting up a new business is a tricky thing, there are a lot of ups and a few downs, but all in all its been an incredible journey so far! I have been blessed with amazing family, friends and clients that have helped make the start of Omnia Wellness so great. I am truly grateful for all of the kind words, support, and encouragement to help keep me positive and moving forward while I am fulfilling my dreams and doing what I love.
Thank you, I truly couldn't live my dreams without you all, and I am grateful and honored that I get to be one of the people who do what they love and love what they do.

Omnia Wellness begins!

I have decided to take a huge step forward in my career and open my own practice! Since it happened so easily, I figure it must be the right step. I have decided that with this new ad/venture I also needed a new name, and Omnia Wellness was born. Omnia means 'everything' in Latin. I decided on it because of the phrase 'Omnia Causa Fiunt' which simply means 'everything happens for a reason', it is a phrase near and dear to my heart ( and on the wrist that it is tattooed on). It's purpose for me is to remind me that every single person that I am working with/on is there for a reason, and it is my job to do the best that I can while I have the privilege to help them along their journey, and have them help me along mine. 

The love of a new modality

I am adding another modality to my tool belt, my repertoire. The Body Talk system is incredible. It integrates all of my knowledge from all of my modalities, in one beautifully simple and highly effective session. It is not the easiest one to explain, so bare with me. Basically your body speaks its own language, and due to life experiences,stress, or the conscious mind (or ego), translation for what is going on in the body can become misconstrued. Normally we would treat the one small part, and can on occasion, sacrifice the greater good of the whole body for the good of the part because we are not able to get all the information we need. My training allows me to 'talk' to your body and find out what it really needs to restore balance within itself, what it considers to be the top priority. Here is the interesting part, your body, once it gets the information to create this balance (which it receives by gentle tapping on the top of the head that signals to the brain there is important information coming in) and sends this information out to the rest of the body (received from the gentle tapping over the heart - the information is basically sent out to where it needs to go through the blood) Your body's innate knowing, will take care of the rest. Your body already knows how to be the healthiest being it can be. It sometimes just forgets, or lets other things get in the way. I am simply there to remind you.

The process of talking to your body works on the same principle of  muscle testing in kinesiology, I place my hand underneath your wrist or hand, and go through my series of questioning, and receive yes and no answers based on if your hand/wrist moves or not. Sounds fairly simple, right?  Here is the interesting bit, I generally ask everything internally, which allows the conscious mind to be free to think about what ever it feels like thinking about while allowing the body to speak for itself ( I can also ask all the questions aloud if it is preferable, the same things your innate/body sees as priorities to return to balance will come up no matter which way). After getting the priority information that your body needs, the tapping on the head and heart will happen and your innate will take care of the rest. 

That was a whole lot to wrap my head around when I first started getting body talk treatments myself. I am a self professed open minded skeptic. I need to know that every modality I spend my passions in is worthwhile and works. I go into every class, seminar, and treatment that I receive in a new modality with an open mind, while searching for my own form of evidence that it works. I will say that my first body talk experience was a memorable one. I didn't really know what to expect, I truthfully went in without doing any research, aside from the information I had from other people that had experienced it. Which was mostly, "I had this treatment, I don't really quite know what happened, but everything that came up made a lot of sense and now I feel better". So being the curious sort, I had to check it out. I will say that " I had this treatment, I don't quite know what happened, I cried a lot (which is the first time ever in a treatment), everything that came up made a lot of sense, and now I feel better" and now here I am on the brink of becoming a Certified Bodytalk Practitioner, because I feel that much better, and I believe that Body Talk is a very useful modality and a great new tool for me to use.