massage actually has little to do with muscles and joints and hands and backs.  It has to do with the person inside the body giving the massage and the person inside getting the massage.  The real massage is the transmission of a message from the giver to the receiver and back again: and that message is likely to contain elements of gratitude, understanding, compassion and shared awareness.

The intention of touch is to create a therapeutic physiological event in the tissues of the patient, and the rationale underlying the technique is physiological, kinetic or mechanical in nature.  From the patient’s point of view, the touch has its roots in non-verbal communication or communion.  She does not experience the touch as merely a technique or procedure on her body tissues, it involves her self.  She is being held, cradled, stroked, caressed, valued, cared-for, healed.  The patient’s experience is above all a psychological and existential one.

Compassion is a bridge between the client and the therapist.  It can be argued that without compassion, no healing takes place.  Not only is compassion a bridge, but it is also the container for the therapeutic relationship.

It is in the mind, it is not the body: my job is reaching the mind.