Biodots -- fun and informative for clients (and MTs)

[Tiffany M]

Sherry,

I'm with Shannah . . . if you would be willing to share the outline of your workshop and copies of your handouts, I'd be happy to pay for it. I'm sure a lot of us on the board would be willing to. Sounds like a fabulous idea. I'm ready to have my first workshop if I had the ready-made material! Ready to publish and sell your first workshop manual?

Samantha

 

[chandler bing]

Hey, all! t006

This has been a fun discussion and I am learning, too! Thanks for all the input!

Seebs, you are apparently a very unique individual! And, yes, the biofeedback concerns body temperature. When the sympathetic nervous system kicks in (fight or flight) all the blood flow is directed to the torso and major organs for protection -- thus the extremities of hands and feet usually (though not in your case, I guess!) decrease in temperature. You should experiment with the biodots yourself -- we would be highly interested in your findings!

As far as my workshop handouts, Shannah and Samantha and anyone else interested -- I will admit that I put quite a bit of work into them (pulling from a variety of sources,) but they are really not that spectacular! I don't know about charging for them or how I would even go about it. Has this type of thing come up on MassagePlanetL before? :?:

The handouts I have:

1) The Physiological Effects of Stress (which includes how to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system.)

2) How Stressed are You? Gives instructions for doing a "Tension Body Scan" and includes information and instructions for abdominal breathing (a.k.a. "diaphragmatic" or "belly" breathing.)

3) Instructions for the Wheel of Life Exercise. I use the "Wheel of Life" available from Sohnen-Moe Associates. It's free to download! Just go to http://www.sohnen-moe.com and click on "Free Forms." I hand that out, and then a separate sheet on how to do the exercise which I came up with myself. This is a fun one, and usually prompts some laughs and camraderie (and oh, my goshes!) between participants. It concerns balancing the different areas of your life.

With just those handouts, I can easily run a 1-2 hour workshop. I do leave a lot of room for questions and participants' stories if they have them -- and I give some personal details about how stress has affected me through different times of my life (former migraines, IBS etc.) Of course I also have them wearing their biodots the whole time! (You do catch them taking peeks at other biodots around the room!)

For longer workshops, I go into more details about visualization, positive and negative thinkings, affirmations, how the brain and stress are related etc. I also have handouts for those.

Is this of any help to anyone?

Keep those cards and letters (a.k.a. posts) coming!

Hugs, (including you, Embracetime!

Sherry

 

[dad7734]

Seebs, you are apparently a very unique individual!

Well, there's no denying that. Some may call it weird. I like to think I'm special.
t081:

And, yes, the biofeedback concerns body temperature. When the sympathetic nervous system kicks in (fight or flight) all the blood flow is directed to the torso and major organs for protection -- thus the extremities of hands and feet usually (though not in your case, I guess!) decrease in temperature. You should experiment with the biodots yourself -- we would be highly interested in your findings!

Maybe it's more of a frustrated-stress I'm talking about...you know the kind that tests your deodorant? I definitely want to test these babies out. Although...I make a point to avoid stress since it's an unpleasant experience! So, I don't know if I heat up with the exception of extremitites. It certainly includes my face, which can feel flushed.

My warm hands are a common comment...I'm always offering to warm someone's hands (or stopping myself from offering when it's not appropriate!)

 

[Gazeebo]

One thing that could be really interesting to add is some guided visualization! In my day job I work with people who's symptoms are often set off by stress so a psychologist on our board of directors created a guided visualization CD to help people relax. There are two visualizations on the CD. During a support group, I had people get comfy then I dimmed the lights and played one of the tracks. It was a great way to teach people to relax themselves. I noticed on one of the links listed above, one of the companies even sold books with visualizations you could read to the group. It would be one more component to add that would be kinda fun and interactive!

 

[winnefred]

Yes, Vita, that works well, too! I haven't done it in most of my workshops because it can be time-consuming when there is so much else to cover. But in that case I do hand out a sheet with visualization/guided imagery/progressive relaxation scripts they can try at home.

And, by the way, I have found that with the few of my "chatter almost the whole way through an hour massage" clients -- it can really help them to focus by putting a guided imagery/progressive relaxation CD in the player while I massage. It really helps them to focus on their bodies.

Great idea, Vita!

Sherry