Bodywork in a women’s health crisis
Touch therapy can't diagnose you, but it's no surprise it's growing in popularity.
“I have to get my crystals,” said the therapist. I lay naked under the sheets of the massage table, having expected to have my knots unwound with her hands. But this was Grey Wolfe*, the self-described holistic wellness space that specialises in bespoke treatments to align the mind, body, and spirit – and it was clear that I needed more than a back rub.
I’d already set my intentions with a sage ritual, then had a chromotherapy breathwork session with the lights above my eyes syncing with the brain frequencies detected via a headpiece strapped to my forehead.
My therapist returned with the rocks, a singing bowl and essential oils of sandalwood and star anise. She worked the tinctures into my shoulders while guiding me through a meditation, then did whatever you do in a crystal healing session (my eyes were closed, so my practitioner could have been doing anything from an interpretive dance around the room to sitting in the corner laughing at me).
When the healing session ended, she told me the things she’d learned about my brain and body from working on my physical self, all of which were unspoken truths. My body tingled as she told me her observations about what could be going on, as though her conclusions were ASMR.
A plot twist: I’m not actually that spiritual. I don’t think her ability to recognise things was magic; it was simply listening. But in the world of women’s health, being heard is enough to feel like sorcery.
There’s plenty of discourse about how the growing interest in astrology and spirituality has coincided with a restriction in services for mental health care. Searches for “birth chart” and “astrology” both hit five-year peaks in 2020, and many professional astrologers report that business took off under lockdown when mental health care was impossible to access and depression, anxiety and stress skyrocketed. The thread between the two is clear: the stars offer us some explanation, guidance and comfort at a time when we feel out of control.
The turn towards physical spiritual therapies during a women’s health crisis is no different. A third of women with health conditions including heavy periods, endometriosis, thyroid issues, ovarian cysts and even cancer are forced to wait over three years for a diagnosis, according to a report by King Edward VII’s Hospital. In the interim, having someone care for our physical selves – whether by holding crystals around our bodies or rubbing oils into your back – gives us a form of expression and support.
When being a waiting patient feels so passive, physical therapies feel like active good for your body.
Healthcare and self-care shouldn’t be conflated – for obvious reasons, we are in trouble when wellness treatments become medicalised. The opposite is of equal concern; we’re more regularly seeing medical treatments sold to us as wellness, whether it’s ozempic or egg freezing, as ways of making individuals feel responsible for elements of their health which should be socially, environmentally and politically cared for.
Yet – while sound healing can’t offer me a diagnosis, running crystals around my energy field can’t give me objective data and a massage can’t solve my health concerns, they do work to make me feel lighter.
Letting someone else take charge of your body that has caused you pain, anxiety or confusion is an act of surrender. There isn’t much that can take off the weight of an unexplained symptom, a waiting list, a GP who isn’t sure or a consultant who doesn’t understand your misery. We can leave that pain on the too-small chair next to the treatment table, folded up with your jeans, T-shirt and bra. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
* This was a gifted PR treatment
Thanks for reading Gray’s Anatomy. I’m booked in for another sound healing session at the end of May but would love to hear what other touch therapies or bodywork sessions you recommend:
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