Just like tuning up your car may improve engine performance and mileage, so a regular massage, reflexology treatment, pedicure, manicure or aromatherapy session will help your own body, mind and soul to purr like a well-oiled machine ready for more action.
“People are finally figuring out that relieving stress is good for your health,” said Gertrude King at her Riverside Hearth Wellness Services home office in Dunedin. “There’s definitely more interest in health maintenance - especially with stress relief and stress management.”
King, who has been running her own wellness service since 1996, said more and more people are realizing the kind of services she provides are not about going over the top on themselves, but more about keeping themselves in shape - physically, mentally and emotionally.
“It’s not pampering, it’s maintenance,” joked King, who not only offers her services at her home office, she also does house calls, visits nursing homes and palliative care patients and works at bed and breakfasts: Beild House in Collingwood, Glencairn Cottage and The Inn at Creemore Hills.
“There’s such a new growing interest in wellness maintenance through massage and other services. It’s growing and it needs to grow more.”
In the past King published HealthSource as a means to educate people about what’s available in the area. But now she runs a website at www.healthsourceontario.com instead, assured people are aware they may access wellness services easily in the Georgian Triangle area.
“You don’t have to go out of the area for treatments,” she said, adding the number of local practitioners is growing all the time. “My private clients are a quarter of my business, the rest is B&B’s. I really enjoy doing home visits as well.”
A portable massage table allows her to take her office to elderly clients who find it harder to get out. King is always willing to take her services to those in need. She visits with Collingwood Community Living clients and LeisureWorld Nursing Home residents in Creemore where she often helps with “sundowning” for those who get anxious at the end of day and want to go home. Since they are home, King helps them relax with some gentle massage.
“I’ve always liked hands-on therapies,” she said. Her skills list includes massage, reflexology, therapeutic touch as well as pedicures, ear candling and Reiki.
Reflexology uses reflex points on the hands and feet relating to body organs to help improve circulation to ease stress and tension. Therapeutic touch in the Kreiger/Kunz method involves working with the bioenergetic field of the body to soothe the body. Pedicures and manicures provide foot and hand maintenance while ear candling gently assists to clear ear canals and sinuses. Reiki is a spiritual healing process involving gentle touch, which helps to link the client to a sense of well being and peace.
“There’s a lot of interest in that,” said King of Reiki. “It sometimes gets bad press, but I’ve never had anyone not appreciate Reiki. It’s really just another form of relaxation.”
Through her many hands-on approaches, King keeps her aromatherapy skills in tune which whatever work she is doing at the time.
“Scents are incorporated into everything I do,” she explained. “From custom blending an oil for a massage for a specific client to peppermint and rosemary for pedicures and rose oil for facial massages, the scents tie it all together.”
Putting it together is exactly what holistic treatments do. It works on the whole system - body, mind and spirit - to help the body heal. Scientifically, massage and other forms of hands-on or aromatherapy help to relax the body so the endocrine system has a chance to take a break. It also opens the body to be more receptive to oxygen in the system.
“Stress release helps the work of your adrenal glands, the whole parasympathetic system,” she explained, adding holistic health care is complementary to traditional medicine. King is also determined to explore the medical history of people before treatments and urges them not to use alternative practices to replace the family doctor.
“People need to take responsibility for their own health,” she said. Whether it’s a massage or a trip to the doctor, individual health must become a priority for those who want to manage their stress and be healthy. “The point of any therapy is to benefit the client. By making personal responsibility part of the treatment, it becomes a truly holistic process.”
Reprinted from the Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin, June 2002
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