Glossary
Infant Massage Instruction
Qualified instructors teach parents how to properly massage their infants. Infant massage is also utilized in hospital neonatal care units. This specialized form of touch is successful, not only in the critical weight gain of premature infants, but also in creating a strong bond between parent and infant and exposing a young child to the benefits and pleasures of touch. Click here to find an Infant Massage Instructor.
Ingham Method
Also known as the Original Ingham Method of Reflexology. In the 1930s, Eunice Ingham, a physiotherapist working for a physician, used zone therapy on patients to reduce pain. She mapped the entire body as represented on the feet.
Ingham later developed her work into the Ingham Reflex Method of Compression Massage, which became known as reflexology. Only the hands are used to apply the pressure to the reflex points on the feet. It is used primarily to reduce stress and promote relaxation. Many practitioners integrate the practice of reflexology with other forms of bodywork.
Insight Bodywork
Insight Bodywork, developed by Kondañña Barry Kapke, is a floor-based energy work that seamlessly integrates massage, movement, and meditation. Earthy, gentle, and spontaneous, its integrative approach to somatic discovery and education facilitates energetic balance and flow, brings awareness to embodied experience, and supports the body to find greater ease and ability. Insight Bodywork utilizes acupressure and myofascial techniques, giving maximum support to the body while mobilizing joints, moving into slow deep stretches, integrating with soothing brushes and holds, and, when appropriate, energizing through shaking, rocking, swinging, or dropping. It is a work that is both playful and sacred in its approach.
Integrated Kabbalistic Healing
Integrated Kabbalistic Healing is a system of energy healing, developed by Jason Shulman, based on the traditional Judaic metaphysical path (Kabbalah), object-relations, and advaitic (non-dualistic) perspectives with the understandings of psychology and the power of healing touch.
A session is approximately one hour in length and consists of discussion, followed by a hands-on healing based on what has been discussed. The goal is personal transformation by changing the fundamental patterns that are keeping the client from living the life she wants, ultimately affecting change on all levels: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
Integrated/Eclectic Massage
This practice indicates a combination of various massage, bodywork, and somatic therapy techniques utilized by a practitioner in the course of a session. Click here to find an Integrated Massage practitioner.
Integrative Manual Therapy
This therapy recognizes that each person is more than the total components of anatomy, physics, and chemistry, and is instead affected by emotions, thoughts, social interactions, mind, spirit, consciousness, soul, and more.
Integrative Manual Therapy (IMT) combines multiple therapies to locate and alleviate health challenges through individual body systems. Utilizing a combination of structural rehabilitation (a manual therapy process of normalization) and functional rehabilitation (a therapy to restore functional outcome according to the optimal potential of the client), IMT utilizes the expertise of professionals in many fields—physical therapy, osteopathic medicine, homeopathy, audiology, massage therapy, etc.
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Integrative Medicine
Alternative and conventional (allopathic) methodologies are combined to stimulate the person’s natural healing response.
Interactive Guided Imagery
An effective set of tools that can be used to mobilize the latent, innate healing abilities of clients to support rehabilitation, recovery, and health. It helps clients facilitate an enhanced awareness of the unconscious imagery they already have, while helping them learn to meaningfully and effectively interact with this process on their behalf.
Intuitive Work
Intuitive Work is a way of incorporating the perceived and received information that extends beyond the five senses, transcending what is considered ordinary thinking patterns and reasoning processes. The four main media by which intuitives receive and perceive information are clairsentience, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and knowingness (impression or inspirational thought).
The challenge for bodyworkers is how to respectfully incorporate intuition into their work while demonstrating responsibility/respect to the client. While the science aspect of bodywork focuses on the technique of touch (information accessed through the left hemisphere of the brain), the art aspect of bodywork focuses on how to touch with care and sensitivity (information accessed through the right hemisphere of the brain). As obvious tools for listening, hands touch with the intent to hear and see—information accessed through the temporal lobe. These three parts of the neurological system are considered the intuitive network.
Iridology
Iridology is a diagnostic method in which specific areas of the eye's iris correspond to various organs of the body, so that studying the markings of the iris can be used to identify dysfunction elsewhere. Used by physicians, naturopaths, chiropractors, and other healers, iridology is a noninvasive technique that supplies information not clearly delineated by other means regarding the condition of the body. Based on this information, the practitioner can make recommendations for changes in diet or lifestyle as a preventative approach.
Isometric Muscle Balancing
Developed by Charlotte Vandergrift, Isometric Muscle Balancing is based on the muscle testing positions used in kinesiology. Balancing and strengthening the 42 major muscles are accomplished by isometric action, producing a feeling of lightness and an increase in energy. A 45 minute to one hour session also includes instruction in creating and maintaining balance and proper postural habits, as well as attention to diet and attitude.