Competing with Bowen Therapy at Massage Competition with Michelle Lally & Manon on The Healers Café

set two tables up and a little table to take an intake in this space, and then have another place for me to go and sit and wait the two for the pause, right? And so I asked the judges before I went, how are they going to receive this different kind of approach to this body work that is just as effective, right? So I decided to sign up for the clinical round, and the wellness round, the clinical round is. 30 minutes. So I took two tables and kind of made it really clinical looking with white sheets, and, you know, wore a white over shirt with my logo on the back. And I treated specifically what was going on with the I started them with the basic relaxation both of them, both people. They didn’t know each other. I had two different intake forms. I looked at them. One had knee problems. One had lower back problems, but I treated them both the same with the with the basic procedure protocols. And so they’re watching me work on these two people, you know, going back and forth. And I only had 30 minutes to work on both of them, so I could not do the full two minute pause. So I would just maybe give it 30 seconds, and then I’d go back to the to the first table and say, Okay, well, you had knee problems. I’m going to do some hamstring or whatever I felt, and I was palpate and see what was going on with the person, intentionally staying connected with her and making sure where the pressure was good. And they they judge you on with the client contact, and I would explain to them, okay, now I’m gonna let you process that and go to the next table, which was this far away from the other table, because that’s all the room I had. So I literally had to turn around, and then I’d work on the other person with what shoulder issue or whatever issue they had. So my goal, and they judge you on in the clinical if they came in at a pain level of five, what is their pain level when they left? And both of them were cut 50% in their pain level and the efficient efficiency of the technique, okay, so that was great. I was pleased with that. And then at the after the clinical round, they take you and they put you in a circle of judges, and the judges ask you questions. Well, can you tell me why? You know you had to give them why you were hands off for a time because they’re so used to you having you have to keep your hand on them the whole time during the massage, right? And, and so I explained it very well, you know. Well, the pause is just as important as the move, because it allows the body to, you know, process, etc, etc. I even made a specific slideshow that the judges could watch while I was pausing. And that was running on my little display table. And they were all watching it. They were all looking at it and watching it. Okay, so that was a clinical round. That was my, you know, I was first up on the first day, I got all my scaredness out of me, because I was, I mean, it took me two weeks of stressing out and prepping and having the props and because they judge you on how your your booth looks like you’re coming into a clinic or a spa, they want you to make it look like it’s inviting and welcoming. Okay, so with the with the next day, I had to do the wellness category, which was an hour 60 Minutes. I’m like, Oh, good. I can actually take some time and let the moves process. And I decked it out with Valentine’s. Like, a couple is coming in for a Valentine session, and they’re just going to get a full one hour bowing session, and I would customize it with the basic protocols, and then whatever was going on with that client, I would work on those specific areas, and I would and I stretched it out. I about ran out of time, believe it or not, I was, you know, I was so relaxed and so comfortable doing the moves just in my groove. I didn’t pay attention to what was going on around me. I was just connected with the clients on the table, and I felt like I did really well. I noticed they were kind of taking pictures of me sitting in the corner and wondering why I was sitting in the corner of the booth, which, you know, again, I have this much room to sit in the corner, but I was wiping my hands in between the clients, because they judge you on cleanliness and all that stuff. So I had a thing of disinfectant wipes. And so I would wipe, throw them in the trash, go to the next client. Wipe, throw the trash, go to this client. So doing all of that while I’m trying to do the following moves. It’s a lot. It was a lot, but I wanted to showcase that we can work on more than one person at a time and be just as efficient as all of those other people doing all these fancy tools and moves and and techniques, which are great. Those are great. But Bowen doesn’t need that, and I firmly believe that, and I wanted to to show that so hopefully, and so, of course, I didn’t, I didn’t expect to win any awards or anything, because really don’t think they knew how to judge me,

Manon Bolliger  09:34

no,

Michelle Lally  09:36

and I knew that going into it, but so I was waiting for My feedback, and I sent that to you what their feedback was with me, and it was like, you really need to tighten up the space between clients. What does that mean? You know? So I decided the next competition, and I’m going to keep doing it, because I think it’s important that if we are able to get into a competition, and I know all the countries. Have massage championships,

Manon Bolliger  10:02

right?

Michelle Lally  10:02

And that, why is nobody teaching, why is nobody showing film therapy championship? You know, maybe it’s just United States thing. I don’t know. I know Canada, you know, I’m so I’ve talked,

Manon Bolliger  10:15

yeah, I think part of it is that I think there’s, there’s only three states in the states that you have to be a massage therapist to practice Bowen, whereas in other places, like in Canada, you can be, you can be a naturopath, you can be a doctor, you can be a physio. It doesn’t, it doesn’t matter what you’re I mean, you know, you need to have a background, or get schooled in a background, you know, like at Bowen college, but, but you don’t have to be a massage therapist. So I don’t think you know massage therapist schools are not necessarily seeing Bowen as a massage therapy, right? So because they didn’t take it over, basically, right,

Michelle Lally  11:00

right? It did. And it is more than three actually, but it

Manon Bolliger  11:04

is

Michelle Lally  11:04

every state has to report their continuing education,

Manon Bolliger  11:08

right?

Michelle Lally  11:09

A board

Manon Bolliger  11:09

some school, yeah.

Michelle Lally  11:10

So this, this is approved by, as you know, to be counted as continuing education credits, yeah. So that’s where I am trying to target. Those therapists. Look, if you’re going to, and a lot of people, lot of people are looking for something different, especially as they get older, that they can be just as effective and not as strenuous on their bodies as therapists,

Manon Bolliger  11:31

exactly, exactly. Well, yeah, I was going to say, Michelle, we should maybe to for the listeners to just explain, or I can do this part, and you can talk about what it is for massage therapists specifically, and why it’s worth or, you know, it’s worth looking at, but Bowen typically is done with a period in between moves so The body can actually integrate the information. So unlike some places where it seems like more is better, or continuous is better, from a therapeutic point of view, if you give an actual, you know, we say two minutes, but it really it can depend on the person. Sometimes it’s even longer for the body to really like. If you do work on the pelvis, for example, it can take a little bit longer. And as a practitioner, you end up sort of feeling when it’s time to continue, right. So doing it under tested position conditions, it’s quite funny to do this, but from a marketing perspective, it’s absolutely brilliant, you know, So anyhow, but that’s what it is. So so people, that’s they typically come for an hour, and it’s not uncommon to just do to lay the foundation work, which I call reboot, is a you reboot the autonomic nervous system, and then after that we start, we can reboot again, but then we do specific areas. Now, in in a showcase situation, the body can take more it like. So you know what you did, for example, where you got a 50% improvement in pain, which is, by the way, really good, right for a first session, especially done with shorter breaks, right and not done quite you know, in the the ideal way that one would do it, we would take that hour and allow people to relax and and typically, I have found that if I do it like This, in an acute pretend, this is a pretend acute situation that the results will last if I give the person the following week a real, full, proper treatment with the integration, so that their nervous system gets the the information. So that’s kind of the context for those who don’t know what Bowen is and it’s, it’s, it’s a myofascial type of work, right? We do little moves in orchestrated parts of the body. A lot of it covers meridians, covers marma points, covers all kinds of mixed things. We’re still trying to figure out, really, all of it, how it works. There’s still unknowns to to those of us practicing outside that it absolutely works. So, so that’s anyway. But why? Why massage therapists are such good candidates for this work. You tell us that a little bit yes,

Michelle Lally  14:44

yes. So you know, a lot of new techniques that are coming out are less is more, because they’re realizing that if you’re doing deep tissue work for somebody for an hour, you you’re they’re leaving in a fight or flight. State of mind is. They’re in pain.

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Michelle Lally  16:10

you’ve causing pain for them for an hour. You know they’re you’re digging and you’re you’re scraping, or you’re cupping or or whatever tools you want to use as a massage therapist, and those are great. Maybe you’re stretching or or whatever. Those are great. They work. But what if we just did that? That you know, if you felt like you need to do that, then finish it with the Bowen session and let them. Let’s take them out of that fight or flight and put them into the rest and relaxation. And basically, that’s what I offer to my clients. Is a full one hour massage. And I don’t do deep tissue even in my massage, but I will do some faucher release or some stretching a little bit, nothing, you know, major, just to loosen them up and get them loosened up a little bit. And then I do the bow and session on them. And then when they start to relax and fall asleep and go into that state of, you know, rest and relaxation, and that’s why I think that what I’m offering and what I teach other therapists to do makes a difference in people’s lives. More than just getting a 90 minute session, you get an hour massage and then the bone, and it’s just more beneficial that way, in my opinion, and my clients feel that way too. Yeah,

Ending  17:21

right. And I mean to the health I think I forgot now, so while I’ve done this research, but is it most massage therapists don’t last in their profession more than seven years, or something like,

Michelle Lally  17:34

that’s exactly right. And guess who takes my class a lot of 5060, year old therapist doing it for 20 years, and they’re like, We want to keep helping people, but my hands, my thumbs hurt, you know, my wrists hurt. You know, I’ve had carpal tunnel. I’ve had shoulder surgery. But even with those injuries, they can do this technique, even though their thumbs are, you know, may have worn them, worn their thumbs out. You know, they’re going to gently just do the move. And guess what? Their client is responding and getting the results that they want. So that’s and I tell them when I teach the class, I said, you’re not going to really. I can tell you and tell you and tell you how this has worked, but until you take it to your table and you start doing this, then you’re going to start believing in it. Because that’s what happened to me. I had one person tell me their success with Bolliger, and it encouraged me to learn more. And that’s when I found Dr Mitchell and and then I started putting it in my practice. And it wasn’t until two, three months after people kept coming back to me, saying, Hey, do that flicky thing again, right? And I’m like, Okay, why was it different? You know, I had more strength, I had more stability, I had more balance. You know, my seniors that I was working on was amazing, and that’s what made me want to keep doing it more. And then I realized how important this work is, how important this bone therapy work is. And every massage therapist, anybody who physical therapist, anybody who can help somebody, and by doing this Bolliger work, the more people we can reach, the better, because we’re only going to help people. And that’s my goal. Is to be, you know, I can work on one person at a time, or 10 people in a day, or I can teach 10 students to do the thing

Ending  19:18

right.

Michelle Lally  19:18

That’s why,

Ending  19:20

yeah, and I was to say, from a practitioner point of view as well, like I in my practice. So I had done bone for about 30 years, like in full practice. And one can see, you know, three to five patients an hour, if you want to. Now, I’m not recommending you start with that. But because it

Michelle Lally  19:44

can be, yeah,

Ending  19:47

two is good, you know, again, it depends. I had the perfect space to be able to do that. And, you know, from a practitioner point of view, I looked at it like a walking meditation. I just. Went in silently, into each room, did, did the little bit that needed to be done, and then moved on. And so by the end of the hour, you know, some somebody arrived early, somebody arrived late. It I was seeing about 150 people a week. So it all worked out. They just came to the next one. Everyone was patient, because everyone felt looked after they got what they needed. It wasn’t a feeling like, what’s she doing? I mean, it happened. You know, what’s she doing, leaving the room. And you know why? You know, why am I not the only one? So there are to discuss and to say this is different, you know, but you’re, you’re not like some sometimes, depending which chiropractor, but sometimes there it feels like you’re just getting on rote, you know, you’re not getting really a treatment. It’s sort of like it’s a convenience to the to the practitioner. But here it’s actually part of the methodology. It really is a necessary part. And when people get that, and they relax into that, they get fantastic benefits. And the other thing you were mentioning elderly or, you know, practitioners, this method is also incredible for elderly patients. They don’t necessarily want to get all undressed. They don’t, you know, they can’t be in certain positions. Well, you can do Bowen just about in any position.

Michelle Lally  21:34

Yep, I’ve got, I’ve got stroke victims that I work on, them sitting in the lift chair. You know, I just underneath and do the moves the best I can. And that’s what sold me on phone therapy, because I was fortunate enough, I was already offering massage at a senior activity center weekly, and already getting them on a massage table, because most seniors cannot sit in a chair, a massage chair. So this was a half hour session I was offering at a discount, and then my schedule was full, so for me to transition them into the Bowen technique, they believed me that this was going to help them, because they were already coming to me. Okay,

Manon Bolliger  22:16

right?

Michelle Lally  22:16

So then, hey, I’ve got something new that I think is going to be great for you. I’m going to try it, and if you don’t like it, we don’t have to do it again.

Manon Bolliger  22:23

Well, they

Michelle Lally  22:23

would come back every week and say, Can you do that thing again? Is it? And then that’s when I would ask, what did you I could walk down the church aisle without holding on to the to the benches? You know, they had more. These were 90 year old, 80 year old ladies, right, coming in, and they didn’t have to get undressed. They just got a 30 minute session, and they were off. And it was helping so many people. And I was fortunate enough to have that already lined up to be able to practice this so much in the beginning and see the results. And that’s what really sold me on it, if you if you take a class yours or mine or online, and you never touch it again. You’re not going to know, you’re not going to know how this works. But if you go and you start to apply what you’ve learned, even if it’s just one or two moves, you’re going to see some changes. You’re

Manon Bolliger  23:15

going

Michelle Lally  23:15

to feel some chemistry changes in the muscles and the tendons, in the fascia, and that’s going to help people. Wow, this is doing something, right?

Ending  23:23

Yeah, yeah. I mean, lots of hurdles and misconceptions to get over for some people. You know, I think that that’s good, but once we’ve done that, there’s nothing like facts, the reality of being out of pain, you know, and the fact that it takes, usually, you know, three to five sessions, almost no matter what they have, you know, how long they’ve had it. So it’s like, wow. You know, that’s that seems too good to be true. And we’re trained too good to be true, therefore it can’t be true. You know, we have a lot of training, you know, so. But I wanted to address one other thing, just because I know that on your Facebook, there is so many mixed preconceptions about doing a, you know, a competition, right? And, and I thought that was kind of funny. And I just two points I want to make. One is, you know, I admire your courage because you’re you’re fitting in. It’s like a square into, or what’s the expression, a peg into? No. How do you do this? The square into a round hole.

Michelle Lally  24:39

Yes, as I felt like in the competition, I was an orange at an apple festival,

Ending  24:45

right?

Michelle Lally  24:46

And, and guess what? Oranges are just as good for you as apples,

Ending  24:52

right? But so from a marketing point of view, it’s brilliant, because you, you, you stand out. It is. Massage in your state, and people have got to go, what on the world? Are you doing? Right? Which you you got that the the danger that I see, or that I think, the disclaimer I would put is, you know, it happened to homeopathy. They found a remedy that worked well for diarrhea. So the assumption is we’ll give everyone that remedy, and if it doesn’t work for an individual, then we know homeopathy doesn’t work. Well, that’s not how homeopathy works. You know, there are many different remedies for diarrhea. It depends on the person, right? So in other words, trying to fit in a healing treatment in the parameters of half an hour, for example, and speeding things up and doing things not how one would do it in practice, goes against the benefits of the the actual results that you would really have in a real competition if the terms how this practice should be done was observed, you know, like, like, I was filmed once by, I think it was CTV, and it’s like, for a shoulder, it was like, they sent this client. I think you’ve seen this one, but they’ve seen

Michelle Lally  26:21

1. Yeah,

Ending  26:22

this client around, and she’s gone everywhere, and it was like to debunk all, you know, chiropractors, everything anyway. And I just, I just said, you have to come on her second session, because I did not want it the first time around, because they would look at me doing almost nothing, and often the very first time there’s a sense of relaxation, but not necessarily yet, you know, a healing of the joints or whatever, not yet it it takes that week of receiving that deep, deep relaxation for it to work and last. And so they did, thankfully come on the second one, because they thought they could still debunk it, you know. But on the second one, her body was able to lift her arm up, and it hadn’t for like, seven years, and,

Michelle Lally  27:10

oh yeah, you

Ending  27:11

know. So if you do, if you teach how it should be done, I think that’s our next step in this, looking at this, you know, saying, Well, maybe every art has to be done the way it’s normally done. You know, that’s another, you know, because that’s

Manon Bolliger  27:29

what

Michelle Lally  27:30

the hour session was, right? That’s what the hour session was. Normally, we would have them in two different rooms, so and going from one to the other. But because I only had a one little

Ending  27:41

space. Yeah,

Michelle Lally  27:42

I made it look like one person. As a massage therapist can treat two people in the same hour and be effective, and they’re both got great results our session, and that’s what you want. And it was, I was in my zone, like you said, I kind of went into a meditative state while I was in that hour with them. I didn’t pay attention to who was. You know, there were 1012, judges walking around me, staring at me, taking pictures, other competitors that weren’t competing, their families. Everybody was watching me while they were watching everybody. But they were like, What is she doing from one table to the other how she have two tables set up in the same booth. And it made it work. I don’t know. I made it work. We practice here. It took me two weeks of props and setting up and figuring and then getting there and only having half an hour to set up your booth.

Manon Bolliger  28:37

Yeah,

Michelle Lally  28:38

yeah. I mean, that’s just part of the competition, and I did it. We did it. I had help, and just did it. Once I was done, and I tell you, when I got done with the second round, which was my last round, they said, Okay, your 60 minutes is up, I just went and I felt tingles and chills and everything go through my body, and all the stress was gone. It’s like, okay, I made it through this. I can do this now and not be so stressed out.

Ending  29:06

Yeah,

Michelle Lally  29:07

it can be happen. And so while I’m able, and if I can train other therapists to compete as well, let’s show what bone therapy is, yes and yes. Take my brochure. Learn about it. Learn more about it, but let’s intrigue their interest to say, what is that? What is she doing? And these people are doing great, you know, what? What does she do to them? And because it works, and I just that’s what I want to I don’t want it to to to not be known. And what a great way to show it, you know, and just go from state to state. And I can either judge a competition and do a showcase of the technique in 15 minutes and set two tables up and just do one or two moves with the pauses and while I’m explaining what’s going on, which is fabulous. And or I can do a full competition and not you know eventually how long? Ever probably win a trophy, because I’m not up there doing acrobats and and dancing and using all these fancy tools that they like to see in the in the competition, showcasing maybe, maybe not. Maybe they’ll start understanding what the so I thought next time I compete, I’m going to hold that sign up that says this is what an intentional pause looks like while I’m sitting in the chair, I’m going to have the sign right

Manon Bolliger  30:23

exactly facing

Michelle Lally  30:26

the judges, what the intentional pause looks like.

Ending  30:30

You know exactly, exactly they think you’re just like lazy and sitting anyway. Well, Michelle, you know, thank you so much for sharing that. And like you said, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve really tried to do our best getting this out. And I really admire all the efforts you’ve put to put Bowen out, and also the referrals to Bowen College, where people can learn, you know, more stuff, if they want to, and go deeper and, you know, look at all that. So anyway, I think we’re on the same page. So thanks very much.

Michelle Lally  31:09

Thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it.

ENDING: 

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