What is Deep Bodywork®?

Deep Bodywork is a form created by Perry and Johanna Holloman over the last 40 years as global practitioners and teachers of the healing arts.   This method combines the integrating qualities of flowing massage with the therapeutic effectiveness of deep tissue work. Using these healing modalities in combination opens realms of possibility to the bodywork practitioner unavailable through the application of one or the other alone.

Using Deep Bodywork techniques, massage practitioners can enter the body’s deeper soft tissue layers, freeing previously dense, hardened areas, which may have become chronically painful due to a lack of fluid exchange and energy flow. As such areas soften and ‘re-organize”, their chronic tension patterns release, revitalizing living tissues with blood, lymph, and “Chi” (life) energy. Living systems like the human body require a constant flow of Chi energy to self-organize and heal. Blockages to that flow within our tissues can create longer-term health problems like joint and soft tissue pain, movement restriction, and circulatory problems, to name some of the most common.

As chronic tension patterns held in the deeper soft tissue layers begin to open and change (often called “unwinding”), reservoirs of previously held life energy become available to promote the process of healing. This energy can help clients overcome stubborn, seemingly intractable physical conditions which have failed to yield to other therapeutic methods. When applied slowly, the deep tissue component of Deep Bodywork is one of the most effective means available for alleviating acute and chronic suffering in our clients.

The long, flowing strokes characteristic of presence-based massage work add an integrative component lacking in most deep tissue approaches. In our 40 years of bodywork experience, we have noted that flowing, soothing touch creates profound relaxation. As we release deeper tension patterns through the application of Deep Bodywork techniques, we at the same time provide an experience of integration using long flowing stroke across the surface of the skin.

Because the skin can be thought of, literally, as the surface of the brain (skin, brain, spinal chord and nerves all evolve from the ectoderm in embryonic development), gliding slowly over the brain’s outermost periphery has a deeply integrating effect. The essence of the long, flowing stroke lies in connecting the mind to its different physical segments through the sensations generated at its surface.

Combining deep tissue work with the flowing quality of presence-based massage creates a holistic method capable of healing deeply encapsulated trauma held within the deeper layers of the human body-mind. Deep Bodywork holds this power and can take your bodywork practice to the next level and beyond.