Lomi Lomi originates from the Hawaiian islands, describing a broad range of styles and approaches to bodywork.

In Hawaiian, lomilomi simply means "massage", and for centuries it equally meant sessions that were gentle, like pregnancy massage, preparing women for labour, and also sessions we would call deep tissue work when for example they prepared warriors for battle.

These days Lomi Lomi has become a specific and unique bodywork modality amongst many other complementary therapies (like "Swedish massage", "Hot Stone massage or "Ayurvedic massage"), which from a strictly linguistic point of view doesn't make too much sense as it literally means "Massage massage". 

Besides its ordinary and everyday use in Hawaii, there was an extraordinary application of Lomi Lomi, when it came to providing sacred rituals: these sessions were called Lomi Lomi Nui, meaning The Great Massage.

These rituals marked important events in the life of an individual or the tribe: 

• A right of passage for a boy or girl to adulthood,

• Celebrating the marriage of a couple

• Preparing the Chief of the tribe to make an important decision.

  
  

The Great Massages were "great" for various reasons: 

• their duration was several hours or an entire day, and some of these rituals went on for 15 days;

• when defining their time and date they took into consideration the various constellations of stars;

• they have chosen specific, sacred locations to provide them;

• these sessions were not only one-on-one sessions but were carried out by the healers, elders of the tribe, and sometimes 4-5 people massaging, treating the recipient.

In general, we can say that Lomi Lomi is a most beautiful and appropriate form of bodywork also for those who only look for assistance with their physical ailments or who seek an emotional, spiritual experience.

It is also important to express that the values and qualities of Lomi Lomi go beyond a specific nation or culture: Lomi Lomi teaches and reminds us, humankind, of how to use touch in a conscious and healing way and in that regard, it is a rediscovery of one of our innate gifts.

I have gathered, and whenever I feel important, I share a few writings and links that I found useful in my exploration of the background and philosophy of Lomi Lomi. This compilation is by far not complete, and it only reflects my limited perspectives and preferences - the literature of the field is amazingly vast and colourful.

When doing your own research, trust your intuition - it will guide you to the people and places that resonate with and serve you most at that moment.

My recommendation at this point is to check out: 

• the short or long description of the Hawaiian philosophy of life by Serge Kahili King. It is also called "Principles of Huna", which is a broadly accepted term, despite the inherent tension between the original meaning of the word ('hidden' or 'secret') and its current use.
  As in most aboriginal and ancient cultures, the core or deepest teachings initially were actually only shared verbally and only with members of the tribe or nation.

• the book of Nancy Kahalewai 'Hawaiian Lomilomi – Big Island Massage (3rd Edition)'.  It was one of the best readings to give a general overview of the historical background and the most important lineages and schools I came across.

As it is true for any transformational work, it is also true for Lomi Lomi - the set and setting have a deep impact on the outcome of a session.

"Set" is to have the right mindset: being present in your own body, and having a focused attention in the present moment.

"Setting" is all about the circumstances of the session, in other words, the surrounding environment: the venue in general, the room itself, images and decoration on the wall, music, and quality of your equipment.

It is important to consider and prepare all that appropriately before launching ourselves into offering a Lomi Lomi session.

"Being present" these days has almost become a cliché expression: we often use it... but without exactly knowing what we mean by that.

In the context of our Lomi Lomi learning and carrying out sessions, being present basically means having our focused attention in the present moment - as opposed to jumping from one thought to another.

The practice I invite you to explore in order to be more present, both during Lomi Lomi sessions but also in everyday life, I named the Here and Now breathing practice.

The practice is simply teaching yourself to be reminded to be "here" by your inhalation, and to be "now" by your exhalation.

Inhalation - here.

Exhalation - now.

Every single time you breathe in - is a reminder to be here, and every single time you breathe out is a reminder to be now. To be here and now - is to be present in the body.

So if the first part of the practice is that we use our breathing as an ongoing, trustworthy "biohacking" reminder to be present in our body, the second part of the practice is that whenever we are reminded to be/do so, we would withdraw our attention from the mind when it doesn't serve us and focus our attention into the body: any chosen location in our upper body where we can have a body sensation of our breathing taking place.

... and we just dwell there, in the awareness of how breathing is happening in our body: gentle expansion and contraction every few seconds - our 'home' or new default way of being in the world.

In the past few years, the Here and Now breathing practice became the foundation of my practice and my Lomi Lomi teaching.

Please have a look at the transformational book I wrote about it on Amazon.

Dan Joy:

'The Here And Now Breathing Practice - How A Spiritual Cliché Can Become Your Embodied Reality'

We could perhaps sum up the 'recipe' of a beautiful Lomi Lomi Massage with three key ingredients.

• Focused attention: as mentioned above - related to presence - instead of paying attention to our often chaotic and fragmented mind, we stay focused, and our attention is anchored in the present moment. The quality of focus stays the same, the location where we aim with our focus might change: it is primarily with various felt senses and body sensations in our own body.

• Contact dance: contact dance is a contemporary dance form, which hasn't got specific moves and steps, it is an overall approach to moving the body, allowing dancers to connect with themselves and each other in a beautiful flowing-floating quality

• Non-dualistic awareness or Advaita teachings (in Sanskrit) describe the idea that there aren't two separate realities: one being me (the subject) - separated from everything else (the objects). In a non-dualistic state, we are in a non-describable experience of oneness. In a Lomi Lomi session, we can potentially enter into blissful altered states of consciousness where the sense of the above separation between giver and recipient fades away to give space for an uplifting experience of connectedness. 

Multiple-handed sessions are sessions where a person receives treatment from a team of people, most of the time also for an unusual, prolonged duration of time (several hours or an entire day).

The 4-handed sessions are rather common in the Lomi Lomi world, and randomly you could also find them in other bodywork modalities. With the Stay-In-Touch team, we were drawn to experiment and revive some of the ancient traditions and so we offer 6- or 8-handed sessions as well.

From the recipient's point of view, such sessions are an opportunity to have a transpersonal experience and to wake up to their true self.

From the givers' perspective, these sessions are an opportunity for a similar, yet collective embodiment experience.

Carrying out a multiple-handed session could also be described as a team-building experience: it is learning about how to trust and follow your inner guidance and how to allow space for others to do the same.

In other words, these journeys give us the chance to wake up and evolve as a community: beyond our individual transformation, we can learn how to express ourselves in the framework of others doing the same.

The multiple-handed sessions are a great source of finding the balance between freedom and compassion, giving and receiving, guiding and listening.

The aim of our welcoming ritual and greeting is to facilitate the "landing" of our clients into the present moment, into their bodies. Sometimes they arrive prepared and ready, sometimes they come from the business and stress of their everyday life so they are maybe in their heads, still connected to what just happened in their lives or what is to come.

With our simple words, we invite them to temporarily suspend and let go of their concerns regarding all that is outside of the time and space of the session they are about to receive.

Quite often reassuring them that the session is not a distraction from life, but rather a way of becoming more resourceful for engaging with life makes it easier to allow themselves this sometimes so much-needed time for self-care. 

This is a possible version of greeting them as you start a session:

"Welcome, Aloha!

I greet the soul that arrived in this body today.

Let this time be yours and entirely yours.

Allow your whole body and mind to have some rest.

Just for a while, there is nothing to do, to achieve, or to understand and figure out - you can allow yourself to enjoy being.

Let your breathing be a guide to dwell in the here and now.

Let loving presence guide my hands."

You can also just say "Welcome, Aloha!" and slowly land with your palms on their body, stay there in stillness for a minute and then finish by saying "Let loving presence guide my hands.".

The important aspect of the welcoming ritual and greeting is less the words themselves, but rather the marking of the beginning and completion of the me-time they have given themselves.

The four steps of the Welcoming Ritual are: 

• Step 1   Connecting to yourself (be present in your body)

• Step 2   Connecting to your client (placing the palms on them)

• Step 3   Greeting body and soul / Prayer (sharing a few words)

• Step 4   Setting intention (optional)

After this, you hold a moment of silence. You then gently lift your hands off the client and start the music. The Lomi Lomi session continues with the sarong ritual and the oiling of the body.

You will find a more detailed and printable version of the Welcoming Ritual at the end of this course - you can hang it up somewhere in the space where you carry out your treatments to remind you of the four steps. It might be useful to apply them by the way before any sessions you offer to others.

Pulling down the sarong is not just about uncovering the body and making it accessible for the treatment.
It is also, and maybe even more importantly, about communicating a simple message to our client: we are not in a rush.
The process happens slowly, without any hurry to "get over it" in order to get to some more interesting parts of the session - our care and awareness are the same throughout the whole time.

To start the recipient has the sarong covering their whole body.

Standing at the feet, we pull down the sarong by pulling one side a little bit, then the other side a little bit, and we alternate these moves until there is enough sarong left above the waistline for a palm.

Walk to the middle of the massage table - on either side - we turn towards the massage table and place your hand that is closest to the head of your client, down on the sarong at the lower back. 

We fold the sarong by picking up one corner with the other hand and gently pulling it we put it down on the back of the leg, creating a line parallel with the leg, we repeat this one more time on the same side, this time picking up the sarong around the height of the knee.

Following that we repeat the same process on the other side - it does not matter which side you begin on.

An important hint for folding.

Imagine that there is an invisible line in the middle separating the left and right sides of the body, you can think of it as a prolongation of the spine towards the feet. We want to keep the right side of the sarong on the right side of the body (basically the right leg) and the left side of the sarong on the left side of the body (basically the left leg).

When at the end of the session we are going to undo all this and fold back our client with the sarong it will be crucial to avoid uncovering the delicate parts of the body by accident - which can happen if your sarong is a "mess" and when pulling the corner closest to you it turns out that actually it belonged to the other side and by pulling it you have just uncovered the bum of your client...

So to prevent all this we keep the sides of the sarong on the related sides of the body and don't wander with the corners across the invisible middle line.

The rest of the sarong, at this point, is still covering the calves and feet, we simply pick it up and put it between the legs.

Taking the sarong around the height of the knees, we push it down towards the surface of the massage table and start tucking it in between the legs, gliding up with another piece of the sarong a few times until it is nicely gathered between the upper part of the legs.

At this moment we let go of the holding with our palm, and we pick up and gently pull the sarong towards the head of the client to make it narrower and nicer. We then fold back to sarong so we could have access to the waistline of the body.

The last move of the folding of the sarong is to glide off with both of our palms from the middle to the sides of the body, having half of the palms on the sarong, and the other half on the skin. With this move we indicate to our client where the sarong ends: sometimes the sarong is so light that it is not obvious where it rests and this provides some reassurance to the client.

With this move, we make sure that they are aware of the sarong and that they are appropriately covered so their journey can begin with a relaxed sense of safety in that regard.

Oiling your own hands and arms

• in Lomi Lomi we use both the hands and the forearms to store oil. We want to maintain as much continuous contact with the client's body as we can and avoid disconnecting too often. We take on the oil in 2-3 turns, generously covering both our palms and our forearms.

Oiling the body of our client 

The oiling of the body is a beautiful and useful ritual.
It can be an expression of deep respect and appreciation - in the ancient far-East oiling and anointing often served as such - and at the same time, it is a practical stage as well, as it allows us to map and befriend the body we are working with.
The pressure you are aiming to achieve with the oiling is slightly more pressure than stroking but less than a normal firm massage. At this stage, we simply want to get to know the "landscape" without wanting to engage in any deeper work and our intention is to build trust.
As when we took our time and care in arranging the sarong at our slow pace, we continue to communicate to our client the same, simple message: there will be no rush in our time together.

• oiling the whole surface of the body of our client is the first stage of a Lomi Lomi session.

• our aim is to maintain the as far as possible continuous connection with the body throughout the massage so we oil the whole of each side of the body to begin.  Once we are finished with the oiling, we have access to the whole body and can freely glide and find our way to any parts without needing to disconnect and "jump" from one place to the other. We can wonder from the neck down to the heals, or from one side of the body to the other so shifting from working on e.g. the legs to start to work on the arms I can simply glide to the part I would like to work with, instead of disconnecting from the body at one place and then putting down my palms at another place. 

• we can do the oiling in two, three, or four "rounds" on each side of the body. In this module, I show a version when the oiling happens in four steps, so between these steps, I do disconnect from the body so I could put more oil on my own hands and arms before doing the next step, and then I would land again and again. Each time slowly, gently and with care.

• Once you have finished the last step you can take away the oiling bottle from the massage table.

The awareness of our "landing" and "disconnecting" is highly important. The quality of starting to touch someone's body and disconnecting from their body is a literally tangible expression and measurement of our presence - or the lack of it.
Someone touching us or leaving us without awareness can make us feel very awkward, lonely, and exposed, on the other hand, if these simple moments happen slowly, with awareness, they convey a sense of care, trust, and connectedness.

Step 1 of oiling

• be aware of landing gently on the leg, no rush, potentially waiting a breath or two before starting to move your hands.

• the two hands loosely connect, slightly next and ahead of each other, fingers pointing towards the head of your client.

• I simply move up and down between the heels and the waistline, as the back of the leg is getting more and more oily, I can go further and further up. No rush... I move like a lazy wave.

• after repeating the moves on the leg three times, I would turn my palms 90 degrees, so the fingers now point between the two legs (especially in 4-handed sessions, working with someone else, this is a useful "sign" to indicate our intention to prepare for the next move.

• now I glide all the way up to the trunk of the body, landing with my forearm on the lower back, then the upper back, finishing the move by arriving at the crock of the neck with my elbow.

  • Note 1: as I land on the lower back with my forearm, I might have to "cheat" a little bit - quite often the rib cage area is so bony that I keep my own elbow in the air and I only land, gradually, with the soft part of my forearm to avoid an uncomfortable bump (my elbow into a rib).

  • Note 2: I am not pressing against the neck with my forearm as I glide down, I apply the pressure on the shoulder muscles.

• at this point I can start to carry out what we call "semi-rounds": moving up and down on one side of the body, using the back of the leg and half of the trunk.

• when we arrive at the heel we do a move that we call the snake, in three different versions: 

  • normal snake: I go around the heal with my forearm-palms-other forearm, glide down towards the toes, turn around, change direction and with my elbow leading I get back on the calf and continue to do a semi-round

  • semi-snake: the leading hand would stop and park on the heal - instead of doing its short journey in the air as in the above version - while the following hand and forearm would do exactly the same journey as in a normal snake.

  • holding snake: again, the leading hand would glide under the foot and hold it in the palm, while the other hand and forearm do the same journey as usual. Gliding under the foot can happen in various ways, it can either be just one of our hands or both of our hands helping each other to gently lift the foot, and then the following hand and arm go into their usual move.
    When we do the holding snake we usually go around the heel with the full length of our hand and forearm three times, also massaging the calf.
    Coming out of the move is partly similar to the other semi-rounds: our leading elbow would start to go up on the leg - the other one, from under the foot would slowly glide out and join the other hand as usual.

Step 2 of oiling

After oiling your own hands and arms, this step will be exactly the same as Step 1 just doing everything on the other side of the body.

It does not matter which side of the body you start the oiling, actually experiment and "listen": is there anything in your body that feels more drawn to one side or the other? 

In other words: stand at the very end of the massage table, and start oiling your hands and arms, still without knowing which side you are going to start the oiling. Once you are oily enough - just notice where your body goes, and which side your legs are taking you to. Trust yourself and your connection to your client.

Step 3 of oiling

Now we are moving to the oiling of the arms - first, make sure that your hands and arms are oiled nicely as described above. For Steps 3 and 4 you need slightly less oil as the surface you are going to cover now is smaller than in the previous steps. Whatever oil still stays on your hands and arms will evenly spread out to the rest of the body anyway as you start to flow into the "rounds" - see below - of oiling the body. 

• be aware when landing on the shoulders, no rush, potentially waiting for a breath or two before starting to move your hands.

• I can glide down towards the arms in two ways: 

  • landing with both my forearms on and around the arm of my client, giving a "hug" to their upper arm with my forearms and hands as I am gliding down towards their palm. My outer arm and hand can slightly scoop and reach under the shoulder and arm, oiling those parts as well.

  • another version is to simply glide down with my palms only - so my forearms and elbows stay in the air - towards the palm (I will show this move in the advanced course).

• my palm closer to the client's body will "park" in their palm, the other hand will journey up on the arm, across the shoulder blade, and then scooping around and under the shoulder, I come back towards the hand. Gradually slowing down I change direction and repeat the above journey once or twice.

• I can optionally change the position of my palm and whole body by turning 180 degrees and this time climbing up with my other palm "backwards", potentially reaching under the forearm and arm of the client, turning around the shoulder blade and shoulder, and returning the same way. My holding palm and body will naturally change back to the original position as this time I will flow down towards the leg.

• I approach the heel and can choose to go around with either of the three above versions of the snake move.

• around this point, we can enter into what we call "rounds": circular moves where we journey around one side of the body as the whole body, including the arm, is oily enough. Using the legs and the sole of the foot for both going up and coming down, from now onwards we can glide up on the lower back and upper back, turn around the shoulders, and can come down the arm (as opposed to the "semi-rounds" only using the trunk of the body for the other part of the journey both going up and coming down).

• an alteration of the oiling of the arm is to go around the shoulder as usual but this time having the palm further away from the body park on the shoulder while the other hand and arm gliding down the inner part of my client's arm all the way to land on the massage table. Having my palm upwards, I will glide under the shoulder, while the other, parking hand potentially assists the move by slightly lifting up the shoulder, and then creating a ring with my palm and the crock of my elbow I gently squeeze the whole upper arm, coming down towards the elbow and forearm and then finding my way back to the leg to finish the round with my usual snake.

• an alteration of going around the shoulder in my rounds is to move and scoop around and under the shoulder with my leading hand and forearm, letting go of my two hands following each other, and allowing the other forearm and elbow to go all the way around the shoulder blade first, then the shoulder and then leading the way down the arm, forearm and back to the leg and finish the round with any of the above versions of the snake.

Step 4 of oiling

After oiling your own hands and arms for the last time, this step will be exactly the same as Step 3 just doing everything on the other side of the body.
Remember to put away the oiling bottle from the massage table after oiling your hands and arms.
So just to recap... 

• first, you oil your hands and arms for the 4th time, then

• you put away the oiling bottle, and only then

• will you land on the shoulder with both of your hands.

Besides the head and neck area, the back, in general, is another part of the body where many people "store" stress, tension, and have ailments.

The moves shown in this video seem to be - and in a way are - simple, yet repeating them with varying pressure they become the means to carry out amazing deep tissue work on the back.

It is possible to start the whole oiling process here, in that case, the hands land on the upper part of the back, between the shoulder blades; if we have already completed the oiling at this point then our starting move would come from the stand-by swiping moves.

There is a beautiful variety of how to come down on and work with the back, we are going to learn three of them.

• in Version 1, the two hands simply are next to each other at our starting position and also during the journey downwards, on the two big spinal muscles next to the spine. The focus of my pressure is in my palm, in particular at the padded, soft part of my thumbs and to some extent in my fingers as well. I am not pressing against the spine, I am gliding on the tissues of the big muscles, leaning into the move with my whole body. As I arrive at the sacrum I stop. I can alternatively open my hands to shape a form similar to a butterfly - thumbs next to each other, fingers loosely pointing outwards - and gently press the whole pelvis area towards the feet, stretching the lower back for a few seconds like that, or I just glide down to the sides of the body and climb back up on the rib cage, transitioning into my favourite swiping moves.

• in Version 2 the two hands are on each other. In my starting position - one hand between the shoulder blades - I barely apply any pressure to begin with, as I start to do so I bend my hand so it bridges above the spine: this way, again, I am not pressing against the spine, only the spinal muscles next to it. As I start to move down I slowly, "invisibly", join in with my other hand on top of my other hand and I gradually apply more and more pressure with my fingers, mainly the 6 or 8 fingers in the middle position. As I reach the sacrum, I open my hands, this time the fingers pointing inwards, and I glide down to the sides on the line where the gluteus muscles connect to the pelvis, first applying pressure with the four fingers of both of my hands, then doing the same with both of my thumbs. I finish the move the same way as before: climbing up on the rib cage, and transitioning into the swiping moves.

• in Version 3 I will use the soft part of my forearms, close to the elbows, instead of my hands to apply the pressure. In some traditions, to highlight its importance, they also call this part of the body "the tool". For this move, I first have to make sure that I position my arms next to each other appropriately in the starting position: they are next to each other, in parallel, my elbows very close to each other, both of my hands hanging in the air having a really light pressure at this stage. From the client's body's point of view, I want to have my elbow between their spine and their shoulder blades so I would rest and journey with the tool, again, on the two big spinal muscles. As I move downwards I can lean into the move and apply more and more pressure, gradually relieving it as I approach the pelvic area. Feeling the hardness of its bones I can maintain a similar pressure as I did with the first version, when I got here, giving a stretch to the lower back, this time using the surface of my whole forearms.

  
  I can finish these moves in various ways, this time we learn simply to glide back, with more pressure in the middle area of the back, less at the lower back, and even less around the shoulder blades.
  Opening up my hands and arms into a hug-like, swiping position leads us back having the fingers and then the thumbs potentially going down the same line to the sides as we did in version two... coming home to our swiping moves around the neck.

You can repeat all three versions several times. Repeating a particular move three times works most of the time (not always though). If the body is already oiled, so these moves are more part of a deeper work with the back, with each repetition you can gradually apply more and more pressure.

Again, it is key here to provide seamless loving contact, stay present, stay mindful and trust your instincts as you move up and down the back.

The swiping moves around the shoulders and the neck are some of the most beautiful and often most enjoyable moves of working on the back of the body - both from our clients' point of view but also ours. 

In our Western culture, the head and neck area is often absorbing an unhealthy amount of stress and thus become rigid, tight, and full of pain. Comfortably giving quality attention to this area can be deeply soothing for our clients. The repetitive moves will explore and release newer and newer layers of tension.

At the same time, from a practitioner's point of view, with these moves, we can further enter into a focused, meditative state. I often say that if you are uncertain about "what to do next", then just find refuge in the swiping moves, repeat them for a while... and then it will appear in your awareness, mostly through your body, what to do next.

This move has got two basic versions (further alterations will be presented in the advanced course): 

• in Version 1, you scoop around the shoulder with one palm and glide up the neck to the skull while you come off the head with the other palm. The palm leaving the head floats back in the air to the shoulder, and after an aware and soft landing, scoops around the other shoulder, glides up the neck to the skull, then the other hand that comes off the head... and you repeat the move. Like a figure of eight or infinity.

• in Version 2, you change the direction of your move and the hands always land on the opposite side compared to previously. After landing with the hand, my thumb glides down into "clicks" into the crock of the neck becoming an axis around which my whole hand will turn around to find myself on the neck in the position already familiar from the previous version. From here the move is the same, I glide up the neck to the skull while the other palm comes off the head and lands on the opposite side to repeat the above journey: thumb gliding down and clicking into the crock of the neck becoming the axis, hand turning around, gliding up on the neck, to the skull, off the head... and so forth.
  As you see in the video for this version you also have to move with your own body and make a few steps around the head to always have a comfortable angle for the hands and arms.

You can freely shift between the two versions, my suggestion is to first practice and repeat just one of the two until it becomes an easy, flowing, relaxed move and only add the exploration and then the combination of the two versions afterwards. And enjoy ;-) 

So at this point, the whole body, including the legs after the stage of oiling, is so accessible for working on them more deeply. We could start to do more in-depth work on other parts of the body as well, so in general just as we did with choosing a side to start - we can experiment and practice "listening".

For the sake of this course we have chosen a simple, basic sequence to share but the journey of learning is similar to learning any language, dance or music: initially, you learn steps, chords and structures... but once you practiced them enough, after a while you won't even need to remember them consciously anymore.

I have chosen an approach and pace to make this stage as enjoyable as possible, so hopefully, you can experience a deep sense of flow, connectedness and bliss rather early which I hope will spark your curiosity and enthusiasm to maintain momentum when it occasionally comes to more challenging stages of the learning.

Whatever your experience of it, this stage is rather important as it gives you some of the foundations for what you will enjoy later... just like when it comes to speaking a language fluently, improvising in dance or music.

• after a few moves similar to the initial oiling moves on the leg, we rest with one hand at the back of the knee, while with the other hand we reach under the ankle and lift up the leg.

• we swap the position of our hands, so we could lock in the foot in the crock of our elbow with the other hand and lift away the whole leg from the massage table so we could softly rock it in the air. After a few seconds we place back the leg, most of the time in a slightly different position compared to how it was earlier and we sit down on the massage table.

• as the leg is long and will need support, we lean the foot against our shoulder or chest to carry out the next few moves on the calf and hamstring.

• first, warming up the area, we glide up and down with our palms, then with our forearms on the calf, drawing circles or ellipses.

• our next move is what we call the "lines": joining the four fingers of both hands, we dig into the muscles with the tip of our fingers and "draw" a line in the middle of the calf. We glide back up with light pressure and then a cm or inch next to our first line we draw a second one, again, with more pressure as we go down. We come back up and continue until we covered one side of the calf, so then we'd continue to do the same on the other side.

• as we shift to work with the hamstring, we move the leg away from our chest or shoulder, so we can lean into the move that opens up the work on the hamstring: with our forearm, we give a few wide, lazy, ironing moves to the surface.

• then we draw lines again, only this time - to meet the stronger muscle structure - we use our knuckles. Turning our hands into fists, moving from the inner side of the hamstring to the outer skirts, we press into them with our knuckles, one fist following the other and then optionally restarting the whole move, doing several rounds of our lines.
  It is usually nice to finish this part of the work with the same ironing moves as we started with.

• we then climb up to the feet, starting with some stretch both ways: we stretch upwards with our hands holding and embracing the foot, downwards we push with our forearm, the left palm nicely fitting into the sole of the left foot and when working on the other side the right palm nicely fitting into the right sole of the foot - the other hand always holding the leg by the ankle.

• following the stretches, working with the toes is slow and needs a decent amount of pressure to avoid the moves becoming ticklish. We start with the smallest one and then go through all of them one by one, gliding back and forth between the heel and the toes when switching from one to the next one.

• the last moves address the sole of the foot from a different angle: holding the left leg at the ankle with our left hand - and similarly, the right ankle with our right hand when working on the other side - with our other palm then forearm we glide through the sole of the foot, bending our arm and turning it so now we could continue the move the opposite way, first with the forearm and then with the palm. Getting to the palm we do the same turning so now again the palm is leading and we continue to glide through the sole of the foot with the forearm... and so forth. So this is, again, one of those beautiful moves that somehow imitate a wave or infinity and can go on as long as it feels right.
  As we move ahead the fingers point towards the opposite heel, and we can add a couple of alterations of the move: in the first one, turning around our own fist and massaging the area with our knuckles, and in the second one gliding around the foot to change direction.

• completing the work with the leg I put it down making sure that the toes - toenails - won't bump into the waterproof sheet so I have one of my palms underneath, holding the foot and the toes.

• as usual, I can transition into the "rounds" and do a few of them before repeating the sequence on the other leg, or starting to work on another part of the body.

It is worth mentioning that it may be helpful to ensure that your nails are trimmed short and smooth, when we get to working the lines on the body and pressing in with the fingertips, long or scratchy nails will impede your ability to press with the soft tips and pads of the fingers and be uncomfortable for the client.

Turning our clients over to a supine position where they are lying on their back, is a delicate transition.

I will explain some of these aspects in the following lecture, in this introduction I will show how the whole process takes place.

One of the unique aspects of this moment is that we request something from our clients during the session - we ask them to move their bodies and turn around.

In general, our invitation in our initial conversation before the session is to surrender - see the lecture about this below. We encourage our clients to enjoy the session, just for a little while leaving everything behind, and fully immersing themselves into the beauty and care of their well-deserved me time. I quite often even say that they don't even have to move their little finger during the treatment to emphasise that for a while they can really let go.

In the same conversation, explaining the practical aspects of the session, we of course also prepare them for this moment and let them know in advance that at this point we will ask them to turn.

When we arrive at this point during the treatment the verbal instruction is simple, soft - closer to whispering - and succinct: "Please turn on your back and glide down a little bit." In our initial conversation, we also explained earlier that at this point we will take out the headrest, so their head will need to be on the massage table, so they will understand what we mean and know exactly what to do.

To prepare everything we first have to fold back the sarong.

This happens as an inverse process to our initial folding in: first, we fold out the little bit at the pelvis area we did last at the beginning of the session, put down our palm on the sarong on the lower back, then pull out the part of the sarong that we earlier tucked in, then we find and unfold the corners we first picked up. The sarong now lies as it did in the beginning along the length of the body.

To prepare our clients for turning to the other side, we first turn the sarong by 90 degrees. The two basic guidelines I use for this are the "superman position" and remembering to turn the sarong clockwise.

When we turn the sarong, we stand on the side of the massage table - doesn't matter which side - and face it with our bodies. We hold our right arm up and our left arm down- like superman flying... - and we would pick up the sarong somewhere in the upper right corner with our right hand, and in the lower left corner with our left hand.

Then we start to turn it clockwise. When our client lies on their front this is easier: we turn the sarong 90 degrees making sure that we don't uncover the delicate part of the body.

When we do the same move as they lie on their back, especially if it is a female body, we have to make sure, not to uncover the delicate part of the body and the breast area - so for this, it really is important to be slow.

Once this is done we can give the gentle invitation to roll over.

After giving the instruction - we just wait. They might simply be aware, heard us, and start to move almost immediately or with a little delay. But it is also possible that by this time they are in a deep process, relaxed, and are in an in-between world between being awake and asleep, and on some occasions - rather rarely - they could have also fallen asleep. So we are patient, compassionate and if necessary can repeat the instruction.

Once the sarong is turned and the instruction given, on the side where I am standing, I softly lean against the massage table with my thighs so I would secure the sarong on that side and I would lift up the other side of the sarong with my hands - creating a little tent, under which they can easily turn around, no matter which direction they decided to rotate. 

After they found their comfortable position on the back I let down the sarong. I remove the headrest and then turn the sarong again as described above - 90 degrees so I would have it in its original position, along the body.

If they requested to have the breast area covered, then at this point I would use one of the two basic methods to do that. In this version, I prepare a smaller towel and put it on the area and then gently pull out the sarong from underneath the towel. As the sarong becomes free I can pull it down and fold it, as usual, more instruction is given on this later.

So this is how the process of turning our clients to their back unfolds step by step:

• we fold back the sarong so our clients are covered again as at the beginning,

• we turn the sarong 90 degrees,

• we ask them to turn around and slide down a little on the couch,

• we hold the tent for them while they turn around,

• we turn the sarong 90 degrees again so it is in its original position,

• if we have to then we prepare the covering of the breast/chest area,

• we pull down and fold the sarong as we did at the beginning of the session.

All of this is done very mindfully, slowly and deliberately to create a sense of safety and keep your client as far as possible in that lovely blissful state they have hopefully entered into.

Until now our client's face was downward, and in a way, rather often, they were in their own world or inner journey. Turning on the back, from a practical point of view means that their face will most likely encounter more brightness (sometimes they would request an eye-fold for that reason).

From an emotional point of view, they are now more vulnerable and become more exposed to the outer world than before so it is our responsibility to safely hold the space for them as all this is happening.

One of the keys - by now you can guess... - is being slow. No rush, no abrupt moves, and allow them to turn at the pace they want. As earlier said, after receiving an hour or more Lomi Lomi, sometimes they would take a whole minute before they start to move their body and turn around.

Working with a male body the pulling down and folding of the sarong happens pretty much exactly the same way as it happened on the other side.

The sarong comes down as we pull one side a little bit and then the other side a little bit, alternating the moves until we just have enough space for our hand above the waste line. Most of the time the belly button is a good reference as to where to stop with the pulling down of the sarong but as some people have them rather close to the genital area it is better to think in terms of having space for our hand.

After softly putting down our hand on the sarong, on the abdominal area - at the beginning we landed on the lower back at this point - we do all the rest of the folding of the sarong as we did on the other side: folding in lines, putting the sarong between the legs, tucking it in with a few moves, a little pull and folding back and then coming down with our palms on the two sides indicating to our clients the position of the sarong and that they are safely covered.

As we explain in our introductory conversation to our clients, traditionally Lomi Lomi is carried out with no clothes on, we only use the sarong to cover the delicate parts of the body.

As this is not obvious in our Western culture, we offer various options to address this if your client isn't entirely comfortable - you find more information about this in general in the lecture about the intake conversation.

In regards to the breast/chest area, if they requested to have the breast area covered, at this point I would use one of the two basic methods to do that.

Method 1

Using the first method we need a smaller, separate towel. We put this smaller towel on the area we'd like to cover, on top of the sarong. Then we gently pull out the sarong from underneath the towel. As the sarong becomes free I can pull it down and fold it as usual.

Method 2

The second basic method of covering the breast/chest area is using the sarong itself, no additional towel needed. The folding of the sarong around the legs will stay the same: we put the sarong between the legs and with a few moves, as we did earlier, we tuck it in.

Around the upper body we unfold the sarong a little on the sides and also at the corners, so that it can cover the tummy and breast/chest area, but still give us access to the shoulders.

We can also give it a little pull if we have to so it would become narrower around the waste line. Apart from that the sarong stays as it is, covering the whole upper body.

In this case we simply don't have the slow, ritual pulling down of the sarong, and we won't be able to work with the abdominal area.

As I mentioned earlier, despite the obviously different landscape of the front and the back of the body, the oiling moves on the land, or the rounds we do on the two sides of the body - are very similar.

After oiling our own hands and arms, the landing on the leg happens slowly, with awareness, potentially pausing for a breath or two and then we begin moving with our hands up and then down as a lazy wave.

Just as we did it on the other side in a similar position, we would repeat the move at least three times, then turning our hands 90 degrees we prepare for climbing up all the way to the trunk of the body. With our elbow leading, we probably have to "cheat" again to avoid bumping into the rib cage, so we might glide in the air for a while, slightly above the abdominal area, so we would land on the ribs and the chest with our "tool", the soft part of our forearm.

As the body is fully oily by this time, we can start doing rounds: with forearms and palms, I move on the sternum, the middle section of the chest, coming down around the shoulder, continuing on the arm, finding my way back on the thigh, and completing the round with a snake. 

After doing another round. I can introduce a version of the holding snake, where my leading hand would hold the foot and my following hand and arm would do their journey around as usual. Everything is similar to how we did the holding touch when our client lay facing down. As the feet might be more wobbly in this position, holding the feet can stabilise them and also allows us to apply more pressure on the sole of the foot with our other hand and arm.

A beautiful move we can do while doing the rounds is the "hug": pausing with one palm on the shoulder of our client and with the other hand and arm gliding under their shoulders and neck area, potentially repeating the move a few times (we'll learn a "double" version of this move in the advanced course).

When doing rounds on the left side of our client's body, then we park the left palm on the left shoulder, when doing the rounds on the right side of the client, then it will be the right palm on the right shoulder).
As these types of directions are sometimes confusing, the simpler way to remember is that it is the leading hand and arm that will go under the shoulder and neck.

After oiling our hands and arms for a second time, we put away the oiling bottle from the massage table and repeat the above sequence on the other side.

After a few rounds, snakes, and hugs, the front of the body will be appropriately oily so we can start to do more in-depth work on this side of the body as well.

The headwork is a whole, unique world in itself. I am a huge fan of working with the neck-head-face area and also I love to receive 1+ hour-long massages focusing only on this area. Even just thinking of it now starts to make me melt a bit :-) 

Most of us have a daily experience of how we are often "stuck" in our head, in other words how we have a sometimes disproportional amount of focus going INSIDE of our head.

Funnily enough, giving focused quality attention to the OUTSIDE of our head, so literally, just inches away from where all those tensions were, might lie our "salvation".

The key, again, is partly the pace. Be slow. Slowness, combined with the other important element, which is a decent amount of pressure, would help your client to shift: coming out from the inside of their head, following the intense body sensations we create with our slow and often heavy pressure, they would start to focus on the outside, in other words, the surface of there head, to the points and places we touch them.

As said above, the shift from a physical perspective is absurdly small, but the change in the emotional or mental state of our client that results from this shift is huge. 

We can arrive at the head massage, as is usually the case, from various "directions". It is possible to work on the chest or the shoulders before, or we can also transition into the head massage from the stand-by swiping moves carried out under the shoulders.

Most of the time choosing the latter option, so mirroring my hand under the shoulder, I will first have the same position for my other hand on the other side of the head and come down the forehead and the skull. Joining in with the other hand I would repeat the journey down, maybe another few times, and then I would turn my hands 90 degrees and continue to glide down the forehead, one hand after the other.

As often, I can expand the move from the hands to the arms, so now I have a longer surface to give for the same move. I aim to change hands and arms in such a slow, soft and gradual way that my client couldn't point out when the change took place.

After a while, I would slow down to the extent that I could "invisibly" join my two forearms in the middle of the forehead, and with a rather decent amount of pressure I glide down to the sides. Mind the eyelashes and eyes as you do this. Pulling back my arms and hands towards myself I stroke the face, have a nice grip on and into the temples.

My thumbs would naturally land in the same position, so I can repeat the opening of the forehead this time pressing and gliding down with my thumbs a couple of times.

It is nice any time to "comb" the surface and with a strong grip go into the hairy part of the skull, slowly moving in and out, just this, in itself can do magic. And remember: be slow.

Finding our way back up on the forehead, our thumb - or index finger - can land on the eyebrow and gently iron it moving from the middle towards the temples at the sides.

We can repeat the move with a little alteration: pinching the eyebrow between our index finger and thumb, moving inch by inch from the middle towards the sides. Again, mind the eyes and eyelids, only pinch the eyebrow and a range of the skin of the forehead.

We can glide to the facial muscles under the eye socket either through the nose or around from the other direction through the temples. These muscles can usually take on a lot more pressure than you'd imagine, so don't be afraid to experiment and gradually enhance the pressure as you repeat the move. 

The same is true for the C or U shape jaw muscles: going around the area digging deeper and deeper can relieve a lot of tension held here. Many people clench their jaw, not only during their stressful work hours or daily family situations but also during their sleep, so give your care and attention generously to this area.

Either with your index finger or your thumb, you can massage the lips: first usually the upper lip, then the lower lip, and you can also massage both of them at the same time. Always start from the middle, and most of the time repeat the moves three times.

After working with the lips, in alignment with the above, we can address the jaw muscles in another way: moving away the jaw a bit from the rest of the face. In some cases, you will be able to loosen up the jaw so the mouth would open up a bit and the lips would detach from each other, in some cases the jaw is so tense that with this move you can actually move the whole head up and down. 

A last beautiful way to connect to the jaw and actually the whole face is to slowly glide over the jaw muscles and the two sides of the face with the palms and then the forearms, expanding the move so we would eventually land on the sternum and chest with our palms.

Holding this position for a few breaths or even longer often creates such a sense of safety and surrender in our clients that they could cry at this point. If that is the case, know that all is well, hold the space for this precious moment and when you feel ready to move again, slowly glide back the same way, landing at the ears.

After descending to the ears we can "grab" them with both of our hands: pinching the ears, pressing our own fingers against our palm.

A simple yet potentially energising move is to massage and rub the peripheries of the ears, always slowly moving away from the centre of the ear.

A powerful, intimate move is to put your thumb or index finger into the ear. As advised above regarding the "bear" hug, this one is a move that I would only use with regular clients or with clients we established a deep sense of trust starting from the intake conversation. With the soft part of the tip of my finger, I press into four directions: first down, towards the earth, then towards the feet, then upwards, towards the sky, and lastly towards the top of their head (towards myself). I always turn 90 degrees between the directions and have a time of 2-3 breaths to hold a position.

Finishing and coming out of the head work can happen in various ways, most of the time I would transition into the swiping moves around the neck and then into rounds. Sometimes, if it was the last part of a treatment, I would conclude the session by holding the head with one hand and having the other palm on the chest, symbolically connecting the mind and the heart in loving awareness.

We can arrive at the abdominal area for our work there from various directions, the most important guideline is not to "jump" there from somewhere but to glide.

As usual, instead of immediately beginning, we can pause for a breath or two.

A position that I often take up during this work is to glide one of my arms under the shoulder and neck area, giving the comforting hug we practised earlier and I just stay there for most of the abdominal work.

The other hand goes around the tummy, clockwise. Initially, it is a soft, explorative touch, gradually applying more and more pressure, optionally expanding the surface I use to my whole forearm. Including the forearm will shift the line of my journey from a circle to an oval or elliptic move. 

During the work with the abdominal area, you can choose to use both of your hands to go around, and then you can expand the move as above to both of the forearms. In a funny way, we could say that you will be in the way of yourself at this point, so in every round, you will have to glide with one of your hands over the other one.

Another way of using both of your hands is to reach under the lower back with one of your arms and either just give the client a static hug or you can also circle around with your hand under the body - in this way the two palms mirror each other and one would go around on the top of the body the other one underneath.   

The last optional move we learn at this point is to give them a "bear hug", which is simply gliding under the lower back with both of your arms and holding them for a few breaths. This move is a beautiful yet intimate move, assuming an openness and connectedness on both the giver's and recipient's side, so I would probably not do it during the first session with a new client.

In the same way, as we could start the abdominal work arriving from various directions, we can also finish it and have various options in regard to what to do next, there is no set agenda.

In the video I happen to be on the right side of the client's body, initially giving the hug with my left arm and starting the work with my left hand but it has got no specific relevance - it is possible to carry out the whole sequence from the other side, the only thing that we would not mirror is the direction of our circles, it will stay going clockwise as this is the direction to best aid digestion in the gut.

Starting with a few moves we know from the initial oiling of the leg, one of our hands would glide under the leg and hold the back of the knee, and the other one goes around the foot and scoop under the heel. Pushing our forearm under the knee and gradually lifting it up at the same time, we also push the foot in our other hand towards the upper body. The leg eventually ends up in our hands and arms like a baby, so before moving on and putting it down we can rock it in the air.

After putting down the leg with one hand I hold the leg so I could come out with my other hand from underneath the leg and sit down.

We learn three moves to work with the legs from this position.

• The first is what we call "combing" the knee - it is shown second in this video but it may be simpler and better for you to start with this one while you are getting used to it. We simply go up and around the knee, having our fingers pointing towards the head of the upper body all the time, coming down to the beginning of the thigh, gliding over on the sides to the shin, then climbing back up, alternating the hands, one round after the other. There is no set number of times you can repeat this move - take your time ;-) 

• The second move is an alternative version of the above move. Part of the journey is similar: we climb up on the shin and comb the knee. Then we turn the hand 90 degrees and gripping a bit into the thigh muscles we glide to the side but instead of going around onto the shin, as we earlier did, now we glide into the crock of the knee and come out with a similar grip as on the other side. Then we glide up into combing the knee and the whole sequence starts again, the two hands mirroring each other and going through the same journey on the two sides of the leg.

• The third move is for working with the thigh. From any of the versions of the above combing, we can transition into this move where we first descend on the thigh with both of our hands. As we arrive at the hip we cross our fingers, we sometimes say into a "praying" position, and applying more pressure we come up on the thy, digging a bit more into the deeper tissues of the area. Reaching the knee we slow down, change direction and go down again and repeat the move. As if we would row a boat, we can use our whole upper body to execute this move, and often we would see the body of the patient slightly move up and down on the massage table as a result of our effort.

During the work with the leg, it is important to hold the legs all the time to prevent them from flipping to either side - the more reliable our holding is, the more our clients can go into relaxation and let go of wanting to hold their legs themselves.

When I feel ready to stand up, first I make sure that with one of my hands I hold the leg in a similar way to how I did when I sat down. Then with the other forearm gliding under the back of the knee, I first push the leg towards the upper body of the client and only then upwards so I would avoid the foot abruptly slipping and kicking out into the air as I lift up.

As at the beginning of the work with the leg, also now, I can comfortably spend time rocking the leg, loosening, and lubricating the joints around the knee and the hip. 

I can finish my work here with some simple oiling moves, going up and down just on the leg, or I can transition into our by-now familiar rounds and find my way to the other side to carry out a similar sequence on the other leg.

The under-reaching moves are some of the gems of the Lomi Lomi world. The main reason why we use waterproof sheets is so we could glide under the body in various ways - we could not do that easily using towels.

To prepare for the under-reaching moves we can do the familiar move of pushing down the shoulders one after the other and gradually opening the chest by those moves or we can "warm up" with the stand-by moves that we have also used on the other side of the body. Here we are more likely to start the swiping around the neck - on the other side we scooped under the shoulder - gliding in, having a gentle grip on the neck, coming out, then repeating the journey with the other hand, alternating the hands several times. 

Out of the three versions of the under-reaching moves two are carried out with one arm and hand at a time, in the third one we use both of them at the same time.

• The first of these moves is the "lightest" one of the three, preparing the body for the unusual sensations that come with how these moves lift up the body from the massage table. One of my hands will hold the neck and head, usually just simply stopping there after one of the swiping moves, and the other hand, palm up, will glide under the shoulder, then arm, finding its way up on the side of the body, stopping and pausing around the waste line. We are not going further down, so below the hip bone and we are not going under the trunk either at this point yet. After a comfortable breath or two, we come out from underneath the arm and shoulder, do some swiping moves around the neck and either repeat the move on the same side or carry it out on the other side.

• With the second move we will go under the trunk of our client's body with our whole arm, or to be precise - we will go underneath as much as we can given the shape and form of their body and our body. To enter into the move we take up the same starting position as described above: with one of my hands, I will hold the neck and head. The other one will go under the body, initially aiming to find our way between the shoulder blades, then gradually gliding with our forearm and arm under the spine and we move forwards either until the tips of our fingers reach the sacrum or until our body allows it, so we might have to stop without being able to reach all the way down - it is fine. As with the previous version, also here, we can allow time for our client to sink into the holding we provide, sometimes it takes several breaths until they let go of their intention of trying to "help" us or "bridging" with their upper body. Part of the invitation for surrendering is that I also "surrender" with my arm under the body: as soon as I arrived at the holding position under the body I let go of any tension or effort, I simply allow the weight of the body to press against my arm.
  Once it feels right I can start to pull out. As I am coming out I will bend my fingers and grip a little bit into the big spinal muscles: I will either have one finger on one side of the spine and three on the other or two fingers on both sides. Approaching the neck I join in with my other hand and will complete the move by going all the way up and pressing into the area where the neck muscles and the skull meet, potentially even pulling the head a little bit towards myself. As always, I can finish the move by transitioning into the swiping moves around the neck.

• The third version is similar to the second one, only this time we go in with both of our hands and arms, so we won't hold the neck and head. We aim to be on the two sides of the spine, the big spinal muscles being partly in our palms and partly on our fingers. As we are most likely to need to go through the shoulder blades, we really have to make sure that we move slowly. Given the shape and form of the body of our client and our own body, we will be able to reach more or less underneath. The pause and the holding are the same: comfortable, no-rush, caring time and space for our clients to let go.
  In general, it is useful to wear tight clothes for the massage, in this position it is especially true: if we have something loose on then it will drop into the face of our client.

  When we feel ready then we start to move backwards and pull out similarly as above, going into the neck muscles connected to the skull and wrapping up the work with the under-reaching moves with our favourite stand-by moves around and under the neck.

As we mentioned earlier it is nice to finish the work on the back or the front of the body - in this case, it also means the end of the treatment - with a few rounds both on the left and the right side of the body.

There are various ways of wrapping up a treatment and disconnecting from the body, one version of that is to give them the hug with one arm under the shoulder and neck area, and having the other palm on their chest.

Other usual ways are to glide off the body at the legs or at the hand of the client.

After disconnecting from the physical body we would do the folding of the sarong, the same way as we did on the other side: the first move is to unfold the upper part of the sarong around the waste, putting our palm on the sarong on the lower back then doing the folding back and pulling up as we did earlier.

The only difference is that we fold back a tiny range of the sarong to have the feet accessible as we are going to wash them as the last element of the treatment.

And mind the CAT... ;-) 

Washing the feet is a beautiful, final gesture of our service. Just as I mentioned earlier regarding the oiling, it is also true for the ritual of washing the feet: in ancient times, in various cultures, this was an act of expressing deep respect, often coming from a host, welcoming someone in their home.

At the end of a Lomi Lomi session, it also has a practical aspect and function: it is to make sure that our client's feet are not slippery and can safely walk (and by the way it also helps to keep clean the floor of our treatment space).

The ritual consists of three steps.

• First, we cover the feet with some soap. The moves are simple, straightforward, and we only move in one direction, away from the ankles.

• The second round is with a wet flannel...

• ... and the third one is with a dry flannel.

We keep it very simple and caring: at this point, our clients are after a complete Lomi Lomi session, most of the time in a very sensitive, relaxed state. So our moves are slow, landing and disconnecting to and from the body with our fullest awareness.

The last couple of gestures are to complete the session: the first one with the arms you could call "combing" the energy field of the client, or you can also think of it as a childlike unveiling of a piece of art that just got ready. The second, the blowing of air is a subtle way of saying farewell and at the same time wishing them a beautiful journey.

Most of the time my final words are: "Welcome home." or "We are finished.", experiment with what feels right for you.

I would discourage you to say "Welcome back..." as it suggests that the experience they had or more precisely there are usually at this point having, was just a dream or illusion and now it is time to come back to "reality".

Their inner experience of peacefulness, slowing down or bliss is real, just as real as the world around them once they open their eyes. My deepest wish is that they could engage with their life from a place of resourcefulness that is often the fruit of a Lomi Lomi session.

The "Welcome home." words are the reflection of my lifelong journey about embodied self-expression and simply inviting the soul of our clients to arrive home - in their own bodies.

One of the beautiful "features" of Lomi Lomi is that it can connect to and capture people coming from a variety of backgrounds. Some of the clients may come from a busy life, and have various ailments... and all they want is some relief from the pain. Some other clients heard about the transformational experiences of their friends and so they are looking for a spiritual experience.

Lomi Lomi can serve all these people, no matter how and why they found us - quite often there is a deeper reason or perspective that drove them to the particular moment in life to receive a Lomi Lomi treatment. Sometimes we have more understanding of that by the end of the session, sometimes it takes years.

One of the sweetest stories I have about all this is about a client in the early stages of my business development, who came to see me through a Groupon campaign. She just wanted to have a massage, she saw the promo popping up on her screen, she was curious... and she came. Then she became a regular, then a student, and then today she is one of my best friends in the UK, a dear colleague, and a trusted member of our core team.

I often begin the opening conversation with a client by introducing them to Lomi, its meaning and history.

Lomilomi in the Hawaiian language simply means: "massage".

So it covers a wide range of bodywork, from pregnancy massage to deep tissue work, and for centuries it was not a specific modality of bodywork besides many others - like Ayurvedic massage, Swedish massage, Thai massage or Shiatsu - but it was simply... the "massages" they had on the islands of Hawaii.

In the ancient times Lomi Lomi was part of everyday life: giving and receiving Lomi Lomi treatments was not a big deal, it happened regularly so mentioning this ordinary aspect of Lomi Lomi can talk to the clients who seek some therapeutic assistance.

At the same time, there was an extraordinary aspect of Lomi Lomi as well, which they called Lomi Lomi Nui - the Great Massage - that was offered to people who had an important milestone in their life. A boy or girl reaching adulthood, a couple getting married, or the chief of the tribe preparing to make an important decision. On these occasions the sessions were long, sometimes taking up 5-6 hours or an entire day, they were provided at sacred places or temples, and were multiple-handed sessions: offered by the elders, healers of the family, and sometimes 4-5 people massaging the same person. Mentioning this aspect of Lomi Lomi naturally talks to those clients who are seeking to have an emotional and spiritual journey.

After the historical and philosophical background, I ask my clients about themselves - their bodies and how they are.

I ask them to let me know if they have or had any injuries, ailments or acute pains that they would like me to be aware of.

I also ask them about how they are in general: their background, how was their week or day - simple, genuine, human-to-human sharing. Rather often it turns out that there is a deep lack of being heard in their life, and simply sharing a few sentences and us giving our caring and undivided attention to it is just as important and healing, as the tactile aspect of the session that comes following our conversation.

So to sum up, in the first part of the intake conversation, most of the time in a seated position: 

• we mention the ordinary and extraordinary aspects of Lomi Lomi, and

• we ask them about their physical and emotional, mental state.

• we listen with full attention and presence so they feel heard and welcome.

I will explain how to talk about the practical bits and pieces of the session in the following lecture.

For this part of the conversation, I usually stand up, step to the massage table, and have the sarong in my hand.

I explain that traditionally Lomi Lomi was carried out with no clothes on and that the delicate parts of the body will be appropriately covered by the sarong throughout the whole time.

If they are comfortable with this, then this is the ideal version for both giving and receiving the treatment. I also mention that if they don't feel comfortable with this, then I have disposable underwear they can use - I will talk about that in the "Equipment" section of this course - and if that would not work either then they can keep their own underwear on. In this latest case, I would make them aware that the underwear will get oily.

I also make it clear that I will step out so they could undress, and ask them to give me a shout once they are ready and I can come back in.

I explain that first, they will be lying on their tummy, facing down, their head on the headrest, so I ask the to get on the massage table in this position, throwing the sarong around their body around the waist and hip area, covering them appropriately. It does not need to look nice as after stepping back in I will arrange it, so they don't have to worry about that.

For the second part of the treatment, they will be asked to turn on their back and to glide down a little bit, so their head would be on the massage table - at that point of the treatment I will take out the headrest from the massage table as we don't use it for the rest of the time.

It is important to mention, that during the second part of the session, traditionally, the breast/chest area is exposed. Again, if they feel comfortable with this - male clients usually do and also the majority of female clients - then we proceed as most of the time, if they don't then we offer to keep the area covered.
(We have learned two methods for doing that above if that is the request.)

If there is uncertainty about their choice, we can also offer to simply wait with the decision until the moment comes when we ask them to turn on their back and we would pull down the sarong - or not: we can ask them at that point again. By that time they already have had an experience of how much they felt vulnerable and safe during the first part of the treatment, so their decision will more likely come from listening to their body rather than to their head.
In this case, we formulate the question into a simple, YES/NO type of question so they could literally just tell us a word or move their head to indicate their reply - we would like to allow them to dwell in their inner experience and journey as much undisturbed as it is possible.

Please avoid the type of questions like "... and how do you feel about pulling down the sarong?".
The right type of question is: "Are you OK with pulling down the sarong?".

As for the above question, also when asking them to "Please turn around and glide down a little bit."  - we use a gentle tone of voice, sometimes whispering.

Regarding the practicalities, I also mention that we have two simple rituals to frame the treatment: one at the beginning and one at the end.

In the beginning, we greet them with a few words.

In the end, we will wash their feet.

Before stepping out so they could change I make sure to ask them if they have any questions or feedback about what they have just heard: sometimes they do have practical questions, and sometimes they just share with us where all our explanations about the background of Lomi Lomi landed in them and their sharing might be an important indicator for us about the state they are in as we start the treatment. 

After the closing gestures and words of the treatment, we would stand next to the massage table and "wait" for our clients: they might be lying there for a while before moving, they might open their eyes immediately, and they might also be crying.

We hold the space for them and welcome them as we reconnect. Once we feel that we can leave them alone, we let them know that we will step out so they can dress. We point to the small flannels - there will be a wet and a dry one - we used for washing the feet and encourage them to use them to wipe off the oil if they wish to do so. Traditionally it is nice to leave the oil on as it carries the energy of the session but in our contemporary context, it is sometimes not possible.

The closing conversation is rather holding the space for sharing than necessarily having a proper "conversation". Some people have a deep need to verbalise their experience and to connect this way - it is part of their integration process. Some other people are quiet at this point and don't feel like chatting at all.

Whatever the case, we are there for them, available to connect through words, and also through silence.

As they leave I usually encourage them to allow themselves to be with themselves.
If the given life situation makes it possible - ... and they are not in a rush to the other side of town - I recommend them to have a walk, sit in a park, lie down, and delay switching on and checking their devices.

1/2

In this approximately 2-hour long session I carry out a basic, complete Lomi Lomi treatment - only using the moves and techniques you have learned in this course.

The video is broken into parts, as Udemy does not allow uploading such length videos in one go.

How to use this video? 

Place your laptop or screen in a place in the space where you carry out your session, where you can see it well - ideally on either side of the massage table (because of the headwork and legwork the two shorter ends of the massage table won't work).

You can also play the sound of the video - it is music that is an appropriate background for a relaxing treatment.

Set the playing of the videos on 'autoplay', so that one video will play after the other - you won't have to restart them during your session like this.

After the Welcoming ritual start to play the video - and the music if you have decided so (if you muted the video, then you can play your own music).

The session is not absolutely 'symmetrical', as I did not want your first sessions to become too long: instead of working on both legs from both sides (the client being prone and on their back), I worked on one leg on each side.

So during the first part of the treatment, after working on one leg, I won't continue with the other one - we will do it while our client is on their back.

If, later on, you are ready to carry out longer sessions, then you can work on both legs from both sides (and by the way you can also just work on the legs from one side - either only from the front OR only from the back).

As you come close to the end - wrapping up and washing the feet - make sure that you dim down the volume and stop the videos so they would not move to the next video after the end.

2/2

See the description and guidance above.

1/3

In this approximately 2-hour long session I carry out a basic, complete Lomi Lomi treatment - only using the moves and techniques you have learned in this course and I will continuously narrate what I am doing.

The video is broken into parts, as Udemy does not allow uploading such length videos in one go.

How to use this video? 

If you would like to only use the narration: then use cordless earbuds. In this case, the location of your device does not matter that much - the important thing is that your earbuds would be at a stable distance from it.

If you would also like to see the video: place your laptop or screen in a place in the space where you carry out your session, where you can see it well - ideally on either side of the massage table (because of the headwork and legwork the two shorter ends of the massage table won't work).

Set the playing of the videos on 'autoplay', so that one video will play after the other - you won't have to restart them during your session like this.

After the Welcoming ritual, start to play the video - this will be your 'invisible' guidance during the treatment.

At the same time, from another device or sound system, play some music that your client will hear during their session. 

The session is not absolutely 'symmetrical', as I did not want your first sessions to become too long: instead of working on both legs from both sides (the client being prone and on their back), I worked on one leg on each side.

So during the first part of the treatment, after working on one leg, I won't continue with the other one - we will do it while our client is on their back.

If, later on, you are ready to carry out longer sessions, then you can work on both legs from both sides (and by the way you can also just work on the legs from one side - either only from the front OR only from the back).

As you come close to the end - wrapping up and washing the feet - make sure that you stop the videos so they would not move to the next video after the end or just simply disconnect your earbuds.

2/3

See the description and guidance above.

3/3

See the description and guidance above.

As earlier explained, traditionally Lomi Lomi is carried out with no clothes on, the delicate parts of the client are appropriately covered by a sarong.

In our Western culture, not everyone feels comfortable with that, so one solution for them to feel safer is to offer the option of having disposable underwear on.

You can buy these online or in shops selling beauty therapy accessories.

You can place an electric blanket underneath the waterproof sheet of your coach for added warmth and comfort if you wish.

Some people love it, some people can't stand it.

I find it a useful device, partly because in some environments it gives an extra warmth coming from the direction of the massage table during the treatment which means you may not have to heat the external air of the room so much. In some countries, the ambient temperature makes it totally unnecessary of course.

The other reason I like it is that it makes the - for some people unusual - surface of the waterproof sheet nicer, somehow the sensation is more welcoming when it is warm.

The important thing to remember is it is very hard to relax when cold and the temperature of the body also drops when it relaxes, so keeping your clients comfortably warm is important. You will get hotter than they will as you work on the body, so make sure you check with them directly if the temperature of the room is warm enough.

The headrest and its comfortableness are important as for half of the duration of the treatment our client will have their head held by it.

I usually have several layers to make sure is soft and hygienic:

• the first layer is a disposable headrest cover,

• then there is a simple towel, protecting the next layer,

• which is a headrest cover to add to the sense of comfort.

I use natural sweet almond oil.

On the Hawaiian islands the most they often use coconut oil, so initially, we used that a lot, then gradually used more and more grapeseed oil, and finally ended up primarily using almond oil.

In our experience almond oil seems to be the most odourless out of these three oils, so it allows you to use your towels, sarongs and waterproof sheets for the longest - the oil eats itself into them after a while, so you have to throw them away and replace them anyway.

Buying the oil in bulk, for example in 5L/gallon quantity, makes its price reasonable.

Because of their lightness and thinness, it is a lot easier to use sarongs than towels.

As explained in the ritual of pulling down the sarong at the beginning of a treatment or at the second part of the treatment, we can pull down the sarong and create a beautiful sensation on the back or front of the body that would not work with a towel.

Also, though it is not impossible to do it with a towel, it is a lot easier to fold the sarong into the shape that covers the delicate parts of the body.

Rather obviously one of the most important tools in providing Lomi Lomi sessions is the massage table - and there is a wide range of what makes and prices available. Depending on your budget, you can buy massage tables for 70-80 USD/GBP and you can also spend several hundreds of dollars or pounds on them.

If you can allow yourself, and you know that you have irrevocably fallen in love with Lomi Lomi, then aim for the medium or upper range.

If you are uncertain and don't have a huge clientele yet, then maybe start with a simpler one and as your practice grows you can always upgrade to a better one.

An important technical question regarding the massage table is to find out how high should you set it. 

In general, as a thumb rule, we could say that it will work well if you can have your palms on the massage table with straight legs and straight arms. This guideline won't work all the time though: if you have a larger body to work with then you might want to have your massage table set lower than usual so you could give enough of your body weight when doing deep tissue work. If you provide a 5-6 hour long ceremonial massage session then you might want to have the massage table a bit higher.

In general, if you provide massages just a few hours a week, all this is less of a relevant question, if you work several hours a day then high is the chance that you will have to choose: if you set the massage table higher, then you can spare your lower back but you will have to work more from your arms and hands, if you set it lower, then you can use more of your body weight but it will more strenuous for your legs.

From the equipment, in my opinion, the waterproof sheet lies at the heart of the technical background of the magic of Lomi Lomi.

It allows us to glide underneath the body in unique, creative and beautiful ways - something we would not be able to do the same way using towels.

When you buy one, look for single mattress terry towelling waterproof sheet/protector. Important notice: we use them inside out - so the surface we use is not the terry towelling side but the other one! 

You can also get waterproof sheets tailor-made: cut them to size and run around a rubber in them, so they would be tight on the massage table; alternatively, you can stretch and fix them with pegs or clippers under the massage table.

And you can also buy ones that are in general designed for covering massage tables.

For the two-step cleaning of the waterproof sheet, we first use diluted washing-up liquid (or other emulsifier liquid), and then for disinfecting/sterilising we use diluted alcohol or vinegar (or alternative) spray (ideally using hypoallergenic substances for both steps).

CONGRATULATIONS! Amazing - you came all along and you did it! :-) 

If you have practised enough, then most probably Lomi Lomi has started to teach itself to you by now. You might have discovered new moves, or had moments when you thought you made a mistake but then actually the move turned out to be so nice that you decided to use it again...

To sum it up: there is so much MORE to practice and learn - Lomi Lomi is a lifelong journey.

We already have been working on an advanced course, so once we are ready and you are ready for it too, there will be the next steps waiting for you here: new moves, 4-handed and multiple-handed treatments!

Thank you for joining me, joining our movement - I hope it has been as much of a joy for you as it has been for me.

ALOHA! 

Dan Joy

So these are a few words of acknowledgement and disclaimer at the same time.

I'd like to express my thankfulness to the two teachers I have learned Lomi Lomi from: Zsuzska Lancsin and Jody Mountain.

Besides the connection, I also would like to confirm that what I teach here and in person is how Lomi Lomi emerges and comes through me, so in various ways it differs from what they pass on.

We share the same love for the spirit of Lomi Lomi, and at the same time I take responsibility for what I am sharing - this is the shape and form of teaching what my embodied self-expression made and makes possible to share.

As I explained at the beginning, talking about the background of Lomi Lomi, in ancient times, future healers and teachers were often selected at a young age, as children, and so they gradually grew into their practice and masterhood - going through a process that sometimes took over a couple of decades.

Anybody teaching Lomi Lomi knows that learning Lomi Lomi is a lifelong journey.

In the advanced courses, as you might expect, I will be teaching new moves, some of them more complicated or technical than the ones in this course.

At the same time, the awareness and the depth of presence do not come from the moves themselves.

The advanced moves can, of course, help you to go deeper and deeper but actually, it is the practice that will make you advanced.

I often compare learning Lomi Lomi to using a looping system (a device or software you can use to record and then "copy-paste" or repeat various bits of sounds).

If you give a looping system to someone that hasn't got any background in music, they might create a funny and creative piece of art with the looping system, as it simply is a brilliant device.

If you give it to a jazz musician, they will probably come up with something totally mind-blowing.

Similarly, if you give the "system" of Lomi Lomi to someone, who has got a background in various forms of self-development that aim to enhance our sense of being in the body - there is a high chance that they will be able to provide mind-blowing Lomi Lomi sessions just using the basic toolkit.

Someone, having less practice in embodiment and focusing their attention, receiving the Lomi Lomi "system" might still start to offer amazing treatments, simply because Lomi Lomi is a brilliant form of bodywork... and of course could help these people to drop deeper into their body awareness as they practice.

The Advanced Courses will of course expand the toolkit, and at the same time, it will be the continuation of a journey of going deeper - something that happens if you practice. 

If you practice - Lomi Lomi will teach you anyway, what we can and will do in the advanced course is to facilitate this amazing process.

Our vision for the next courses is to first share a regular - one-on-one - advanced course, then a course about 4-handed massages, and then one about multiple-handed sessions. I do hope you'll join us.

Aloha - Namaste!