THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609250038
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WENDY GROSSMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 89 lines
BAREFOOT, DIANE HALL welcomes patients at her front door with a smile and a handshake. She leads them past her two parakeets to the therapy room in the back corner of her Virginia Beach house on 21st Street.
Diane, 55, and her daughter Yvonne own Heavenly Hands, a massage therapy business.
Patients undress to their comfort level (underwear is optional) and lie down. Women beneath a sheet; men usually just covered by a bath towel. Stretched out on the massage table covered with lace-edged blue sheets, they talk for a few minutes.
``Tell me about your body,'' Diane says, lighting a candle. ``Where do you hurt? Where do you carry your stress? What's on your mind.''
The afternoon sun shines through the star-shaped crystal in the window. Rainbow prisms dance over posters of pressure points and diplomas from the Reilly School.
Diane went to the Harold J. Reilly Massotherapy School in 1988, terrified about taking anatomy and physiology courses. She did 600 hours of massage therapy courses in six months. She graduated tired, with really sore feet.
She first worked as a masseuse at the school and then she shipped out on the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, giving massages 13 hours a day as she sailed to every country in the Mediterranean. Before moving back to Virginia Beach, she worked as a massage therapist at Caesar's in Lake Tahoe, Calif.
Diane puts on music by Chopin, Handel, Enya or James Taylor. Then she picks an oil from the shelf, using about 2 ounces of almond oil with vitamin E per person. ``It's food for the body,'' she says. The oil continues to soak into the skin, soothing the muscles for 12 hours after the massage, she says.
She's also got peppermint, basil, birch, thyme, lavender, lemon and eucalyptus oils to create a smooth surface for her strokes - otherwise her hands would drag against the skin. But for those who don't want to smell, she offers a non-greasy, non-scented cream.
She rubs the oil between her strong hands and begins stroking where the pain is.
``I'm problem solving and processing the whole time I'm massaging the body,'' Diane says. ``What does the skin feel like? What's the body's temperature? What is the muscles tension? What caused it? What techniques are most effective?''
Her massage is structured around the basic Swedish massage developed in the 19th century by gymnast Per Henrick Ling, who combined his knowledge of gymnastics, philosophy and Chinese massage.
She also does trigger-point therapy, cross-fiber massage, polarity, myofascial release and aroma therapy.
``My massage is rather eclectic,'' she says. ``It's like a soup pot. You put some of this in and some of that and a pinch of this to make it nice and what the body needs.''
Massage is structured touch. Her hands glide over the skin, applying pressure, rubbing, stroking, kneading and pressing.
Massage doesn't actually do anything to the body. It just helps the body carry out normal functions. It loosens, tones and firms muscles while stimulating circulation.
But it can help coughs, ease shoulder aches, relieve menstrual pain and headaches.
Massage is the oldest known healing art, dating back to the ancient medical textbook, Nei Ching, written in 3000 B.C. The laying on of the hands to heal illness was used in India, Egypt, Persia, Japan, Greece and Rome.
``Massage gets a person in touch with themselves,'' Diane says. ``When they're getting a massage, their spending time with themselves, and they get to know who they are.''
Massage provides a sense of touch, a feeling of being looked after and accepted without the pressure of giving back in return.
Hyper people relax. Sluggish folks wake up. Some jabber the hour away, using it as a psychiatric session.
``My hands never hurt because I'm working with energy,'' Diane says. ``You use your body as leverage. Like being an athlete, you do it a certain way and the body works for you.''
Diane works mainly at home, but she's taken her table to hotels like the Sheraton, the Hilton and the Holiday Inn.
She's learned to screen her patients carefully. This morning a business man called up and asked if there were any ``extracurricular activities'' included in the massage. She tells him to call an escort service.
It's been a slow week. This morning she woke up with one appointment, but by 3 p.m., she's got two more written on the note pad by the phone.
``Massage is feast or famine,'' she says. ``It's never the same and it's never consistent.''
Diane recommends massages once a week - she gets them herself. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Diane Hall, who works at her Virginia Beach home, says, ``I'm
problem solving and processing the whole time I'm massaging the
body.'' by CNB