Nina, I am so glad that you have a background in kundalini yoga. It will help you a lot in this Thai Massage training. Sometimes when I am teaching live classes, there are students whose main goal is to learn as many techniques as possible, and they get impatient when I talk about breathing and energy.

The truth is that you can learn one thousand Thai Massage techniques, but if they are all done in a mechanical way without the breath and energy components, then all you have is 1000 ways of doing a substandard, mechanical, heartless massage. Thai Massage does come out of the yoga tradition, and it is not just a collection of techniques. It is a graceful, artistic, conscious way of moving a body and moving energy in this body.

Some therapists develop this naturally and spontaneously, and some never develop it. I want to make sure in this course that all my students learn Thai Massage in a very conscious way and become healing artists and not just manipulators of muscles and tissue. Clearly you are a perfect candidate for this with your background!

Jan, I have some books about breathing. However I don’t think that you need to get into some complex breath training. In Thai Massage, at least in my style, you breathe out when you lean into a move, and you breathe in when you lean out again. This only works for slow, sustained moves. Otherwise just maintain a general awareness of your breath, make sure that it is relaxed and flowing. Whenever possible synchronize it with your movements, but don’t stress over it. It is not supposed to be a strict science, more of an increased awareness.