The Yomassage mission is to create a better experience for wellness consumers and wellness employees. We focus on creating a welcoming and accessible sanctuary for our guests and a supportive environment where our wellness practitioners can thrive by using their bodies and skill sets to provide meaninful mind-body experiences for their clients.
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The Yomassage mission is to create a better experience for wellness consumers and wellness employees. We focus on creating a welcoming and accessible sanctuary for our guests and a supportive environment where our wellness practitioners can thrive by using their bodies and skill sets to provide meaninful mind-body experiences for their clients.
Here's everything you need to know.
What Is Yomassage?
Yomassage is a total mind-body-soul connection experience that activates the sensory receptors and cultivates the ultimate relaxation experience. It is designed for every person and every body; practitioners are trained in many variations and a trauma-informed approach that ensures everyone feels comfortable and relaxed at all times.
Related: The Basics of Trauma-Informed Bodywork
Yomassage combines restorative stretch, mindfulness meditation and therapeutic touch. It can be offered in small groups, for couples, individually on the massage table—we even have a Barefoot Yomassage version for therapists who enjoy working with their feet!
While the guest is lying down in a comfortable and cozy, restorative stretch, the therapist guides them through a themed meditation that takes them even deeper into the relaxation experience. As they relax and meditate, the practitioner provides head-to-toe therapeutic touch.
The trauma-informed practice takes place fully clothed, typically in a small group environment, and incorporates mind-body practices that allow the client to use breath work and other mindfulness techniques during the session.
Benefits of Combining Touch, Stretch and Breath
While all of these modalities are amazing on their own, combining touch, stretch and breath in a single session provides an opportunity for healing and relaxation like no other. Yomassage activates the parasympathetic nervous system and creates an environment for the body to relax and relieve stress. And it only gets better the more clients practice!
Courtesy of Yomassage
Yomassage can:
- Release more muscle tension than regular massage,
- Get deeper into the connective tissues without accessing pain receptors,
- Activate more sensory receptors than in a typical massage,
- Empower the client to continuously release tension during and after the session,
- Help the client relax and release earlier in the session,
- Maintain a deeper state of relaxation throughout the session,
- Maintain a balanced nervous system after the session,
- Make the body and mind more resilient to stress.
Restorative Stretch
Yomassage positions are inspired by restorative yoga, in which you relax in gentle stretches supported by props that allow you to slowly lengthen muscles and get into the deep connective tissue over 8-15 minutes.
Related: 5 Simple Morning Yoga Poses to Recommend to Male Clients
Such gentle stretching is similar to massage in that it increases dopamine (the happiness hormone) while decreasing cortisol (the stress hormone) and the body's stress response. The restorative positions we use in Yomassage are accessible to everyone who can get up and down off of the mat. Flexibility or prior yoga experience is not necessary.
Mindful Meditation
There are so many positive benefits of incorporating mindfulness and meditation into a routine. But it can be easier said than done. Yomassage sessions take a beginners approach to mindfulness and meditation, with guided breathwork and themed meditation prompts to help clients along.
As a bonus, they’ll be able to take the tools they've learned during a session to find serenity at home.
Therapeutic Touch
Research shows the right kind of touch can lower blood pressure, heart rate and cortisol levels; stimulate the hippocampus (an area of the brain that is central to memory); and drive the release of a host of hormones and neuropeptides that have been linked to positive and uplifting emotions.
The physical effects of touch are far-reaching:
- Touch is essential to the human experience.
- Touch can impact anxiety, depression, stress and the nervous system.
- Touch trains neural pathways, and safe, therapeutic touch re-trains the brain to predict safe interactions.
While yoga has been shown to be extremely beneficial for both the physical and emotional wellness, adding the powerful element of touch has the potential to exponentially increase positive effects for the mind and body.
Yomassage Training
Yomassage training was created specifically for massage therapists and their learning styles and needs. Virtual courses were created by industry experts to accommodate hands-on learning from the comfort of home.
Yomassage offers a Trauma-Informed Bodywork Certification created by experts in mental health and integrative interventions, as well as Yomassage Certification, Table Yomassage, Barefoot Yomassage and more.
It can be offered in wellness businesses big and small, including massage practices, yoga studios, gyms, hotels and destination wellness centers.
About Yomassage: Yomassage was founded in 2018 by wellness entrepreneur Katherine Parker and social work professor and massage therapist Tiffany Ryan. They had a mission to create an offering that allowed more people to experience the benefits of therapeutic touch on a regular basis. Today, Yomassage has more than 1,500 certified practitioners all over the world, as well as the Yomassage Social Spa in Portland, Oregon.
Tiffany Ryan, PhD, MSW, LMT, has been a social worker for over 15 years. After completing her Ph.D., she decided to learn more about integrative care and attended school for massage and yoga. She is passionate about the mental, emotional and physical benefits of therapeutic touch, stretch and mindful breath. Ryan has worked to create a luxurious and transformative experience that is not only accessible to everyone, but is also safe and trauma informed. She has taken her expertise and experience in trauma, integrative care, yoga and massage to create a way to receive the healing power of touch on a regular basis.
