Expanding Our Circle of Care: Massage Therapy & Healing Touch at The Buddha's Medicine
When The Buddha's Medicine came into being in February, 2023, it was a solo operation. If you're interested, you can find the backstory to how this practice came to be here.
At the time, I was working as both clinician and practice manager; front and back office staff. It needed to be that way for a bit, not only because I needed to learn what it meant to develop and manage a practice, but also because I needed to learn what it meant to develop and manage The Buddha's Medicine. And, as I hope the post linked to above makes clear, The Buddha's Medicine is and has been growing into something wholly different from any other medical practice that I'm aware of.
In that first year of practice alone, there were manifold significant changes that took place. I first envisioned The Buddha's Medicine as a trans-national Ayurvedic telemedicine consultation service. That shifted within the first couple of months, as the (in hindsight) obvious dawned on me: that my home office was a perfect environment to welcome patients into and to provide care from. And then I stepped into the endeavor of hand-making medicines for my patients.
As the practice grew bit by bit in this way, I remember reflecting periodically about what would further level-up the care I was providing. A natural extension, I thought, would be to add massage therapy, manual medicine, and healing touch to our suite of care offerings; and not just any healing touch, but highly learned, tradition-informed healing touch. Ayurveda (and many other medical traditions, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, Unani medicine, Arabic medicine, and so on) have rich traditions of massage and healing touch woven into them. Ayurveda's traditions are particularly rich and unique, and combine exceptionally well with the work of a physician to promote healing and well-being. I personally have extensive manual medicine training (and actively weave that into my patients' care), but what I envisioned was more than I could provide alone.
That would require relocating to a bigger space, however. And I didn't feel keen on renting office space for a variety of reasons. Then, one day, I looked out back through the French doors of the home office, and saw the old, unpermitted shed we inherited from our home's former owners, and it dawned on me: we could build the space ourselves. With help, of course.
So we did. We built a custom-designed clinic, 20 feet behind the home office, to bring more healing touch into - humanity's oldest, most established form of medicine.
The Ancient Wisdom of Therapeutic Touch
Touch as Medicine Across Traditions
From an Ayurvedic standpoint, therapeutic touch is profound - a vehicle for activating and directing the movement of the force that gives all beings life. In Ayurveda, that is referred to as "prana" (prāṇa, "prah-nah"). In other traditions, you may hear that referred to as "qi/chi," "ki," and so on.
The systems of Vedic philosophy that Ayurveda comes from understand the body as having 5 layers - or sheaths - which are called "koshas" (kośā). The layer we most commonly engage with is the sheath made of food (annamaya kośa). But the other 4 are no less important: prāṇamaya kośa, the sheath of the breath; manomaya kośa, the sheath of emotion and mental activity; vijñanamaya kośa, the sheath of wisdom, discernment, and insight; and ānandamaya kośa, the sheath of universal being.
Healing touch has the ability to make contact with all 5 of these, particularly when applied well and with the right tools.
Of course, while modern, empiric bioscience does not look at the body in the same way, the sum of the evidence is clear: massage and healing touch lower stress, enhance emotional awareness, improve injury recovery time, enhance blood and lymphatic flow, and much, much more. All in all, massage and healing touch amount to better health on just about every level.
Why Now? The Timing of This Expansion
As I've hopefully illustrated above, the timing of our practice's growth in this way could not be more natural - with the opening of our new clinic space, we are equipped and ready for this next step.
Each of the therapists joining our team already comes with a remarkable hands-on healing skillset and extensive background in their craft, and is also honing their Ayurvedic bodywork repertoire.
What this means for the evolution of the practice is that now, we can treat more health concerns and conditions with tools that are more in number and even more elegant. We can tend to the injuries, restrictions, stuck connective tissue reflexes, and more with massage that incorporates table Thai, Shiatsu, neuromuscular, Swedish; we can provide reprieve for our extra-sensitive patients using energy work. We can provide shirodhara (śīrodhāra) for insomnia, depression, anxiety, trauma (physical and emotional), and more; we can add kati (kaṭī) basti for folks with chronic back pain; we can activate stagnant lymphatic flow with garshana (garṣana); and so much more.
And we can bring all of the needed hands-on and medical elements together with courses of panchakarma (pañcakarma) for exceptionally well-rounded, comprehensive healing in deeply peaceful, soothing environment. More on this in a forthcoming post!
What Makes Our Massage Team Different
The massage and manual therapy team we have put together is nothing short of wholly remarkable. Each of our massage therapists brings with them a great deal of experience (often a decade or more); extensive background (education and beyond); a deep interest in Ayurveda and integrative medicine; and a profound dedication to our patients' healing and health.
Every member of our team - both individually and collectively - is skilled in their own right, with the ability to fluidly adapt to each patient's needs, and personalize each session for optimal benefit. At the same time, we are all constantly ready to collaborate in care and work together for the well-being of every person that walks through our door. We all consult with each other routinely, and work together to continuously up-level ourselves and our craft.
There will be more to say on all of this in our next post. In the meantime, you can get scheduled now!
If you or someone you love could benefit from skilled, tradition-informed healing touch to support recovery, ease tension, or simply restore a sense of well-being, we're here to help.
Professional disclaimer: please do not initiate any herbal or other medicinal interventions without the guidance of a knowledgeable provider.
Dr. Matt Van Auken, MD, MPH
Dr. Matt is an Ayurveda-trained, triple board-certified physician.
