the history of forest of arden healing arts
Touch has been a form of healing throughout history. It was a part of healthcare back before written history. Artwork shows primitive healers using touch. The founders of modern medicine included hands-on healing as an important part of their repertoire. Both Hippocrates and Galen, the Greek and Roman fathers of Western medicine, recommended massage as primary medical care. Massage was central to both the Islamic and Asian origins of medicine as well. Unfortunately, healing through touch was pushed to the margins of medicine during the Dark Ages and the industrialization of health care. Yet, it has remained present in all societies.
The Forest Of Arden
The Forest of Arden was a verdant wonderland of green that covered the West Midlands years ago. William Shakespeare was a child of that forest, not only having grown up in it, but also being born of a mother named Mary Arden. When he wrote his plays he used the forest as the central space of transformation.
In both As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream members of an inhumane court end up in the forest. The forest transforms them. It helps them find their humanity and ultimately their own magic.
Forest of Arden Healing Arts was created with the same intention. Our healing spaces are a place where you can leave the inhumane world of modern life and transform yourself. Here you can find your magical self.
As medicine reached a crisis point in the late twentieth century, due to its failure to find cures for many diseases and its tendency to create more illness than it cured, the time became ripe for massage to make its resurgence to the centre of health care. Beginning with the alternative lifestyle movements of the United States in the late 1960’s and peaking in the New Age consciousness movements of the 1980’s massage became the preferred treatment for many conscious health consumers. One of the global centres of this new consciousness was Los Angeles on the Western coast of the United States. Massage schools flourished along the sunlit beach communities of L.A.
Christian Smith was present during this renaissance of touch-based healing, first as a student and then as a teacher. He was on the faculty of the Massage School of Santa Monica and the Bodymind Institute. He drew from existing medical research to suggest that massage should be used as primary health care for many illnesses including cancer, autoimmune disorders and musculoskeletal problems. He was a leader in the movement to declassify massage as a contraindication for cancer. He was a student of the pioneers who joined massage with psychotherapy to create an overarching bodymind therapy. His theoretical work in massage then set touch-based healing in social context.
During this time of resurgence in complementary healing, healers in California gathered information about a wide variety of massage traditions. From the West came Swedish massage and Structural Integration. From the East came Medical Qi Gong, Thai Massage, Ayurveda and Acupressure. From osteopathy came Craniosacral Therapy and from Shamanic healers came energetic models of bodywork. Massage therapists added hot stones, botanical aromas and other pleasures to their work.
In the Summer of 2008, Annie Barker, started Forest of Arden Healing Arts in the United Kingdom. Annie is a graduate of the Massage School of Santa Monica where she studied under Christian Smith and other teachers. She has brought Christian to work for Forest of Arden. It is her pleasure to present to you, the world of healing massage. Getting a massage is one of the best steps that you can take to support and boost your health. Click on the tabs above to see a description of all the styles of massage Forest of Arden has to offer.