What is Polarity Therapy?
Polarity Therapy is a powerful but natural way of improving health using different resources: Bodywork, to help remove physical and emotional holding in the body together with detoxifying and health building nutritional programmes. It also brings in easy to do Yoga exercises and verbal dialogue and support. Polarity Therapy utilises a range of philosophies from modern forms of treatment such as Osteopathy with the ancient healing arts of India and China. It was founded by Dr Randolph Stone (1890-1981).
Polarity Therapy concerns itself with the flow of a very subtle high-frequency energy within the body, which in the East is called Prana or Chi, but which is often referred to as life-energy. This energy flows around the body in a similar pattern to that which is found in a battery or magnet or other fluid systems, between positive neutral and negative points. Polarity Therapy is the art and science of stimulating and balancing the flow of this energy.
Free-flowing energy
To maintain good health life energy must flow freely and easily through the entire body. There should be no areas of excess or depletion. The complete energy system must be balanced however and the balance looked for is not a static one but rather a dynamic uninterrupted cyclic flow of energy.
What's involved
In a typical Polarity Therapy session, the practitioner investigates the underlying process for the appearance of disease and pain from an energetic standpoint (See FAQ's for more information). He will assesses energetic attributes using structural diagnosis and observation of the body, a detailed study of the clients life to include their diet, attitudes, upbringing, general health, sleep patterns, emotional state and so on.
Bodywork
Polarity
Therapy bodywork is a non-invasive form of dual contact* on the body. Its purpose is to clear tension, pain and holding in the body to
allow the free flow of energy in the human energy fields and currents.
Polarity bodywork takes place on a massage table. It involves no lotions
or oils, and the client is usually fully clothed. It incorporates light,
rocking, and occasionally deep touch, through which the therapist facilitates
the release of physical and emotional energy blockages. It employs techniques
for re-aligning the physical body and improving posture and organ functioning,
ways of influencing the nervous system, complex reflex theories and ways
of working with the subtle energies that make up the body and mind of
man.
Although the name suggests it doesn't involve the use of magnets or electricity!
*Contact with both hands or one or more fingers of each hand simultaneously.
Nutrition
Polarity Therapists recognise that life energy cannot flow freely through a congested, toxic body and so one of the first things a Polarity Therapist may recommend is that the client should follow a simple purifying diet and cleansing regime for a few days. It is not a starvation diet, the client can eat as much as they like of certain permitted foods. These consist mainly of fruit and vegetables (steamed or boiled) salads, soups, herbal teas and a morning cleansing drink.
The purpose of this diet is twofold. Firstly, it eliminates any harmful products that have built up inside the body due to poor quality digestion and secondly, it provides the body with good quality nutrients for rebuilding damage tissue.
Working with an understanding of the energetic qualities of food, a practitioner will often suggest modifications to a client's diet to support the energy balancing done during the bodywork session. Over and above any chemical or energy balancing of the diet, a positive mental attitudes towards eating is essential if the body is to digest food properly.
Exercise
Polarity Yoga consist of a group of simple exercises which were developed by studying the movements and positions that we instinctively adopt when we wish to relax, ease pain in our bodies or wake ourselves up. The postures are not held statically, but use gentle rocking and stretching movements combined with vocal expression. Indeed it is these features that distinguish Polarity Yoga from classical Hatha Yoga and other forms of exercise. The body movement and use of the voice stimulate the flow of life energy. A Polarity Therapist will teach a client the most beneficial exercises for them. These exercises need only be done for a few minutes each day to be fully effective.
Verbal support
Good health encompasses positive thoughts and feelings about ourselves, ‘as we think, so we are’. This part of a session is designed to clarify the patterns of thoughts, feelings and emotions verbally. This is to re-organise aspects of the client’s life towards a higher level of wellness. The practitioner supports the client in taking charge of their life and finding their own solutions.
