What I do at Advanced Massage~

Neuromuscular Massage Therapy (NMT)

NMT is a complete bodywork package which effectively reduces and often eliminates pain, while increasing flexibility of muscles and joints. It combines a detailed postural assessment, bodywork, trigger point therapy and muscle balancing using flexibility and movement retraining. Muscle specific massage targets the sources of pain, rather than just the symptoms. In this way it often resolves long standing problems, which have not responded to other types of treatment. Follow this link to out more about what is involved in an NMT treatment and how it can help you.

Therapeutic Massage - Deep Tissue or Relaxation

Massage has been used as a therapy for thousands of years. While it may be very enjoyable, it is certainly not a luxury. We all need down-time or quality 'rest and digest' time.

I vary the type of massage treatment to suit exactly what you want, whether it is a purely relaxing, stress reducing session or a "deep tissue" treatment, reaching through the layers of tension, until you feel like you've had a good workout.

Some clients express concern that the pressure will be firm enough to get deep into tight muscles. While there is much more to an effective massage than deep pressure and it is certainly not true that massage needs to be painful to work, at Advanced Massage I use good body mechanics to allow me to reach the deeper muscles that some other therapists don't. Pain often originates from the deeper fibers of muscles and prolonged deep pressure may be required to alleviate this. I incorporate a pressure scale, to ensure that the depth of the massage strokes suits the client's requirements.

Relaxation massage is gentle, rhythmical and soothing and very healing. The pressure and elongation not only relaxes tight muscles, but also reduces levels of stress hormones. The additional benefit is to positively stimulate and re-organise your nervous system. You will develop more vital energy to help you cope with the increasing busyness of our modern world.

The many benefits of massage are well documented and you will get the best results with a regular programme of maintenance treatments. Call me to discuss the treatment plan that will best suit your lifestyle and budget.

Sports Massage

Apart from obviously being a highly trained therapist, one of the main requirements of a good sports massage therapist is that they have rapport with the client. I believe that to achieve this rapport, a therapist should be involved in sport themselves. 

I have a wide range of sporting interests, having participated in multisport racing (e.g. Coast to Coast), whitewater kayaking, mountain-biking, tai chi, running and yoga. I have studied with stretching guru Kit Laughlin, as well as courses in Active Isolated Stretching, which is highly effective for improving and maintaining flexibility. I have taught a number of courses on Muscle Energy stretching (PNF) at Wellpark College.

In the last eight years, I have worked with many top athletes, including Australian Rugby teams The Wallabies and The Bronchos; professionals and world-class athletes from many disciplines including karate, cricket, Ironman, marathon, road cycling and athletics. 

From a massage perspective I know how to treat an athlete during the different training phases, including pre- and post-event massage. I am also trained in techniques and advice to offer the injured athlete. Where relevant, I also work with other sports health practitioners and your trainer, if you have one, to optimise your sporting talents.

Advanced Therapies Coaching

Do you have limiting behaviours or beliefs?
Is your way of thinking holding you back?
Would you like to make changes quickly and effectively?

Marianne uses NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) and hypnotherapy to create fast effective changes. Some of the reasons people come to her are to:

Replace old habits and behaviours
Raise self esteem and confidence
Enhance performance (personal/business/sports)
Overcome and eliminate fears and phobias
Handle the stress in life with ease
Gain emotional freedom

NLP relates to the brain (neuro), language/communication patterns both verbal and non-verbal (linguistic) and how and why we do what we do, our life strategies (programming).

Like the related field of psychology, NLP has applications in so many areas that you have almost certainly heard of it under other names already. For example, in personal development, NLP is the science behind what most of world-class motivator Tony Robbins uses. More recently, you may have seen Paul McKenna's series on TV, "I Can Change Your Life", incorporating many NLP techniques. In education, some of the applications of NLP are known as "Accelerated Learning".

In a therapeutic setting, NLP uses language to help people gain more awareness of how their thinking is affecting their behaviour and the healing of their bodies. For example, when someone has a belief that they are going to stay in pain for a long time, their unconscious mind helps make that belief a reality, despite the person consciously wanting to be pain-free. By reprogramming these unuseful patterns of thinking, new behaviour is created to achieve the goals we desire.

I use my NLP training to help motivate my clients to achieve optimum health and also work with specific problems such as anxiety, phobias and lack of self esteem, to unlock the internal skills every one of us has inside. The outcome is to achieve the best possible you, so the process is directed by what you want to create in your life.

Marianne offers a free initial telephone consultation that enables you to see how Advanced Therapies Coaching could effectively make the changes you want in life. Call her on 576 1368.

More information on NLP in New Zealand can be found at the New Zealand Association of Neuro Linguistic Prgramming Inc.