May 27 @ 10AM: Reiki Exploration with Matt McCarthy

One of my Matt McCarthy's greatest loves is the practice of Reiki. He explains, "The joy I gain and the healing I have witnessed through this practice are incredibly beautiful."

Reiki is the practice of allowing divine energy to flow through your being in order to direct the flow of this energy into a person, place, time or thing. Anyone can practice Reiki.
Physical healing, mental clarity, and spiritual freedom are available to all through this sacred practice. The versatile uses of Reiki can add to any aspect of life and any bodywork practice.

Please join Monkey Qi Gong for a discussion and exploration of Reiki. Matt McCarthy will show us how shares Reiki both on and off the table. Questions, Reiki curious people, and those already practicing are welcome. We will be meeting at Matt McCarthy's studio:

333 SW 5th & Stark, Suite 445
Portland, OR 97204

www.ResoundingLife.com

April 15: Mindful Experiential Therapy for Bodyworkers with Jessica Montgomery, MSW

Mindful Experiential Therapy Approaches (META) provides tools for studying and transforming the organization of experience.  Each of us is continually filtering, interpreting and reacting to the flow of events we call life, based on neural "templates" laid down by past experience.  META assumes the innate wholeness of each person, while using mindful awareness to identify habits and assumptions preventing the full expression of that wholeness.  Working at the mind-body interface, practitioners have a unique view on the somatic "world" each client lives in, and its ultimate connection to core beliefs and dilemmas.  Opportunities to respond supportively to organic unfolding toward wellness, balance and satisfaction occur naturally in a typical session.  In a brief overview of Hakomi and related models, we'll discuss how to spot those opportunities and make the most of them, within your own clinical context and scope of practice.

Jessica Montgomery MSW is a counselor and catalyst, bringing more than 20 years of diverse training and experience to her private practice.  A graduate of the Hakomi Institute, she has been immersed in intensive study of Mindfful Experientail Therapy Approaches for more than five years. She is on the verge of certification, serves as a teaching assistant, and offers workshops adapting the Hakomi method for yoga students, groups and couples.  She works at the crossroads of science and art, blending research on consciousness, neural plasticity, learning and therapeutic efficacy in a context of love and respect for the fierce beauty of each unique being.

April 1 @ 10AM: Yoga for Bodyworkers with Jen Caruso

Jennifer Caruso will be lecturing and leading asanas as part of Monkey Qi Gong's study group dedicated to Yoga for Bodyworkers. Jennifer will provide specific techniques for bodyworkers to integrate into our daily routines, and discuss ways to share Yoga with our clients. 

Jennifer graduated from the Yoga Shala of Portland Teacher Training program in 2006 with over 300 study hours dedicated to asana, philosophy, pranayama, teacher methodology, anatomy, Sanskrit, and teacher apprenticing. She has been teaching at the Yoga Shala since 2006 and continues her studies with her teacher Matt Huish at the Yoga Mandirim.

March 11 @ 10AM: Intro to Rolfing® Structural Integration with Juan David Vélez

Juan David Vélez is a Certified Advanced Rolfer and Rolfing and Movement Teacher. He is also a faculty member at The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration and teaches continuing education workshops for manual therapists. He will be giving an Intro to Rolfing Structural Integration on Wednesday, March 11 at 10AM. In his presentation, he will be talking about the nature of Rolfing, the science behind it and the philosophical foundations that define and support the holistic character of this practice. He will be open to answer any questions and do a demonstration of the work.

March 4 @ 6PM: Somatic Trauma Healing and the Role of the Bodyworker

Katie Boyts will be visiting Monkey Qi Gong to discuss the basic physiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), basic philosophy of working somatically with PTSD, precautions and considerations during bodywork treatments, specific technique ideas. 

Katie is a bodyworker in Portland, having studied at East West College. Her interest and

 passion in healing is rooted in her undergraduate studies at Goshen College where she earned an honors degree in Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies focused on the healing vector of peacemaking, specifically around posttraumatic stress. She has been in the helping field, exploring this topic of trauma healing, for over seven years within contexts of the domestic violence shelter, community event planning and activism, student women’s advocacy, spoken word, public speaking, writing, qigong and of course, bodywork. Most recently Katie has been working with Returning Veterans Project Northwest, acting as massage therapy liaison. She has a private practice in Portland, specializing in Thai Massage, Tui Na and Acupressure as well as dabbling in freelance writing and speaking. 

Feb 13 @ 10AM: Bodyworkers Save Your Own Body with Asian Bodywork

Diane Price, L.Ac. from Pins & Needles: Mt. Scott Community Acupuncture will be giving a demon

stration of specific Tui Na, Shiatsu and Amma bodywork techniques that will help increase our effectiveness while helping us to save our hands.  

"The beauty of Tui Na is its ability to save the body of the body worker by focusing the hand techniques on larger muscle areas. When those larger areas are released, the bodyworker can get in and use any of their grab bag of skills on smaller areas." (Diane Price L.Ac.)  

Diane was the lead acupuncturist at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Alaska for three years and many of the Massage Therapists working there were finding that the sheer volume of daily massage was taking a toll on their bodies. 

Diane taught the Massage Therapists some of the techniques and over the course of her time there, the bodyworkers were very gratified for the way in which Tui Na helped them save their bodies.  

Diane has been a bodyworker for 23 years. Her training was initially in Australia in the mid 80s. She spent 18 months apprenticing as a Shiatsu and Amma therapist in Japan. While studying in Japan, Diane worked up to 6 days a week in a shiatsu clinic. On Sundays, she worked in a sports club doing Amma massage , a system using Shiatsu & Acupuncture points. In this hand technique movement and stretching is used along the meridians, rather than static pressure on each point.  

Diane returned to Australia and learned another form of Shiatsu.  Then, she went back to Japan to get her Shiatsu credential a year later.  

Since returning to the States, Diane has been working as a body worker, using both Shiatsu and Amma techniques. During her acupuncture training, she also incorporated Tui Na into her repertoire of hand techniques.  

Join Monkey Qi Gong for our third meeting. This event will be held at Kathryn & Natalie's Studio in St. John's: 8525 n lombard st. suite 212 portland, or 97203. We're just upstairs from James John Cafe. Hope you can make it!

Feb. 5 @ 10AM: Second Meeting & Presentation by Lara Triback, LMT

I am pleased to announce that Monkey Qi Gong's second meeting will be held on Thursday February 5th at 10AM.We will be meeting at the Mudita Massage/Re:vive Bodywork Studio at 8525 N Lombard Suite 212.

Our guest speaker will be Lara Triback, LMT. She will be speaking on the Integration of Rhythm and Movement:"Feel the Rhythm in your Body --Improve your Quality of Touch." Lara will introduce concepts of Dalcroze Eurhythmics (a system of teaching music through movement) and lead the group through rhythmic exercises to help them understand the three aspects of movement:  preparation (anacrusis), point of contact (crusis) and release (metacrusis). The objective is to deepen awareness and intention before, during, and after contact with another body to ultimately improve the practitioner's quality of touch. www.laratriback.com

Jan. 28 @ 10AM: Monkey Qi Gong is Born!

Thanks to everyone who attended the first meeting, Monkey Qi Gong has been born! Kathryn Otto, Marisa Peden and Phoenix Pribble all met from 10-12 AM on Wednesday, January 28th at the Mudita Massage/Re:vive Bodywork Studio at 8525 North Lombard Street.

Kaya Singer of Awakening Business Solutions gave an inspiring presentation about sharpening our focus as business owners. She differentiated between owning a small business and practicing massage. Practitioners practice massage, while a business owners attend 

to their clients' ever-changing needs. Successful business owners will do whatever it takes to reach their goals. 

Kaya's business model included the following eight parts: Money, Leadership & Management, Marketing, Products & Services, Customer Fulfillment, Organization, Vision & Goals and Work Life Balance. She had us each color in a pie chart to illustrate how we were relating to our businesses. "It could be that you are focusing on one or two pieces of the pie and ignoring others." Then, she encouraged us to use our strong areas to support the weaker areas of our businesses. 

Kaya also spoke about the vital role of websites in communicating to the public about how we will meet our potential customers' needs. I think we all went away from her talk thinking about how we can improve our websites.

Kaya is offering free 30 minute coaching sessions to anyone who buys her ebook this month:

www.awakeningbusiness.com