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!