The space is small and is lit by two lamps. In the middle of the room, the massage table is placed slightly diagonally.
Despite the room’s size, there’s a lot that goes on. There’s much more to massage then a standard back or shoulder one. And that’s what Kittel, Whynott and Mosher explained.
Dorothea Kittel
From a young age growing up in Europe, Kittel liked massage therapy.
“It always helped me feel better,” she says.
Over time, she became more and more interested in holistic therapy. That’s what led her to study massage therapy and lymphatic drainage therapy.
Kittel offers a number of massage treatments, one of which is therapeutic. She says many therapeutic treatments are covered by people’s health insurance.
With her aromatherapy treatments, Kittel uses essential oils. She says the treatment is good for physical and emotional problems.
“The nostrils are attached to a part of the brain called the limbic system,” says Kittel. “The limbic system controls emotions and influences the nervous system.”
Inhaling essential oils affects the limbic system, including people’s stress levels, breathing, memories, digestion and immune systems, she says.
While some oils help to calm, others help to energize, she adds.
Kittel says her energizing Reiki massage treatments combine a healing massage touch with Reiki treatment.
“I also offer Reiki sessions to balance the energy of the mind,” she says.
She says her detoxifying lymphatic drainage treatments are for a general detoxification. The treatments help with decongestion among other things. They also aid in calming the sympathetic nervous system.
“People experience pain relief, and they get in a very deep relaxation state,” says the longtime massage therapist.
Kristine Mosher
For a long time, Mosher wanted to be a physiotherapist. But after suffering a sports shoulder injury and going through physiotherapy and massage, she changed her mind. Instead she decided to become a massage therapist.
Mosher is the treatment-style therapist.
“Usually when people have very specific injuries, that’s my background,” she says.
Her massage therapy background has included treating people who have been in motor-vehicle accidents. She spent five years working at an office where she worked a lot with people who had sports injuries.
Karen Whynott
Whynott was rear-ended on the Hammonds Plains Road in 1998. At the time, she was on her way to the Canadian College of Natural Medicine. She had an appointment to study there.
“I was going to take reflexology,” she says.
The accident resulted in some soft-tissue damage. Because of the injuries, Whynott had acupressure, acupuncture, massage and physiotherapy. She says the experience confirmed what she wanted to study.
“As soon as I was better, in six months, I went back and studied acupressure and traditional Chinese medicine,” she says.
Whynott says she would describe the treatments she provides as energy based.
“I studied Chinese medicine,” she says holding up an acupuncture model.
The model has numbers on it, which show the body’s acupuncture points.
“Acupuncture is widely known in the Western world today, explains Whynott.
Through studying Chinese medicine, Whynott learned tuina, similar to regular massage. She says people have a number of acu-points. In a one-hour treatment, Whynott says she focuses on 100 points. Each one corresponds to internal organs.
“So each point has a reference to your lungs, your liver, gall bladder, stomach, splean, and on and on,” says Whynott. “All of the organs are represented. A one-hour treatment would involve stimulating these points with finger and thumb pressure.”
That’s the difference between acupuncture and acupressure. Acupuncture uses needles, and acupressure uses fingers and thumbs, explains Whynott.
She says because the points are the same on both sides of the body, the treatment balances the two sides. It also balances systems and organs.
“I spend a lot of time on heads and hands and feet and backs, but essentially it’s a full-body treatment because we want to connect the energy from head to toe,” she says.
Whynott also does Reiki, quantum touch and Ayurvedic Dosha Oil Treatments.
Quantum touch has a reputation for being effective for old injuries and pain, says Whynott. An old injury could mean back problems, for example.
“Quantum touch helps a lot with structural problems,” she says.
Whynott became certified to teach meditation and Ayurveda through studying at the Chopra Centre for Wellbeing, in California. She’s studied there for five years.
Ayurveda began in India 5,000 years ago.
“It’s based on the fact that we as human beings are like nature. We have air, space, fire water and earth,” says Whynott. “That’s what makes up our bodies.”
Some people are mostly airy, others earthy and some fiery, says Whynott, explaining the idea further.
“Once we know this valuable information, then we can make choices on not only foods that we would eat to calm our fire or calm our airiness, but we can make choices within our environment,” she says.
Whynott is set to teach a workshop called Perfect Health Ayurvedic Lifestyle at Lane’s the weekend of April 27, 28 and 29.
She says her program is approved as a CEU course from the Massage Therapy Association of Nova Scotia. This means people in the field can get continuing education credits by taking the course.
Now
Kittel, Mosher and Whynott are continuing with the same schedule they had at White Point. The three are available daily. On weekdays and Saturdays, their hours are from about 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Sundays, they offer treatments from about noon to 6 p.m., though Kittel emphasizes their hours are flexible.
For more information, call Lane’s at 354-3456.
