Hands-on: The Massage Table

The 95-year-old founder of the Rosen Method, a body therapy that combines talk and touch, is still practicing and teaching in the Bay Area; her next workshop is October 23-24. Before World War II, Marion Rosen lived in Germany, where she studied breath- and relaxation-based movement therapy. Her husband was a student of Dr. Carl Jung, and the couple discovered that patients who worked first with Rosen more easily and effectively expressed themselves in psychotherapy sessions. Rosen Method practitioners believe that "the body is a living metaphor of a person's inner state."

In Other News:

Gotta Have a Gimmick
And what a soothing, energy-conserving one this is. A woman in the U.K. has invented "lava shell therapy." Similar to hot stone therapy, the therapist uses sea shells filled with lava powder, minerals, algae, and salt water. The reactive combination generates up to an hour of warmth... no electricity required.

Rehab and Relearn
Polish researchers have found that prompt and long-term physiotherapy--including massage--helps stroke victims compensate for and even regain lost functions.