Discovering Bodys Wisdom Mirka Knaster
In an attractive, oversized format, enlivened with illustrations, sidebar quotes, personal accounts, proficiencies to try, and profiles of leaders in the field, Discovering the Body’s Wisdom is a basic resource for well-being and natural health.
Body disciplines and therapies have enjoyed extraordinary growth in the past decade, getting a major substitute to mainstream medicine and conventional psychotherapy. But with more than 100,000 practitioners and dozens of methods available in the United States alone, how may buyers choose the right one for themselves?
Mirka Knaster’s richly informative guide provides an overview of the principles and theories underlying the major Eastern and Western body therapies, or “bodyways.” It shows readers how to befriend their own bodies, getting back in touch with their internal roots of health and wisdom. It also describes more than 75 person approaches, answering such questions as: How does each therapy work? What may we suppose from one session or a series? What are the reasons for selecting this method? How do we find a qualified practitioner? What, if any, are the “consumer-bewares”?
ReviewThere are so some dissimilar kinds of bodywork available these days, numerous persons find it hard to choose. Massage therapist and health writer Mirka Knaster’s comprehensive book is a good place to start. She covers just with regards to everything in both the Eastern and Western traditions–from respective types of yoga, martial arts, and massage to newer exercises such as Rolfing and the Alexander Technique to esoteric motion and touching exercises of which most people have never even heard. The one thing all these proficiencies have in mutual is that they seek to fetch healing and self-discovery through physical practices. “Many humans firstborn turn to bodyways because the pain of an injury or chronic condition forces them to seek alternatives,” Knaster writes. “The other motivation … comes from a natural drive toward healthful or optional functioning.” Either way, she says, these exercises aid us get over our disconnection from our body and our feelings.
It would be hard to hyperbolize how much sheer selective information is supplied in this book. Not only does Knaster describe each technique and explain what it’s supposed to do for you, she gives it is history and a brief biography of the inventors, along with addresses and phone numbers for obtaining more information. A chapter on working with a given practitioner helps answer the multitude of questions readers are likely to have: How do you recognise if he or she is in the right manner trained? How ought to you feel after a session? What do you do if your kinship with the practitioner seems too intimate or even improper? While anybody looking to get involved with a given technique would do well to find books that talk about it in dandier depth, numerous may find that Discovering the Body’s Wisdom already provides everything they need. Either way, it’s a arousing and attention holding book, and a outstanding reference to keep around.
From Publishers WeeklyIf ever a book could have employed a subtitle, this is one. An explanatory phrase like “Bodywork Therapies Old and New” would go far to alerting readers to the scope and intent of this comprehensive buyer guide to the myriad bodywork disciplines presently available. After explaining the intention of bodywork and the psychological and physical gains ascribed to it, Knaster, a licensed massage therapist and former Ford Foundation Fellow, proposes how best to choose a therapeutic approach and what to suppose from it, and how to find and evaluate bodywork practitioners. Knaster considers Western systems, with their special and significant stress on structure, function and movement, and Eastern approaches, which emphasize energy, or the life force. Each section concludes with info on training. The boundary line of the pages are distractingly busy with quotations, which, while relevant, make the inevitably complex explanations more difficult to follow. Long paragraphs set off by shading offer worthful first-person accounts or do-it-yourself exercises by which a reader may sample the exercise of a therapy, but these too are interruptive. Despite it is design flaws, Knaster’s comprehensive study will be of substantial aid to those who want to know the divergences among the Alexander Technique and the Rosen Method or among Shiatsu and Aikido.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library JournalThis is one of the most finish books available on bodywork. The author, a licensed massage therapist, uses the term bodyways to describe any technique that involves motion to improve the structure, function, and sentiment of the humane body. More than 75 dissimilar types of therapies are discussed, ranging from the dissimilar kinds of massage therapy to those with a more philosophical bent, like postural integration or t’ai chi chuan. Readers are likewise told how to “befriend” their own body and how to choose and work with a bodyworks practitioner, and they may dip into the book to study just one queer therapy. A utile appendix tells “How To Deal with Sexual Misconduct.” The book’s broad bibliography will have to be utile to those doing further research. This book will appeal to both the practitioner and the buyer and is commended for medical and public libraries.?Natalie Kupferberg, Ferris State Univ. Lib., Big Rapids, Mich.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Discovering Bodys Wisdom Mirka Knaster Photo
Discovering Bodys Wisdom Mirka Knaster Picture
Discovering Bodys Wisdom Mirka Knaster Image
Discovering Bodys Wisdom Mirka Knaster Photo
Most helpful client reviews
22 of 22 persons found the following review helpful.
 The introductory real road map into the world of substitute health
By A
Discovering the Body’s Wisdom – A Book Review By Monica Roseberry
When America was a “new” territory being explored by the Europeans, there were the trailblazers, trackers, pioneers, and others who opened the continent up to at last millions of new residents. Of those firstborn forerunners, the pathfinders and mapmakers were crucial, for without their vision, skillfulness and labors, new arrivals would have never found their way into the future and promise of uncharted frontiers.
In the world of holistic health, healing, touch therapies and substitute medicine, a immense terrain has been opened, new ground has been taken and diverse grassroots attempts have grown and flourished. However, for others to find or follow the trails blazed by the ancient and innovative pioneers in the healing arts, a guide, a map, was needed.
Like Lewis and Clark exploring and charting the new frontier of America, Mirka Knaster, author of the book, Discovering the Body’s Wisdom, traveled around the world, studying, researching and cataloging a heap of methods of healing, looking at and recording how persons view, take care of and heal their bodies. Ms. Knaster’s 20 years of experience in the substitute health field culminate in one of the most comprehensive, utile and powerful beacons to help pilot newcomers onto the shores and all over the plains to the “new world” of wellness.
For Massage Therapists, Discovering the Body’s Wisdom offers a good deal of priceless tools, resources and perspectives on our growing and thriving industry. Covering 75 Body/Mind exercises that may “relieve pain, reduce stress, and foster health, spiritual growth, and inner peace,” this book has something for just with regards to every one in the massage profession. Three divisions incorporate the book, beginning with an overview of “Bodyways,” a term Ms. Knaster coined to integrate the a heap of diverse and distinct modalities and processes by which the body is healed.
Part I covers “causes of body difficultnesses and what vantages you may derive from working with your body.” It also discusses critical and ofttimes unaddressed issues such as body alienation, how we lost connection with the body, and how we may befriend the body and learn from it is wisdom. As Massage Therapists, this division may give you words and ideas to educate your current clients on a deeper level with regards to how to approach their own healing process, as well as to market to potential clients by educating them on the value of touch and bodyways.
Part II describes “ways of choosing and interacting with a practitioner as well as settling on which bodyway approach to work with.” While this division is designed more for the standard public on how to choose a practitioner, we as Massage Therapists may deepen our understanding of the needs of our clients, the gains of our work, and measure ourselves by standards befitting professionals.
Part III serves as a guide to the person bodyways, categorizing them according to modalities or approaches that emphasize working with Western Function, Structure and Movement; Eastern Energy and Movement, plus Body/Psyche methods. This section provides Massage Therapists a perspective on the width, depth and history of a tremendous number of bodyways, revoking any arrogance that there are “right” and “wrong” modalities, while relieving feeling of annoyance at being hindered or criticized that there is a single “magic bullet” out there that may help each client each time. Whether for identifying new directions for professional growth and training, or for referring clients to other practitioners, this division gives an accessible and even experiential understanding of a wide range of bodyways. Extensive resources are cited at the book’s conclusion for those who wish to study a bodyway further.
For those in search of a path for healing, Discovering the Body’s Wisdom is an authoritative, masterful guide, a vista point to the world of wellness we are just genuinely discovering, and a place to which hopefully millions will soon arrive.
23 of 24 humans found the following review helpful.
Informative and inspiring guide to body oriented approaches
By A
I’m ofttimes asked by my people who are in need of medical care for commended reading on natural medicine. Below I suggest a great deal of splendid reference books for consumers, listed by topic…. Bodywork . “Discovering the Body’s Wisdom” by Mirka Knaster. This is an informative and inspiring guide to more than 60 body-oriented approaches–from established Eastern disciplines, such as tai chi and yoga, to modern Western techniques, such as Rolding and the Feldenkrais Method. The author–a massage therapist and writer–includes a heap of illustrated exercises to try at home. –Andrew Weil, M.D., “Self Healing” (August 1999)
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Great for Self-Treatment or for Professionals
By Michelle M. Normand
This book has been indispensable in my career as a Mind-Body specialist. I started out using galore of the proficiencies on my own back pain before I had even finished the book. At over 400 pages it packs rather a bit of selective information on a wide potpourri of mind-body healing processes. I highly commend it as a reference book for any individual in the fields of massage, physical therapy, reiki, and the like. I wish medical programs would make this book (or Human Kinetics) percentage of their teaching.
See all 5 client reviews…
|