Closing the bones
A healing and nurturing ritual for new mothers
Would you like to learn to give new mother the most gorgeous, soulful, spiritual postpartum ritual?
Closing the bones is a postnatal hip massage from Ecuador which involves using a rebozo to rock and bind the mother's hips, together with a extensive massage of the abdomen and hips with a special warming oil. It is designed to help return a new mother to her centre, both physically and energetically.
It is done on a mat on the floor.
We run this workshop for doulas, birthworkers, midwives, therapists, teachers, healers, or anybody who works with new mothers and who wants to be able to give a safe and effective, nurturing postpartum ritual.
What makes this workshop so special?
It is a deeply spiritual workshop, where you will not only learn this technique in depth and leave able to offer it to your clients, but you will also experience for yourself how powerful and deeply healing this ritual is.
The workshop covers the background of the massage, the tutors’ experience of giving the massage, a practical demo, practice of the massage, debrief of the experience and a group “full closing” at the end of the day.
We discuss the emotional and spiritual elements to this healing ritual as well as learning the elements to the massage.
It is your chance to experience the emotional, physical and spiritual aspects of this ceremony, learning to love your pelvis and how to honour the childbearing hips of the women in your community.
It is reserved to a small group of up to 12 people to ensure enough one to one attention, so you leave feeling confident you can give this massage to your clients.
The workshop includes a very unique and detailed handout which includes a mix of traditional wisdom and scientific evidence - all the effects of the techniques on the various joints, muscles and organs have been validated by an osteopath, and it also includes links to videos showing you all the techniques, so you do not have to worry about forgetting any of the massage strokes.
You will also gain access to a community of people who have done the workshop - where you can share knowledge, connect and network with an awesome group of nearly 500 birthworkers and bodyworkers.
Practicalities of the day
We will be practising a massage which includes exposing and massaging the belly from the ribs down to the pubic bone - so please wear comfy clothing (soft trousers/leggings/jogging bottoms etc are comfier than jeans for this)
We love babies and children, which is why we have to say with a heavy heart that they are too distracting for this workshop. During this course we spend most of our time practising massage strokes in pairs, so babies would need to be put down and would get fed up and upset, and this impairs the learning for the mother and the rest of the group. You are welcome to bring a baby if you can bring another adult with you who can take the baby out and entertain them for the day or who can stay nearby with your breastfed baby til s/he needs a feed.
Refreshments: Tea, coffee, drinks and snacks will be provided at the venue. There will be a longer break for lunch; and we will ask you to bring something to share for lunch.
About the Workshop
During this one day workshop you will learn the background behind the massage and get to practise it in steps with plenty of practical support from your tutor.
There will be an extensive Q&A session after the practise, and we will show you how to make it into a ritual too.
What makes this workshop unique?
This is a small group workshop limited to around 12 people so there is plenty of time for individual attention and you will leave feeling confident that you can offer the massage.
You will received a unique handout, which not only contains very detailed instructions of each massage stroke, and also a picture, video tutorial links and explanation of the effect of each technique on the body.
You will also gain access to a secret Facebook group which has around 400 trained closing the bones practitioners-a brilliant space to share knowledge and learn from each other.
This workshop runs from 9h30 to 5. It cost £120 per person, and includes one year practitioner listing to this website.
Our Experience with Closing the bones
Beyond the physical aspect of closing the bones, there is an emotional and spiritual aspect to the massage, which provide a safe space/ritual for the mother to feel nurtured and release emotions associated with the birth and motherhood.
Having experienced the massage ourselves and given the massage to new and not so new mothers, we have both experienced and witnessed how powerful this ritual can be in releasing birth emotions, even many years after the birth itself.
Not just for new mothers
The main philosophy behind the Closing the bones massage is to restore and nurture a new mother and to help treat the changes brought on through pregnancy.
Whilst these techniques are designed with new mother in mind, they are an effective and relaxing massage for any age, or gender, and we would like to encourage you to use them to for your friends and family as well as your clients.