To: **** ********
From: Jim Caddell
Date: Friday, June 04, 2010
Dear *****,
Here is your June massage newsletter.
Your appointment status:
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Your last appointment was Saturday, May 08, 2010. Your next appointment is scheduled for Saturday, June 05, 2010 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at My Office. You are eligible for a $10 discount because you are on a regular appointment schedule.
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I hope to see you soon.
Jim
The Tranquility Times
June Goings On:
June 14th is Flag
Day.
June 19th is Juneteenth, the oldest nationally
celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the
June the 20th is Fathers
Day, and don’t you think he has enough ties this year? Give the gift of
touch! Dads love massage
gift certificates: always the right size, never the wrong color, always
appreciated.
June 21st is the
first day of Summer, though it seems like
summer has been here for quite a while. The average date for our first 100
degree day in DFW is July 1, but forecasters expect temperatures to top 100
degrees this week-end, the first week-end in June.
June is National Scleroderma Awareness Month.
For more info, see this article at MassageTherapy.com.
June is Gay and
Lesbian Pride Month. Of course I’m GLBT friendly here. News
flash: the massage techniques for gays are exactly the same as those for
straights. 
June is Potty
Training Awareness Month. Am I missing something? It’s been a
while, but when my kids were potty training, we were distinctly aware of it
24x7.
And school is out! Be
careful driving.
Illnesses:
It’s becoming worrisome that so many of my regular clients have been too ill for massage. When I know you’re sick and I don’t see you, then I worry! Please join me in sending some healing wishes to Bill, Nancy, Jessie, and Liz.
Summer Supplemental Newsletter:
A special full-color Summer
Supplement is still available HERE as a PDF
file.
There are some good articles in this issue:
· Healthy Aging and Your Skin: Trends and Treatments for Baby Boomers
· Lavender: An Essential Oil for Fundamental Health
· The Art of Aromatherapy: Essential Oils Provide Healing and Balance
Dads rock!
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They slave away at a corporate job
they had hoped would be more fulfilling, hanging on by the fingernails, lest
they be replaced by cheap labor on the other side of the world. They come
home exhausted, but not too tired to take Jr. to Judo practice. They trim the
yard in
They are dads, and they all need a massage. Why not get the dads in your life massage gift certificate this Fathers Day? Everyone loves the gift of touch, and Dad will be pleasantly surprised that he missed the aftershave and tie this year.
Click the button below to purchase.
Father’s Day Video:
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Jim ShortageTwo week vacationI’m
headed to The Esalen Institute on
June 19 for a week-long refresher in Esalen massage. Esalen is
what puts the Tranquility in Tranquility Time, with its focus on long, slow,
gentle, relaxing strokes. Esalen helps clients to release “holding patterns,”
those habits that make us hold our muscles rigid when we’re not concentrating
on being relaxed. (It also feels really good!) Esalen also helps me to
improve my breathing, stance, focus, footwork, and intuition, which makes me
a better therapist even when I’m not doing Esalen. After that class I’m going
to the Class at
I’m also teaching class from 9am to 3pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays this month through June 10.
Bottom line: make your appointments early.There is not quite as much Jim available this month as I’d like. I may not be available for last-minute appointments.
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Comics Section
Traditional Chinese Medicine
I
attended a class recently about stretching, at which I learned a few new
stretches and relearned a few I had forgotten. The teacher was deeply involved
in energy work and acupressure, which concern the path of life energy along
various pathways on the body called meridians. I had to learn about such
things to pass my NCBTMB exam, but I never put much stock in it, since
there appears to be no way to measure such energy and no observable channels
along which it might travel.
This teacher did a demonstration of chi pathways. By poking and stroking various points on my body he “blocked” and “released” the “flow of chi,” thus apparently making me weaker or stronger. It was very convincing, but it was not a controlled test. If I had been trying to lift a measured weight rather than resisting a massage instructor’s muscles (and if he hadn’t told me in advance what the poking was supposed to accomplish), I would have been utterly convinced.
Y’all know me. I’m an incurable skeptic. But that also means I am skeptical of my own beliefs, so now I’m on a quest to find some solid evidence to support or refute some of these claims about energy work. How much is superstition and how much has a physical basis? And for massage professionals, how much of energy work is useful to our clients and how much is just a way to get out of doing real work? Out of four books I ordered, one has been helpful in explaining Eastern philosophy to my hopelessly Western mind. (And so far, I’m still not buying it!)
The quality of TCM research in
Although methodological quality has been improving over the years, many problems remain. The method of randomization was often inappropriately described. Blinding was used in only 15% of trials. Only a few studies had sample sizes of 300 subjects or more. Many trials used as a control another Chinese medicine treatment whose effectiveness had often not been evaluated by randomised controlled trials. Most trials focused on short term or intermediate rather than long term outcomes. Most trials did not report data on compliance and completeness of follow up. Effectiveness was rarely quantitatively expressed and reported. Intention to treat analysis was never mentioned. Over half did not report data on baseline characteristics or on side effects. Many trials were published as short reports. Most trials claimed that the tested treatments were effective, indicating that publication bias may be common; a funnel plot of the 49 trials of acupuncture in the treatment of stroke confirmed selective publication of positive trials in the area, suggesting that acupuncture may not be more effective than the control treatments.
-- See Review of randomised controlled trials of traditional Chinese medicine, Jin-Ling Tang, et. al.
In two weeks I’ll be studying at the Esalen Institute. One of their stated functions is to blend eastern and western philosophy, and I expect to hear a lot about meridians and chakras and so forth while I’m there. I’m hoping that by this time next month I’ll know enough about the subject to claim an informed opinion; unfortunately, the field is so broad and complex that I may never budge from my current position of informed doubt.
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Here are some pretty good articles that are critical of TCM and acupuncture.
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My Client Loyalty Program: 6 Ways to Save:
And these days, who doesn’t want to save money? Read all about it by clicking here.
Note: the discounts described in this program are currently scheduled to end on December 31 of 2010, although if we are still fighting a recession at that time they might be extended. After June 30, 2010, discounts will only apply to appointments during “office hours:” before 6pm Monday through Friday and before 1pm on Saturday. So please take advantage of these discounts while you can!
Free Stuff!
Here’s a reminder about all the free stuff that’s available with your massage. Just ask for it!
June Coupons:
June’s money-saving coupons
are at Coupons.TranquilityTime.com.
· Fathers Day Discount: $10 off for new dads, with babies on the way or under 12 months.
· Senior Discount, because seniors deserve a break too. $10 off with ID.
· Up to $20 off for your donation to the North Texas Food Bank. $1 discount for each $1 donated, up to $20 total. This discount has been extended to include donations to the American Red Cross.
· $10 off for new clients. (But none of you are new clients, so you get $10 off if a new client drops your name. Tell ‘em to say “Kathy sent me!” and I’ll make a note in your file. That’s all part of the client loyalty program.)
Note: most coupons have
restrictions. See the conditions printed in red at the bottom for specific
information.
Thanks!
Thanks for being a loyal client and continuing to subscribe to the newsletter.
Best wishes,
Jim
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Links and Contact Information
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