Lomi Lomi (Auntie Margaret)
Lomi Lomi the art of Hawaiian massage. Obviously there are several different types of Lomi Lomi and most practitioners are very secretive about their craft. This article is specifically about Auntie Margaret type of lomi lomi and is also considered to be the deepest of the tissue massages of lomi lomi. Lomilomi practitioners use the palms, forearm, fingers, knuckles, elbows, knees, feet, even sticks and stones. Lomilomi practices varied by family.
Other types of lomi lomi are Hula, temple, lomi lomi and pololei, but let us get back on topic here regarding lomi lomi Auntie Margaret style. Pololei is Aunty Margarets style of Lomi Lomi that she created. Auntie Margaret teacher from Hawaii developed for teaching to western world. Normally, massage for Hawaiians is very secretive and only done by family members only. Auntie Margaret was one of the pioneers that didn’t care and would teach her skills to anyone that wish to learn. The Auntie Margaret version of lomi lomi uses elbow and forearms in apply the massage technique to the patient. It is a form of deep tissue massage that can be applied to the patient with very little effort by the therapist. Auntie Margaret was published on the front page of massage magazine in 1996 and mentioned again in 2006 she developed in a way that the practitioner uses all of the senses in assessing the issues that the patient has before applying techniques. Look, Feel, and smell are all used by the practitioner to assess the clients need for massage and healing.
When learning lomi lomi from the basics you would first need to learn a routine which follows the basic patterns, no anatomy books to haul around lomi lomi uses intuitive reasoning. What does the client feel and want does the massage therapist feel. It focuses on feelings and using your intuition. Lomi Lomi is meant to be a diagnostic tool, even though in the state of Florida where not allowed to diagnosis only assess for purposes of providing the massage. In this technique you leap directly into your work. You follow an advance level of work and can be considered deep tissue work. If properly applied to the body the client will not even realize that your using mainly your elbows to do all the work. The therapist can use deep pressure will little to no effort on the the therapist part.
Techniques of this type of lomi lomi if applied correctly look almost like advance and use little to no effort on the part of the therapist but can see extremely deep to the client. The client communication is very important because you can easily apply too much pressure for the client. The pain level you should be a level 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 just like trigger point therapy and Neuromuscular therapy(NMT) should use to achieve a therapeutic quality of work. Classes on Lomi Lomi in the state of Florida are available through Alice Belusko in various locations throughout the state of Florida. She can be reached at aliceslomi@yahoo.com.
June 15th, 2008 at 3:57 am
Aloha Greg, Mahalo for writing about Auntie Margaret’s lomilomi. It’s wonderful you are letting people know about this magnificent body work. However, as the author of two books on lomilomi, and a student of Auntie Margaret, I have to say that she does not emphasize use of elbows and forearms, in fact, she said never to use elbows (because the therapist can damage the nerves that run through the elbow area). Auntie Margaret lomilomi is mostly hand work, with a bit of forearms. Other styles really emphasize forearms. But it certainly is deep tissue!
With warm greetings from Hawaii, Makana
June 20th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Love the lomi lomi…