THE HEALING TOUGH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16365, 2 March 1921, Page 9

THE HEALING TOUGH.

WHY l CHOSE ‘MY PROFESSION. " I can’t imagine what made you go in for such tiring work as this!’ 5 exclaimed a patient oi mine recently. And having gone in for it, I don’t know how you manage to stick it.’ But ifTs Imky for folks like me that Tbu should happen to like exhausting yourself in trying, to make us well." She was a sufferer from prolonged anaemia, and J had just finished giving her an hour-s strenuous ‘'general treatment.” You believe, then, that massage is helping von?’ 5 1 asked. • Oh, ‘rather; I'm getting well all right. But sometimes 1 wonder how much is due to Tour 'rubbing and k Headings and bow ra licit is some—thing else. Why i< it, for instance, that 1 begin to feel better as soon as you come into the roora?” 1 could not fell her, for T do not know myself. But I am eofllpletely' aware tiiat the fascination of the work lies chiefly in that undefined and uncomprehended '' something else.’’ Tlio purely material effects of the treatment are straightforward, easily? intelligible, and be now— undisputed. ' From . hem alone the successful mas- . ~ sense may derive much satisfaction - and, incidentally, an income. It is true that the work is> exhausting at, y: tl.e time- Strict periods of rest are., necessary. But the fatigue is on!y--> thoheaiihv fatigue produced by musr-c-ulnr , ffort. Ft is positively beneficial, provided one is moderate in- the number ot cases one undertakes in a, da.' . Tim subtle non-material effects are still nameless and still incalculable, but that they exist no one who has practised massage can deny. They are produced, however, onlv when patient and masseuse are in accord. .Without this condition .of “physical sym-7 pa thy ’ it i- w ©Unknown that eve*l thes material results of the treatment will hr poor. When such sympathy is present, and when the thought of healing and the intense desire to heal are filling one’s mind, a powerful c-ur-rent seems to be set in motion. It isf as though some outside force, an en- ? ergy not of one’s own generating, is attracted, and forms a circuit between the patient's body and that of the., healer. When this happens there is no danger of giving out more vitality-, ’ than one Can spare. Patient and healer are benefited equally by this mysterious life-giving current. £8 et one s jov in the work does not end there. In rases of long illness, gjf th > masseuse is often the onlv daily link between her patient and the out- {. ssrfr world. She can bring into ..tbe J sick-room just that whiff of novelty and nows for which the invalid craves*, and she soon learns to bold back that - ' which Is exciting, and to eke out titbits which are.only mildly stimulating, and therefore harmless. s **bo receives, also, more human confidence-, than most busy women. Her patient will trust her instinctively if . the touch of her hands feels right.’! and will pour the most intimate troubles into her strictly impersonal ear. It is part of her job to listen willingly to such confidences, to keep silence about them afterwards, and to help to straighten out ihese human -M "tangles” if. and when, she can. Of the various privileges my day’s | work involves, this -is perhaps the 1 most;.. "J§ precious- But each j.s precious in its j own way. and, added together, they stem to m© to make for a depth and fullness of life that surely- few other * professions can give.- By ' A Masseuse, ’’ in tbe ,c Daily News.’ 7