an environmental fund-raiser, donation of your choice

image of a mossy tree branch in forest with sun dappling it

In April of 2020 I was scheduled to be a guest presenter at the Thai Massage and Medicine Gathering in New Jersey. When the journey was cancelled and the event moved online due to Covid-19 I made these video presentations to share with the participants from afar. I am now offering you this introduction to Thai medical theory as an offering to the planet with no money coming through The Naga Center, all is directly donated to an environmental charity of your choice.

This is an incredibly information packed 1.5 hours meant to expand the understanding of Thai massage therapists as to Thai bodywork’s place in traditional Thai medicine and give immediately applicable tools to change your practice.

Class will cover

• Introduction to Thai Element Theory

• Layers of the physical body

• How to approach the layers of the physical body in traditional Thai manual therapies

• An extensive unpacking of the concept of sén and what we are doing when we thumb press the sén

Here’s how this works. You make a donation in any amount to an organization that is actively working to alleviate climate change (here is a list of suggestions) and send a screenshot of the receipt/thank you page to 503-473-4268 proving your donation, and I will give you the password to watch the videos below.

Please note - as humans we are frequently drawn to choose human-centric organizations; and yes, intersectionality is a real and important aspect of environmentalism, however at this moment the climate change situation is dire. Much of our planet is literally on fire or flooding. It’s like understanding all the myriad things that are important to the health of a person, but that person is actively bleeding out, with death a real and present possibility. We have to triage for the immediate mortal wound. Once that is healed we can talk about the other seriously important things such as drinking water, eating nutritious foods, exercise, companionship, and all of the other things that keep us alive. Our planet is bleeding out. There are a great many worthy and important charities out there; for this fundraiser please chose one that is actively doing the single focus work of actions that mitigate climate change. Often this is boring; it’s working on policy change, laws, governance. This is what has to be addressed on a national and global level if we are to slow the train heading for the cliff (I know, I changed metaphors there). Please look at the list of suggested organizations - you do not have to chose from that list but it will help you to understand the types of organizations best suited for this particular effort.

because the planet is on fire • medicine comes from the earth • as healing arts practitioners we have a duty to protect the earth
nobody is healthy if you cannot breath the air and massage doesn’t fix that.

Black brush stroke drawing of The Buddha in front of red moon/sun