Dear BR,

I suffer from M.S. and get therapeutic massage once or twice a month to help with muscle spasm and general mental health. I also enjoy listening to your imagery at the end of the day.
 
What do you think of my bringing my tape to the massage sessions? Do you think that would bring double-benefits?  Or should I leave them separate?  As it is, I am getting a lot out of each experience.

Fred B. from Milwaukee

Dear Fred,

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and this might apply here.  Each technique is helping and that’s great. You may want to just leave it that way, and use your massage time to focus inside, or zone out, or deeply relax, unimpeded by guided imagery.

On the other hand, it might be worth a one session experiment to see what it’s like to have them both together.  The deeper you relax, the deeper the healing images can go in.  And I know there’s a New Jersey massage therapist, Frank Seeley, (now retired) who combines therapeutic massage with aromatherapy, Reiki and yoga stretches, and he seems very happy with the results from this multi-modal approach.
 
I’d play around and see what works best for you. You’ll know pretty quickly whether this is a good idea or not.  Just trust your own reaction.  Don’t push it on yourself if you don’t like it.  It’s true that sometimes more is better. But it’s also true that sometimes less is more.
 
Take care and best wishes for continued benefit from both,

Belleruth