Postnatal Recovery Massage Training with Sophie Messager and Teddy Brookes

This workshop is taught jointly by Sophie Messager and osteopath Teddy Brookes

Are you a doula, a birthworker, a therapist or educator who supports new mothers, or women through life transitions? Would you like to be able to give your clients a gentle, effective, nurturing treatment and ritual to nourish, support and comfort them after birth and beyond?

Inspired by a traditional postnatal massage ritual called closing the bones, the Postnatal Recovery Massage (PRM) is a modified version of the ritual which is done on a massage table instead of on a mat on the floor. It involves using Mexican shawls called rebozos to rock the pelvis, followed by an extensive massage of the abdomen, hips, ribs, chest, shoulders and arms, and finally a binding of the head, pelvis and feet with rebozos.

What does it do:

It is designed to help healing, realign and balance new mothers, as well as help them return to their centre, physically and energetically. It provides the same benefits to support women through life transitions and recovery from trauma.

This technique was developed by Sophie Messager (who has been teaching the closing the bones massage for ten years to over 800 professionals) together with osteopath Teddy Brookes. Together they have taught this massage since 2019 to over 120 professionals.

You will not only learn this technique in depth, and be able to offer it to your clients straight away, but you will also experience for yourself how nurturing, powerful and deeply healing this massage ritual is. You will also learn to provide this treatment as part of a ceremony.

This workshop is reserved for a small group of up to 14 students, to ensure detailed support from the facilitators during the training.

You will receive an extensive, unique and detailed handout which includes a mix of traditional wisdom and scientific evidence. Each technique is accompanied by a description, a picture, a tutorial video links, and its effects on the various joints, muscles and organs.

You will also gain access to a private Facebook group for people who have done the closing-the-bones training, where you can share knowledge and connect with a vibrant group of over 500 like-minded people.

“What a wonderful, professional, well constructed and instructive course with plenty of time for step-by-step practical, complemented by Teddy’s expertise and Sophie’s organic shamanism and such a wonderful community of like-minded bodyworkers. Thoroughly recommended” Jenni Tribe, Therapist

“The massage is a wonderful reworking of the traditional Closing The Bones massage performed on a couch rather than the floor. Sophie and Teddy have taken all that is special about it and fused her energy-work approach with his osteopathic technique to create something extraordinary. It incorporates binding, rocking, jiggling and specific tension releases, with massage of the chest, abdomen and pelvis with warming oil. It is truly a celebration of the postpartum body! ” Charlotte Filcek, doula.

“Amazing workshop! Loved being in a small group to work through techniques in enough detail. As an osteopath, this experience has been invaluable in improving my practise of postnatal patients, in fact, all of my patients!” Rob Ballard, osteopath

“Closing the bones on the table is quite an experience. The techniques feel different. I like it when its performed slowly, with the breath. I like both the ground and the table techniques. On the floor for its magical sense of ritual and the table for it’s sense of ‘going deep'” Kamilla Bombeiros, Massage therapist and doula.

The day runs from 9 am to 6 pm

We will be practising a massage which covers the pelvis, abdomen and chest so please wear comfy clothing (soft trousers/leggings/jogging bottoms etc are comfier than jeans for this, and if you wish to keep your bra on, then a soft bra is preferable to a wired one)

We love babies and children, which is why we have to say with a heavy heart that they are too distracting for this workshop. During this course, we spend a lot of our time practising a massage on a massage table in pairs, so babies would need to be put down and would get fed up and upset, and this would impair the learning for yourself and the rest of the group. You are welcome to bring a baby if you can bring another adult with you who can look after the baby and entertain them for the day or who can stay nearby with your breastfed baby until s/he needs a feed.

Refreshments: Tea, coffee, drinks and snacks will be provided at the venue. There will be a longer break for lunch.

Contact Sophie at [email protected] for booking information.