Meeting with the mysterious “Vo.doo.m” !
In the previous post, I shared my impressions about how therapy can change someone's life, and I talked about Vladimir, a massage therapist with Golden Hands.
His therapy is something unique and wonderful, which is why I decided to add in a complementary interview with him. Maybe it will bring a deeper understanding, or at least new ideas.
VLADIMIR, thank you for being with us today !
I am very happy to have the opportunity to write about you on my blog and that you find the time to share about your practice.
So, let’s start !
1. What is, for you, "massage"?
Thank you for the invitation. It is always important for me to bring a little clarity to what I do, both for others and for myself. Massage for me is not just a physical action, pressing or pulling. For me, this is a great culture of the art of getting to know both yourself and the host (client). This is an unconditional act of trust, which in itself is unique.
2. Which instruments of knowledge do you use ? What seems to be the most efficient ? Please describe, your practice.
The biggest tool is practice. It is possible to easily obtain certain basic principles of how and where to move. However, only years of practice on several hundred bodies, helped me to adapt the massage into a true practice, which is why it became no longer a physical act, but a sacrament of trust.
3. What does your massage bring ? Is it only about relaxing the body? If not, what else ?
The very act of relaxation occurs precisely through trust; it's simple. Through relaxation comes a state of liberation from what pulls and oppresses inside. And then, after the massage, it is possible some revelations can happen—something you never acknowledged before.
4. You recently got your diploma in sophrology, and you are now the first specialist in Saint Petersburg. Why did you decide to expand your skills with Sophrology ?
Yes, I deliberately acquired this profession. Definitely because I am the first in town, but also because this moment of philosophy and scientific evidence combine not just a set of tools for analysis and tabular conclusions, but also a truly deep spiritual understanding of each individual.
5. You are also a yoga teacher. What did yoga bring to you ? Which place does yoga have in your life ?
Yes, I'm still a leading yoga teacher. Yoga brought me what I was so lacking - body harmony. This is not training; this is why, the attitude and the state towards it are completely different compared with cardio or strength training. Yoga helps you feel your body—not through pain, but through feeling. Yoga is not as highly valued in my life now as other practices. I won’t say that I have achieved some kind of masterful level of tying myself into knots and complex Asanas, but what it gave me, I can give to other people who come to my practice.
6. I saw you have unusual and incredible feedback from clients that describes your practice as a transforming experience. What is it about ?
As soon as you visit yourself, perhaps you will give similar feedback. I cannot say where people get such words from, just as I cannot know in advance what a person will come with. Often, someone can talk about, for example, his back pain, but in fact, the problem is not in his back at all.
7. Please explain to us how body therapy works. Where is the link between body emotions-memories, habits and fears?
Therapy, in this case, is an integrated approach. This is not a local set of tools; it is precisely a complex for the maintenance of harmony throughout the whole body. As the Chinese wise men assured, first mental health, and then the health of the shell, that is, the body, and this is how it turns out in most cases. Like our illnesses, they originate from our own worries, distrust and devaluation of ourselves. And it is from here that the bridge passes into the muscular, but not only the muscular frame, blocking these emotions.
8. Do you need a special feeling in your hands in order to be a good therapist ?
Absolutely yes. But this has been developing more and more over the years. Therefore, it is a matter of one’s own openness. What is important is not to imagine that you feel something, but to really feel it.
9. Can therapy change someone's life ?
As people say, yes it can. From the outside, it’s not that it’s clearer, but a person may intentionally not see something in himself, deny it, pinch and suppress it, while the therapist essentially doesn’t care what the person thinks about himself. He simply broadcasts what he feels. After all, the body will not deceive ; the body has no reason to do so.
10. Why, on Instagram, are you called Vo.doo ?
This is a long story of my own acquaintance with myself. Moving from one favorite philosophy to another.
Don't hesitate to find Vladimir on Instagram as @vo.doo.m
He is Russian but speaks very well English, and I am sure he will be glad to answer your questions.
Prenez soin de vous !
*Take care
