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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Staying Whole: Heather Shock, a certified massage therapist and kinesiologist, is the owner of Light Bodies in Campbell. Shock, who sees about 20 clients a week, is looking forward to moving to her new office space on S. Winchester Boulevard.
Public Citizen
A Shocking Way to Treat Stress
By Erin Mayes
The substances that most affect the body's electrical system are water, caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol and tobacco.
Holistic health practitioner Heather Shock says only one of those should be consumed: water. All the rest should be avoided.
Shock acknowledges that avoiding those vices is easier said than done and says she sympathizes with addicts because she was a heavy smoker at one time. She motivates her clients to rid themselves of unhealthy habits by helping them understand that polluting their bodies interrupts the "flow of chi", defined in Eastern philosophies as bio-electric energy.
Also a certified massage therapist, Shock has been operating out of a small room inside the Innovations salon at 2260 Bascom Ave. Her work space is barely large enough to fit her massage table, but that will soon change.
Pending approval Dec. 10 by Campbell's city council, Shock hopes to open her new therapeutic center, which will be called Light Bodies, at 1550 S. Winchester Blvd., Suite 218, before the end of the year. Her new location is 400 square feet, allowing for two treatment rooms and enough space to conduct stress-management workshops. Shock says she plans to hire two massage therapists.
A masseuse for seven years, Shock says massage releases a person's body from the fight-or-flight instinct, which is caused by a buildup of stress. Massage puts the body into a relaxation-response mode and can build up endorphins, the body's natural pain relievers. It does not, however, affect chronic pain or emotional distress.
That's where kinesiology comes in. Immediately after she became a certified massage therapist, Shock came across a book called Touch for Health: A Practical Guide to Natural Health Using Acupressure and Touch and Massage to Improve Postural Balance and Reduce Physical and Mental Pain, by John F. Thie and Keith Marks. The book incorporated ideas from Dr. George Goodheart, who, in the 1960s, developed kinesiology, which Shock defins as a natural and holistic approach to creating and maintaining optimal health and well-being, based on Chinese medicine.
Shock says chi flows through the body in pathways that are called meridians, of which there are 14. Each meridian is connected to organs in the body and supplies energy to certain muscles. Shock diagnoses interruptions in the chi by testing limbs, moving them in different directions and applying pressure to determine if the muscles are operating at 100 percent. She compares testing the muscles to driving a manual car--muscles that are not operating at their optimal levels will feel "squishy," like a clutch. Muscles that are operating at their optimal levels will feel more solid, like the brake.
"It's almost like talking to the body," she says. "It's like asking the body what's going on."
There are hundreds of different methods of restoring the flow of chi, Shock says. Sometimes she recommends a change in diet, or if she determines that the problem is emotional, she may prescribe affirmations--positive statements that would be repeated throughout the day.
Shock says her clients have a variety of problems: psoriasis, sinus infections, depression, joint pain and insomnia, to name a few.
For more information, call 408.879.0465.
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Campbell, California
