Judith Ashton

There are other various objects that inspire me:

And here are some of my mirrors:

Each of my tables tells a story…

This summer, some of my works could be seen by the public in the coffee shop at Meubles in Kilkenny.

As you can see, the exhibition included mirrors, tables, bowls and placemats, all decorated with mosaic.

One of the tables is repurposing the frame of an old and beautiful Singer sewing machine.

Summer residential massage course in Co. Wicklow between Aug 21-27 2010.

By teaching massage with meditation and mindfulness, I invite you to listen deeply to the truth and the intuitive wisdom of your own body.

This simple yet profound understanding will help you in all areas of your life and in your work with others.

Having worked in this field for over 25 years, I believe that we all have the potential to heal and to positively change our lives. My learning approach works from the heart with mind, body and spirit.

During these 7 days there is time and space to explore your relationship to your own body through the powerful mediums of massage, meditation and mindfulness. Much of the time on this course is spent lying down, relaxing and being massaged!

This workshop offers you an opportunity to really slow down and tune into your own unique body rhythms and to explore what your body needs to communicate to you through its own language of subtle movement, breathing patterns and feelings. You will learn to identify and unlock the stresses and tensions in your body.

Massage, meditation and mindfulness are important skills that we all need to know, because if you can learn to really listen to and listen with your own body you will be greatly empowered in your journey through life. Your body will always guide you in the right direction, and decisions and choices become greatly simplified.
This residential course provides a supportive space for learning, personal growth, inter-action and sharing.

I teach massage using breath awareness, mindfulness, meditation and gentle movement to enable participants to learn practical skills in an effortless way.

By the end of this course everyone will be able to work with massage with sensitivity, skill and awareness. Everyone will be able to give a wonderful full body massage.

Each day will start with meditation at 8 am. (optional )
The sessions are from 10am till 6pm with breaks for lunch and refreshments. There may be some optional evening events. The food is delicious and organic vegetarian.

The course will be in a beautiful residence in Co. Wicklow surrounded by acres of glorious woodlands, streams and gardens to uplift and nourish your spirit.

Being out in Nature is vital to our physical, emotional and spiritual well being, it helps us to slow down and unwind …there will be plenty of time dedicated to that!

Please wear comfortable loose clothing and bring all weather outdoor gear and walking boots. The accommodation is in basic single rooms. Bring your own duvet cover, sheets, pillow -cases and towels.

Basic massage oils are provided, bring your own if desired.

Many therapists, counselors and nurses have enhanced their work by learning this deeply meditative hands- on healing approach.

This 7-day course costs €750.00 including accommodation and wonderful wholesome food.

Please book by June 1st as places are limited.
For bookings please ring:
056-7727004 or 087-6976395 or
email: judithashton1@gmail.com

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Massage and touch are essential skills, which everyone should be taught at an early age, as they do in some eastern cultures. Touch is a fundamental aspect of communication between beings and has become a fear filled and insecure sense for many people. I was not brought up to be easy around touch, that was my heritage.

I was in my twenties, living in London and somewhat disillusioned with life… when I had the great good fortune to meet the late Gerda Boyesen. I can’t remember the exact date but it was in 1977 (she would have been in her late 50’s) and that day changed my life and opened me up to seeing the world and myself in a completely new and exciting way ….or rather affirming and reconnecting to some way of being that I seemed to have long forgotten but that was my right and heritage. A way of openness and deep personal and spiritual conection.

Gerda Boyesen was Norwegian and had trained and worked in hospitals as a physiotherapist, she was deeply interested in psychology and the study of the mind-body connection. She met and subsequently trained with one of Dr.Wilhelm Reich’s students. Reich, a psychiatrist, had been a colleague of Freud, and he was one of the earliest pioneers of mind –body awareness with his observations on sexuality and his muscle armour theories. To Reich, healthy function meant a natural connection to sexuality and the body ideally should be relaxed and flexible. His observations however showed that this is not generally the case. Reich’s view was that trauma and conditioning are held within the physical body, impeding natural breathing flow and stiffening the muscles (armouring) and skeleton. The purpose of therapy therefore is to release both the psychological and physical inhibitions. Not only did he encourage emotional expression in his patients but he also created massage techniques to loosen up the ‘muscle armour’ thus freeing up the patient’s vital energy and allowing healthier function.

As a physiotherapist, Gerda Boyesen was fascinated by Reich’s muscle armour theories as she realised that many of her patients were presenting with physical tensions which in her opinion were masking deeper emotional issues. She went a step further with her own innovative approaches to massage especially with her discovery of ‘psycho-peristalsis.’ She maintained that peristalsis in the digestive tract is noiseless, and the sounds that she heard whilst massaging clients are ‘energetic sounds’ corresponding to emotional release and rebalancing inner homeostasis. She heard these sounds when there was release of residues of repressed emotion held in the particular muscles she was working on. The massage was freeing vital locked energy allowing emotional tensions to be released and traumas to be resolved at the somatic level. Being massaged in a particular way, which she called ‘ Energy Distribution’, enabled the body to self regulate and literally digest emotional residues that were stuck in the tissues. (“Issues being in tissues” is actually a fact!) This is why massage can be an emotional experience for many people and why they may experience a range of effects eg: crying, shaking, trembling ,breath release. Emotional release is a natural energy regulator and balancing mechanism.

According to Boyesen, these psycho- peristalsic sounds will be elicited by emotional expression, movements and catharsis. She also taught that they can also be deliberately elicited by massage, working either on the skin level or in the auric field depending where the blockage registers. I learned, in those years, working closely with Gerda that massage is a far more mysterious therapy than simply placing and moving ones hands and fingers on someone’s body! I learned that the essence of touch is as much emotional as physical in nature.

For the first 10 years that I worked with massage, I listened not only with my hands but also I listened very attentively with my ears. As I moved or rested my hands I listened to these mysterious peristaltic sounds with a stethoscope in my ears and the membrane resting on my client’s abdomen. I listened very attentively and learned to interpret the colourful vocabulary of not only the sounds but also the silences, sounds such as,’ the creaking door ‘, the ‘zone of firing’ and the ‘sunny brook’ … these are the sounds one hears when the energy is sluggish, over stimulated or simply in harmonious flow. I also listened attentively to the silences. Silence alerts one to the areas of the body where the energy movement is blocked by trauma or negative thoughts or memories. It is fascinating how the position of the hands on the body can track the energetic / emotional blockages of the client. The aim of such massage is to free up the sounds and thus release whatever is preventing the natural distribution of energy flow and to regulate, balance and harmonise the client’s energy. When this release and natural flow is re-established the client experiences a wonderful feeling of ‘ present independent well being ‘. This process can never be forced.

Massaging in this way requires great attention and focus, not only concentrating on the sounds but listening to the body with one’s hands, watching the breath with one’s open eyes and being present with one’s heart. Massaging in this way is a deeply mindful experience.
We hear a lot these days about ‘mindfulness’ practices, the intention of being present in one’s life and to oneself, how to watch the wanderings of the mind and how to catch oneself drifting from the present moment. In this way one cultivates the ability to witness the emotional vagaries and distractions of the mind and in so doing one frees oneself from habitual responses and makes the choice moment to moment to either contract into oneself and embrace fears and inner neurotic dialogue or to expand from the heart and fully embrace what is the present reality. This is a conscious act of rememberance.

Massaging with intense awareness and focus enables one to stay mindfully present and thus the act of massaging becomes a mindful practice in itself, a meditative experience for both practitioner and client.
Clients respond very positively to this mindful approach to massage because they feel that the treatment is one of undivided attention and intention from the therapist. This way of working is deeply connected, one is works with the energy and literally flows with what is the present emotional reality of the client. Nothing is ever forced but all is mindfully witnessed.

In my work with massage these days, I still work with my stethoscope from time to time but not always. What I do work with though is awareness. My days of listening to the peristaltic sounds finely tuned my consciousness and heightened my awareness of body responses. I am acutely aware of the way a body responds to touch, can read the slightest quiver of a muscle or the change of a breathing rhythm.

To conclude, for more than half of my life I have been working with massage… little did I know when I met Gerda Boyesen and then trained in Bio dynamic psychology that massage would become such a big part of my life. Since then, I have massaged and taught countless people with the intention of passing on the wisdom and gifts that I have received. When I teach massage I endeavour to pass on what I was taught by Gerda and my meditation teachers. That is to stay present in the presence of simply what is and to trust that this will bring balance and independent well being to students and clients alike.

This summer I taught a week long residential workshop for twenty wonderful women. The youngest was in her mid twenties and the oldest mid sixties. They were from all parts of the country and from all walks of life. They were drawn together in their desire to learn more about the healing art of massage. A small number of them had some prior knowledge of massage but for the most part they were all novices. In  an article  for Network ( 60 )  ‘A Massage journey with A Difference,‘  I  claimed that I would guarantee that by the end of 7 days all participants would be able to give  beautiful proficient and meditative massages. I have been teaching in this way for over twenty years and know that my methods work.

One of the group, a massage therapist in fact, who had done a three year training said that she would never have believed that such a disparate group could have attained such a proficient level after only 7 days if she had not witnessed it herself. Another group member, a teacher by profession said, ” I am still wondering how you managed to include so much in our course with what appeared to be a very unstructured and flexible timetable with such a relaxed approach…”

I need to say at this point that we did NO massage for the first two days..So all was  accomplished in 5 days , and in fact the last day was a culmination.. .so actually all massage components of the course were accomplished in four days.!!

The fact that I taught the group for 7 days though  was a vital  and integral part of the student’s process of being open and trusting the abilities of the teacher to transmit the necessary energy for the task in question. In this case , Massage.

Much learning happens when people were not even aware of it!! A  big part of my method of teaching involves  meditation… centering in the heart…going into  silence and stillness within, clearing out the incessant chatter of the busy mind and creating a space inside for the percolation of your own wisdom and truth. We all did a lot of chanting every morning, really activating the voice.. in order to clear the energy both within  oneself and within the group and  also to create a blending and harmony between us all.  I also use a lot of movement, exercise and dance….this loosens rigidity in the muscular  structures and creates openness at the physical level and  flexibility in the body which in turn creates flexibility in the mind ..this year we did a lot of grounding work using amongst other things, Native American dance music and sounds… lots of movement and sounds to deeply release locked up energies..   with all these different approaches …something starts to deeply relax in both mind and body….people start to open and share deeply.  Effortless learning is starting to seep into the pores ! Innate wisdom starts to percolate..

Trust, openness and communication have a profound effect on the heart and when the heart starts to open then the energy starts to flow. The energy of the heart can never be a selfish energy..it has to flow OUT towards others . When this process is underway the heart and the mind can begin to blend  and balance in expression.. learning becomes BEINGNESS.. Being-ness is the state of presence  one feels when the heart energy is activated…. In this instance the massage, meditation and bodywork  helped to catalyze the activation. The body naturally balances and relaxes.

Many things happen in this process of learning… insights about oneself and others emerge, you begin to be open to yourself without prejudice…… pains and old patterns are revisited, emotions are expressed and all is seen for what it truly is…. A cover up of the heart….  The heart’s protective response to the pain of the perception of being unloved…The reality though is that when the armoring of the heart begin to loosen and gradually fall away…what remains is love…nothing but love….this moves you from judging, comparing etc into compassion and acceptance…two prerequisites for working with other people. Realizations start to dawn…. NOBODY actually is any different from yourself… we just need to experience that as a reality.

When love is present in a group, its fire burns out that which covers the real.

It is always a very humbling and moving experience for me as the teacher to witness this love in action . When people  really open up  to whatever area they may be involved with …they fall into awareness mode, ( anxiety and fears drop away. concerns about ”doing ” are replaced by awareness and “being”, )  as opposed to concentration mode ….whilst massaging it is the heart that takes over and the mind is relegated to its serving position…all the mental baggage drops away… one simply  “does”, one allows the heart to flow and the hands follow in its wake. The atmosphere and feeling around people becomes one of   heart-openness and effortless action effortlessly follows…. time goes in to another dimension and  the creative flow of the open heart takes over..   everyone starts to glow!! Its mysterious and wondrous to experience..

When love is involved with what you do, it is easy to do it…you want to do it, you are motivated because it makes you feel good and when you feel good that is reflected in the atmosphere you create around you. You owe it to yourself to do what you enjoy doing. (We are all subjected to the allotted time constraints of human existence!!)  As spiritual beings we have a deep need  and longing for happiness and joy since they reflect our true state. These two feelings sustain and nourish us at the deepest of levels. In order for our lives to progress, and not stay stuck, we need to move beyond the fear  structures that hold us back from being  truly ourselves . Learning  or doing something new takes you into unknown territory…this can bring fear..The only antidote to fear is love. Anything…anyone ….  any method, way or teaching that opens the heart in the truest sense of the word will lead you forward on your human/spiritual journey. Always look for love in all that you do. In fact you need to embody this love in all your actions and movements. You need to  “be” love. When love is present, everything becomes effortless…That is The Secret…..

(Freud , in his wisdom knew this when he wrote,  ” One doesn’t need long trainings, but ‘inherent insights’ into the human soul, first of all into the unconscious layers of one’s own soul…then…practical hands on training!”)

Anybody interested in a16 day training or open weekends ( see ad ) will have the opportunity to experience this way of osmotic effortless Heart learning for themselves. Trust me..it works!

View Larger Map

This is the location for the course: the guesthouse is located on the grounds of  the Kiltegan Fathers, near Baltinglass. The place is magic: a lake, a stream, hills, a maze in the forrest. Here are a few images from 2007, just to give you an idea:

Summer residential massage course in Co. Wicklow

august 22th – 28th 2009

By teaching massage with meditation and mindfulness, I invite you to listen deeply to the truth and the intuitive wisdom of your own body.

This simple yet profound understanding will help you in all areas of your life and in your work with others.

Having worked in this field for over 25 years, I believe that we all have the potential to heal and to positively change our lives. My effortless learning approach works from the heart with mind, body and spirit.

During these 7 days there is time and space to explore your relationship to your own body through the powerful mediums of massage, meditation and mindfulness. Much of the time on this course is spent lying down, relaxing and being massaged!

This workshop offers you an opportunity to really slow down and tune into your own unique body rhythms and to explore what your body needs to communicate to you through its own language of subtle movement, breathing patterns and feelings. You will learn to identify and unlock the stresses and tensions in your body.

Massage, meditation and mindfulness are important skills that we all need to know, because if you can learn to really listen to and listen with your own body you will be greatly empowered in your journey through life. Your body will always guide you in the right direction, and decisions and choices become greatly simplified.

I teach massage using breath awareness, mindfulness, meditation and gentle movement to enable participants to learn practical skills in an effortless way.

By the end of this course everyone will be able to work with massage with sensitivity, skill and awareness. Everyone will be able to give a wonderful full body massage.

Each day will start with meditation at 8 am. (optional )

The sessions are from 10am till 6pm with breaks for lunch and refreshments. There may be some optional evening events. The food is delicious and organic vegetarian. Our cook will be Daniel Walsh.

The course will be in a beautiful residence in Co. Wicklow surrounded by acres of glorious woodlands, streams and gardens to uplift and nourish your spirit.

Being out in Nature is vital to our physical, emotional and spiritual well being, it helps us to slow down and unwind …there will be plenty of time dedicated to that!
Please wear comfortable loose clothing and bring all weather outdoor gear and walking boots.

The accommodation is in basic single rooms. Bring your own duvet cover, sheets, pillow -cases and towels.

This 7-day course costs €750.00 including accommodation and wonderful wholesome food.

Basic massage oils are provided, bring your own if desired.

Many therapists, counselors and nurses have enhanced their work by learning this deeply meditative hands- on healing approach.

Some comments from past students:

“ Magic happens, with Judith … you are in safe hands!” A.L. Dublin

“ When you work with your hands as well as your heart, deep healing is truly possible.” D.D.Bray

“I would never have thought that I could learn so much massage and much more in just 7 days. Judith is a wonderful teacher.” M.M.Dublin

“ I left feeling deeply healed, relaxed and with a great skill to share with others, it has enriched my life ! ” Y.B.Dublin

This residential course provides a supportive space for learning, personal growth, inter-action and sharing.