What is Abdominal Therapy?

Abdominal Therapy sessions begin with a thorough personal intake session, which not only provides detailed information to the practitioner, but also helps the client start to “connect the dots” about how emotions and stress affect the physical body, and how all organs and physical structures affect each other. The hands-on treatment helps to relieve tension in the diaphragm, digestive and reproductive organs, back, and hips. Throughout the session, the focus is on learning about the body and discovering tools to empower one’s self to find balance on all planes: physical, emotional, and spiritual.

What’s an appointment like?

Your first session includes approximately 45-60 min telehealth session where we review your intake form and discuss your treatment goals, health history, and talk through our plan for working together. Your in-person hands-on session is scheduled within a week of your telehealth session and is usually 60 min. Follow-up sessions are usually 60 min, but some people need or prefer a longer 90 min session. These follow-up visits are typically scheduled 2-4 weeks after your initial session, and we will review our treatment plan frequently so we can ensure your personal goals are being met.

When you arrive for your initial in-person appointment, you will be asked to undress to your comfort level and cover your chest with a towel for your privacy. Many people undress completely, and many choose to remain partially clothed; the option is always yours. The massage will cover the area from the bottom of the ribs to the top of the pubic bone, as well as the corresponding section on the back: from the mid-back to the sacrum, glutes, and coccyx (tailbone). There is no internal aspect to this treatment protocol. You’ll be taught simple self-care techniques that you can utilize at home, including self massage, castor oil applications, baths, steams, etc.

When scheduling your appointment, please keep your menstrual cycle in mind (if applicable for you) as we don’t want to schedule on days when you are heavily bleeding. If you are actively trying to conceive or are undergoing fertility treatments, this may also impact your scheduling, so please be sure to mention this when booking your in-person appointments. People who have recently given birth or have had any kind of abdominal surgery should wait six weeks before scheduling their in-person session.

What is The Abdominal Therapy Collective?

In 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, a global group of educators created a new organization in order to support practitioners who were trained in the techniques of abdominal therapy brought to the United States by Rosita Arvigo.

The Abdominal Therapy Collective was created as a collaborative and collective organization. Our members are our owners and board of directors, and help guide us to maintain and foster the Maya abdominal therapy practices of Don Elijio Panti, Miss Hortense Robinson, and so many other traditional healers.

Our work is direct-lineage, which allows us to trace our roots back to the educators and healers who came before us, so we can respect, honor, and acknowledge them. At the same time, we are continually striving to create safe and sacred spaces that are inclusive of all people. We hold in reverence our traditional roots and also seek scientific evidence to help us understand how and why these techniques are so powerful for so many people.

I’m honored to not only be a founding board member of the Abdominal Therapy collective, but also a current educator teaching the general population as well as professional-level classes.