Onyia Pemberton on finding your tension...and releasing it

This post—an interview with the magical massage therapist Onyia Pemberton about neck and shoulder tension, and how it affects our faces—was wildly popular; so was the in-person workshop that Onyia led at Ayla a few weeks ago, when she taught a variety of tension-relieving techniques for the neck and the jaw.

I was elated at their popularity, because Onyia is indeed magical: after my last massage with her (lots of neck, collarbone, and shoulder work), I looked at myself in the mirror for days afterward and thought, “Whooaaaa, what a difference.” My skin looked like it was lit from within. We all want that, don’t we?

So I met up with Onyia one morning last weekend to record some videos, because I realize that not all of you can attend every workshop, and I want more of you to be able to create a toolbox of massage techniques from this wise woman.

As I started recording and listening, it struck me that Onyia’s approach to massage is similar to my own approach with skincare:

First, although she employs various proven strategies and modalities to address what she sees in her clients, she recognizes that every body is a little bit different. Because those strategies and modalities will work a little bit differently on each person, she spends a good amount of her time prompting her clients to find themselves and to notice what feels good to them.

Secondly, she recognizes that while you might be focused on one particular pain point, the underlying cause of that pain might lie somewhere else entirely. So she’ll encourage you to be receptive to information that may surprise you.

Finally, she will never require you to remember a long set of steps and worry about getting them all done in exactly the right order. Instead, she’ll encourage you to focus on whatever nuggets of information and techniques resonate with you at a given point in time. Because, just like every body is different, every body is constantly changing.

I hope you’ll find what Onyia shares to be informative, illuminating, and liberating, all at the same time. In the coming weeks, I’ll share her tutorials for gua sha (to help release tension from the head down to the collarbone) as well as intraoral work (to focus on the jaw). But first, I thought we’d start with a little introduction.

Huge thanks to Onyia for being the magical bodyworker she is and for sharing her knowledge with us here! Stay tuned for the first tutorial next week. (You might want to prepare by picking up this gua sha tool.)