Anthony

My brother and friend were going to England and I wanted to go so I worked in a juice factory in Perth for 6 months to save for that trip. I went to England and I didn’t come back for 13 years except to visit for a few months. I really loved it over there. During that period I did care work for the elderly where I would live in cooking, cleaning, washing and other jobs around the house which gave me good money to travel. I would have a job for 3 weeks then travel for 3 weeks. I did this for a while and one of the big trips was through Western Europe for 7 months where I met a woman whom I ended up having a relationship with. She invited me to Zurich in Switzerland to see if I could live and work. The idea was to stay there for 6 months, return to England then come home to Australia but I ended up staying for 8 years. I enjoyed learning German, met lots of people and managed to get work.

When I first arrived in Switzerland I was suffering from sciatic pain and the woman I was with raved about her massage therapist, Meinrad Binder. She wanted me to try and it was there that I had my first experience with Esalen massage. He was also a Botanist and I remember walking out of that room into his incredible garden he called his winter room with all his exotic plants under a gazebo. I said to him, ‘I want to learn what you just did to me’.

I came back to Australia for a few months to work to decide what I wanted to do. The pull was so strong and it turns out that he was one of the head teachers at the European Institute of Esalen. He became my mentor. He was very generous when I was struggling financially and allowed me to go for free. Through him I learnt so much. I worked and gained enough to keep going to the school. I went on to do advanced courses and left 4 years ago to come back to Australia as I wanted to study Osteopathy. I wasn’t sure if I would be accepted into the course due to not doing well at school but I did. It’s actually just passed 9 years since I first started the Esalen training and I’m in my 4th year now of Osteopathy at SCU in Lismore. When I think back it will be exactly 10 years when I finish Osteopathy from when I first started Esalen. That wouldn’t have been in my wildest dreams.

Esalen originated in Big Sur, California in a place called Esalen which is on massive cliffs overlooking the ocean. In the 60’s and 70’s famous bodyworkers from around the world congregated there on a piece of land owned by two guys. They came to teach and to share ideas. People like Fritz Perls who did Gestalt therapy, Milton Tragar, Ida Rolf and many others. They developed this style of massage and called it Esalen. The place still exists and it has hot springs. People go there to do workshops of all kinds to do with wellness. Some of those teachers came to Zurich to teach us including Ray Swartley. They use to do the massage on top of the cliffs with the waves crashing on the rocks below and that’s where a lot of the long strokes of Esalen come from. The ebb and flow of the waves.

I am situated at Evans Head Recreational Hall but I also do some mobile massage as long as there is room for me to move around.The massage uses oil and traditionally the person is without clothes under a sheet, always covered except for the part of the body I am working on. The strokes go the whole length of the body to connect the body head to toe…a bit like Lomi Lomi massage. There is a lot of movement of the limbs and the joints and a lot of stretching the muscles, deep tissue work and depending on what the person wants, can be gentle or deep. It encompasses different styles. You can see Shiatsu, Trager and Rolfing in Esalen. It’s unique in that way.

My number is 0498664652 and I charge $80 for a 75 minute massage.

Footnote – ‘I was lucky enough to be given a massage as a gift from a friend. Anthony is excellent, very professional and I am still floating’.