Norman, Oklahoma
Traditional Thai Massage
You stay dressed, you lie on a mat, and I move you. With Andrew Eppler at Yoga on Main, downtown.
You keep your clothes on and lie on a mat on the floor. I work with hands, forearms, elbows, knees, and feet along the lines the Thai tradition calls sen. Some of it is pressure. Some of it is your own body taken through ranges you cannot reach by yourself, then held there while you breathe.
People come to me for lower back pain, for a shoulder that will not open, for a practice that has stalled, and sometimes because they are simply tired.
The work
What is actually happening.
The Thai name for this is nuad thai. It grew up in a part of the world where Indian, Chinese, Buddhist and local Southeast Asian medicine had been meeting for centuries, and what came out of that meeting is its own art, with its own theory of the body and its own way of working. The work follows lines called sen. Ten of them are principal, and three carry names a yoga student will recognize at once: Ida, Pingala, Sushumna. Whether the names traveled with the ideas or the ideas with the names, the record does not say, and I would rather leave that open than tidy it up. The longer history is here, for anyone who wants it.
People sometimes describe this as having yoga done to you. The comparison is worth something, since I do move you through shapes you would otherwise have to find on your own. It is also not where the work came from. Thai massage has its own history, its own theory of the body, and its own vocabulary, and it was never assembled out of postures.
What the rocking is for takes longer to explain than most people expect. A muscle that is guarding will not release to pressure, because pressure is the thing it is guarding against. Slow rhythm gets underneath the guarding, and by the time I put real weight into a hip, the hip has usually already decided to let me.
Before the work begins, the practitioner remembers that the knowledge did not begin with him.
Your practitioner
Andrew Eppler.
I have practiced bodywork for more than thirty five years. My Thai training began in Chiang Mai, at the Old Medicine Hospital, and carried on with teachers in Austria, England, and Greece. In 2014 I completed level one and level two with Chock Petchprom at the TMC school. Alongside the Thai work I have trained in deep tissue, myofascial release, osteopathy, Shiatsu and several other manual therapies, and I use what is useful from all of it. The Thai work has stayed my favorite, and it is the form that carries the rest of my skill best.
I work with everyone, from athletes and children to elderly people, and much of what I see is yoga practitioners. Lower back pain, yoga injuries, sports injuries, and the slow wear of a daily occupation are all familiar ground. A session usually carries some counsel drawn from yoga philosophy, along with practical guidance on diet and daily life, and you will go home with a few exercises to keep on your own.
Thai practitioners open with wai kru, a gesture honoring one's teachers. It is a plain acknowledgment that the knowledge was received rather than invented, and that every technique in it has passed through other hands first.
I also teach private yoga, and there is more about my teaching here.
Watch
Some of what a session looks like.
A session
Start to finish.
Wear something you could do yoga in. Soft pants or leggings and a t-shirt with sleeves, no zips or belts, and nothing that will dig in when you are folded up. Bring socks if your feet get cold. Eat lightly or not at all in the two hours before, because a full stomach makes the abdominal and twisting work uncomfortable.
We start with a few minutes of talking. Tell me what hurts, what you have had done before, what surgeries or injuries you are carrying, and what you want out of the hour. If you are pregnant, on blood thinners, or recovering from anything recent, that is the moment to say so rather than partway through. Then you are on the mat, face up to begin. I work from the feet upward, which is the traditional order and also the sensible one. You stay covered and nothing is rushed, and if something is too much, say so and it changes. Asking for less is never a problem.
Sixty minutes covers the body once, with attention to the areas you named. Ninety leaves room to go back over the hard ones. If you have never had this done, book the ninety.
Afterward, drink water and take the rest of the day gently. Some people are mildly sore the next morning, in the way a long practice leaves you sore, and it passes.
The practical part
- Where
- Yoga on Main, 123 East Main Street, downtown Norman.
- Parking
- Street parking on Main is usually there. If it is not, the bank lot behind the studio has plenty.
- When
- Weekdays, mostly. Weekends can be arranged if you ask.
- Payment
- All major credit cards, through Stripe.
- Changes
- Twenty four hours notice if you can manage it. Late is still better than nothing, and I am not looking to charge someone who could not make it.
- At your place
- $150 an hour, anywhere in the Oklahoma City metro.
Questions
The ones I get asked.
Does it hurt?
It shouldn't. There is firm pressure in places and a stretch you will feel, but the work stops well short of pain. Say something at the time and it changes.
How is this different from the massage I am used to?
No table, no oil, and your clothes stay on. The work happens on a mat and has a lot of movement in it: compression along the sen lines, then the joints taken through their ranges by hand.
I am not flexible. Does that matter?
No. I move you into the shapes, and only as far as your body goes that day.
Do I need to practice yoga?
No. The work assumes no practice at all.
Is there anything that would make this a bad idea?
A few things. Recent surgery, acute injury, blood thinners, uncontrolled blood pressure, and pregnancy all change how I work or whether I work at all that day. None of them is automatically a no. Tell me when you book and we will sort it out before you are on the mat.
Begin
Book a session.
Booking runs through Yoga on Main, where the sessions happen. If you would rather write first and tell me what is going on, use the form below or call.
Traditional Thai Massage with Andrew Eppler. Yoga on Main, 123 East Main Street, Norman, Oklahoma.