Norman, Oklahoma
Traditional Thai Bodywork
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 move you, working with hands, forearms, elbows, knees, and feet along the lines the Thai tradition calls sen, the channels it maps for vital energy. Some of it is pressure. Some of it is your own body taken through ranges you cannot get to by yourself, then held there while you breathe. An hour goes by faster than you would think.
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 form is old. It grew up in Thailand alongside Buddhist medicine, carries both Indian and Chinese inheritance, and is still taught in the temple schools there. The practitioner presses at points along the sen and then opens the whole line with movement.
If you have had table massage, this will not feel like that. There is no oil. You are dressed the whole time, and much of the hour is spent with your body being folded, extended, and rocked, which is where the old description comes from: something like having yoga done to you.
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. It is unglamorous and it is most of the skill, and by the time I put real weight into a hip, the hip has usually already decided to let me.
A muscle that is guarding will not release to pressure. Pressure is the thing it is guarding against.
Your practitioner
Andrew Eppler.
I have practiced bodywork for more than thirty five years and studied the healing arts for much of my life. 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 that I have trained in deep tissue, myofascial release, osteopathy, Shiatsu, myoskeletal bodywork, Muscle Activation Technique, and chiropractic, and I draw on all of it. Of everything I have learned, the traditional Thai work has stayed my favorite, and the best form to bring the rest of my skill into.
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.
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 trousers 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, because the floor is a floor.
Eat lightly or not at all in the two hours before. 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. Nothing is uncovered. Nothing is rushed. 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.
What should I wear?
Something you could do yoga in. Soft trousers or leggings and a t-shirt with sleeves. You stay dressed the whole session.
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.
Should I book sixty or ninety minutes?
Ninety, if you have never had it done. Sixty covers the body once. Ninety leaves time to go back to whatever needs it.
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.
Will I be sore afterward?
Sometimes, mildly, the next morning, the way a long practice leaves you sore. Drink water and go easy for the day.
Can you come to me?
Yes. Sessions at your location are $150 an hour, anywhere in the Oklahoma City metro.
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 Bodywork with Andrew Eppler. Yoga on Main, 123 East Main Street, Norman, Oklahoma.