August 13-15, 2024 | Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale | 155 Temple St, New Haven, CT
Nanette Ginise
Founder/Direstor
Self Care for Recovery
Pathway:
SELF CARE
Session Title:
Massage Therapy as a nonmedical adjunct in recovery reconnecting Mind, Body, and Spirit
Session Details:
The sense of touch is a powerful sensory modality that can convey emotions and comfort in ways that words cannot always express. Physical touch can promote feelings of trust, security, and self-esteem and is one of our most basic and primal needs. Touch deprivation can lead to adverse health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and immune system disorders. Massage therapy is a safe way to address touch deprivation and create a quiet space that allows the body and mind to heal from emotional stress and trauma.
In this Presentation, we will use positive, trauma-informed touch in some hands-on exercises and review the happy hormones Serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin and if and how massage can play a role in their production and release.
What are you looking forward to most at #MPRCCT2024?
MPRC 2024 is an opportunity to reconnect with friends, create new connections with peers in the recovery field, and gain new insights and experiences while exploring the multiple pathways together.
I am a licensed massage therapist (LMT) in Connecticut and New York.
It all started in 1999 when I graduated from the Connecticut Center for Massage Therapy (CCMT). Two years after graduation, I returned to CCMT as an instructor of Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory and Acupressure, a position I held for 18 years. My interest in this field led me to travel to China several times to learn more about Chinese medicine and bodywork firsthand. However, these travels would never have happened if it wasn't for my diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 2001. One of my doctors at the time questioned my intelligence and asked why I was adding more stress to my system with drugs and alcohol. This challenge got through to me, and I decided to get clean and sober. I entered a recovery program in 2003, and my sobriety date is 2/28/2004. In 2019, I was at an AA meeting when a recovery coach brought a young woman up to me and told her I would sponsor her. Sadly, in 2023, she passed from an overdose, but I will never forget her as the catalyst of my work. We would do step work in the living room, and after a while, the staff and residents became familiar with me. Being there sparked an idea to be of service, providing therapeutic massage to the residents in recovery. Massage therapy is for everybody; it is much more than a luxury. Bodywork is a powerful tool for maintaining physical health and emotional balance, so I wrote a proposal and spoke with the house director. She loved the idea, and it has been four years since I started volunteering there in October.
In 2022, we set up a weekly massage schedule for the women in Families in Recovery Program in Norwalk, CT. This schedule is well-received and thriving. It has been a privilege and an honor to share the gift of my sobriety and my skill at therapeutic and healing touch with women in early sobriety. The feedback from caseworkers to recoverees has been positive and encouraging. With that encouragement, I founded a non-profit, Self Care For Recovery, a registered 501c3, in February of 2022. My mission is to continue to offer therapeutic bodywork for women who don't have the financial stability to experience complementary/alternative health care to reach their self-care goals. Teaching is my passion, bodywork is my calling, and service sets me free.