Student Hana writes about her experience of the Rhythmical Massage Therapy Training:

“I was asked to write a reflection on the last RMT course, which I was lucky to participate in I was one of ten students; the numbers diminished and grew again throughout the course.  The training started in April 2016 and we graduated 2 years later.  From the start I was imbued with a sense of strong, maybe karmic connections with all the participants, and course leaders.  We were an international course with students joining from Spain, Italy, South Africa, Ireland and of course the UK.

I have previously taken part in the Anthroposophical Healthcare course where I learnt ‘Einreibung’ used mainly by anthroposophical nurses; I trained as a nurse in my far away past and completed a training in Swedish massage.  So, I had used my hands in a healing way before. Yet I was completely taken aback by learning how to use my hands yet again in a new way.

The two years were filled with intense and incredibly enriching studies and hands on practice.  Our course tutors led by Aoine Landweer-Cooke, were knowledgeable professionals and always supportive and encouraging.  Watching Aoine demonstrate a particular sequence of rhythmical massage was like watching an artist creating a masterpiece.

The course tutors were always there guiding and supporting us whilst we slowly mastered specific movements.  There were difficult times as well when my hands would not do what I wanted them to do, when I could not stop my tendency to rush ahead instead of being in the moment and breathing with the movement.

The whole course was permeated with deep respect, knowledge and reverence for the mysteries and miracles of the human body and its functioning, not just on the physical but also at a soul and spiritual level, embedded in anthroposophical knowledge and understanding of the human being.

We had many incredibly inspiring medical letters from Anthroposophical doctors such as James Dyson and Broder von Laue, encouraging us to deeply penetrate the subjects they presented.  Dr James Dyson’s announcement while teaching the subject of twelve senses “If you do not fully comprehend this, you are not going to be effective therapists” kept me slightly terrified but also incredibly motivated to grapple with what was presented and willing my brain to work a bit harder.  On the other hand, Dr David Gavin painted such incredibly vivid, inspiring and enthusiastic pictures of the workings of the digestive system but I left his lectures smiling a grateful for being alive and part of this beautiful world.

There were so many great lectures by so many great people and professionals that it is so hard to mention them all, but I would like to mention a few: plant studies with Henk Kort, two-, three- and fourfold studies with Janis Balaskas, singing with Pia Poulsen, cancer studies with Dr Frank Mulder and water studies with Simon Charter.  The whole course was permeated with enthusiasm for learning, and it felt as I was at home.

I am pleased to hear that a new Rhythmical Massage Therapy Training is going to start at Emerson College in 2024[1].  I am quite sure that my last RMT training is one of the best courses I have ever done.  I am looking forward to having more colleagues practising this very special therapy in the UK.

I would like to finish with the verse, by Novalis, that we often opened our lessons in Rhythmical Massage Therapy with:

“There is in all the world a single temple,
Indeed, the human body,
Naught is holier than this form sublime
When one lays hands upon the body
One touches heaven every time””

This article was originally published in ASinGB Magazine in Autumn 2023 and is reproduced here with kind permission from the author, Hana Karafiatova who lives and works as a Rhythmical Massage Therapist in Camphill Schools, Aberdeen.

[1] More information about Rhythmical Massage Training can be found here.