Trying to compile my Hot Stones after-care leaflet, so wondering if there is any specific and additional after-care due to the use of the hot stones?
I assume that the body temperature of the client would be slightly higher and more sensitive to UV light etc.- any further advice beyond not laying in the sun/sun-bed/sauna?
Also, the magnetic fields of the basalt stones might be affecting the CNS and the balancing of the chakras - any further advice beyong rest?
Appreciate your thoughts.
Hot Stone therapy can induce very deep states of relaxation and therefore the recovery period can be more pronounced.
- clients need to relax for the rest of the day and avoid using machinery or driving.
- outline the effects of hot & cold stones on the digestion system
- generally I advise clients t avoid hot stone therapy if they've got any cold or flu symtoms. However, I still treat client's who are recovering from a cold and therefore they need to know that the treatment will draw the cold symptoms. In this case it may make them feel worse for a few days.
HTH,
Myarka.
Are you using any cold anything (cold stones, cold packs, etc) to normalise their temp before leaving? If you get them back to normal temps, other than water, water, water, the aftercare isn't a major issue.
If you let them leave dehydrated and raised body temp, it's all the same issues as if someone went in a sauna and didn't cool down afterwards, or went to sleep on an electric blanket on high. A friend of mine called me the other day saying she'd been going and having these amazing hot stone treatments, but had stopped because the clinic was so dirty (another story), she went on about how a major detox was brought on, how rotten she felt afterwards, how she could only go and lie down, the first treatment took a couple of days to get over it, the next didn't have quite such a profound effect, signs of the clearing. When I asked her a few questions, it turned out only hot stones were used, hot stones were place on quite a few lymph nodes (groin and tucked behind the knees). As soon as she said about the behind the knees, I knew it was because the lymph nodes had been heated and not flushed out afterwards. You don't put heat on lymph nodes then send people home.
Being unable to move and think clearly after having a stone treatment is NOT a good sign, it's heat exhaustion. The problem is that often the client thinks it's really amazing if they couldn't move afterwards, they mistakenly believe they are so relaxed when actually it's they can't move because they've go mild heat exhaustion and dehydration, possibly lymph pooling, all triggering off a detox and just general stagnating.
Cool them down before they leave and it balances the heat.
If you google safety saunas that gives you an idea of issues - almost every google results says cool down and water. Saunas do get hotter than a hot stone treatment, but a hot stone treatment is usually much longer than the recommended time in a sauna (15-20min) the longer stone treatment with the lower temp is about equivalent to a shorter sauna at a higher temp. For steam tents used in Ayurveda, they always recommend the cold on the head/neck and cold along the major chakras, steam room saunas, often recommend people have a cool flannel on head neck and a cool shower afterwards to balance the temps. The cool down is important.
People should NOT get off a table after a stone treatment and think all they can manage is to go have a lie down.
Thanks for that wonderful insight, Cola
On the topic of cold stones (we use them on the eyelids and on the face) I was wondering if there are any thoughts about my experience last week:
for the very first time, I was on the receiving end of eye-lid iced-stones (placed atop a cotton wool pads) - I immediately felt very aggressive REM and within about ten seconds I had a splitting headache and asked for them to be removed ;-( The headache was gone about 2 minutes later...
My tutor was suggesting it might be due to me being male, and not used to my eyes being touched and tweaked with...
I can't stand anything placed on my eyelids causing any pressure on my eyeballs, I don't mind under the eye, but don't like stuff on the eyelid, so I would say you're normal, and the rest of them that like it are freaks LOL!! But I am very short sighted, which means my eyeball is a bit pointier than normal and I have had a detatched retina, but I don't like things on my eyelids on either eye.
I will say with stones, more isn't always better. You can sometimes get great results with only a few stones, sometimes it takes a lot. Not everyone is the same.