From a festival field to teaching AYM, by Steven Taylor

My first experience of massage was at a UK festival called Big Chill, and my friend very generously decided to treat all three of us to a massage in the healing fields. It was an amazing experience, and I think I was lucky as my therapist was amazing. I could tell he loved his work, and I sensed that he saw it as a craft. It felt like everything was conscious and detailed, but there was definite ‘flow state’. It was a dance of sorts, a coordinated journey round the body, and I was left elated and grounded. I often wish I could meet him and let him know the impact he’d had on that day so many years ago, that he’d inspired my life to slowly move into a different direction. Bodywork. After a career in criminal justice, and then some time travelling, I decided to follow this urge and move back to London to study with Mel Cash, creator of Sports Massage, at the London School of Sports Massage. This course provided me with a firm foundation in anatomy and movement, and some very solid techniques to help maintain mobility and movement, and fix them when problems occurred. I realized that at its core, massage is a very simple offering, and one of the most intuitive. Studying sports massage in London with its creator, Mel Cash, taught me a skillset of solid techniques that I still draw on, and a majority of my clients, many of whom are professional sports folk, still see me for sports treatments. After this, I worked in various settings offering sports massage, at festivals and retreats, in clinical settings and privately. Whilst also following other passions too.

But I do distinctly remember a nagging feeling like i wanted to offer something else, with an idea that I wanted something that would address the holistic and energetic side of bodywork that had initially inspired me as a therapist, and free me from the limitations of the table. I started to look around at different courses involving floor work -feeling a little bit stuck with the tables' lack of dynamism. I first came across Ayurvedic yoga massage after doing sports massage therapist on and off for about 4 years. I stumbled across the AYM institute from a random google search, and read what it had to say about its history, what it offered, and who it was for. I loved the idea of being mobile, and being able to take my work anywhere, so as a firm believer in regularly learning (for learning’s sake) I signed up for the diploma training in the Well Garden in East London .

I loved the idea working on the floor, moving around my client, working with their body in an intuitive way. The assisted stretches and using the breath allowed me to help the client in a way that I’d not experienced before. Much of this aligned closely with what I’d learned with sports massage about post isometric release as a technique for pushing further into a stretch. My poor limbs and joints also loved the idea of using downward force, my feet, gravity, and my own bodyweight -all potentially career saving for a body worker. The course was the perfect balance of demonstration and practice, with enough space to apply my own DNA as a therapist. It was practical from the start, the best way to remember -with the hands and body. It’s slow build made perfect sense, with each sequence -many of which can stand alone, slowly building into a delicious 90 (ish) minute treatment that left me in a state of deeper restoration than any other modality ever has. There was little pressure on ‘remembering’ everything, as the notes were to hand, and everything was regularly repeated and revised before moving to add a new component. Today I draw on AYM in all the massage work that i do, and its a joy to teach and share. Its simple approach to each of the muscle groups regularly leaves therapists of long standing astounded and i’ve lost count of all the times i’ve heard students say ‘oh wow, that’s so obvious, why have I never tried that!’ (or words very close to that). Using the feet to walk on areas of the body which traditionally get pounded by the therapists limbs is also a eureka moment for so many, and a turning point in their offering. I think i’d have had to find another job if it wasn’t for the versatility AYM has given me as a bodyworker. It’s opened a lot of doors, given me the versatility to work in a variety of settings, and it’s always a deep joy to see the effect it has on people, and how it can provide a deep sense of restoration, repair, maintenance, and deep relaxation. Since assisting on courses in Bristol, and being invited to be mentored as a teacher with the AYM Institute in Goa, I've taken AYM to Scandinavia and Glastonbury, and i'm excited with new format of courses on offer in 2020.

The diploma course is the perfect entry to bodywork and quite unique in it's very simple to learn and thorough approach -leaving a new therapist confident to give a 90 minute, full body treatment that can be done pretty much anywhere, with limited resources. I now offer AYM treatments in my studio space in Redland in Bristol, as well as mobile, and my next challenge is getting all my table based holistic and sports clients to see how it can profoundly increase their flexibility and range of movement to give them the edge that they need. Sporty folk can sometimes be a wee bit limited in their scope for other types of bodywork, and often shoot themselves in the foot by not acknowledging other practices and approaches to the body, as well as the localised effect that holistic work can have. But they’re missing out, so I’m keen to share!

Steven Taylor - AYM Institute teacher