NAUSICA GUITART

Self-Regulating Massage

With a broad outlook over the person's ailment and the personalized implementation of different manual techniques, the Self-Regulating Massage favours the body's natural self-regulating ability to reestablish the person's physical and emotional balance.

Massages give us a space to listen to our body, achieve mental silence and be able to transform what we are feeling, either physical pain or an emotional condition which makes us feel bad.

With the massage, we let go of tensions and pains, we integrate emotions and activate the flow of vital energy, and so we regain a state of wellbeing.

ORIGIN

Feeling well physically and emotionally is a basic human need. My goal is to share my knowledge in order to take people towards a more satisfactory state of health.

The Self-Regulating Massage is a distillation of everything I have learned, experienced and discovered over the years in relation to five areas connected with the body in several ways: Dance, Physical Patterns, Quiromassage, Foot Reflexology and Craniosacral Therapy.

My first professional stage as a dancer and Dance teacher has helped me delve deeper into everything connected with the body in movement and with its expression and creative potential.

Moreover, the study of Physical Patterns has provided me with tools to understand and enhance through the body the mechanisms of health recovery and well-being from an holistic point of view, integrating physical, mental and emotional aspects.

Quiromassage has given me a view of the physiological and anatomical functioning of the organism, and has also provided me with tools and techniques to deal with imbalances in the body through touch and manipulation.

And Foot Reflexology has given me tools to regulate, through reflex points on the feet, the different internal systems of the body (nervous, circulatory, endocrine, lymphatic...).

Lately I am studying Craniosacral Therapy ―which uses and listens to the organism’s own life intelligence as a guide for any healing process― with the intention of learning more about the body's capacity for self-regulation.

SELF-REGULATING MASSAGE

In addition to its innate physical traits, the body reflects and echoes our particular way of life and how we understand it, and shows everything that happens to us on a vital level.

The causes of a recurrent ailment or imbalance (one that isn't due to an injury or an accident) are the interaction of several factors. This is why I look at the person and all her context to approach the work during the sessions:

• I take into account the person's health record, life events (work, affective relationships, kids...), her surroundings and circumstances.

• I also consider important how the person connects with her body and this is why I take into consideration her physical hobbies (Does she walk, exercise, meditate...?).

• Moreover, I give importance to postural habits in general and to those which might be specifically connected with the symptom, as well as to eating and sleeping habits.

• The level of mental sound, emotional stress and vital satisfaction are also relevant.

Afterwards I talk to the person in order to know what she wants to improve, and I go to the body to work on the aim on which we have agreed.

The basis of the Self-Regulating Massage is physical. Touch, manipulations and hand sensitivity are the basic listening tools. In individual sessions I use different techniques on the whole body and feet.

The massage sessions help us create a space in which to stop the day-to-day dynamics and feel ourselves physically through touch. In this way we give ourselves a space to listen to ourselves, relax, breathe and transform what we are feeling, be it physical pain or an upsetting emotional state.

During the sessions I explore the mobility of the person's body and joints, the texture of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, the musles' tone and tension. I watch how she breathes, how she reacts to touch, her level of mental silence, of tiredness... In this way I notice how the person tends to be in the body, to hold herself.

By working on the body I seek to reestablish the person's natural flow of energy, which in turn contributes to the ongoing change of those habits which don't provide well-being. Because the organism has the natural ability to balance itself, the aim of the Self-Regulating Massage is to assist this self-regulation ability which will allow us to recover our balance.

This recovery manifests as global well-being. Throughout this process the person feels differently because other qualities in her have been able to appear, while non-beneficial old habits lose strength. The person gains qualities such as:p>

• Absence of pain, relaxation, flexibility, deep breathing capacity, feeling the body as a whole, lightness, the feeling in her legs of being grounded, ease to keep the torso straight, vitality...

• Silence, calmness, mental clarity, trust, strength...

This is why the Self-Regulating Massage is recommended to improve physical pain or an unpleasant feeling in the body, as well as to communicate better with an emotional state that makes us feel bad.

Through the work of the massage and the exercises that I recommend, people learn tools to do something by themselves in order to improve their condition.

THERAPEUTIC INDICATIONS

To whom is it addressed?

The Self-Regulating Massage is advised for people who have physical symptoms such as: backaches in general, bad postural habits, lumbago, sciatica, mid-back pain, torticollis, tense shoulders, frequent muscular contractures, muscle fatigue, reduced mobility of joints, stiffness, constipation, poor digestions, fatigue, chest oppression, headache, reduced breathing capacity, low level of vitality, feeling of heaviness in the legs, circulatory disorders, circulatory problems and backaches during pregnancy, circulation and tissue recovery during postpartum, etc.

The Self-Regulating Massage is also advisable for people with emotional symptomatologies such as: insomnia, stress, worries, fears, lack of trust, poor concentration, irritability, nervousness... People who are going through a mourning process, a couple separation, who have work overload...

The Self-Regulating Massage is also recommended to everyone who wants to benefit from the effects of a quality massage.

The Self-Regulating Massage is not a substitute for medical or psychological work, but it can be a good complement. It neither works with serious health conditions.

How many sessions are advisable?

Work length may vary depending on symptomatology (if there is one) and the person's interest:

Isolated Sessions. To create a change in the state in which the person finds herself, whether it is created by physical pain or an emotional condition. Simply achieving relaxation can also be the aim.

A short working process, of three or four sessions, very advisable to improve the condition why the person has come in a more complete way. And also to give time to integrate new patterns in the body.

A long working process advised in several situations:

To get out of a particular condition and create a long-lasting change. Changes in the body need persistence in order to integrate new patterns. And also so that the person learns ways to do something to improve her condition.

To relieve an irreversible chronic pain and be able to maintain a certain level of well-being. The person learns tools and transforms the relationship she has with the ailment, assuming a more active approach.

As preventive and maintenance work for keeping physical and emotional well-being.

Nausica Guitart Xicola

Born in Barcelona in 1968

I study Art History during two years at Universitat d'Història i Geografia de Barcelona (University of History and Geography of Barcelona).

I study Contemporary Dance in Barcelona at El Bugüé, La Fàbrica, El Timbal and Àrea -space of Dance and Creation.

I move to Amsterdam and in 1992 I graduate at SNDO -School for New Dance Development, at the University of Arts of Amsterdam.

I go back to Barcelona and in 1993 I join the Iliacan Dance Company, with Álvaro de la Peña and Pere Jané.

In 1995 I take part in the creation of La Caldera, centre of Dance and Performing Arts.

In 1998 I receive a Scholarship from the Generalitat de Catalunya (the Catalan Government) for an extension of studies in NY.

Between 1993 and 2003 I dance with the following companies:

Iliacan - Álvaro de la Peña, Malqueridas - Lipi Hernández, Senza Tempo - Inés Boza and Carles Mallol, Magpie - Katie Duck, and Comediants - Joan Font. I also dance with the choreographers Ana Buitrago and Eileen Standley.

Between 1993 and 2008 I teach Contemporary Dance and physical training for actors at: Institut del Teatre de Vic (Theatre Institute of Vic); La Casona during 5 years in the regular course of physical training for actors; El Timbal and Escola Oficial de Dansa Laie (Official School of Dance Laie) in Alella, during 2 school years.

I make a professional turn and study Physical Patterns in Barcelona. In 2007 I obtain Levels 1 and 2
Until 2010 I work as a Physical Patterns practitioner.

In 2011 I open the Sala Calàbria (Calàbria Space) with Manel Palou and I start my own work, the Self-Regulating Massage.

In 2014 I get the Quiromassage Diploma from Antonio Espejo at Instituto de Terapias Aplicadas (Institute of Applied Therapies) in Barcelona.

Since March 2014 I run the centre Espai de Ser (Space of Being) with Laura Esquinas.

In 2015 I study Foot Reflexology at Instituto de Terapias Aplicadas in Barcelona.

In 2017 I study CranioSacral Therapy 1 at Upledger Institute.

In 2018 I study CranioSacral Therapy 2 at Upledger Institute.

In 2019 I study Seiki with Paul Lundberg and Seitai with Katsumi Mamine

TESTIMONIALS

I've been receiving massages from Nausica for around 6 years. We haven't worked regularly, but to me the sessions are a very valuable resource when something worries me and I don't know how to get over it, or sometimes when I simply want to indulge myself with a good massage. Of Nausica I would stand out her respect and listening qualities, which reflect on the conversation as well as on her way of touching. Each session is unique, it responds to the present circumstances and the individual experience. Although the same issue may be dealt with throughout different sesions, her way of approaching it changes: sometimes she works more on a muscular level, other times she focuses more on movement and breath, she puts an emphasis on some body parts or others... I find this flexible approach of working from different perspectives very rewarding and, being the process changeable, the result to me is always the same: recovering the sense of the body as a whole and calming the mind -such a gift!

Teresa Coderch. 32. Singer-songwriter.


To be aware of our body, to reencounter ourselves through the senses and to breathe... A space that can be found through Nausica's hands. More than a massage, a dance... Don't miss out!

Elisabet Isasi-Isasmendi. 36. Journalist.


I whole heartedly recommend Nausica to anyone looking for a sensitive and gifted practitioner of body-work, massage, reflexology or general physical therapy. Nausica's sessions have really helped me both to relax and reconnect physically and also to find and release my potential as singer, so I'm very grateful to her.

Samantha de Siena. 37. Singer and Coach.


I'm about to turn 82; I feel pain in my right knee, my hips and upper back. For a while I took anti-inflammatory pills every day, but eventually they stopped relieving my pain. Then I looked for different alternatives. I get out of the sessions with Nausica with less pain, feeling more nimble and with increased body movement. Moreover, her emotional support has helped me change my attitude towards pain. I have learnt exercices to keep up as well as for moments of pain. Currently I take pills now and then.
I'm very grateful to you, Nausica.

Montserrat Xicola. 81. Enamelwork and collage


Nausica is a warm, welcoming person with a great skill in listening to the emotions and detecting how they settle in our body. Through her Self-Regulating Massage she has helped me process emotions and memories which had settled in the body in the form of blockage, tension or contracture, and thus I have been able to get to feel my body as a whole more rooted, and to find more physical well-being and peace of mind. I think the Self-Regulating Massage is very useful and effective as a tool of self-knowledge through the body. Thanks a lot, Nausica, for welcoming me with your presence and your hands.

María José Galilea, 46. Teache


A muscle spasm is often due to the fact of not paying enough attention to our body's limitations and of doing an activity or a specific action using more strength or tension than is needed and without accompanying it with the movement of the breath. In my case, because of my training in Performing Arts, where the body is highly involved when you communicate and also where the mind and the body need to be on constant feedback, you come in touch with a very powerful process of self-knowledge in which you must learn to regulate your energy very much in order to avoid tensions that on many occasions are inevitable and come up simply because of engaging in a learning process and because of the great self-demandingness or passion that you pour into the craft or the training.

For this reason the sessions I have attended under the supervision of the specialist Nausica Guitart have given me a space to listen to my body, to determine the root or cause of the muscle spasm and to start discovering the way to avoid it.

One of the key factors that should be taken into account in my training and profession and which I have been integrating and assimilating throughout the sessions with Nausica, is to allow the movement to dance and be accompanied harmoniously with the breath, and also to bring the air to the muscle zone that has stopped moving, as well as to release the body without allowing muscle tensions often derived from mental control to come in, in order to discover a new behavior that remains registered in the physical memory and that can be re-activated once I find myself doing that specific physical activity and an unnecessary tension is about to appear.

Itziar, 31, Actress and singer.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Contact

Nausica Guitart
Tel: 620 90 90 89
nausicaguitart@hotmail.com

Location

Manuel Girona promenade 48, basement 2, door 1
08034 Barcelona
Subway L3 Maria Cristina
Bus H6, V3, 6, 34, 70

Schedule

Monday to Friday from 10 am to 8.30 pm

Pricing information

1 h 30 min session for 50€
If you think that the Self-Regulating Massage can help you but you can't afford the fare, let's talk about it!

the place

MASSAGE AND MOVEMENT LESSONS

Trough touch and manipulations we will release tensions and bring our attention to the body.

We will listen to each other's bodies through our hands. Using diverse types of touch that relate to different tissues of the body and the qualities we want to awaken.

We will explore movement through diverse anatomical focuses and music. These will lead us into dancing, moving through space and interacting with the others.

A sensory process of internal listening that will later express outwards.

The aim is to create a framework of trust where each of us can enjoy and develop our own sensitivity to touch and movement.

To participate in these classes it is important that you feel at ease sitting on the floor.

Thank you very much to all the testimonials, to Paula Jané (photography), Jordi Espuny (web), Cote Galilea (linguistic advice and corrections), Teresa Coderch (English translation), Lluís Duran, Francesc Guitart, Tones Llabrés, Silvia Sant, Mercè López, Lola Jané i Pere Jané.