Rock On: Add Sparkle to Your Sessions With Crystals and Gemstones
By Melinda Minton

Crystals and Gemstones Resources

Crystals and brightly colored gemstones - such as purple amethyst, pink rose quartz and onyx black as night - have recently made their way into the spa. Similar stones have adorned knights, lined cathedrals and persuaded young ladies into marriage. The powers of stones in sharp peaks, round baubles and a myriad of other geometric shapes have mesmerized cultures for centuries. Like old souls, gemstones continue to enchant.

The use of crystals as vehicles for healing and for use in massage is nothing new. Many cultures and religions have bestowed magical powers and reverence upon crystals and gemstones. They are seen as healing because they come from the earth and are infused with planetary energy. Each stone - unique in shape, color, size and derivation - is believed to carry its own energetic vibration.

Modern Times
The current trend of using crystals and gemstones during massage sessions was born of an earlier trend, that of using rocks and stones in massage, a technique which enjoyed explosive growth in the mid-1990s. Using rocks and stones for therapeutic purposes is also a practice that has been around for thousands of years. From a spa perspective, rocks, stones, gems and crystals offer a new spin on massage.

Mary Nelson-Hannigan, founder of La Stone Therapy in Tucson, Arizona, and perhaps the best-known proponent of stone massage in the spa and massage arenas, says that in the last few years interest in stone massage has been waning. Accordingly, La Stone has entered into the realm of crystals. "With the introduction of crystal massage we have had the same response that we did with the stone movement," she says.

From a spa viewpoint, it seems logical that as massage and spa became more popular, mainstream and accepted, therapists and facilities started to search for more interesting ways to perform the same old services.

You will note that the proponents of modern stone and crystal massage are all massage therapists, not estheticians or spa directors. And most of them found their way to using gems and crystals through reading, research, blending complementary modalities or pure accident. Nelson-Hannigan, for example, started using stones primarily for their hot and cold effects in her massages. Carole Anne Crighton of Stone Temple Emporium in Essex, Connecticut, which sells stone sets, was inspired by the smooth stones sent to her by a friend who found them walking on the beach. I suspect that many therapists have experimented with dousing wands and sage bundles, have placed crystals around their massage tables, and have dabbled in other New-Age practices to personalize their massage sessions.

This entire grass-roots movement was picked up by the spa community and marketed as a new treatment. Understand that spas are continually hungry for new ways to set their facilities and treatments apart from the hundreds of other spas in the country. The result? Like many trends, what is old became new again.

Healing Properties
Although scientific studies have not yet been conducted on crystals and gemstones, and the mainstream medical community is far from embracing them, therapists, clients and physicians attest to their healing properties.

Ada Gonzalez, a naturopathic physician who conducts gemstone workshops, says that crystal and gemstone work is far more powerful than the health-care and wellness industries realize.

"It’s medicine," Gonzalez says. "Stones can be used in a number of different ways to energetically alter the body."

Pauline Crouch, a naturopathic physician and co-owner of Gemisphere, a company that sells therapeutic gemstones, offers trainings on gemstone use and publishes books on gemstones, believes that gemstones offer "energetic nutrition." More, however, isn’t always better. For example, if an individual wishes to wear therapeutic stones in the form of jewelry, Crouch says, the individual should start out with a small amount, and wear one or two types of stones for a sufficient amount of time for the stones to affect the body.

According to Gemisphere’s teachings, living things are a continuous flow of life force. In the natural course of living, this energy, which comprises our essence, can become blocked. Blockages cause physical, mental and emotional distress. Through individual frequencies, gemstones neutralize negativity and open up blockages.

"Only the highest quality of gemstones are truly healing," Gonzalez says. "An infinite number of gradations exist between gemstones, but among the qualities that deem a stone therapeutic are color, clarity, contaminants or inclusions and cut."

Patrick Weber, M.D., a pediatrician in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, wears necklaces made of gemstones that carry particular qualities that he believes help guide his practice and his personal life. One necklace he wears includes lapiz lazuli and lavender, which he says improves communication between the heart and mind. Another includes indigo, to improve intuition.

Although he doesn’t actively use gemstones with his patients, Weber says that his personal use of the stones helps his medical practice by sharpening his judgment.

"That’s where the greatest benefit is, not for a specific health program - though they can be used there as well - but for helping intuition and for the calming and enlightening qualities," Weber says.

According to Michael Katz, author of the book Gemisphere Luminary, "Only therapeutic-quality gemstones allow the full range of a gemstone’s healing properties to be expressed. Therapeutic quality gemstones are those which meet high standards for physical purity and quality. For every gemstone there is a different set of criteria, which makes that gem therapeutic."

Gemisphere teaches that each gemstone has a unique purpose. For instance, dark green aventurine is used to cleanse discordant energies from the body’s weakest organ. The effects of the stone, however, will vary from person to person depending on individual need.

Andrew Pacholyk, a massage therapist and metaphysical consultant practicing in New York City, says that crystals are manifestations of our planet. Infused with the energy of air, fire, soil and water, they possess strong healing and nurturing powers, he says.

Pacholyk also believes that crystals work to reconnect the chakra points by energizing and balancing the energy centers.

"Each chakra in the body is seen as a focal point of life energy," he says. "Chakras are stations along the central axis of the body, which correlate to the ethereal energy of our being. Each one is a point at which energy can be expressed in a certain set of actions, attitudes and emotions."

"The various chakras are a map of the soul, which you can check in with in order to maintain good health and balance," Pacholyk continues. "These points represent our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual growth. They are openings through which our attitudes and belief systems enter into and create our body/mind structure. The energy created from our emotional and mental attitudes run through each chakra. This energy is then distributed to all aspects of our bodies."

Another therapist who addresses the chakra system is Pat Burkitt, a gemstone-therapy practitioner in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She uses crystals and precious stones, such as emeralds, diamonds and sapphires, to work on the chakras to access layers of physical and emotional blockage to facilitate healing.

"The blending of crystals with precious stones is a synergistic mix that is very powerful," Burkitt says. "I like my clients to carry or wear stones as reinforcement to the healing work that I have done on them."

Rocking A Session
How crystals and gemstones are actually used in sessions varies with each therapist. Some therapists use a crystal as a massage tool. Others may lay a gemstone or crystal directly on the client’s body, to effect healing in that area. Still others place crystals or gemstones in specific areas of their session room, to open up energy.

According to Sonia Alexandra, founder of a stone-massage products and education business in Boca Raton, Florida, one stone or a few stones may be used on the chakra points during massage. Crystals may also be used during the masking portion of a facial in tandem with cold stones on the eyes to reduce inflammation and soreness. She also says that stones can be used intuitively as the practitioner sees fit.

"In my six years of educating licensed professionals in stone and crystal work, I have seen a lot of creativity put to use on ways to use the stones," Alexandra says. "You can either use [an established] methodology point by point, or take some of those methods and add your own creative, intuitive, personal style to the work. Either way, the effects of the stones are very powerful."

Joni Gorchoff experienced her first crystal chakra massage a little over a year ago. A regular massage client, she sought relief from a neck and shoulder injury and from chronic neuropathy in her legs.

"It was like nothing I have ever experienced before," she says. "The combination of the warmed stones mixed with the chakra work was just amazing. The energy from the stones was immediately noticeable. The only way that I can describe the sensation is a sort of release - an immediate letting go and opening up. I experienced immediate relief from tension and pain. Even days later I felt like a million bucks."

Celia Harnley, of Hudson, Minnesota, uses gemstones not only to affect her physical well-being in her massage sessions, but also to help her clients’ emotional well-being.

"Sometimes I will have a client hold crystals that are significant to their particular healing in each hand," Harnley says. "For example, I recently gave a client a rose quartz to heal some trauma that she had incurred in a relationship breakup. She held amethyst in her other hand to help her stop the addiction of smoking."

Among a variety of stones, Harnley routinely uses citrine. "I have several pieces of citrine that are of various shapes. The yellow ray in citrine helps the body to process energy work and actually supports the functions of the spine," she says.

Harley also uses crystals as massage tools. "I might use a knobby piece for deep muscle work and a rounder-shaped piece for more delicate massage strokes," she says.

Client Feedback
Laurie West, an aesthetics instructor at the Florida College of Natural Healing, in Davie, experienced a crystal massage at THStone in Boca Raton. "I was having mid- and lower-back pain and heard about the crystal modality," she says. "Not only did I notice a feeling of relief as the warmed crystals were being used during the massage session, I also felt a significant improvement days after the massage."

West believes that crystal massage is one of the most deeply relaxing types of massage that she has encountered. ?There is something about the combination of the chakra work in tandem with the healing energies of the crystals used that just really makes a difference in the quality of healing and the effect that the work has on the body," she says. "I’m sold."

Client Glen Christiansen, an Olympic swimmer from Hamburg, Germany, says, "One of the strongest contributions to my eight world records has been the green tourmaline gemstones that I have been wearing."

And at Applewood Wellness & Beauty Sanctuary in Weston, Florida, owner Vicky Diaz says that clients welcomed crystals added to massage sessions. "Our clients just ate it up; they loved it," she says.

Applewood offers an $85, one-hour crystal massage to balance the chakras and rejuvenate the mind and body.

"We do crystal-based facials also," Diaz says. "We also use the crystals and stones in body treatments."

"Once a client comes in for one treatment," Diaz adds, "they’re hooked."