In the early hours of 4 September the city of Christchurch received a 7.1 earthquake.  It was the same size quake experienced in Haiti earlier this year and in San Francisco in 1989.  The miracle was that no deaths occurred in Christchurch.  I was in Canada that day, preparing to fly home to Auckland the next day.  The news showed the pictures and all that I could think about was what could I do for these people.

Early in 1990 I attended the Anatriptic Arts Expo in San Francisco. During that visit, I stayed with a massage therapist who said she worked voluntarily on 50 people in one day after the quake!  She provided chair massage to the victims, including children, and also to those helping to re-establish the infrastructure (firefighters, city workers, etc.).  The recollection of this story gave me impetus to do something similar for Christchurch.

Natural disasters affect people on many levels, especially the families who are displaced by the event.  A condition that appears in an event such as the Christchurch earthquake is post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  This disorder usually shows up as sleep disturbances, irritability, moodiness, hyper alertness, anxiety, loss of memory and/or the inability to concentrate.  The symptoms may appear gradually over time.  Massage, bodywork and yoga techniques have been proven to work by switching the nervous system to a calmer parasympathetic mode and re-establishing the mind-body connection.  Clients sometimes re-live the event as the body releases the stress with massage or with carefully guided breathing techniques.

After much planning, I made an initial visit to the city on 7-11 October to get a feeling for how people were coping.  Massage NZ helped connect me with people who were willing to volunteer.  One of those volunteers, Vicki ann Thornton allowed me use her central city clinic space and over the next few days I encountered very tired, stressed people. Many had disassociated from their bodies due to stresses but reconnected with treatment and then were referred on.   My first patron was one of the many "givers" dealing with many of their own stressed out clientele.  He gifted me with a bottle of First Light Flower Essence's Quake remedy which was a valuable aid to all. Through friends who live in Christchurch, I learned that family violence statistics were on the rise, heart attacks were more frequent, and the employers I spoke to reported a noticeable lack of focus amongst staff.  Some employees had taken time off for stress leave.

Coming into this situation from the outside allowed me to view things with a fresh perspective.  Most living in the situation didn't realize they were harbouring stresses until the treatment, even the therapists who came.  About 40 people accepted the invitation for treatments.  MNZ member Janet Wood came up from Ashburton for the Friday to assist with onsite massage at an office building my husband’s work arranged for us as well as at Calmer at Stella’s.  I used all my skills from Yoga, craniosacral and massasge to calm the frazzled nervous systems on the table or in the massage chair.

I experienced a 4.2 aftershock early Friday morning and it was unnerving.  The sound of it coming was the worst part.  My heart was racing.  A 7.1 quake and the memories of it must instill terror at some level into people.  They can try to cover it up with their minds, logic, busyness, etc. but those strong survival emotions are held in the soft tissues until they are acknowledged and released.   I now realized that a one day event was not only necessary it probably needed to happen more than once.

On 7th of November, at the NZ College of Chinese Medicine (NZCCM), 16 therapists/students and several teachers offered their skills and assistance to the public free of charge.  The intention was to give awareness through talks and then treatment to show that bodywork, yoga and acupuncture is helpful in alleviating symptoms of post traumatic stress. The public could choose from acupuncture, massage, chair massage, craniosacral, reflexology, Indian Head massage, Bowen Technique, and yoga breathing and body awareness.  Volunteer therapists gathered at 9:30am to set up for the event and to prepare by going over some techniques for stress release that included visualization, yoga breathing, and table/chair techniques.

At 11AM the room filled to capacity for a Maori Mihi and Waiata (Blessing) that started off the presentations by guest speakers. We listened as Canterbury University psychology doctoral candidate, Alison Ogier-Price, psychology doctoral candidate spoke to us on “Post-traumatic Growth: Finding Wellbeing after Trauma”.  She had us switch our thoughts on what are often deemed “negative” emotions and how they are used positively. Piedad Barillas, senior Acupuncture tutor at NZ College of Chinese Medicine, our host venue, spoke about “How Acupuncture Can Balance the Body During Stress”. Pie gave the oriental philosophy of the 5 elements in relationship to earthquakes and how the earths’ chi can move through the body.  This talk gave me new insight on how to use the earth’s frequent energy releases to heal instead of building on the fear.  Questions were answered after each talk.  

At 12:45 the treatment rooms opened and quickly filled.  Those waiting for body work could choose to have instruction in yoga nidra, joint mobilizations, or breathing with Jane Allan. There was a bit of a scramble to accommodate the TV3 News that showed up to film and I ended up doing an impromptu craniosacral treatment in a storage room full of desks. An aftershock occurred just as the treatment was ending!  With my new insight on using the earth’s movement to heal I remained ever present and calm.  The client remained asleep throughout the session and even through the aftershock!  He was a bit dazzled following treatment and said that it was the first time he slept through an aftershock.

At 2:45 Jane Allan, yoga and Bowen Therapy teacher, gave a talk on “Into the Calm: Yoga Techniques to Regain Calm, Centered State of Being” full of yogic wisdom on how to shift into a parasympathetic mode using breath, gentle joint movement and self massage.  I finished the afternoon off with a talk on “Making a Difference Using Manual Therapies”,  quoting the studies from the Touch Research Institute  (Field, T., Seligman, S., Scafidi, F., & Schanberg, S. (1996). Alleviating posttraumatic stress in children following Hurricane Andrew. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 17, 37-50.) and incorporating my knowledge from meditation (Raja yoga) about the use of sound and light to invoke peace and harmony.

About 70 people attended this event.  The NZCCM is interested in holding another event in February and March next year.  A facebook page is set up for this and future events involving natural disasters: “NZ Emergency Relief Therapists”

I am grateful to all the assistance I received from the people of Christchurch, NZCCM, the MNZ executive committee and Yoga Aotearoa (IYTA NZ).  In the process of organizing this event I decided to become a member of MNZ.  What a great bunch of people!

About Marina Locke:  Marina has a practice in Auckland, NZ (which is about 80 minute plane ride from Christchurch).  She offers massage therapy, craniosacral therapy, and therapeutic yoga. For more info see www.motherwellness.com.

News broadcast of this event can be seen at:
TV3: http://www.3news.co.nz/Stress-relief-for-quake-shaken-residents/tabid/309/articleID/185111/Default.aspx
Canterbury TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaYojwlxZlo