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University Daily Kansan / Thursday, April 2, 1992
Making a masseuse
Students and faculty learn the art of giving and receiving massages
By Jenny Martin Kansan staff writer
"Anyone want to use a little power putty?" a voice asked a cluster of KU students and employees in bathing and warm-up suits.
A male college student caught it and immediately started to knead away.
A huge glob of electric blue putty was thrown across the room.
After a couple of minutes of kneading, the glob was passed down the row of students, until everyone had the chance to warm up their fingers and kned their stress away.
"It's important to warm your hands up, just like you would any muscle, so you don't go into it too cold," the voice said.
A class of about 20 students sat chatting, kneeding putty and doing hand exercises while waiting for their Monday night "Basic Massage Techniques" class to begin.
The voice belongs to Joyce Mary Grant, a certified massage therapist. She prepared to pass on her powerful healing abilities in the second of a series of four massage therapy classes she is teaching at Robinson Center.
"Massage is extremely effective in relieving stress," Grant said. "I think it's a really important and wonderful contribution to another person's experience because we have so much stress in our lives."
Grant gives a 30-minute demonstration on the technique that the class is concentrating on that week. The remainder of the class is spent practi- ticing on the computer.
As a student eagerly volunteered to be the guinea pig for the demonstration, the other students intensely looked on, preparing themselves for the second part of the 90-minute session. They soon would practice their newly learned techniques on a partner.
"In the kind of technological society we live in, people are starved for the human touch," Grant said.
After the demonstration, the lights go out, the new age music comes on, and the students make themselves comfortable on floor mats with towels and pillows.
This week was the first time the students had teamed up and practiced two of the more basic techniques.
By the end of the four $20 sessions the students will have learned four different basic massage techniques, including:
effleurage, the most basic and commonly used stroke. It is an exploration stroke used to discover points of pain or tenderness;
- petrissage, a kneading stroke used to "milk" or work the muscle;
- tapetement, a light tapping or series of brisk blows applied in a chopping motion to the fleshv parts of the body;
friction, small circular motions applied around bones and joints.
Discussions on technique and origin of the art give the students an understanding of the wide scope of massage therapy that can be used.
"People think that a massage is just a message and are really surprised that there is such a broad scope of techniques," Grant said.
Danielle Mattison, Olathe senior, and Debbie Streifford, University City, Mo. senior, said they never had taken a massage therapy class before and were taking this one because they wanted to improve their massage techniques.
"My boyfriend can't wait, but he wanted to know why I wasn't taking the class with him," Streifford said.
Grant emphasizes that an important part of the learning experience is the "giver — receiver feedback" that takes place after the students
that takes place after the students practice on each other.
"When you are giving a massage and know what it feels like, it can change the whole massage." she said.
Grant said that massaging had several benefits, one of the most important being that it aided in the release of toxins that built up in muscles.
These toxins are the waste products of the body's metabolic system which creates energy.
"It's important after a massage to drink a lot of water to flush out the toxins that have been released from the muscles," she said.
This is the fourth session that Grant has taught at the University of Kansas since last fall. She is planning on having two others before the semester is over.
Kristan Clark, Overland Park senior, said she thought she was learning a lot about massage techniques.
Grant said the class also covered what massage therapy was not.
She said that the whole massage therapy profession was working to overcome past "massage parlor" connotations, and through her classes wanted to upgrade the professional standards and image of it.
It is important that the receivers explain exactly what kind of massage they want and signal if at any time they are uncomfortable.
Karen Dionne, Bartlesville, Okla., and Ray Moody, Shawnee senior, practice their newly learned massage therapy techniques on each other.
Kristen Petty/KANSAN
The givers must ask and be constantly aware of the comfort of the receiver.
employee said, "I think it ought to be mandatory for KU employees to take this class so they can give their co-workers masses."
Pamela Hickman, a KU payroll office
African family societal role discussed for cultural week
By Shelly Solon Kansan staff writer
Brenda Crawley, associate professor of social welfare, said the African-American family revolved around a kin network that had flexible family roles.
Maikudi Karaye, assistant professor of African and African-American studies, said the African family was identical in that aspect and that extended families were common all over the African continent.
African and African-American cultures both stress the importance of the extended family, panel members said at the second panel discussion for African Awareness Week.
Both Crawley and Karaye were on a panel of three that spoke to about 20 people at the Kansas Room in the Kansas Union last night.
Karaye said family was the basis of everything in Africa
"The family is not a concept," Karaye said. "It's a historically-produced social reality. It's more real than politics, more real than democracy itself. It is the ultimate reality. It's the center of economics and politics and cannot be ignored in political agenda."
Members of the KU African Affairs Student Association hope to encourage communication and relationships between African and American students.
Aminu Ibrahim, public relations officer for the group, said the activities for the African Awareness Week concentrated on promoting cooperation.
"We want to try to maintain a standard of cooperation between African and American students in particular," he said. "Our membership consists of American members, Blacks and whites, but having the activities are another method to bring everyone together and tell people we are ready to cooperate with everybody."
Gloria Guguleau Masinga, president of the association, said the week was celebrated before 1988. but not as actively.
"This year, we wanted to have panel discussions so people had time to talk and be represented." Masinga said.
Ndomby Flunsu, a sophomore from Zaire, said people needed to recognize how issues in Africa affected other countries.
"International relations are crucial in the new world order," he said. "People need to realize that these issues are very important for the future."
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