Shannon D. Stone, CMP

Paul Brown Massage Therapy Pain Relief Center in Sacramento is pleased to announce that 16 year veteran Certified Massage Practitioner, Shannon Stone, has joined our practice. Mr. Stone specializes in “Results Oriented Therapy” which makes him an ideal fit for the pain relief center.

Shannon attended the Healing Hands School of Holistic Health in Escondido, CA, and was the top graduate in his class. Mr. Stone has worked with professional athletes, bodybuilders, Hollywood actors and musicians. He uses his knowledge of anatomy and deep intuitive abilities to help clients achieve their bodywork goals.

Shannon is available for appointments on Sundays and Mondays and is happy and excited to be working at the Center.

“It felt good to be working here,” Shannon said after his first day of working.

Welcome to the Center, Shannon!  Here’s hoping your practice is long and fruitful.

As much as I love speaking to my clients when they telephone, sometimes it’s just not possible, like when I’m in session with another client.  Yet because I value that human connection, I want to make certain that clients never have to leave a voicemail, so meet Nicholas, my receptionist.  He answers my phone for me when I’m in session; he can answer some questions about my practice, and he is more than happy to help you find the right appointment time and service combination to help you feel better!  Plus, if you have a question Nicholas cannot answer, I will be sure to return your call as soon as I can!

To all my wonderful clients – I am moving my primary office to Sacramento, California.  After seven years in San Francisco, it’s time for me to return to my hometown to care for my aged father, so I’ve leased a new office in Downtown Sacramento.  But do not fret, for my neighbor in the Phelan Building, the Acupuncturist Cindy Icke, has offered me Tuesdays and Wednesdays in her wonderful office for my clients.

During my move, starting 15 November, I will be closed while I relocate my office and move.  Starting December 1, I’ll be back in business in both my Sacramento and San Francisco offices.

Sacramento Location:

717 K Street
Suite 500
Sacramento, CA 95814

San Francisco Location:

760 Market Street
Suite 759
San Francisco, CA 94102

Because I am constantly seeking to be of service to you, my wonderful clients, I am now able to accept credit cards in my office – you will no longer have to pay online before a session if you wish to use a credit card, although you still certainly can if you want. Thanks to the return of my iPhone, I have a credit card processing application from Intuit, the makers of Quicken and QuickBooks, which allows me to accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express.

This is just one more way to help make your decision to receive bodywork easier and more stress-free!

Groupon Voucher

If you are redeeming a Groupon “60 Minute Tune-up” voucher, here’s how to do it.

• Click
  
  Follow the on-screen prompts and pick your appointment request.
• You will receive an email with the details of the appointment. The appointment is not confirmed until you receive a separate confirmation email.
• Cancellation policy from Groupon: “24 hour cancellation or fee of Groupon price will apply at appointment. This will be a $40 fine.”
• If I have to cancel or reschedule the appointment within 24 hours, I will give you an additional 30 minutes worth of time ($40 value) on your appointment.
• You may use the voucher to upgrade to a longer (90, 120 minute) session – just pay the cost difference ($40 for 90, $80 for 120). If you are upgrading, you must let me know in the comments of the online schedule, or at the time you telephone to set up the appointment. If you do not let me know that you are upgrading at the time you book the appointment, I will assume you are paying the full price for the appointment and you will be responsible for that fee.

HomeRun Voucher

The July 2010 HomeRun vouchers have expired.  They may still be redeemed as a gift card for the amount you paid toward my services.

November 2009 Groupon Voucher

The expiration date has past for the Groupon Voucher I sold back in November 2009.  They may still be redeemed as a gift card for the amount you paid toward my services.

Gift Card Cafe or Paypal or Paper Gift Certificates

Please use the “Book Now” link at the top of the page to request your appointment, and please mention in the notes when you request your appointment that you are redeeming a gift certificate.

I have lowered my prices effective immediately to $70/hr, $105/90m, and $140/2hr sessions.  All bulk session purchases are also lowered.  Massage should be an important part of everyone’s life, and while the economic climate is poor, my prices will reflect that climate, too.  It’s just my way of helping stimulate the economy and keep you healthy at the same time!

Book a Massage Session Today!

I will be up at Lazy Bear Weekend this year, from 29 July to 03 August 2009.  I will be accepting appointments for “outdoor” bodywork sessions: on my lovely portable table in my “massage temple,” a large screened in portable gazebo.  If you’ve never had an outdoor massage before, you are in for a real treat!

You can make an appointment by calling me at 415-424-9570 while I am up there, or if you see me in person at The Outback Campground or in town.  I’ll be happy to work with you!

As a way of getting my name out there in these challenging economic times, please vote for me in SFGate’s BayList Best of Mind and Body Category.  It’s fast and easy to do!  Please vote today!

Happy Halloween!

Wow, the past two months have flown by!  The lovely weather of Autumn is giving way to the wetness of approaching Winter.

Massage in the News

So much good news coming out about massage in recent weeks:

Massage helps reduce pain in post-surgery patients:

The study, which was funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and lasted from 2003 to 2005, involved 605 veterans — most of whom were white men with an average age of 64, who had chest or abdominal surgery. All patients received routine postoperative care. Two experimental groups, however, received additional individual attention from a massage therapist: One group got a 20-minute visit, during which the patient and the therapist talked but no massage was given, and another group received a 20-minute back massage for up to five days following their operations. The massage group, the study found, reported markedly less intense and less unpleasant pain and less anxiety than patients who got standard pain medication or individual attention but no massage. Dr. Daniel Hinshaw, a surgeon in the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and one of the study’s co-authors, says that when asked a day after surgery, some patients reported that massage delivered about as much pain relief as a dose from a morphine drip. Hinshaw suggests that massage functions by creating a competing sensation to block pain or by generating endorphin-like chemicals in the body, which reduce pain and promote a sense of well-being. He also notes the crucial — and often forgotten — role of touch in medicine: Human touch can help alleviate anxiety and ease pain. “Patients crave contact,” says Hinshaw. “They want some kind of comforting presence.”

Massage helps reduce pain and anxiety in cancer patients.  Sanjay Gupta, MD, reports:

The overlap of mental and physical boosts makes sense, given the biochemistry that’s in play when your body is massaged. Levels of feel-good neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine spike, while measures of the stress hormone cortisol drop. This is the same phenomenon that’s at work when you feel the fabled runner’s or exerciser’s high, and it’s also one of the things that makes a post-workout massage particularly satisfying. For people whose workouts lead to neck and back pain — or whose existing neck and back pain prevent them from exercising at all — massage has answers too.

It has been fairly well documented that massage therapy provided by a licensed or certified professional produces real relief that may last even months. Several studies have shown that a rubdown works well at the other end of the age spectrum too: babies and infants who are massaged tend to cry less, appear more relaxed and interact better with their mothers.

November Specials

Early Bird Special – Save $10 if you book an appointment that starts before 4:30pm on a weekday appointment.  Just enter the code “EARLYBIRD” on the checkout page of my website.  Or, if you pay with cash (returning clients only), we can deduct the price off the session at time of payment.

Half-off Hot Stones – Once again I’m extending the 50% off hot stone add-on special – you can add a hot stone massage to any treatment this November for only $10.

Exercise of the Month

For this exercise you need a five pound bag of rice.  We’re going to strengthen the diaphragm, the primary muscle of  breathing.

Lay on your back, with knees supported by a pillow or two.  Place the bag of rice on your abdomen, directly below your ribcage.  Breathe deeply into your belly, lifting the bag of rice with each breath.  While you are doing this exercise, place one hand on your belly, and one hand on your chest.  With each breath, let your hand on your belly be lifted by your breath.  The hand on your chest should lift only slightly, and that after your ‘belly” hand.  That’s the signal to you that you are breathing deeply into your abdomen, or as I like to say at the start of a massage session, “breathe all the way down to your pelvis.”

Continue this exercise for two to five minutes, repeating daily.  In almost no time at all, you’ll notice that you are breathing more deeply in your general living.  Deep breathing is a great way to stay more relaxed, and also helps you to receive bodywork sessions more readily, as well.

Gift Certificates

With the winter holidays approaching, you may be thinking about gift giving for loved ones.  As you know, I sell 30, 60, 90, 120 minute sessions in 1, 5, and 10 session packages.  If you buy 5 massage gift certificates, you’ll receive 10% off the total cost, and if you buy 10, you’ll receive 20% off – that’s like buying 8 and getting free!

Massage is a great gift because it shows that you really care about them in a way that is unique: through skilled, touch filled with loving-kindness.

How can you use these certificates?  Well, I have one client who’s a real estate agent, and he gives them to his clients when they close on a house.  I have another client who gives them out as “atta-boys” to his employees who perform especially well.  And I have another client who has in the past used them to give to his friends for Christmas presents.  Massage is great gift!

That’s all I have for now.  I’ll be posting a new “Care and Feeding of Your Inner Bear” video in a few days, and when I do, I’ll send out a quick note for that.  Have a great November!

Wow. Just wow. Beside going back to school for more training in 2006, this is absolutely the best investment I’ve made in my business.

Being able to adjust the table height in the fly was utterly incredible; it let me put the client at the perfect height for whatever I was doing to him at that particular moment. I got to use my legs for more power and less for my positioning in relation to a stationary client. My body was much more comfortable as a result and I used less energy to accomplish the same work. So that’s a big win right there.

But it was the mid-split that really made the session outstanding. The front of the table opens up to forty degrees from flat. At around 9 or so degrees, the lower back is put in a mechanically neutral position, and decompresses the lumbar spine. So I started out there for the first part of the session, then increased the angle more and more. I strapped his legs to the table and went all the way open, which took him into a nearly fully inverted position. I could see his back pull apart, and did some deep work that way. Wow, it was incredible to open his back up like that.

All the while he was inverted, his arms were fully supported on the adjustable arm rests, and his head cradled in the sliding head rest, so his neck vertebrae never got compressed at all.

My mind is racing with the possibilities of how to use this incredible tool.