Patrick Stockstill has been a massage therapist since 2008. He is an Esalen® Massage teacher and practitioner, and a Deep Bodywork® practitioner with over 1000 hours of training in several modalities. He sees adult clients seeking to cultivate greater awareness of themselves through touch. Patrick's clients regularly report feelings of deep relaxation and wholeness, pain or symptom relief, and lasting benefits from his more focused, structural offerings.
You can learn more about Esalen Massage below.
In addition to his private bodywork practice, Patrick leads retreats and courses in Esalen Massage. Patrick is a teaching member of the faculty at McKinnon Body Therapy Center in Oakland. He is a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher (with over 500 hours of training), who enjoys working with anyone who is curious about their embodied experience.
Bhakti Massage is named in honor of the bhakti yoga tradition, the practice of selfless devotion. During our time together, I devote my intention, skill, and compassion to your healing journey. You deserve to be healthy and happy!
Patrick and his family moved to Orcas Island, WA in 2021, and he is honored to offer safe, healing touch to the island community and visitors.
If you would like to organize or host an introductory Esalen Massage course with Patrick, or a certification course with Patrick and a senior Esalen Massage teacher, please email info@bhaktimassage.com.
What is Esalen Massage?
"Esalen massage is characterized by four basic principles:
1. The practitioner is working with, instead of on, the client.
2. The massage is a moving meditation; the practitioner is committed to being as fully present as possible for the entire massage session, bringing a full-hearted, meditative presence to the table.
3. The practitioner is aware that a client may be affected on physical, mental, emotional or even spiritual levels.
4. Long, flowing strokes, integrated throughout the massage give a sense of relaxation, connection and wholeness.
When looking at these principles more deeply, it is apparent how interrelated they are: When a practitioner is working with, instead of on, a client, the practitioner learns to listen and respond to what he/she is feeling both in the actual tissues and on an intuitive level. Consequently, the Esalen practitioner responds to the unique issues presented by the individual client, instead of imposing a particular protocol, from or set way of working as in some other forms of massage. In order to successfully feel and know what is appropriate for a particular client, the practitioner needs to develop a full-hearted presence, the ability to be truly present and focused with the client, and to listen with the whole being.
Often, bringing this full-hearted presence to the table enables a client to feel safe enough internally to relax and let go on very deep levels. Formerly unexpressed emotions, the holding of tissues that often follow with trapped emotions, or even held pain due to physical or emotional trauma-all have the opportunity to rise to the surface and clear from the bodymind, frequently affecting the client on more than a physical level.
The responsibility of the Esalen practitioner is to stay fully present and provide a safe space, thus supporting the release of the pain or emotion that was originally trapped in the tissue in the body.
The fourth principle, the long, flowing strokes in Esalen massage, not only relax and prepare clients for deeper touch, they also easily move the practitioner from one area to another are of the body, supporting the feelings of connection, integration and wholeness. The effectiveness of the long integrating strokes is becoming more apparent as evidenced by the number of other massage modalities have begun incorporating signature Esalen strokes.”
~Deborah Anne Meadow – Massage Magazine, April 2011