Self Lymphatic Neck Massage

well hello there thank you for joining me today Rochelle Clarke the art of healing touch licensed massage therapist and certified lymphedema therapist today we're going to do a short demo for the lymphatic system I'm going to show you how to do lymphatic massage on your neck you ask why well there's many benefits to doing the simple technique of opening up the lymphatic system at the base of the neck it can drain the head and sinuses and it also has an effect on the entire lymphatic system in fact frequently when I'm doing lymphatic drainage on my clients working on their neck and we're just getting started they tell me they can feel movement of the fluid all the way down to the tips of their toes so it really does have a powerful effect on the overall lymphatic system before we get started I just want to share that there are some contraindications with you and if you ever have any question at all please check with your medical doctor to see if lymphatic drainage is the right thing for you to do you so first of all to get started I want to say that the touch is very light with this form of work we're going to work at the venous angle at the neck and I'll show you where that is so you have the collarbone here or the clavicle and then you're going to follow this beautiful long muscle called the sternocleidomastoid that will call the SCM for short and it attaches on the mastoid process which is this little bony prominence and prominence right behind your ear and along this lovely muscle there's a whole chain of lymph nodes and I actually have a chart back here and you can see that the neck is full of lymph nodes so we're going to be following this chain of lymph nodes from just behind the ear all the way down where it connects to the collarbone and so and the other piece is the trapezius muscle so you have this nice triangle here that we'll be working with and we're going to do that on both sides so some people like to just place their hands here like this for me I find it difficult to have my hands relaxed like this so for me I like to cross and we're going to be focusing on the finger pads just the finger pads not the hand I know that the touch is very light is really hard to quantify that so I'm a very kinesthetic learner so what I'd like you to do is just place your fingertips on the outside of the sternocleidomastoid the SCM here where it connects with the clavicle and just place your fingers right in that nice little triangle there just rest your finger pads there and then gently begin to pump or actually just pull the skin if the touch is so light you want it to be just light enough where you're gently stretching the skin downward you're not compressing into the tissues into the muscle you're just gently stretching the skin and I'm already feeling myself needing to swallow so when you feel that happen that's a very good thing that means your lymphatic system is activated and starting floo and you may feel your sinuses starting to drain just by doing the simple movement so you if you'd like to do both sides at the same time just gently cross your hands or again you can do it like this you try it and see which feels are most comfortable for you so we can start with about 20 of these they're very slow and rhythmic about one every one to two sometimes even three seconds it's a very slow movement the lymphatic system does not have a pump like your blood system has the heart and so it relies on these slow movements to effectively move the lymph in fact most people don't realize this is light pressure very powerful by doing a lymphatic massage you can actually stimulate the flow of your lymph up to ten times its normal rate so that's a profound effect so you can do twenty to forty of these to start I know that there are many that recommend do 50 to 100 and that's totally fine there are days when I do that myself when I feel like I need a little extra boost maybe for my sinuses if I'm starting to get a head cold I just need a little extra drainage from the head then by all means you're welcome to do more there we go again so now you have a couple of options you can come up to the top of the neck where I showed you this nice little bony prominence and just rest your hand across the back there or you can put your fingers together where they meet right at the base of the skull which is known as your occipital Ridge there and just place your fingers right below the ridge of your skull and gently pump down to drain the back of the neck and you can do as many of those as you like you can do 20 to 40 even up to 100 if you wish today I'm not going to do that many for the video but that opens up the back of the neck and I can feel my ear starting to drain even though we haven't gotten to the ears yet so you can cross your hands like this like this just behind the ear and gently pull the fluid down as you pull the fluid down gently remember it's a very light touch the pressure is just enough to stretch the skin or you can do this nice Glide by resting your index finger along your jaw and just gently do a very light effleurage stroke and what that means is you're again contacting the skin with just enough pressure to lightly stretch the skin and you should feel the fluid moving easily for some the lymphatic system is a little more congested and you may not notice it moving right away just continue to do that until you feel that trickling or the need to swallow or clear your throat go ahead and do the other side and you can do 20 to 40 or more if you wish again I mentioned some people like to do 100 so feel free to do as many as you like bringing that fluid all the way down to the venous angle right where the SCM connects with the clavicle or the collarbone and as you bring that fluid down I feel my ears opening up and my sinuses opening up and I can actually feel some movement in my arms so this really is a very powerful short treatment for the lymphatic system now I love this move are you a Trekkie fan so you're just going to gently you have the lymph nodes in front of and behind your ear and just by placing your fingers in front of and behind your ears and gently pulling down that will stimulate more release of the fluids from your sinuses your face your head and we'll do the final rinse down the neck and then gently pumping and stretching the skin right here at the neck and that's it for opening up the neck lymphatic massage for the neck it has many benefits if you would like to learn more if you liked what you saw today and you want to learn more check out my website for my top 10 tips for a healthy lymphatic system at Rochelle Clark calm or the art of healing touch calm thank you and have a great day

Channel: Rochelle Clark

Views: 127,492

Rating: 4.8933926 out of 5

Keywords: Lymphatic Drainage, Lymphatic massage, self lymphatic massage, lymphatic neck massage, sinus, allergies, congestion, manual lymphatic drainage

Id: UebHyphaVTM

Length: 8min 40sec (520 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 12 2016