Exciting News!

Exciting News!

Ojai Lymphatic Therapy is now located at Sukha Ojai (just a stone’s throw from my former office on Pirie Road). I have been fortunate to find partnership with two lovely Ayurvedic practioners, Sarada Von Sonn and Baleigh Bender. Together, we are creating an Ayurveda Clinic, and our doors are now open!

Soon, I will be offering more Ayurvedic bodywork treatments, but as you know my treatments are frequently personalized and include many Ayurvedic touches such as warm oil and sessions focused on addressing specific symptoms or concerns.

I am thrilled to invite you to find us at Sukha Ojai. Our newly remodeled office is spacious and, well sukha! It’s a fresh and pleasant space to support our ever-unfolding exploration of wellness and natural healing.

A wholistic approach to lymphatic health.

When any part of the lymph system becomes overloaded with toxins, the system stagnates, creating a toxic, oxygen-deprived environment conducive to degeneration and disease over time. This can initially be experienced as tenderness, swelling, fatigue and low immune response. If you are experiencing any of these, I invite you to come in for a consult.

We can support the lymph system from a number of approaches. Manual lymphatic therapy encourages toxins to move through the system. By taking a wide-angled look at lifestyle and dietary patterns, we’re able to address the factors that lead to systemic congestion, so that you can enjoy a better overall sense of well-being.


Bodywork . Diet . Lifestyle

LYMPHATIC MASSAGE

MYOFASCIAL RELEASE

CUPPING

DIET & LIFESTYLE CONSULTATION

LYMPHATIC MASSAGE • MYOFASCIAL RELEASE • CUPPING • DIET & LIFESTYLE CONSULTATION •

Services

First session? Download bodywork waiver

Therapeutic Massage

Customized blend of modalities to support overall wellbeing

  • Relieves stress

  • Nourishes and tonifies connective tissues and skin

  • Relaxes muscles

60 min | $145

Manual Lymphatic Drainage Massage

Lymphatic Drainage is a gentle massage which focuses on moving the fluid layer of the body, using an Ayurvedic lymphatic massage oil.

  • Stimulates and supports detox

  • Lightens and relaxes the body

  • Calming and clarifying to the mind and nervous system

75 min | $150

Myofascial Release

Slow, non-force, long-held releases unwind gripping patterns in the connective tissue caused by strain, overuse, trauma or injury.

  • Reduces acute and chronic pain patterns and scar tissue.

  • Restores flow of lymph, nerve and circulatory systems throughout the body

  • Restores range of motion

  • Deeply relaxing and gentle

  • Supports healing and recovery from surgery

75 min | $175


Learn more about the techniques…

  • Manual lymphatic massage is directed at moving the fluid layer of the body. Like water, it is both gentle and rhythmic, but results in deep relaxation while triggering a powerful detox of the system. Many clients feel calmed by the treatment, and express a renewed sense of vitality and clarity.

    Vodder-based manual lymphatic drainage technique is designed to restore a congested lymphatic system to its natural flow. Deeply relaxing, this gentle but powerful modality exercises the small atrophied muscles of the lymph system. It stimulates a detoxification as it re-establishes the free flow of lymph throughout the body, which allows the body to restore and maintain health and balance in its systems. Additional use of Lymphstar sound and light vibrational technologies break up lymphatic congestion at the molecular level, optimizing results of manual therapy.

    Due to the detoxifying/restorative nature of this modality, lymphatic therapy is a powerful adjunct to seasonal cleanses and detox protocol. Used before or after most surgeries, it improves hastens healing and recovery. Some choose Lymphatic Drainage as their massage of choice because it is relaxing as well as cleansing.

    Lymphatic Drainage was pioneered in Austria by Emil Vodder in the 1930s, while working to clear severe sinus congestion with his patients. It developed into a whole-body therapy which stimulated lymphatic action (our natural detox system), thereby increasing the body’s restorative and healing capacity. This therapy drains stagnant lymph and restores it to function on its own. Today, it is the fourth most recommended therapy by European doctors for both preventative and post-surgical healing.

  • Myofascial Release is an effective hands-on technique that involves applying gentle sustained pressure into connective tissue restrictions to eliminate pain and restore range of motion. This technique is gentle and has many facets as it is designed to address the effects of trauma in the body. Trauma (physical and/or emotional), inflammatory responses, and surgical procedures create myofascial restrictions. 

    I have been studying Myofascial Release with Dr. John Barnes since 2010. Myofascial Release is a natural complement to Manual Lymphatic Drainage. Fascia is a 3-dimensional webbing that runs throughout the body, sheathing around muscle, tendon, bone, even cells.

    When the fascia is healthy, it is like a wet loofah, porous and pliable, with fluid easily moving throughout the various layers and body systems. Imagine that running through these porous spaces are also your nerve, lymph, and blood capillaries. When the fascia has been traumatized, it is like a loofah sponge that has been wrung out and dried in a twisted, tight position. Not only does this effect our nervous system, contributing to pain patterns in the body, but it also impedes circulatory and lymphatic flow.

    The added benefit of this technique offers significant opening to the fluid layer of the body, and also reveals and alleviates many long-standing pain patterns related to trauma and congestion in the body.

  • Cupping Therapy is an ancient form of medicine in which a local suction is created on the skin to promote blood flow and healing.

    Through either heat or suction, the skin is gently drawn upwards by creating a vacuum in a cup over the target area of the skin. The cup stays in place for five to fifteen minutes. It is done to help treat pain, deep scar tissue in the muscle and connective tissue, muscle knots, and swelling.

    Cupping therapy decompresses connective tissue and draws stagnant blood and toxins to the surface so that they can be moved out of the lymphatic system. Used in various places on the body, it dramatically reduces pressure in the connective tissue, as well as improves circulation. Glass cupping on the face helps to de-congest the lymph, thereby reducing toxins and puffiness that contribute to aging.  When applied to the abdomen, cupping helps to stimulate digestion and circulation and lymphatic flow in the intestines and internal organs, thereby assisting with cleanses and detoxes.

  • Use of the LET LymphStar technology is offered during treatments. The LymphStar LET wands are sonar-vibrational devices which enhance the effects of manual lymphatic drainage by breaking apart random molecular bonds formed by toxins in the lymph nodes. It is painless and subtle. When used it helps to stimulate microcirculation and the lymph nodes to optimize manual treatments. It is painless and used briefly before manual work on various sections of the body.

Client Resources

  • Body brushing can be a useful tool to assist in lymphatic drainage. The lymphatic system is an integral component of the immune system, filtering the blood of all cellular waste. When healthy, it absorbs and discharges unwanted body fat, excess fluids, toxins, bacteria, viruses, hormones and assists in healing challenges related to all of the body’s systems.

    • Stimulate lymphatic & immune function

    • Calm the nervous system

    • Improve digestion and kidney function

    • Detoxify & tone skin

    • Increase circulation

    • Reduce cellulite

    Download Technique

Meet your therapist

Alicia Morris Soto, AHC, CMT

Alicia Morris Soto began her studies in bodywork  at Kali Institute in 2003. Guided by her interest in yoga, she went on to study Thai Yoga Massage with Saul David Raye. In 2008, however, a desire to support friends with acute Lyme Disease symptoms directed her to focus on lymphatic drainage massage, and study with Allen Mills of the Center for Lymphatic Health.  

“Early in my private practice, I noticed a palpable link between fluid stagnation and gripping patterns in the body and which inspired me to pursue training in myofascial release with John F. Barnes to improve quality and outcomes of treatment. However, in my research on how to maintain lymphatic health, I was inspired by the depth and eloquence that Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) offered to a conversation around the fluid layer of the body which modern medicine was barely beginning to acknowledge and language.”

Alicia graduated from Mount Madonna Institute as a certified Ayurvedic Health Counselor in 2018. Since 2009, she has offered gentle detox and restorative body treatments, as well as Ayurvedic lifestyle support, in her practice at Ojai Lymphatic Therapy. She is currently co-founding and merging her practice with Sukha Ojai, an Ayurvedic clinic and apothecary.

“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.”

– Lao Tze

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