Indian Head Massage:

History of Indian Head Massage (also called Indian Champissage)

Massage has always played an important part in Indian culture, featuring in early ayurvedic texts dating back as far as 4000 years ago. The wisdom in these texts describe that indian head masssage, especially when used in conjunction with herbs, spices and aromatic oils, had an important medicinal function, encouraging the the innate healing energy within the body to restore balance on all levels.

Narendra Mehta, the founder of the Indian Champissage school, grew up with head massage as an integral part of his daily life, something he automatically experienced every time he visited an indian barber. However, when he came to England in the 1973 to train as a Physical Therapist, he was dismayed to find that head massage was not generally available and he was disappointed to discover that the head seemed to be completely neglected even in a full body massage.

Narendra began to miss the therapeutic value of regular head massage and in 1978 he decided to return to India to research the ancient art of head massage. He studied it wherever it was practised and synthesised what he was experiencing, applying his heightened sensitivity as a blind person to discover which part of his body reacted most positively to specific moves.

He quickly realised that the therapy would benefit by being extended to include the face, neck, upper arms and shoulders, all areas that accumulate high levels of stress and tension from daily challenges, and also introduced energy balancing through sound. Focusing primarily on the three higher chakras (Visuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara), the body’s entire energy system could be quickly rebalanced.

Narendra found he had a powerful holistic therapy which could be used effectively to treat the whole person and “Indian Champissage” was developed from an ancient practice to become an excellent contemporary therapy.

This “new” therapy was introduced at the 1981 Mind, Body and Spirit exhibition at Olympia, England, where a total of 179 clients came to Narendra’s stand suffering from headaches and many other stress-related symptoms. They left recharged and relaxed. Exposure to these and countless other clients during the next few years at his clinic and at various exhibitions allowed Narendra to study the effects of his techniques in depth and to revise and expand them.

The future of healing in the twenty-first century is an exciting one.