The team
We are a massage school dedicated to teaching Californian Massage. This type of massage has a restorative and liberating purpose, being at the same time very deep and intense.
In our massage school we work on the muscular part as well as the emotional and energetic part of the person. Throughout this teaching, we will emphasize both parts and their interrelation.
The main objective of the Californian massage is to get the person to disconnect from their daily life and enter into a state of deep relaxation. This is achieved with a deep and careful physical work, with an integral and constant presence of the masseur, which involves a deep listening of everything that is happening in the massage session.
In this school of massage we work from the Hara (energetic source located in the second chakra) and we pay special attention to the postures of our own body, as well as to our breathing.
The Californian massage sessions are very slow and harmonious, with a fairly slow rhythm and a fairly constant pressure. It is essential the integration of all this work, that we get through the long movements, hallmark of this type of massage.
Xavier Gil
Esalen Massage Teacher by the Esalen Institute (California, USA) (2019)
I graduated in Psychology in 1995 at the UB (Barcelona), but I have always lived psychology as one of the legs of the stool, essential, yes, but you can hardly sit on a stool with only one leg.
Since always, my motivation and my vision of the human being was holistic and integral, therefore, in an intuitive way I launched myself into the search for the other legs of the stool. I tried contemporary dance, theater, yoga, meditation ….. All these disciplines had a great effect on me, but this effect multiplied when I got to know massage.
Through the contact with the body of another person I finally managed to break the barrier I felt between myself and others. From the beginning I felt the massage as a complete integration with the person with whom I was sharing the session at that moment.
Something magical happens when you treat a person’s body with affection, respect and love, the body loosens up, energy flows, emotions are unleashed…and the final sensation is one of deep peace and relaxation. And the most wonderful thing is that these emotions usually occur in both directions, in both the receiver and the giver.
I can finally sit comfortably on my stool!
Linda Benoit
Assistant Director of the Californian Massage School Barcelona.
I grew up in nature between rivers and mountains in a village in the south of France, next to the natural park Des Grands Causses. My professional interests and desire to know the world led me to study abroad.
After studying child psychology, sociology and communication, I worked for more than twenty years in the fashion industry. Within international corporations, in areas of team management, visual merchandising, window dressing and in areas of customer service, as well as control and monitoring of business lines. This allowed me to live outside Europe and to integrate new behavioral and cultural codes.
My desire to grow as a person led me to make a radical change in my life, redirecting my energy on the path of personal wellness and energy therapies. First as a tool for personal healing, then as a response to my desire to share this knowledge and serve as a channel to help others.
My training is in Californian Massage, Deep Tissue, Lomi-Lomi, Thai, Reiki and in continuous training in Gestalt and Existential Coaching.
These techniques and sensitivity to conscious listening allow me to guide, channel, connect and become a channel of support so that others can also connect with their own listening and increase the level of consciousness with feeling and breathing.
Currently I combine my activity as a therapist and teacher at school, with training in various techniques to awaken the awareness of touch.
Vicente A. Sánchez Cuenca
Assistant Director of the Californian Massage School in Zaragoza.
EVOLUTION IS NOT BASED ON COMPETITION, IT IS BASED ON COLLABORATION.
This statement by Bruce Lipton in his book “The Biology of Belief”, defines me quite a lot.
Always, since I have knowledge, I have been accompanied by that action that leads me to share everything that in my experience I have known, without any intention of “evangelizing”, only sharing, for the sake of opening windows and creating other options to the established ones, with the healthy intention of helping to improve, to grow in the well being of the people with whom I have crossed, just as others help me.
I am interested in all that knowledge or experience that improves and reconciles the health of people.
There is more and more evidence of the indissoluble relationship between attitude, thoughts, memories, emotions, impulses and organic state. Our attitude and thoughts generate immunological, neurological and plastic changes that can facilitate or hinder our balance and healing.
I am creating an introductory self-awareness program to raise the power of consciousness and healing, perhaps meeting the human need for a paradigm shift in health and wellness.
Part of my training is linked to Neurolinguistic Programming: NLP Practitioner and Master in NLP, Team Coach and Certified as an Esalen Massage and Bodywork Practitioner.
Yoga gives me life, meditation makes me be more present in it, my daughters, sports and music lift my energy “higher and higher”. Your love has lifted me Higher and Higher, Otis Reding laa la, la lalalalalala ……..
Linda Vismayo
Trainer
At the beginning of the 90’s in Caracas, the city where I was born, I graduated in Dramatic Art, in search of myself and my passion, I developed in this field without being totally possessed by the interpretation.
In this eagerness I studied different styles of dance (jazz, contemporary, Arabic dance) even being already residing in the city of Barcelona, I graduated in dance therapy (AfroYin Method). Parallel to this I always found in touch a way to express myself. Until one day I had the illumination that this would be my path and my passion.
Since then all my focus was directed towards my training as a body and holistic therapist. Since 2003, I created my own style of massage (Vismayo Method), where I mix tools such as: Californian massage, Ayurveda massage (Abyangha Pada), Hot Stones, crystal therapy, Neurolinguistic Programming, shamanic medicine, among others).
I have obtained a degree in organic psycho osteopathy, in 2018, along with other training in microbiota and nutrition, turning my treatments into an Integrative therapy, where I assume each individual from a multidimensional perspective. Simultaneously all these years I have immersed myself in teaching in very diverse areas ranging from massage, Tantra, self-transformation through dance to human anatomy, the latter being a fascination for me and my research. I love the human body and touching it also transforms me. This is my passion and my talent.
Sandra Piro Suárez
Trainer
My life has always been based on 3 pillars, logic, the need to give and to live many lives in one. Until my 40’s I worked in multinationals.
A peak of stress gave me the opportunity to leave everything to live in India for a while. I needed to find a deeper meaning to my life. I went through different disciplines in that search: Yoga, Aeroyoga, Ayurveda, Vedic Philosophy, Sound Therapies, etc. I studied everything I could to find new paths. I loved that time of my life.
Some time later I met Ingrid May and her school Oasis. In that space I found the possibility to give without limit, to connect with the vulnerability of the other and to understand that I am respectful of those places. I learned the difference between a sensual and a loving touch. Understanding that difference allowed me to transcend a new limit and from that moment on my need to give had found a safe space.
My need for logic was met by studying Deep Tissue. Here I found myself with a defined technique, muscle tracing, meaning, pathology, etc. Everything had logic!
With all this I traveled to Barcelona to take a one month vacation that lasted almost 5 years. There I met Xavi and his school. Our relationship started from Yoga and took the direction of massage. Providing the Deep Tissue course at his school continues to be what connects me the most with my essence. Each course is an experience of growth and discovery. Each group is a different edge. The old and new students create an exchange that always teaches me. In this space I cover, in part, my need to live many lives in one.
Thank you for this beautiful space called Escuela de Masaje Californiano Barcelona.
Gala Santiago
Trainer
In 2014 I changed my life of office and computer to set up a yoga and therapy center with my partner in Sant Boi de Llobregat.
I still remember the fear and the illusion I felt, I was not at all comfortable starting in a new place, selling myself as a therapist, feeling that I was throwing myself to a precipice without a parachute.
But there are decisions that you make from your gut, from your soul, from the deepest part of your being. And although I did not understand what I was doing, I felt that when I touched, through my hands, a dialogue took place, my hands went by themselves, they landed in unsuspected places, they moved faster or simply stopped. And I did nothing. It was magic happening by itself.
For me to be able to touch and be touched is a gift of being alive. Touch is the expression of the deepest part of our being. Even if it is unconsciously, by touching, we give voice to our inner self, to all that we keep silent and do not listen to.
Every day I am deeply grateful to be able to listen, to be aware of all the internal -almost imperceptible- movement inside each one of us. And just by listening to ourselves, we transform ourselves and live life from a different place. A more authentic place, more connected and closer to our Self.
- Zen Shiatsu Therapist (Zenit Shiatsu, Barcelona 2014)
- Kobido (Zenit Shiatsu, Barcelona 2015)
- Californian Massage (Californian Massage School, Barcelona 2016)
- Salmaia Method (Biological Healing Course, Barcelona 2017)
Marta Rodriguez Zuñiga
Trainer
I have always been a restless person with a desire to do different things.
When I was 18 years old I took a chiromassage course, which I liked because of the contact with the person, being able to help their well-being, but I always believed that there was something more and those massages lacked something. For various personal reasons I could not expand my courses and knowledge in that branch, I settled in a job which I saw only and exclusively as income.
Wanting to change this in 2019 I left it and started doing different courses: Reiki with the idea of complementing those massages, hypnotherapy, Bach flowers…. I wanted to do my bit to help people with their various problems due to this social and systematic rhythm to which we are subjected, but it was with the Californian massage where I saw that light. Quite a discovery!
With the Californian massage I could see the strength of the contact between us, the way to take you to that state of peace, calm, tranquility, a state of fullness and evasion where feelings occasionally make an appearance to flow and join with a relaxed body, there, in that state, there where everything is perfect.
Now I feel that I do something that I like and fills me, something that brings me and brings to the other person. Delighted and excited to be and to discover this path, with the desire to expand it but to continue on it.
Susana Papazachariou
Trainer
I have grown up moving between two worlds, two different cultural backgrounds that have led me to integrate disciplines, styles and ways of seeing life.
My academic life began with studies in Public Relations, continued at the University of Barcelona with a degree in Romance Philology and was completed at the University of Crete. During the first stage of my career I worked as a translator-interpreter and then I joined the investment department of a financial institution.
My roots and my interest in the Middle Eastern culture brought me closer to the dances of Eastern and African tradition, and so I began my artistic career as a dancer and teacher in 2003. Then I continue exploring and complementing my training with Hilal Dance (Contemporary Egyptian Dance), Free Dance (Malkovsky), Dance-Theater and Butoh.
Always in this continuous search between inner evolution and expression, I became certified as an instructor in Yoga Vinyasa (YAI) and Qi Gong (ACQG), and currently in IPlates Mat, disciplines that nurture and enrich the project and on which I continue to deepen and investigate.
The experience has led me to develop this project from a personal and multidisciplinary prism that aims at a synthesis of an organic, conscious and creative movement. An open and dynamic work in progress.
MoveIN I Dance – Yoga – Qi Gong
Sandra Piro Suárez
Formadora
Mi vida se basó siempre en 3 pilares, la lógica, la necesidad de dar y vivir muchas vidas en una. Hasta mis 40 años trabajé en multinacionales.
Un pico de estrés me dio la oportunidad de dejar todo para vivir en India un tiempo. Necesitaba encontrar un sentido más profundo a mi vida. Transite por distintas disciplinas en esa búsqueda: Yoga, Aeroyoga, Ayurveda, Filosofía védica, Terapias de Sonido, etc. Estudié todo lo que tenía a mi alcance para encontrar nuevos caminos. Amé esa época de mi vida!!.
Tiempo después conocí a Ingrid May y su escuela Oasis. En ese espacio encontré la posibilidad de dar sin límite, de conectar con la vulnerabilidad del otro y entender que soy respetuosa de esos lugares. Aprendí la diferencia entre un contacto sensual y uno amoroso. Entender esa diferencia me permitió trascender un límite nuevo y desde ese momento mi necesidad de dar había encontrado un espacio seguro.
Mi necesidad de lógica la cubrí estudiando Deep Tissue. Aquí me encontré con una técnica definida, un trazado muscular, un sentido, una patología, etc. Todo tenía lógica!!
Con todo esto viajé a Barcelona para tomar unas vacaciones de un mes que duraron casi 5 años. Allí conocí a Xavi y su escuela. Nuestra relación comenzó desde el Yoga y tomó el rumbo del masaje. Brindar el curso de Deep Tissue en su escuela sigue siendo lo que más me conecta con mi esencia. Cada curso es una experiencia de crecimiento y descubrimiento. Cada grupo es una arista diferente. Los antiguos y nuevos alumnos van creando un intercambio que me enseña siempre. En este espacio cubro,en parte, mi necesidad de vivir muchas vidas en una.
Gracias por este hermoso espacio llamado Escuela de Masaje Californiano Barcelona
