Story Massage

What is Story Massage?

Last year we tried a new session with the children- story massage. We began by using the book ‘Massage Stories Exploring Communication Through Touch’ by Andrew Muir with Flo Longhorn. I used the ‘pop massage’ story from this book initially as we explored our topic of hobbies. There were some lovely reactions from the children. One little boy who would always be asleep during this time would, without fail, wake up for a particular part of this massage. We tried playing the song outside of the massage sequence to see whether it was merely the song, but curiously he remained asleep. Encouraged by the success of my first use of story massage, I then borrowed Lucy’s book ‘Once upon a touch… story massage for children’ by Mary Atkinson and Sandra Hooper and was interested in the different approaches between the two books.

In essence, story massage pairs together a simplified story or rhyme with massage movements on the body. Each massage movement represents a corresponding sentence. For example, ‘pattering’ your fingers across a child’s back may represent Cinderella running from the ball or moving both hands together in an upwards motion may represent a beanstalk growing.

Andrew Muir with Flo Longhorn’s book suggests certain resources to use alongside the massage such as cream/oil and sometimes music etc. If you do decide to use direct on body touch in your setting be sure to follow the Safe Touch guidelines which you can find here from www.choicesupport.org.uk. ‘Once upon a touch… story massage for children’ uses 10 set moves in all of its stories adapting the order, or they are used to suit the story (all on top of clothes and on the child’s back although different body areas are suggested) without music. I would highly recommend both books and that you try them out with your own children to see what works best for those you support.

Using and adapting story massage.

Encouraged by the success of our first use of story massage I tried both approaches. I found that, in my class, there were stronger responses with the use of the music alongside the massage and words. I also found that for some stories I wanted to use additional moves from the suggested 10 in ‘Once upon a touch… story massage for children’. I set out to create my own version of a story massage using one of my favorite stories- Alice in Wonderland (it also loosely fitted into our overarching topic of traditional tales).I simplified the story into 13 short sentences (1 of which is repeated 3 times throughout) as you would do for a sensory story. For music I initially selected some songs that I thought fit the sentences before getting a little frustrated that I couldn’t find a piece of music that I felt adequately sounded like falling down a rabbit hole! It was at this point that my other half, James, interceded and said he could make me some music if I could explain vaguely what it was I wanted. Luckily, he is able to interpret ‘it needs to sound big and then small, and sort of twirly’ into something I was satisfied sounded like falling down a rabbit hole! I largely used the moves suggest in ‘Once upon a touch… story massage for children’ but added in one or two of my own that I thought the story demanded. Why not try creating your own story massage? Using existing stories and rhymes is a good place to start.

How do you deliver the session?

To create a more relaxing environment we always had the main lights off for this session but had fairy lights on to create more subdued lighting. My team delivered the session with all of us initially saying the sentence together at the start of the music and then beginning the massage movement. For the majority of the pupils the massage movements were done on their backs but you can change this according to need and preference. I had one little girl in my class who was very insistent that she wanted it to be on her feet.

What are the benefits?

There are numerous benefits for children of all ages and abilities. These are just some of the benefits:

• Improved calmness and concentration
• Increased self-awareness
• Develop a sense of anticipation

I was really pleased with how well my class seemed to respond to the story. There were many different reactions, for some it was a calming and relaxing experience as shown by some rather droopy eyes. For others, there was seemingly curiosity lifting and turning the head towards the area of touch. Over time certain pupils suggested preference to particular parts of the song with very strong reactions of happy squeals, smiles and shaking.

Try it for yourself…

If you would like to try story massage you can download a free example of our Alice in Wonderland story massage and music here. The version uploaded is one used as an end of year gift for the pupils in my class. We printed double sided and laminated the information, instructions and story and burned the songs on to a disk so they could continue to enjoy the story massage at home. 

You can buy the book ‘Massage Stories Exploring Communication Through Touch’ by Andrew Muir with Flo Longhorn here.

You can buy the book ‘Once upon a touch… story massage for children’ by Mary Atkinson and Sandra Hooper here.