INTERVIEW WITH MARY SULLIVAN

Mary Sullivan has been living and practicing Polarity Therapy for more than 25 years. She is a licensed acupuncturist, cranial practitioner, and teaches classes in Polarity Therapy, Lymphatic Drainage massage, Chi Nei Tsang and Women's Cycles. She maintains a private practice in Santa Barbara, California. She is the author of the DVD's Polarity Therapy and Cranial Sacral Therapy.

1. When and how did you decide to become a bodyworker?
I decided to become a bodyworker in 1975 after I went through 10 rolfing sessions. It was transformative. I researched alot of different modalities available then and decided to become a polarity therapist. I did a residential training near Mt Shasta for two months and it changed my life. After that I kept deepening my training with other body work modalities. I got my massage license in 1981 and have been teaching and learning and practicing ever since. 

2. What do you find most exciting about bodywork therapy?
Helping people contact their inner physician and heal themselves.

3. What is your favorite bodywork book?
Stillness by Charles Ridley. It is a cranial book just published. It speaks so closely to what I believe about healing. It has really made a profound impression on me.  Over the years I have had many favorites. Dr. Stone's Polarity Therapy Books continue to amaze me.

4. Which part of the body do you find the most challenging to work on? 
The perineal floor as it holds so much of the unconscious and I have to be willing to go there with some one. It's wonderful when I feel like being in that space.

5. What advice you can give to new massage therapists who wish to make a career out of it?
Keep working on yourself and go deeply into your own healing process. Do the work for yourself, and those you contact will have remarkable results. Be passionate and enthusiastic and take really good care of yourself. Receive alot of treatments especially if you're working alot.

6. How do you see the future of massage therapy?
It feels like it's  becoming more and more a part of mainstream culture. It's exciting to be a body worker in this time as it is so accepted and respected.