Phoebe Phelps of Winthrop Harbor receives and recommends massages and even gives them to her golden retriever.
”The dog and I are good friends. It`s a pleasure to give him a massage,” she said.
Phelps laughed and conceded that such sentiments may sound peculiar to people in Lake County and the Midwest in general. ”I think it sounds pretty radical here,” she said.
But her ideas are not unusual in the East, she added.
Although born in Winthrop Harbor, Phelps only recently moved back to her birthplace after spending 20 years in New England and the last three years in Colorado.
She received her first massage about 15 years ago while studying psychology at the Antioch New England Graduate School in New Hampshire. The school stressed a holistic approach to psychology and pointed out that a combination of things-acupuncture, massage therapy, nutrition and counseling- influence a person`s physical and psychological well-being.
That philosophy ”was considered cutting edge,” said Phelps, who is now a psychotherapist.
”We are all one. There`s no way of separating” the human spirit from the body and psyche, she added. Addressing only the visibly ailing part of a person means the true problem may remain untouched.
Phelps believes massage soothes both the body and mind. Though now she mainly gets a weekly massage to relieve the chronic pain from her rheumatoid arthritis, she has in the past recommended that her patients get massages to release their joy, grief, anger and other emotions.
Besides relieving the stress of holding in deep emotions, massages also flush toxins out of the body, Phelps said. She finds that if those toxins build up, she gets tired easily and can`t think as clearly.
”I learned that (massage) is good for me in general,” she said.
