Bodywork by Luca

I have been struggling with anxiety since my early adulthood. As a child, I was already very conscientious and prone to rumination; I found it difficult to move on if I accidentally made a mistake, said something wrong, or hurt someone. It didn’t help that the adults around me often made me feel even more guilty in those situations, instead of offering calm discussion or comfort. (the 80s and 90s)

I grew into an anxious adult with a strong need to please others, afraid to stand up for myself, and easily slipping into harmful, unbalanced relationships and work environments. There were particularly difficult periods, with insomnia, near-fainting panic attacks, air hunger and episodes of uncontrollable crying.

Then after 40 (I’m 46 now), I finally began to consciously unpack why I feel anxious even when I am safe, and why I experience that visceral sense of loneliness and being an outsider even when I am surrounded by people. I started cognitive therapy, read extensively on the subject, and then about two years ago I immersed myself in somatic bodywork and holistic healing, which organically led to a career change, and I became a therapist myself.

I studied and practiced obsessively, completing numerous trainings over these two years, both abroad, at home, and online. I studied meditation, conscious breathing, energy work, various massage techniques, trauma-informed space holding, Ayurvedic approaches, Hawaiian and Ta***ic philosophy and rituals, and I continuously explore materials related to psychology and the nervous system.
(Story continues in the comment section)
📷

Tibetan Singing Bowl Closing – when sound is not only heard, but also felt in the body
If you come to me for a massage – whether it is a Lomilomi or a pranic treatment – you can also experience a Tibetan singing bowl closing at the end of the session. By this point, the body is already relaxed, the nervous system has quieted down, and the attention has turned inward. The singing bowls gently help bring you back from this deep, meditative state while allowing the inner calm to remain present.

Physical effect:
I work with three Tibetan singing bowls of different sizes and tunings. Two are placed on the body over a cloth, while the third is held near the head in my hand. I play them one after another, allowing the vibrations to build upon each other and flow like waves through the body.

The human body consists largely of water and flexible tissues, which conduct vibrations very well, allowing the resonance of the singing bowls to become physically perceptible. In a very gentle yet deeply penetrating way, the vibrations move through the body, resonating through the abdomen, chest area, and internal organs.

Energetic effect:
The two larger singing bowls are tuned to C and F. The C tone is connected to the root chakra, while the F tone relates to the heart center. These bowls are relatively large and heavy, yet it is surprisingly pleasant and calming when they are placed on the body. The third bowl is smaller, tuned to A, and connected to the ajna chakra, also known as the third eye.

The successive sounding of the three bowls creates a special inner connection between the energy centers (chakras). The stability of the root, the openness of the heart, and inner awareness begin to be present at the same time.

In these moments, the physical and energetic body resonate together.

After the meditative state of self-connection experienced during the treatment, the sound and vibration of the singing bowls gently guide you back into the present moment and everyday reality. Not suddenly, but softly and gradually. This is why I love using Tibetan singing bowls as a closing ritual. They create a special transition between the deep inner space and the outer world.

🌺 What can you expect when you come to me for a Lomi Lomi massage?

Although I welcome both female and male clients, my experience – also from my own perspective – is that women often need a little more reflection and information before they can feel safe enough to fully say yes to a treatment.

“What will the space feel like? How much will I be able to let go? What exactly happens during a session? What do I need to take off? What is okay to communicate?”

So I would like to gently guide you – mostly from a feminine perspective – through the experience that awaits you from the moment you arrive.

You are not arriving at a salon, but into a quiet, peaceful home space where it is just the two of us, and my attention is fully on you. It was important to me to create an environment where there is no need to rush, no people coming and going, no waiting room atmosphere. There is time to arrive.

When you arrive, we can sit down for a few minutes and talk. I offer you a glass of water, and we go through how you are feeling, what your body might need at that moment, whether there are any sensitive areas or anything you would like to let me know in advance.

For changing, there is a private corner prepared with slippers and a soft cotton sarong you can comfortably cover yourself with. Traditionally, Lomi Lomi is practiced unclothed, but intimate areas remain covered throughout the session. If you feel more comfortable staying in underwear, that is completely welcome as well. In that case, it is best to choose something that can get oily and does not cover too much skin. You are also welcome to wear a bikini top if that feels better for you.

Throughout the treatment, I continuously pay attention to how your body responds and what it needs. Certain areas – such as the sides of the chest, the hips, or the inner thighs – are only touched with your consent. It is very important to me that you feel free to ask questions, express your needs, or even say no at any point.
(continues in the comment section)

Why does the female mind keep racing even when there’s finally time to rest?

Rumination is a repetitive, past-oriented thinking pattern. It basically means the brain keeps returning to the same thought, situation, or conversation over and over again, trying to analyze, replay, or “solve” it.

So yes: there’s actually a scientific term for lying in bed at 2 AM suddenly replaying an embarrassing moment from 2014 that still makes your heart race and your body tense up.

Research suggests that women are, on average, more prone to rumination than men. There are likely several reasons behind this: hormonal influences, social roles, conditioning, and the fact that the female nervous system often responds more sensitively to relational environments.

Because of this, many women’s minds are constantly running in the background: How is everyone doing? What should I have said? Was I too much, or not enough? What did I forget? What do people think of me? What’s going to happen later, or tomorrow?

Part of the problem is that the brain doesn’t necessarily register this as stress anymore. After a while, it simply starts to feel like a normal way of functioning.

Many women become so used to this inner noise that they only realize how exhausted they are once there’s finally silence around them. That’s why the overthinking often begins right after you lie down to sleep, or when you finally sit by the lake with a book to relax, but can’t get past half a page because your mind suddenly starts racing again.
(Read more in the comments)

Breath is always with us, yet we rarely truly pay attention to it.

Conscious breathing – pranayama – is one of the most powerful tools for harmonizing our nervous system, mind, and emotional state.

Conscious breathing:
✨ reduces stress and inner tension
✨ supports nervous system regulation
✨ helps presence and self-connection

On a physical level, it also supports the body’s natural functioning by improving oxygen flow, circulation, and muscle relaxation.

It also plays a key role in my treatments.

🌺 During Lomilomi massage, while working with trigger point release, I often invite my clients to “breathe into” the sensation if discomfort arises.
Conscious breathing helps the muscles relax, allowing the trigger point to release more easily, while tension and pain gradually soften and disappear.

✨ During Prana massage, the breath helps bring awareness back to ourselves.
When the mind starts to wander, observing the breath gently restores inner focus. This supports the flow of energy in the body and deepens the effect of the treatment.

🌿 Somatic sessions begin with a guided breathing practice that supports self-connection, a sense of safety, and nervous system regulation.
This helps the body enter a more relaxed and receptive state, especially when working on releasing past patterns.

Breath is a bridge between the body and consciousness.
The more consciously we pay attention to it, the easier it becomes to be fully presen with ourselves.

“Safety, nourishing touch from a fellow woman, a calming, clean environment where I can finally step out of the daily hamster wheel for a while. This is what I was looking for when I found Luca – and I received even more than that.

I stepped onto an unknown path when I decided to book a prana treatment. The concept and experience of life energy has already appeared many times in my life through yoga, but a body treatment where I can rest and recharge through Luca’s focused presence – because I am being held – offers an entirely different experience for me.

Luca’s gentle touches and her firm yet soft guidance open up a sense of awareness in me toward the physical, mental, and energetic processes happening within, which serves as a truly valuable reminder in everyday life.

Here I am. I am present. I sense. And there are things I may not understand, yet they are still real, perceptible phenomena within me.

I am deeply grateful to Luca for introducing me to a world that was new to me, and I am curious about what else may arise from the deeper layers of myself.”

✨Why can a well-structured massage bring up emotions?

✨A client inspired this post, who arrived with a tense, painful back and shoulders, and during the session both crying and laughter came up. These reactions may seem surprising at first, but they are completely natural processes. So what is actually happening in moments like this?

✨The body and emotions are not separate systems. The autonomic nervous system – which, among other things, regulates our stress responses – continuously influences our physical state. When we live under prolonged tension, this system shifts toward sympathetic activation, keeping the body in a constant state of readiness. In such cases, not only do the muscles tighten, but lasting patterns in the nervous system can also develop.

✨The flowing touch of lomilomi massage guides the body into a safe, calming state, while trigger point work applies more targeted, deeper stimuli to the muscles and connective tissue. These two effects together are especially powerful: one helps the body relax and open, while the other gently engages long-held tension. The nervous system gradually shifts into a parasympathetic state, where the body can finally let go and breathe.

✨And this is where something truly interesting happens.
/writing continues in the comment section/

💫Art work:

“Luca, this went much deeper.”

This is what one of my clients told me after his latest session, a busy city man who originally comes to me because long hours of sitting leave their mark on his back, not because he is looking for a spiritual experience. He has had several Lomilomi sessions with me, and as I often see with returning clients, he has been arriving with more trust each time and is able to relax more easily into the treatments.

After saying this, he added that his mind is usually constantly “busy” or overthinking something, but this time there were moments when his mind became completely empty while he remained fully aware. He wasn’t asleep, he was present.

Eastern traditions have known this state for a long time. Yogic philosophy, for example in the teachings of Patanjali, describes it as the quieting of the fluctuations of the mind, leading to a clearer and more peaceful state of awareness.

According to modern neuroscience, in such cases the activity of the Default Mode Network – responsible for continuous thinking and mental “chatter” – decreases, while the body shifts into a parasympathetic nervous system state.

For me, this is always a reminder that this is a process, one that is built through attention, trust, and presence. And when these come together, the body and with it, the mind knows exactly how to “go deeper”.

Anim:

Structure and intuition – this is how I guide my sessions

Although each of my treatments has its own foundation – whether it is lomilomi or pranic bodywork – in practice I do not work within rigid systems.
I pay close attention to the body’s responses, and if I feel that at a certain point another method could offer more subtle or effective support, I integrate it.

This is how my treatments become integrated processes, where different techniques do not mix randomly, but rather complement each other in serving the client’s needs and requirements.

The foundation of my lomilomi sessions is the traditional Hawaiian forearm massage combined with stretching movements, which I complement with modern Western trigger point techniques when needed – especially when the body holds deeper tensions.

The foundation of my prana sessions is a Vedic-style massage performed on the floor, where stimulation of marma points and conscious (pranayama) breathing are essential elements. The main purpose of these sessions is not to work out every small muscle knot, as the primary focus is on the energetic level. At the same time, a tight, rigid back can restrict deep breathing and therefore the free flow of energy, so I occasionally incorporate stronger, more “Swedish-style” movements as well.
At the same time, during lomilomi I may also integrate Vedic elements when it feels appropriate.

/continuing in the comment section/

✨What are trigger points – and why is it important to address them?

Trigger points are tense, sensitive areas that develop in the muscles – primarily the skeletal muscles – and the surrounding fascia, often felt as knots. In reality, however, they are not actual “knots” but a localized, sustained contraction of a small group of muscle fibers.

✨What happens in the body?

Trigger points form as a natural response of the body to physical and emotional stress. They most often appear due to overuse, poor posture, or prolonged tension. At these points, some muscle fibers remain contracted, which reduces local circulation and oxygen supply. This slows down regeneration, making the muscle tense and sensitive (often with referred pain), and less able to function effectively.

✨Why is it worth treating them?
• pain decreases or disappears
• range of motion improves
• muscular tension eases
• relaxation becomes easier

However, releasing trigger points can often be an intense experience, as the body may easily shift into a defensive state.

🌺The power of LomiLomi massage

LomiLomi is not about avoiding intensity. Deep pressure and trigger point work can be part of the session (always optional and discussed in advance).

The key difference is how we get there.

The body is prepared gradually:
• with slow, flowing touch
• by calming the nervous system
• by creating a sense of safety

This way, when we reach a sensitive spot, the body does not react defensively as much. Pain may be present, but it is experienced less as stress and more as release.

Conscious breathing plays a key role in this process.
As the client exhales slowly and deeply, the body relaxes: the area softens, warms, and reddens, and the trigger point begins to dissipate.

At this stage, the release occurs not only in the muscles but also at the nervous system and emotional levels.