Andy Ritan’s Esalen^® Massage Blog

I have been interested in loss and end of life issues for as long as I can remember. Our days do not continue forever. They come to an end. My curiosity about the philosophical and theological implications of this fact led me as a young man into a religious studies major and then on to […]

I’m Andy Ritan, a licensed massage therapist, and I specialize in Esalen® massage. This video is about how I got interested in Esalen® massage and why the Esalen style speaks to me. When I went off to college as a young man, I wound up a religious studies major at Miami University of Ohio. After […]

Esalen® massage is not about fixing people Every Esalen teacher I have studied under has taught this. This seems a contradiction in terms. Why would anyone seek massage if not to be fixed? Why would anyone become a massage therapist if not to fix people? In the medical massage paradigm, the reason to seek massage […]

Here are some books I’m excited about and how they relate to Esalen® massage.   Jeffrey Kripal. Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion. This is the most thorough history of Esalen that I know of. Kripal is a religious studies professor at Rice University. He got his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago […]

I made this blog to clarify the draping massage clients should expect when they book a massage with me. I graduated from Georgia Massage School in Suwanee, Georgia, and there I was trained in professional standards for draping in the massage industry. Those are the standards I use for draping in Esalen® massage in Atlanta: […]