Wednesday, September 10, 2014 Valley Courier Page 9

Valley Life

By MARGARET SANDERSON

ALAMOSA — The client lies comfortably on her back on a massage table. Massage Therapist Russ Preister plac-es pads embedded with red and blue LED lights over her face. Similar pads are placed on other areas of her body es-pecially where she feels pain. She is not aware of the steady light beyond her closed eyes, but she can feel the soothing heat from the other pads. The sound therapy begins. The tones are unusual and sound somewhat metallic, sort of grating. She wonders how this can lead to relaxation. But within 15 minutes, she’s sound asleep. She awakens feeling relaxed and peace-ful. The many massages she has experienced target the release of tension in muscles whereas, for her, this light and sound treatment seems to have the effect of producing a prolonged peaceful feeling.

Russ Preister loves working with his hands.

“I’m very kinesthetic,” he said. “I like to touch things. Working with wood was a tactile experience for me.”

Following in his sad’s foot-steps, he was a carpenter by trade and specialized in cabinetry. For 30 years he did this work in the Denver area. But, suffering from “burn out” he sought another means of using his hands to do meaningful work.

Always interested in per-sonal growth and healing, he feels drawn to the meta-physical – defi ned as a real-ity beyond what is perceived by the senses. Since he was young, Preister believes he has sensed the chi or life force energy in his body, especially in his hands.

Trinidad State graduate couples lights and sound with massage therapy techniques

Soon after he quit wood working he attended a con-vention featuring subtle energy treatments where he learned about a sound healing system that stimulates theta brain waves — the kind natu-rally produced in a dream state, leading to deep relax-ation. After his trial session, he wanted the opportunity to, not only experience this deeply relaxing dream state again, but he wanted to offer the experience to others who were also looking for ways to de-stress.

Soon after, Preister moved to Crestone. During this time he was introduced to LED light therapy which appealed to his sense of energetic medi-cine. He felt it would comple-ment the sound therapy he was already doing.

“Almost always my clients experience a noticeable re-duction in pain and stress levels – even to the point of falling asleep,” Preister said.

He then explained that the light therapy stimulates production of nitric oxide in the body. It’s a pain reliever which reduces inflamma-tion and pain and increases blood fl ow and oxygen. It soothes the nervous system and stimulates a relaxation response.

Coming from a family with 11 children, Preister said he had little self-confi dence and had never completed high school. Two years after Preis-ter moved to Crestone during a very lean and challenging time in his life, he learned that he could qualify for a Fed-eral Pell Grant for college but would need to earn his GED fi rst. He wanted to study mas-sage therapy and incorporate it with his sound and light therapies. He spent the sum-

mer of 2012 home-schooling himself and then passed his GED tests at Trinidad State that fall. He moved to Ala-mosa and registered for the Massage Therapy program at Trinidad State and started college in January 2013. Giv-ing massages in the Trinidad State massage therapy clinic led Preister to believe he has a gift in his hands. He believes he intuitively knows where he needs to focus his attention.

“Sound and light therapy are perfect complements to massage therapy as they too are deeply relaxing,” said Preister.

When his finances were exhausted, he sought the assistance of TRiO, a na-tional program funded by the Department of Education that helps challenged college students complete their edu-cation.

“TRiO was invaluable for me at a time of crisis,” said Preister. “The support was there. I just had to ask. Ellen Hanson, the TRiO Retention Specialist, was particularly helpful.”

With the addition of a stu-dent loan in his third semes-ter, he was able to fi nish the course and graduate with his Massage Certifi cate in May of 2014 with a 4.0 GPA.

“I want to reach people who are looking for ways to change their lives,” said Preister, who now lives in Santa Fe and makes occasional trips to the San Luis Valley to work with clients. He credits the educa-tion he earned from Trinidad State “for returning me to the dignity of having meaningful work which is nourishing and satisfying and gives me great joy.”

Preister can be reached at (719) 480-5056.

Preister massages the shoulders of a client.

Preister displays the light pads used for his healing treatments. Normally the lights face the client.

Russ Preister has placed LED light pads on his client's face, chest and abdomen.

Photos courtesy of Margaret Sanderson

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