Musical Massage Strikes a Chord

By Alice C. Elwell
Enterprise Correspondent

A Middleborough therapist heals with the harp and massages with musical notes. Body therapist Katharine Gilpin uses a full range of techniques to heal, from Reiki and sound therapy to traditional body massages. Her use of the ‘harp’ to strum away anxiety is rooted in the ancient use of sound to heal by many cultures.

Gilpin’s 55-string custom-made ‘harp’ is tuned to C-Sharp, which is considered a healing tone and used when chanting Om, a mystical sound with Hindu origins. The ‘harp’ is mounted to the bottom of a sound table which allows the notes to vibrate up and through the client’s body.

“I love that thing,” said Karen A. Blair, manager of the Middleborough Farmers Market. “I could feel the rhythm going through me like a pulse. It flowed through me.”

Sound therapy is nothing new to mothers who have long used lullabies to soothe their babies.

Using sound as an alternative therapy is embraced by many, according to the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, founded by Dr. Deepak Chopra, “With the right sounds, you can align yourself with the vibrations that foster health, happiness, and unity.”

Jeffrey Thompson, founder of the Center for Neuroacoustic Research, says different frequencies target the various densities in the body and vibration massages can elevate the body’s cells to a super-healing state.

Recently Gilpin allowed the Enterprise to observe a sound massage. Her client lay on top of the table while Gilpin nimbly slipped under her sound table, and lying on her back began plucking notes on the ‘harp’.

Gilpin has had no formal training as a musician, she holds a Bachelor’s in both Drama and French from Tufts University. Her first career was in the New York City theatre but, in 1990, she left the city and got her license as a massage/ bodywork therapist.

During a sound massage, Gilpin lets the harp take her to where it needs to go; she follows along in an effort to heal. She says the music is always different and heals her as well. “It’s intuitive; I’m guided by what my being senses the client needs to hear.” Gilpin said.

As Gilpin played a personal sonata for her client the chords boomed and reverberated through the room. “The wave took me. It was very powerful,” Gilpin said. The powerful chords were followed with soft tinkling notes reminiscent of a gentle brook.

Once the sound massage is complete, Gilpin instructs the client to stay on the table and with palms up, Gilpin lets out several deep cleansing breaths.

Blair, who had a sound massage on a different occasion, said the ‘harp’ released her built-up tension, “Not only in my body, it hit every sense in my brain. It made me feel like I was drifting with the clouds.”she said. “It moved my mind, like a dance, but my body was still.”

Gilpin works from her Listening Hands’ studio in South Middleboro, on the web at http://www.katharinegilpin.com/

Photographs by Marc Vasconcellos