You'll want a glass or ceramic bowl, hot water, bath towel, and your choice of essential oils/loose herbs/or camomile tea bags. 

1. Heat up some water and add it to your bowl.
2. Add in your chosen scents: 
~ if you are adding essential oils use 1-2 drops ONLY.
~ loose herbs can be a generous sprinkling.
~ 1-2 tea bags of camomile tea
3. Set yourself up so you are able to sit and have your face over the bowl and drape your bath towel over your head and wrap around the bowl to create a little steam tent.
4. Enjoy for 5....10....15 minutes. Add some relaxing music or guided meditation and you've got a simple at home self care retreat. 
5. Finish up your mini retreat with washing your face and adding some lotion and drinking some water to rehydrate. 

Some essential oil combo's I use regularly:
rosemary and wild orange - refreshing pick me up
eucalyptus - great for colds and clearing sinuses
lavender and thyme - relaxing and good for sore throats

Herbs I use regularly:
calendula and rose
lavender and eucalyptus
chamomile
​
Standard disclaimers apply - if you are allergic or sensitive to certain herbs or essential oils don't use them, careful not to burn you face or throat on the steam, take breaks and/or vent your towel tent if you are heat sensitive, and, as always, drink some water afterwards!!!

​One of the main reasons I chose to attend The New Hampshire Institute of Therapeutic Arts was the Neuromuscular Technique (NMT) Training. The technique that is taught is the European version and differs from Neuromuscular Therapy though many of the goals remain the same. Stanley Lief created NMT and it was further developed by Leon Chaitow with the goal that NMT would restore the bodys structure and function by normalizing soft tissue. 
The technique uses the tip of the thumb to trace a specific series of pathways and muscle fiber directions to help improve communication in the nervous system. What is amazing is you can literally see the posture changes occur from the start of the session to the end of the session. These postural alignment changes can help treat a myriad of symptoms from scoliosis to migraines to Bell's Palsy. 
I was thrilled with the posture changes I was seeing during classtime however I was floored by what it did to help my migraines.
As a lifelong migraine sufferer it was no surprise that my concussion amped up the frequency of my migraines and brought cluster headaches that frequently sent me to ER in the years following. At the time I started receiving NMT treatments I was on a monthly injection to treat migraines and as needed prescriptions to treat breakthrough migraines. With these prescriptions in addition to regular bodywork and physical therapy I had managed to get my once daily headaches and migraines to a handful a month. Thinking that I had done everything I possible could to manage my migraines it wasn't even on my radar that NMT would have so much to offer. 
After a month of weekly NMT session in school, I spent my summer vacation from massage school in Michigan and had forgotten to refill my injections. Upon returning to New Hampshire we rolled right into moving to a new apartment and another month went by where my injections were forgotten. Another month of NMT and I realized that I had missed almost 3 months of injections largely in part because I had NO MIGRAINES as a reminder. I was floored and tentative about how well things were going. Throughout the rest of school and now into 2022 I've been able to remain off prescriptions and have experience the occasional headache but nothing like the migraines I'd become so accustom too. 

Everyone responds to bodywork differently and there are no guarantees  that NMT and postural reintegration and alignment will result in the same response.  

Please talk to your Doctor before making the decisions to go off a prescription medication and not do what I did and accidentally go off a medication because life had become so busy I'd forgotten to refill a prescription.