Downtown

It may rub some people the wrong way, but they've finally opened one in Hanover. No, not a Mac Donald's - a massage parlor. Located in the old Howe Library building on Wheelock Street, the therapeutic massage office is not, according to Andy Bryner, a former Tuck student turned professional masseur, a sexoriented establishment. In an interview with The Dartmouth Bryner explained, "There is a hassle due to the sexual stigma that surrounds massage, but massage is a positive therapeutic technique which is not meant to be a turn-on.... Touch is taboo in our society, yet it is crucial to human communication, and it has been put aside by our culture for too long." He went on to say that some of the techniques, such as "ortho-bionomy," can be practiced while the client keeps his or her clothes on.

Bryner and an associate, who have eight years of experience in this sort of the thing, treat ailments like tension, whiplash, and back pain. They also work on "special problems like posture defects and post-operative discomfort" and even receive referrals from doctors. "There is a flow of energy through points in the body," Bryner said in the interview, "and we can treat blockages by using acupressure," a process similar to acupuncture, one supposes, only without the needles. "Reflexology," "kinesiology," and traditional European oil massage are also practiced at the office.

Bryner first learned his trade at a workshop in Connecticut which, he says, changed his attitude about the importance of touch and the body. Before he thought of going into business, he practiced on friends who suggested he could make his living as a masseur. The Dartmouth quoted Bryner as saying that his line of work was, at first, hard for his parents to understand but that "now they are beginning to talk about it."