tok sen

His­to­ry of Tok Sen Therapy 

Tra­di­tion sug­gests that Tok Sen ther­a­py was devel­oped by farm­ers over 5000 years ago in the Chi­ang Mai area of North­ern Thai­land. Farm­ers were often in des­per­ate need of mas­sage after long days of phys­i­cal work. Although records about the ori­gins of the prac­tice do not exist, rumour has it that the farm­ers adapt­ed tools used for build­ing walls to tap over their hurt­ing bod­ies. They used their knowl­edge of Sen lines to cre­ate Tok Sen therapy.

Regard­less of the ori­gin, the Tok-Sen ener­getic heal­ing art has con­tin­ued to grow in pop­u­lar­i­ty and adopt­ed all over the world after World War II.

Ben­e­fits of Tok Sen Therapy 

Tok Sen is def­i­nite­ly one of my favourite body­work tech­niques to receive. This is because it holds the virtue of relax­ing and ener­gis­ing us at the same time. The con­sis­tent tap­ping sound has the pow­er to bring us into a med­i­ta­tive state clear­ing our mind from any dis­trac­tions. At the same time, Tok Sen stim­u­lates our ten­dons, skin, mus­cles and cir­cu­la­to­ry sys­tem on a phys­i­cal lev­el. It opens up block­ages and reac­ti­vates the free flow of ener­gy through­out the body leav­ing us feel­ing acti­vat­ed on an ener­getic level.

What is so unique about Tok Sen Therapy?

Tok Sen is a com­bi­na­tion of two words. “Tok” rep­re­sents the sound cre­at­ed by hit­ting the wood­en mal­let on the wood­en peg. Sen refers to the Sen lines or ener­gy lines of the body. The deep vibra­tions cre­at­ed by the tap­ping of the wood­en tools over the sen lines are not pos­si­ble to achieve using ordi­nary Thai mas­sage tech­niques. These intense sounds res­onate through the body, stim­u­lat­ing from with­in and releas­ing stub­born mus­cle ten­sion. Tok Sen is unique­ly use­ful to loosen the fas­cia, a con­nec­tive tis­sue beneath the skin that usu­al­ly caus­es acute pain and stiff­ness. You may find the rhythm of the tap­ping to be hyp­no­tiz­ing, deeply relax­ing the body and mak­ing the mas­sage even more effective.

It is usu­al­ly per­formed sep­a­rate­ly or in addi­tion to tra­di­tion­al Thai mas­sage moves. In any case, man­u­al pres­sure is applied at the end of the ses­sion to fur­ther loosen the body.

The wood is obtained from the Tamarind tree through a rit­u­al. The carv­ing process is also treat­ed as sacred. A mantra is inscribed on the side of the mal­let as a sign of pow­er and pro­tec­tion. A short prayer is recit­ed before and after each treatment.