Musician Turned Massagician
Playing at early convention of American Massage Therapy Association.
I’m originally from Chicago and in my earliest years I was most in love with music: studying at the Old Town School of Folk Music throughout high school 1961-65, learning rock, blues, Indian music (studied in Berkeley in 1967 with Ali Akbar Khan and his son), and then music composition (BA, U of Illinois, 1972). However, after a post-graduate year studying with a composer in Munich, Germany, I began to realize I wasn’t going to do music as a profession.
This precipitated an identity crisis, and I spent a number of challenging and helpful years in psychotherapy, learning much more about my emotions, body, and the mindbody connection. During this time I was also encouraged to receive massage and eventually to get 10 sessions of Rolfing. Through all this work, I came upon the next phase of my life!
The bodymind, I found, was a fascinating arena for endless study and learning. I began to gather with psychotherapists, martial artists, Rolfers so that we could explore together. Eventually I trained with a number of superb teachers beginning in 1979 - among them Bob King, the founder of the Chicago School of Massage Therapy, the Rolfer, Daniel Blake, early students of John Upledger, and since 1986, with Dr. Fritz Smith, the founder of Zero Balancing.
Class in Bristol, UK
I began teaching anatomy and deep tissue massage at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy in 1982. I soon started teaching workshops throughout the U.S. on anatomy and deep massage, starting with workshops in Texas. I fell in love with Austin and moved there in 1984.
At first I thought I’d only teach advanced trainings, but quickly saw that there were no high quality foundational massage trainings in Texas. So first I was associated with the Texas School of Massage Studies, 1985-88 as their Dean of Faculty. Then, with my friend and teaching colleague, John Conway, we founded The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School in 1989.
In addition to workshops in Zero Balancing and Deep Massage at my school in Austin, I teach workshops and trainings throughout the U.S., in the U.K. and in Costa Rica.
In the meantime, my love of music has continued, and I use meditative guitar improvisation at times to deepen the flow of students’ learning and movement. I have a CD “Roots and Branches” of live guitar improvised to therapy in the recording studio that mirrored the inspiring classroom situation.
I have also loved writing about the deeper learnings we receive through studying and practicing massage and bodywork. I’ve written numerous published articles since 1982 and five books: Putting the Soul Back in the Body, The Deep Massage Book, Life in the Bones, The Art of Massage (on-line book and CE), and The Memory Palace of Bones: exploring embodiment through the skeletal system (co-authored with Dr. Jeff Rockwell, DC.)
David & Julie Lauterstein
I live in Austin with my wonderful wife Julie, who is also a therapist and an artist. I have two children, Jake and Katja, and two cats, Clifford and Sister. I am grateful that I still get to do everything I love: practical sessions, teaching, playing music, practicing yoga, writing, and trying as best I can to understand and convey the preciousness of the life within and around us.