“When touch slows down, the body begins to speak.”
For Ingrid May, Esalen® Massage is not just about flowing strokes or technical mastery. At the center of her teaching lives a simple truth she carries like a compass: put your mind into your heart, and your heart into your hands.
A Dream of Mountains and Oceans
As a young woman in Germany, Ingrid first trained in physiotherapy. “I learned about muscles, joints, and anatomy—but it felt cold, mechanical. Something in me longed for warmth, for life.”
During those years, she carried a recurring dream: mountains rising beside the vast ocean. A place where land and water met like body and breath. Years later, when she arrived in Big Sur for the first time, she recognized it instantly. “This was my dream. I had seen it before, and now I was standing in it.”
At the Esalen Institute, Ingrid’s life began to open in new ways. It was here she discovered Esalen Massage as more than a method — a way of being in the world. And it was here, too, that she fell in love with an Argentinian practitioner and teacher, Marcelo Bartroli. Their love story carried them a continent away, and together they founded the Oasis School of Massage in Buenos Aires, planting Esalen’s seeds in South American soil.
Ellen Watson, Marcelo Bartrolí and Ingrid May.
Today, Ingrid has returned to her homeland in Germany. From there, she teaches Esalen Massage certification trainings in Switzerland, Spain and Argentina, continuing the circle of lineage, dream, and community.
The Subtle Art of Heartful Touch
Over the decades, Ingrid has asked again and again: “What makes touch truly nourishing?”
Her answer is always the same. Not perfection. Not performance. Presence. “When the heart flows into the hands, something changes. Touch becomes a conversation instead of a technique.”
This wide-open, generous heart is what students and clients remember about her: the sense that she is not only giving massage but welcoming them into a field of warmth, trust, and belonging.
From Learning to Listening
Like many practitioners, Ingrid remembers her own early doubts. “I wanted so much to get everything right that my hands became tense. I realized I was trying from the mind rather than from the heart.”
The turning point came when she gave herself permission to slow down. Breath softened, movements grew fluid, and she began to listen—not only with her ears, but through her palms.
“In that slowing, trust begins to grow—for the giver as much as for the receiver. When I stopped trying to impress, I could finally connect.”
Guided by Mentorship and Lineage
Ingrid’s path has been shaped not only by her own life journey but also by the teachers who marked her along the way. One of her deepest mentors was Emily Conrad, founder of Continuum.
“Emily showed me that movement is not just something we do, but something life itself expresses through us. She taught me to let breath, sound, and subtle motion guide my touch.”
Through this influence, Ingrid discovered how Esalen Massage could expand into something fluid and alive—where massage is less about form and more about listening to the body’s inner currents, like tides moving beneath the skin.
For Ingrid, lineage is not abstract. It is a living thread of hands, hearts, and teachings passed from one generation to another. And it is a lineage she now carries forward, blending Esalen Massage and Continuum into her own heart-centered teaching.
Community as a Heart-Home
Although massage often looks like a one-to-one practice, Ingrid sees it as profoundly communal. “We never truly learn alone. Every exchange, every circle, every peer teaches us something. Community is the soil that nourishes our growth.”
For Ingrid, Esalen Massage is more than bodywork — it is her personal way of giving something to world peace. “Each time we create a space of trust and presence, we create a small island of peace. Enough islands, and the whole world begins to change.”
She describes the international Esalen Massage community as a global village — a place where people from different cultures gather and find a common language in breath, movement, and touch. It is in this village, she says, that the individual heart becomes part of a much larger heartbeat.
Invitation to the Esalen Massage Global Village 2026
At the Esalen Massage Global Village 2026 in Switzerland, Ingrid will offer two workshops that reflect her decades of embodied experience.
The full-day workshop, Continuum Meets Esalen Massage, weaves the visionary teachings of Emilie Conrad with fluid, sensory exploration. Here, breath, sound, and subtle movement flow naturally into Esalen Massage — making touch feel less like technique and more like a living dialogue between body and presence.
In her second workshop, Esalen Massage Techniques for the Neck, Ingrid guides participants through precise, grounded approaches to working with this sensitive region. The focus rests on clarity, listening hands, and ease in both giver and receiver.
“Whether you are just beginning or have practiced for decades, you belong. In our circle, every pair of hands is welcomed, every heart is seen. Together we create a space where touch is not performance, but relationship.”
This is her gift to the community: an open invitation to bring heart into hand, and hand into community.
May your mind find its home in your heart.
May your heart flow through your hands.
And may your touch remind another that they are never alone.
Ingrid offers certification trainings in Switzerland at the Kientalerhof and teaches internationally: → Esalen Massage trainings in Kiental, Switzerland