Massage Therapy
Massage has been used throughout history as a way to promote health and healing. The basic principle is that manually manipulating body tissue increases circulation and nerve stimulation allowing the body to increase its own healing ability.
Different cultures have developed various ways of performing massage to suit their ideas of how to achieve health and physical well-being with massage.
Typically, Chinese therapeutic massage involves a Doctor who knows where to apply the touch and the type of touch may involve pressing, rapping, pulling, generally a non-flowing, type of touch.
Thai massage, on the other hand, is more relaxing and flowing, but requires some participation on the receiver’s part. The practitioner kneels or stands over the receiver and moves the body and limbs into beneficial stretches and yoga like positions.
Swedish massage is the basic massage taught and practiced most widely in the United States. Many Massage school’s use Swedish massage as a basis with other techniques and modalities added to suit the locality and the student’s interest. Swedish massage consists of specific techniques which are taught to be applied in a specific order to give a full body massage which is both relaxing and therapeutic.
In addition to the type of massage a person practices, and there are many, their own personal style
comes through their work. Some practitioners use only one style, such as deep tissue massage, but that practitioner’s
personal style may be completely different than another which also practices deep tissue massage.
When choosing a practitioner one generally will think of where the practitioner is located and wants it to be a convenient location, close to work or home. The other consideration is the type of massage the practitioner does, therapeutic, relaxation, spa treatment?
Once in a session with a LMP we will formulate our opinions based on many sensory levels. Is the office comfortable, is the practitioner friendly, did he/she do what we asked and were they sensitive to my feedback? The bottom line is how we felt during and after the massage.
Most importantly, massage practitioners are healthcare providers. We want to help our clients feel better and have a good quality of life. That is why we do what we do.
Namaste