Swedish Massage Therapy: a form of massage therapy that includes aromatherapy. Swedish Massage Therapy soothes the soul.

(See also: Swedish Massage Therapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Massage Therapy

The manipulation of the superficial tissues of the human body in order to promote deep relaxation, and release tension. Recent research has proven that massage is therapeutic, and can soothe injured muscles, stimulate Blood and Lymphatic circulation, improve structure and function of the body, increase toxic elimination, and more.

(See also: Massage Therapy, Alternative Health, Healing, Body Mind and Soul)

Massage therapy:

systematic, therapeutic stroking, rubbing, or kneading of the skin and underlying muscle and other soft tissue of the recipient for the purpose of physical and psychological relaxation, improvement of circulation, relief of sore muscles, and other therapeutic effects.

(See also: Massage therapy, Alternative Medicine, Body Mind and Soul)

Massage therapy: General term for a range of manual approaches to enhance relaxation, elevate mood, reduce blood pressure, decrease pain and heighten immune responses. It involves the practice of kneading or otherwise manipulating a person’s muscles and other soft or connective tissue.

(See also: Massage therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Massage Therapy: Popular around the world, massage incorporates the use of touch to stimulate circulation, relax muscles and promote a sense of well-being. Licensed in Washington state, massage therapists can combine a variety of techniques for their client's benefit.

(See also: Massage Therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Massage Therapy: A “hands-on” approach that takes many forms. Some of the many benefits include physical and mental relaxation, improved circulation & muscle tone, and aid the efficient functioning of the digestive system.

(See also: Massage Therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

MASSAGE THERAPY: This is a general term for a range of therapeutic approaches with roots in both Eastern and Western cultures. Involves the practice of kneading or otherwise manipulating a personÕs muscles and soft tissue.

What is Massage therapy?

Massage is the oldest therapy known to mankind.  It started about 5000 B.C. and was used by almost all cultures including China, Rome, Greece, and India.

Massage includes a number of disciplines that share the use of pressure, friction, and strain on the muscles and joints for therapeutic physical response.

Purpose of massage therapy

There are several purposes for massage therapy, including preventive, general health, relaxation, stress relief, pain relief, rehabilitative, warming up for sports, and psychological transformation.

Effects of massage therapy

Therapeutic massage has a cumulative effect on both soft tissue repair and decreasing stress, therefore receiving regular massage therapy is recommended to achieve the best results.  The benefits are numerous for people of all ages and activity levels. Almost everyone will enjoy the positive effects from receiving a massage.  Therapeutic massage feels wonderful and is very healthy.  In addition, human touch is a physical need.  Massage therapy provides a safe and caring way to receive the physical contact needed by all.

(See also: Massage therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

MASSAGE THERAPY: A general term for a range of therapeutic approaches with roots in both Eastern and Western cultures. It involves the practice of manipulating a person's muscles and other soft tissue with the intent in improving a person's well-being or health, and may include, but not be limited to, deep tissue, percussion, vibration, and joint movement.

(See also: Massage therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Massage Therapy

This long-respected healing art has a history which stretches back thousands of years and spans the globe. The first written records of massage date from 3,000 years ago in China, although it is certain that the use of touch to heal and soothe extends back to the earliest human experience. To rub a sore muscle or stroke another in comfort is a natural human instinct; and the "laying on of hands" has been valued among spiritual and healing traditions throughout history.

(See also: Massage Therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Massage Therapy: Based on the idea that touch is read through the skin and can produce a sense of physical and emotional well-being. It works with both deep and light touch to stimulate functions of the body such as the circulatory and lymphatic systems. It can improve circulation and the supply of oxygen to the body’s tissues and is often used to reduce stress, ease pain and treat depression and digestive disorders.

(See also: Massage Therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

MASSAGE, BODYWORK AND SOMATIC THERAPIES

Massage, bodywork, and somatic therapies is the application of various techniques to the muscular structure and soft tissues of the human body.

The application of massage, bodywork, and somatic therapy techniques may include, but is not limited to, stroking, kneading, tapping, compression, vibration, rocking, friction, pressure, and those techniques based on manipulation or the application of pressure to the muscular structure or soft tissues of the human body.

This may also include non-forceful passive or active movement and/or application of techniques intended to affect the energetic systems of the body. The use of oils, lotions, powders, or other lubricants may also be included.

Massage, bodywork, and somatic therapies specifically exclude diagnosis, prescription, manipulation, or adjustments of the human skeletal structure, or any other service, procedure, or therapy that requires a license to practice orthopedics, physical therapy, podiatry, chiropractic, osteopathy, psychotherapy, acupuncture, or any other profession or branch of medicine.

(See also: MASSAGE, Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)

VIBRATIONAL HEALING MASSAGE THERAPY

Vibrational Healing Massage Therapy (VHMT) is a bodywork therapy designed to restore one to fluidity. It is like massage therapy, providing touch techniques and distinctions that help a person live in their body as a liquid process, freeing pain as we have known it.

Vibrational Healing Massage Therapy works with the physical structure to free up past tensions and stresses that have been held in the body. This reawakening of the nervous system restores circulation to injured areas, moves energy and emotions, and helps in the letting go of chronic pain or stiffness. There are approximately 16 basic techniques that serve to align, loosen, and connect the body so tensions can reverberate freely.

Special sensitive stretching, rebounding, and torquing are some of the techniques helping clients to become aware of where they have been holding. Practitioners and recipients alike begin to feel not only their vibrations move within them, but also new circulation of their basic metabolic fluids flowing again to once-rigid areas. As they listen to people’s body rhythms and frequencies, practitioners of Vibrational Healing Massage Therapy facilitate a clothes-on massage therapy that is rhythmic and fun, like playing a fine-tuned violin or guitar.

Vibrational Healing Massage Therapy includes new distinctions of awareness in thinking, speaking, walking, standing, and sitting which allow for fully-connected and communicative bodies. These concepts are: The Fluid Body Model - a body of knowledge where we experience being in our bodies in a whole new way, acknowledging and honoring the fluid, evolving processes that we are; Disease as a Strategy - a self-responsible way of thinking that allows us to access self-healing and growth; and The Language of Healing - a way of speaking responsibly about our bodies and lives, so that when we speak, we are causing and accessing healing and transformation to happen.

(See also: VIBRATIONAL HEALING MASSAGE THERAPY, Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)

BUDZEK MEDICAL MASSAGE THERAPY

Developed by Jeffrey Budzeky, RN, Budzek Medical Massage Therapy is designed to relieve acute and chronic pain resulting from muscle, nerve, and joint disorders. This multi-modality therapy is based on the specific sequence of 12 different bodywork techniques and addresses eight different aspects that affect the body simultaneously.

(See also: BUDZEK MEDICAL MASSAGE THERAPY, Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)

Chinese Massage: Also called Tuina, it has the same importance, in Chinese traditional medicine that acupuncture, the moxibustion, the pharmacopeia or dietetics. Work in Chinese massage is carried out along the meridian lines which traverse the body. The expert stimulates the blocked points and reactivates energy along the meridian lines. This process makes it possible to awake the natural curative capacities of the body.

(See also: Chinese Massage, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Sports massage

The prime purpose of sports massage therapy is to help alleviate the stress and tension which builds up in the body's soft tissues during physical activity. Where minor injuries and lesions occur, due to overexertion and/or overuse, massage can break them down quickly and effectively. Above all, it can help prevent those niggling injuries that so often get in the way of performance and achievement, whether one is an athlete, ardent keep-fitter or a once a week jogger.

This treatment is not just for the sports person: anyone can benefit from sports massage, including people in physically demanding jobs and those not quite so obvious (occupational, emotional and postural stress may produce many similar characteristics to sports injuries).

Sports massage tends to be deeper and more intense. It is based on the various elements of Swedish massage and often incorporates a combination of other techniques involving stretching, compression, friction, toning, and trigger point response techniques similar to Acupressure and Shiatsu. The skilled therapist brings together this blend of techniques, knowledge and advice during treatment, to work effectively with the client to bring about optimum performance and to provide injury-free training and minimise post event injuries.

(See also: Sports massage, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Swedish Massage: While the healing power of touch is an ancient concept, this technique is named after Swedish massage pioneer, Peter Ling (1776-1839).  This technique emphasizes that all strokes go toward the heart.  Swedish massage uses five main strokes to stimulate the circulation of the blood through the soft tissue of the body.

Theory Swedish Massage

By stroking and kneading the body, metabolic processes and blood circulation are stimulated.  Basic Swedish massage is a relaxing massage that relieves stress, improves sleep, and enhances circulation by improving muscle tone and flexibility.

Techniques of Swedish Massage

Stroking with a light pressure is repeated rhythmically.  Fresh blood flows to the tissues, nourishing them with increased oxygen and other nutrients.

Petrissage or Kneading

Picking up the muscles by squeezing and pressing.  Petrissage helps reduce edema and decongests muscles by encouraging the expulsion of fluids from the muscle.

Friction or Rubbing

Circular or transverse strokes.  Friction massage helps free muscles from scar tissue formed after an injury.  It also helps loosen joints and tendons.

Tapotement or Percussion

Performed by cupping or clapping.  It can be light or deep.

Range of Motion

Mobilizes joints.  Parts of the body are rotated, flexed, and extended.

(See also: Swedish Massage, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Trigger Point, Neuromuscular, Myotherapy

This refers to any of several systems of working with trigger points. Trigger points are tender congested spots of muscle tissue, which may radiate pain to other areas. Significant relief results when the trigger point is treated.

(See also: Trigger Point Massage, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Therapeutic Massage/Touch  - A healing technique that combines traditional laying of the hands with certain Eastern theories of energy flow. It is based on the concept of unblocking "fields of energy" in the body to relieve pain and disease (backache, tension, headache).

(See also: Therapeutic Massage/Touch, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Deep Muscle Massage / Primmer Deep Muscle Therapy: This type of massage eliminates knots, locked up areas, and emotional blocks in the body due to prolonged stress. It includes various leverage techniques and kneading for a very firm massage.

(See also: Deep Muscle Massage / Primmer Deep Muscle Therapy, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

JAPANESE RESTORATION THERAPY & OKAZAKI LONG-LIFE MASSAGE

These are an integral part of traditional martial arts training that emphasizes a concern for physical well-being. Restoration therapy has been practiced in Japan for more than 1,500 years. It is a combination of amma, shiatsu, osteopathy, herbal medicine, and suggestive healing techniques.

To be a successful practitioner of restoration therapy, a thorough knowledge of anatomy and physiology is imperative, as well as knowledge of pathology, dietetics, psychology, and herbal medicines.

(See also: JAPANESE RESTORATION THERAPY, Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)