Massage Therapy
About Massage Therapy
Benefits of Massage
- Promotes general and muscular relaxation
- Improves circulation and cellular nutrition
- Improves flexibility, balance and function
- Improves self awareness
- Reduces tension, pain and stress
- Helps prevent future injuries
The stress of managing our busy lives and living in today’s world can exacerbate the pain we feel. Massage can elicit the relaxation response, a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress, relieving it’s negative effects and restoring balance in the body. Some positive effects of the relaxation response include slower heart rate, deeper breathing, more relaxed muscles and better internal circulation and digestion.
Clients get undressed in a private, relaxing room and lie under a sheet and blanket on a very comfortable (heated, if desired) massage table. Different areas of the body are exposed as they are worked on but you’ll never be left feeling exposed or chilly. It’s important to us that you feel comfortable and if that means you want to keep your clothes on that’s ok. Clothing can be worked through. In fact, you may be interested in starting with a Chair (seated) Massage where you stay fully clothed.
Massage received regularly helps work out chronic muscular tension. Massage melts away a certain amount of tension in each session, and if received regularly, keeps tension from building up again. It helps you identify and correct patterns of holding tension. You can learn to relax and let go of tension you may not have even been aware of.
Symptoms & Conditions Treated
- Headaches
- Neck and Jaw Pain (TMJ/TMD)
- Frozen Shoulder
- Golf/Tennis Elbow
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Low Back Pain
- Sciatica-Like Pain
- Piriformis Syndrome
- ITB Syndrome
- Achilles Tendonitis
- Plantar Fascitis
- Myofascial Pain Syndrome
- Joint Pain
Massage & Pain
Nerves run alongside of, between, and through muscles. Tight muscles can squeeze and put pressure on nerves causing constriction, which interferes with the free flow of nerve impulses and sometimes causes pain. Through muscle relaxation, massage alleviates the constriction of nerves.
Tight muscles may also constrict blood vessels, thus slowing blood flow to an area – a condition called ischemia. Ischemia causes pain. By increasing circulation to an area, massage reduces ischemia and therefore the pain it causes.
Trigger Points are specific spots in muscles and tendons which cause pain. Trigger points may be caused by sudden trauma like falling or being hit, by repeated use of a particular muscle, or may develop over time from chronic muscular tension in an area. Direct pressure with the thumb or fingers on a trigger point will often deactivate it and relieve the pain.
Accidents at home, work, play, or on the road can leave bruises, sprains, and other injuries in the soft tissues. Massage improves general and local circulation, helping to clear cellular debris from an injury site, and bringing nutrients needed to heal the damaged tissues. Thus massage helps speed recovery.
You may get caught in the pain-spasm-pain cycle. This phenomena is started either by pain or spasm in a muscle, which perpetuates itself as an endless loop. For example, you may tense up from pain—this causes more tension and more pain, then more tension and more pain, and on and on until something breaks the cycle. Massage helps break this painful cycle.
Types of Therapies
Our Therapeutic Massage incorporates techniques from Swedish and Deep Tissue massage to meet your specific needs. Swedish Massage incorporates smooth, gliding strokes to provide relaxation and stimulates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, sometimes called “the rest and digest system”. Blood pressure decreases, heart rate slows and digestive activity increases. Relaxation
Massage also stimulates the sensory nerve endings in our skin which transmit messages to the nervous system and causes the brain to release endorphins. Deep Tissue Massage focuses on realigning deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue and relieves chronic pain often located in the neck, upper and lower back and legs. Chronic muscle tension can cause adhesions (bands of painful, rigid tissue) that block circulation, cause pain and inflammation and limit movement. Deep Tissue Massage helps break down these adhesions to relieve pain and restore movement.
Massage with cupping is a treatment that works well with deep tissue massage. Plastic cups are placed on an area of tension on the skin to create suction. This suction, or negative pressure, lifts up and separates tissues to relieve muscle tightness, adhesions, and soften constricted muscles. The cups can be moved over specific area or left in place for a short time to increase blood flow and lift rather than compress a tissue. When cups are left over an area for a short time, temporary marks on the skin may appear due to increased blood flow to the area. The marks are temporary, and are not bruises and will heal within a day to several days. Muscle tension decreases quickly, deep relaxation occurs as the nervous system is sedated and muscle health is supported.
Prenatal Massage promotes relaxation, soothes nerves, and relieves strained back and leg muscles in expectant mothers. Pregnancy massage is especially beneficial in the second and third trimesters, when the extra weight in your belly puts a strain on your back. It helps you to keep good posture and relaxes and provides flexibility to birthing muscles. Pregnancy massage aids the circulatory and lymphatic systems, which keeps blood flowing to both the mother and the baby. It stimulates different glands in the body, which help to stabilize hormone levels, and relieves nervous tension throughout the body.
Reflexology is a treatment that focuses on “reflex points” on your feet, hands, and head (especially ears). These reflex points relate to specific organs and glands in the body, and stimulating those points with finger pressure promotes health in those organs and glands via the body’s energetic pathways. Reflexology is a deeply relaxing treatment with benefits that can be felt throughout the body.
Oncology massage therapy offers safe and effective massage for people currently undergoing cancer treatment or have a history of cancer. Massage is adapted to meet individual needs and takes into consideration surgeries, treatment, medications, and energy level. Massage can ease muscle tension, relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression and promote sleep. Oncology massage therapy offers deep relaxation and healing for people with cancer or in recovery.
Hot Stone Massage is a specialty massage where the therapist uses smooth, heated stones as an extension of their own hands, or by placing them on the body. The heat can be both deeply relaxing and help warm up tight muscles so the therapist can work more deeply, more quickly.
Craniosacral Therapy is a gentle, hands-on form of body therapy that uses light touch to evaluate the craniosacral system - the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds and protects the brain and spinal cord. Using a soft touch, usually no heavier than the weight of a nickel, restrictions can be released in the craniosacral system to improve the functioning of the central nervous system, allowing the body to heal itself.
By complementing the body’s natural healing processes, Craniosacral Therapy can bolster resistance to disease and is effective for a wide range of conditions such as concussions, migraine headaches, TMJ syndrome, sinus issues, stress and anxiety.
Integrated Alternative Therapy combines various methods such as massage, reflexology, energy work, meditation, and talk therapy to facilitate a mind/body balance. The body often holds memory and emotion in the soft tissue. Emotional conditions such as anxiety, grief and trauma can present as chronic pain and discomfort. An Integrated Alternative Therapy session can allow these conditions to emerge so they can be processed and released.
The most appropriate modalities are implemented to offer you the greatest relief within the session. If you are suffering from specific physical symptoms, the modalities we incorporate may be massage. However if there is a history of trauma from an accident or situation that has been holding itself in the shoulders, hips, jaw, or any of the various systems in the body (digestion, elimination, reproduction, central nervous system) – the session will be more complex and multifaceted using a combination of talk therapy, energy work, meditation, and others to assist in accessing the root cause of the pain in a way that best supports your authentic process.