What is Massage Therapy?

In massage therapy, a trained, licensed massage therapist manipulates the soft tissues of your body — muscle, connective tissue, tendons, ligaments and skin. The massage therapist uses varying degrees of pressure and movement.

Massage is generally considered part of integrative medicine. Medical centers are offering it more and more as a treatment along with standard treatment. It may be used for a wide range of medical conditions.

Studies of massage benefits have found massage can:

• Help reduce stress
• Lessen pain and muscle tension
• Increase relaxation
• Improve immune function
• Reduce inflammation
• Increase metabolic recovery
• Recovery of soft tissue injuries
• Increased joint mobility and flexibility
• Increase lymphatic drainage
• Stretch scar tissue
• Reduce nerve pain

 

Deep Tissue Massage

Deep Tissue Massage focuses on the deepest layers of muscle tissue and fascia, breaking up adhesions in the fascia, resulting in less pain and tightness.

Gua-Sha

Gua-sha is a form of myofascial work utilizing tools to scrape the muscle, loosening up the surface fascia and bringing blood supply to the tissues to enhance healing.  This is a potent technique for those suffering from long held muscle tension.

Myofascial Release

Myofascial Release is a therapy that treats skeletal muscles and their adjoining fascial layers that permit gliding of the muscles and tendons.  Specifically releasing the myofascial layers permits mobility, reduced inflammation, and pain reduction by relaxing contracted muscles, improving blood and lymphatic circulation, and stimulating the stretch reflex in muscles.  This modality is often used for injury care and is only applied with a physician referral/prescription.

Pregnancy Massage

Pregnancy Massage provides postural support and helps to loosen up the trouble spots of the hips and low back, neck and shoulders and aids in alleviating fatigue and edema.

Sports Massage

Sports Massage is deep tissue massage that helps to prevent injuries and aids in recovery from workouts.  Muscle-tendon junctions are targeted, resulting in an increased range of motion and better flexibility.

Swedish Massage

Swedish Massage is a combination of slow, gliding, long strokes toward the heart, improving circulation.  Performed with hands or forearms, Swedish massage relaxes the superficial muscles.

Cupping Therapy

Cupping Therapy utilizes suction cups which can be either left in a stationary position or moved along the body. Cupping loosens up the layer of fascia surrounding the surface of the body and can relax chronically tight muscles and muscle groups as well.  Cupping massage is a great complement to a Swedish or deep tissue massage.

Trigger Point Therapy

Trigger Point Therapy is a powerful, targeted massage therapy designed to alleviate the source of your pain. A trigger point is a tight area in the fascia or bands of muscle tissue that causes referred pain elsewhere in the body. By focusing on the trigger point, your massage therapist can achieve optimal results for pain relief.

Acupressure Massage

Acupressure Massage might sound a lot like acupuncture but in fact, the two therapies are quite different. There are no needles in acupressure massage. This therapy instead uses precise finger placement and pressure to target specific points in the body that follow meridians.