Massage Therapy: What is it?
By James Sreblowski
Massage Therapy is the physical manipulation of soft tissue and joints within the body. Research suggests it is effective in; the promotion of healing for sports injuries and motor vehicle accidents, for suppressing anxiety and depressive type symptoms, and for general maintenance, among many other benefits.
Therapists use several working tools and techniques to promote these benefits. Such techniques include effleurage, petrissage, muscle stripping, frictions, and stretching. Furthermore, tools including and not limited to; hot and (or) cold hydrotherapy, acupuncture (if certified), paraffin wax, and kinesiology tape function to assist the therapist in reaching the goals of the treatment. These techniques and tools are used with an understanding of human physiology, anatomy, pathology, and biomechanics to effectively create and perform a treatment plan. Treatment plans are unique to each given patient and work towards the patient’s goals under the guidance and manipulation of the therapist.
What to expect on your first visit?
Your therapist will identify your specific concerns and goals through a short interview and analysis of your health history form. This step requires less than 5 minutes.
Your therapist will then gather additional pertinent information related to your goals using biomechanical tests including; range of motion and postural scans. These types of tests will indicate areas of your body that need to be addressed in the initial massage. Similarly this step requires less than 5 minutes as well.
From here the massage begins. Even more information is gathered by the therapist through soft tissue palpation as they work. The majority of the time is allotted here at 45-50 minutes.
After your massage is finished the therapist may suggest strengthening and (or) stretching exercises to augment the treatment. If pertinent this step will again take less than 5 minutes.
Your therapist will create a detailed file to outline treatment notes, patient goals, and assessment notes. Information gathered from the initial interview, biomechanical assessment, and massage amalgamated to formulate a treatment plan.
Interested in the specifics? More to come!
