| Massage | |
There are over 80 different types of massage therapy and bodywork. Many are variations of each other which have been developed by a practitioner who is trained in one approach, makes modifications, and develops his or her own.
This article explores massage. Links to articles about specific types of massage are found in the box to the right.
The term "bodywork" is often used to refer to therapies that are often combined and confused with massage, such as Shiatsu, Trager, Rolfing, Polarity, and Reflexology.
Massage therapy (Swedish massage in particular) is
one of my
favorite spa services. The following passage from Rebecca Wells' book, "Divine
Secrets of the YA-YA SISTERHOOD" 
reflects my feelings about massage. Please share
your knowledge of, experiences with, and feelings about massage at the Spa Site Bulletin Board.
"Torie began to lightly stroke Vivi's back, and to rock her ever so
slightly. Her hands were warm against Vivi's skin, and as Torie stroked, Vivi could feel
her own breathing start to steady. Sometimes she could not believe that anyone could touch
her body like this, with such acceptance, such loving detachment, asking for nothing in
return. There were places she still could not bear to be touched. Her belly, for one. Her
belly stuck out too much, she was ashamed of it, could not accept the idea that it was
anything but hideous. There were other spots, though - her legs, her neck, her head -
which luxuriated in being massaged. There were moments during her sessions with Torie that
Vivi could only describe as religious. Moments when she came home to her body in ways she
never had before - moments when she felt its aches, varicose veins, and wrinkles so
intimately and gently that she groaned with a happiness she could never describe. Fleeting
seconds when Vivi knew that her body, in all its imperfections, was her own lived-in work
of art. She lived there and she'd die there."
According to Martin Ashley in his book,
"Massage:
A Career at Your Fingertips" , there are several types of massage: massage for
preventive general health; massage for relaxation, pampering or `beautification'; sports
massage, massage for pain relief; rehabilitative massage (for recovery from physical
injury); massage as an adjunct to medical or chiropractic treatment; and massage for
personal psychological transformation.
In his book,
"The
American Holistic Health Associations Complete Guide to Alternative Medicine"
,
William Collinge, M.P.H., PhD. divides massage into two classifications: Traditional
European and Contemporary Western.
Traditional European massage includes methods based on conventional Western concepts of anatomy and physiology and soft tissue manipulation. There are five basic kinds of soft tissue manipulation techniques: effleurage (long flowing or gliding strokes, usually toward the heart, tracing the outer contours of the body), petrissage (strokes that lift, roll, or knead the tissue), friction (circular strokes), vibration, and tapotement (percussion or tapping).
Traditional European massage was brought to the United States by two doctors from New York who were brothers, Charles and George Taylor, who studied in Sweden and introduced Americans to Swedish techniques in the 1850s. After the Civil War, the first Swedish clinics opened in Boston and Washington, the latter frequented by U. S. Grant.
Contemporary Western Massage includes methods based primarily on modern Western concepts of human function, anatomy, and physiology, using a wide variety of manipulative techniques. These may include broad applications for personal growth, emotional release, and balance of mind-body-spirit in addition to traditional applications. These approaches go beyond the original framework or intention of Swedish massage. They include Esalen or Swedish/Esalen, neuromuscular massage, deep tissue massage, sports massage, and manual lymph drainage. Most of these are American techniques developed from the late 1960s onward, though the latter was developed in the 1920s.
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