Garden Massage

In my nine-plus years as a massage therapist I have had the pleasure of helping countless people through the journey towards relaxation, recovery, self-care, what have you. I have truly enjoyed my career and look forward to the rest of it. I do have to say, however, that my favorite clients to help have been my own son and my baby niece. Before these two little people, and before the continuing education course I have just completed, I didn’t believe babies, or children could receive many benefits from massage therapy. I knew the basics from my training, which feels like ages ago. I remember that massaging our children creates a healthy bond between the caregiver and the child and that massaging a child can aid in digestion and help with colic. While both of these still hold true there is so much more to massaging children and I am eager to share these benefits with you.  Most babies crave touch, in fact, as I learned in the course I took, newborns could pass away if not touched. A...

Sports massage is the application of appropriate massage techniques for athletes to improve performance. Actually, according to Sandy Fritz, a massage therapist with over 35 years of experience serving the athletic community states “(there) is no such thing as ‘sports massage’- only appropriate massage application for each client.” (1)   “We are all athletes in some form,” (1)  therefore, any massage techniques used to enhance physical movement  for any client may  be considered “sports massage.”    Bear with me while I get technical for a moment; appropriate massage techniques for athletes consists of the “application of mechanical force to stimulate the neuroendocrine/neuromuscular systems to affect myofascial structure and function, to assist fluid movement, and to support homeostasis.” (1)  Sounds complicated, but what it means is my job, as the massage therapist,  is  to serve athletes by manipulating the systems of the b...

When I tell people I'm a massage therapist I get a variety of responses, including personal stories of how they had a terrible experience with massages in the past. I have  found that   the  majority of  these stories have to do with  improperly  administered  deep  tissue massages.  As  such,  I would like to   address  a number of  elements, such as how a correctly administered deep tissue massage  it is not about brute strength and  should never  cause extreme pain.  First of all , deep tissue massage is the modality of massage "used to release chronic patterns of muscle tension using slow strokes, direct pressure, or friction; [it] is administered to affect the sub-layer of musculature and fascia that support muscle tissues and loosen bonds between the layers of connective tissues"(1).    Why Deep Tissue is NOT About Brute Strength    A client that has a ...