Massage as Therapy
October 8th, 2009 2:40 pm
Barbara Searles is a talented massage therapist who practices integrative massage – and we were honored to have her as our guest on the Stretch Your Mind and Body Talk Show. Barbara spoke at length about using massage as therapy instead of remedial work. Unfortunately most of us wait till we are in pain before we seek help and make time for ourselves.
Massage is a wonderful tool that anyone can use to maintain their health and wellbeing – and not just use when things go wrong. Massage is great for nurturing yourself, human touch is soothing and calming, no matter how stressed out you are.
Your body is a finely tuned engine, and it is necessary to keep up the maintenance – so it makes sense to receive regular ’services’ – massage is one way of providing that regular service and looking after your body. Regular doesn’t have to mean weekly, bi-weekly or monthly either…. it can mean 3 or 4 times a year. The thing is to make the appointments BEFORE you feel you need the therapy.
Massage doesn’t have to be painful, or very painful, either. This is a major point to consider, as many people have had experiences where the massage is incredibly painful as the therapist has worked deep in the muscles. They come away feeling bruised and I have actually seen bruises on some of my students’ bodies after they had a massage. I think this is missing the point. It does not tie in with yoga at all – yoga is about working with your body, respecting it and honouring it and only taking it to the point it is ready to go to. This applies to yoga postures, breathing techniques and sitting in meditation.
How deep the massage therapist works and how much pain is experienced should be determined as much by the client as by the therapist. Often, the more pain, the less effective the treatment. The same goes for yoga stretches – once there is pain, the muscle will start to tense and send out alarm signals to the brain instead of letting go.
As an integrative therapist, Barbara doesn’t practice one particular type of massage therapy. This is an interesting point as many therapists will ask their clients what type of treatment they need at the time of booking. With an integrative therapy, the therapist will use a combination of styles that work best for their client at that point in time – which has to be much better for the therapist and the client. This reminds me about my students too – they always ask what style of yoga I teach and I usually tell them that it is a “blend” or that I might change the style depending who is in the class at any particular time.
Myofascial Release
Myofascial Release is one style that Barbara does specialize in. Myofascial Release is a technique that provides sustained pressure into myofascial restrictions to eliminate pain and restore motion.
Fascia is literally a weave that covers and connects every muscle, bone, nerve, artery and vein in the body, as well as all of our internal organs including the heart, lungs, brain and spinal cord. Fascia is one weave that covers the body from head to toe, without any breaks. So it is all interconnected – tension or tightness in one part will affect another part.
Myofascial literally means the muscular fascia. I sometimes describe it to my students as “gladwrap” that separates each muscle fibre from the other one. I am convinced that holding yoga postures and stretches for a number of long slow deep breaths also has a very beneficial effect on the fascia. I will do some more research into this fascinating area.
By working with the Fascia, a massage therapist is able to coax the body back into its normal state. This type of therapy can be very gentle as it relies on small changes and doesn’t coerce muscles into moving and relaxing, but the positive effects of the Myofascial release can be more profound and last longer.
Massage As Therapy
Consider using massage as a ongoing therapy to keep your body in tune – one of the other benefits of massage is that it will also give your mind some downtime. Your mind can roam freely or go into a meditative state quite easily while you are being massaged.
In between your visits to your massage therapist you can practise self massage. You can do wonderful things for yourself just by sitting down and massaging your feet, hands and face. Sometimes I teach this as part of my class and as little as 5 minutes of self massage can do wonders for you.
You can listen to our interview the Barbara Searles from BodyWorks Lancaster to find out more about massage as therapy, below.
You can also connect with Barbara as @BodyworksPA on Twitter and Facebook or through her Bodyworks Therapeutic Massage facebook page.
Connie
Your Yoga Partner
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