Massage Therapy
What is...?
Therapeutic Touch
Therapeutic touch is a healing technique in which a practitioner's hands are passed in wavelike motions inches above a person's body. (Despite the name, the practitioner typically does not make contact with the body, although some practitioners do include physical touch.) It is believed that by doing therapeutic touch, the practitioner can break up a person's energy blockages and thus improve health and well-being.
Therapeutic touch weaves together elements from a variety of healing traditions, among them Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, and the ancient religious practice of laying on of hands. It was developed in the early 1970s by Dolores Krieger, PhD, RN, a professor emeritus of nursing at New York University, and Dora Kunz, a healer and author of several books on human energy fields and therapeutic touch.
Therapeutic touch advocates believe that this therapy can reduce stress, promote relaxation, relieve pain, and stimulate healing. It is usually used as adjunct therapy to conventional medical treatment.
Studies have shown that the technique helps reduce anxiety in patients awaiting or recovering from surgery. At Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, patients may request therapeutic touch during or after an operation. A survey of 10 patients who were initially "extremely skeptical" of the technique found it to be "remarkably helpful."
A 1998 study, published in the Journal of Family Practice, showed that therapeutic touch significantly reduced pain and increased function in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Another 1998 study in the Journal of Advanced Nursing showed that therapeutic touch reduced pain and anxiety in burn victims.
Breast Health and Massage
Do you take care of your breasts as well as you take care of the rest of your body?
Lymphatic massage techniques are designed to enhance breast health and to address the discomfort and symptoms of benign breast conditions and post-surgical procedures.
What breast massage can do:
- Relieve breast congestion, swelling and edema.
- Reduce breast pain and soreness.
- Relieve discomforts of pregnancy and breast feeding.
- Relieve premenstrual and menopausal tenderness.
- Promote healing and recovery after surgery.
- Relieve tightness and improve appearance of scar tissue.
- Ease discomfort of "fibrocystic" breasts.
- Maintain breast health.
- Reconnect you with your body.
Breast massage involves gentle techniques that improve the circulation and lymphatic drainage in the breast. Specific techniques for work with scar tissue and benign cysts may be used if needed. Breast massage is not intended to replace regular breast health care such as annual exams and mammography. Undiagnosed lumps, non-cyclic pain or discharge should receive immediate medical attention.
Bindegewebsmassage
Bindegewebsmassage is perhaps best described as a type of "reflexive" body work that can allow the massage therapist to effect change in the viscera and connective tissue.
This is very specialized type of massage and is given in many European countries, especially before and after surgeries. It has its most beneficial stimulating effect on the circulatory system, mainly through loosening of the hardened condition of the connective tissue, which is often the cause of great discomfort and certain immobilities in a large number of diseases.
Bindegewebsmassage often has a very calming effect on various painful conditions and may be helpful in inducing sleep. The client should be aware that a series of treatments will be required, since, for many conditions, a single treatment is useless.
Developed by Elizabeth Dicke, a German physical therapist, in the 1930s, Bindegewebsmassage sessions generally take about 30 minutes and can be done in a massage chair or on the massage table. This technique is non-invasive and requires only a light pressure. It can be used to address menstrual disorders in addition to many visceral dysfunctions. It is also used to address musculoskeletal disorders such as back pain, frozen shoulder and bursitis by affecting the surrounding connective tissue and nerve innervations. Many clients experience relief from headaches and other non-specific body pains.
Reiki Sessions
- Reiki is the Japanese word for “universal life force energy.”
- Reiki is a gentle, non-invasive, healing technique that enhances the universal life energy flowing through the client.
- The session is done with the client fully clothed, and lying on a table, or sitting in a chair. There is a gentle laying on of hands at a number of areas of the body.
- An incredibly deep sense of relaxation and peace melts away tension, allowing the life force to flow more freely throughout the body washing away pain and discomfort. This reminder, at a deep level of being, makes us more aware of the connection between the body mind and spirit. This brings with it a felt sense of joy for living.
Michael Perman is a NYS-licensed massage therapist with 26 years of experience. He is also a Reiki master/teacher, an instructor at the Center for Natural Wellness School of Massage Therapy in Albany, NY and a recent addition to the Massage Therapy staff at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital.
Positional Therapy
Positional release therapy is a program designed by Lee Albert who currently works at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. This approach blends his experience at massage school, combined with working with physical therapists, as well as his training in orthopedic massage, myofascial release and neuromuscular therapy, and is based on osteopathic techniques of strain/counterstrain and muscle energy techniques.
Strain/counterstrain is a gentle technique that places the body in a position of comfort for a short period of time, which allows the body to "reset" its muscles to normal. Positional therapy is normally done with the client fully clothed.
Muscle energy technique, also known as MET, is a gentle, non-invasive form of stretching designed to restore optimal function to joints whose normal range of motion has been compromised by shortening and/or spasm of the muscles surrounding these joints.
