Benefits of Massage...
Healing...
What You Can Expect After Your First Massage...
Sexuality Issues...
Benefits of Massage...
It is used for relaxation and preventative healthcare. Massage is excellent for stress reduction. It is said that 85% of all diseases are stress related. That means that the recipient of massage is that much ahead of the game.
Massage is used in the treatment of injury. Muscles that are in a spasm cause the body pain. The pain causes the muscle to spasm and so on. Massage is one of the best ways to stop this pain/spasm cycle. Massage can enhance medical treatment and may improve the rate at which the body recovers from injury and illness.
-Massage relaxes muscles and improves range of motion.
-Massage lowers blood pressure and increases circulation of blood and lymph.
Headache and migraine management is another benefit of massage.
-Massage promotes sleep to help with insomnia and other sleep disorders.
-Massage can improve muscle and skin tone.
-Massage can improve self-esteem and self-image issues as well.
-Massage is healthy, clean, and non-sexual.
-Massage affects the body in many different ways that can enhance your health and give you peace of mind.
Healing… Top
Can only really start to happen when you, the client, commit to help yourself. The practitioner can only take the healing process so far. It is up to the client to take the healing process to the next and most crucial step.
The client has to make an effort to meet the practitioner half way. This means that the client must be willing to do what the practitioner says to do when they get home. For example: if the practitioner says to do stretches, exercise, eat properly, rest, etc., it is important that these instructions are followed.
Here is why... When a person is injured, the body will hold in a certain position that will protect the injured area. This is good if it is for a short time. If the body remains in this held position for too long, then the body will lock in this position. The longer the body is held in this position the harder it will be to get the body back to the proper position. Even after treatment starts the body will want to go back to the held position. This is why it is so important for the client to either stretch or exercise as instructed by the practitioner. Otherwise the healing will only get half way there and the practitioner will run into a huge block and it will seem that the progress has stopped. At this point it is important to realize that the practitioner has taken the recovery as far as he/she could, but now it is time to meet them half way and carry the recovery the rest of the way together.
Now lets say that the injury is now a month old. This does not seem to be a long time to still be injured after, lets say, a car accident. During this month your body has been going through a lot of changes. Your body has been doing what it does instinctively, which is healing itself as best as it can. Along the way, the alignment of your body has basically gone out the window. By this time your posture, body mechanics, and natural movement have been disrupted. By this time of the healing process if you are not seeing some sort of practitioner, time is not on your side for a quick recovery. Even though it has only been a month your therapy may take as long as two to three months of treatment at two times a week in some cases. All of this is assuming that the injuries are muscular and not severe and/or immobilizing.
Natural healing is also very important. Seeing a practitioner that helps your body heal itself plays a very important role in your recovery.
Taking drugs after such a traumatic experience, in my opinion, only does the body more harm. Because now the body has been interfered with. If pain-killing drugs are prescribed, they are disabling the body's ability to produce its own pain killing endorphins. By using these drugs, your body learns to depend on them and forgets how to produce its own natural pain relievers.
Although the drugs are fast acting and take you out of pain in a matter of minutes, at times, your body at the same time is being polluted. Now your body has to both heal and clean the foreign substance out of its system.
Pain is one of your body's ways of communicating to you. If you cannot feel pain you could possibly hurt yourself even worse. Pain lets you know something is wrong; it lets you know that your body is still working properly. But if your body is used to receiving drugs soon after the pain is felt, then the body gets lazy and will not send out the endorphins that you need.
What You Can Expect After Your First Massage... Top
Immediately after your massage you should experience a sense of relaxation. Your mind should be clear and you should feel refreshed. This should last from 30min. to a couple of hours. Let your body accept the experience of inner peace. Throughout the remainder of the day be sure to drink plenty of water to help flush the toxins and lactic acid out of your body. This will reduce the chance of soreness the following day. Be sure to call me if the soreness is not tolerable and I will explain what is happening depending on what the treatment was the previous day for you. As a general rule the more intense the treatment the better chance of post treatment soreness. Also, stretching is a good idea. I will show you good stretches to do at home to help keep the treatment from lasting just a few days.
It is also advised to have a follow up visit to make sure everything is feeling all right and to make any final tune-ups. The first massage may not take care of all that is going on. ALLOW YOURSELF TIME TO HEAL!!! Your body will move at its own pace, but that is fine. Do not be discouraged by this. In most cases it took your body longer that an hour to get to where it is now and will take longer that an hour to get it back to where it needs to be. The main thing to remember is that you care enough about yourself and are doing something about your discomfort.
Sexuality Issues... Top
Since massage is performed with the client disrobed and underneath a
sheet, I should clarify a few things for everyone.
First and foremost massage is not sexual in any way, shape, or form. Massage
is, or can be, sensual which is often confused with the other.
Your therapist should step out of the room to wash his/her hands to prepare
for the session while you are getting undressed and on the table.
During the massage you are properly draped (covered securely with the
sheet leaving no gaps) only having the area being worked on to be uncovered.
At anytime during the massage if you feel weird or funny say something
and your therapist should change what he/she is doing or stop that part
of the session all together.
The therapist should never massage any area that is covered that could
be viewed as risky or a sexual area. There are certain techniques that
require these areas to be treated, but your therapist should have the
training and should have discussed with you where and why they are going
there.
As a client there are things to say and not to say during your massage.
Have open communication with your therapist. Ask questions, be open, joke
around, but try not to cross any boundaries. Since everyone is different
respect your therapist and their space and all should be fine.