FAQ About Massage Therapy

Below Are some questions that frequently get asked about massage therapy and its uses. If you have any questions please contact us and we will be happy to answer anything that you might like to know about our approach.

How can massage be something that actually can work on migraine or chronic pain?
How does massage help migraine headaches? Many doctors believe migraine headaches are vascular, that is the result of blood pressure or flow. While massage may not affect this directly it can improve both by relaxing the muscles of the neck, base of the skull, and the many small muscles on the skull. Typically, I have reduced migraine pain by 80% in about 40 minutes. The patients reported still having the headache “hangover” but felt that the episode had passed.

How does massage help chronic pain? This question is too broad because there are so many different forms of chronic pain. Generally, most pain comes from muscles and massage makes muscles feel better and quit hurting.

In your experience what techniques work best on athletes and which work best on chronic pain clients or is it a matter of putting them all together depending on
what you find?

Each session is unique to that client. The advantage of having treatment options is that we can tailor each session to the needs of the client at that time. There is a lot of crossover in techniques between athletes and those in pain because they exhibit a lot of the same problems. As a group athletes share a mental attitude that biases technique choice toward the more direct approach and quickest fix without much regard to comfort. They also do not like to discontinue their training and participation in their sport. We are aware of that and adjust accordingly while remembering that it is a generality and not all athletes have that attitude.

Our approach is such that these issues really don’t arise. We encourage communication so that we understand your situation and your goals. You determine the process and the definition of success. We use our knowledge and experience to help you get the results you want. Georgia and I believe our best asset is that we are trainable. That is you tell us what you want the experience to be and the goals, it is your massage after all.

What is your view on sports massage for non-professional athletes but highly active Individuals?
[The term “sports massage” is often used to define a particular category of massage techniques. It is a helpful label for the public to quickly identify an area of specialization of the therapist. This doesn’t necessarily determine the techniques used but does suggest the therapist tends to establish goals related to sport specific performance.]

Amateur athletes need massage therapy at least as much as professionals. Professional athletes are provided a lot of support in every facet of their sport. Amateurs are pretty much on their own and must educate themselves to the same level that they wish to compete. Most are aware that they need to access as much help as possible to help them reach their goals with a minimum of negative results. Those negative results generally mean injury.

I am sure you are aware that pretty much all Olympic level programs and professional sports teams employ massage therapy in their programs. There are very good reasons for this, among which are reduced injuries and improved performance, both in training and sports specific activities.

How can therapeutic massage be effective with circulation problems?
Your body is about 50% water and there are many processes and mechanisms for keeping it flowing and refreshed. It all has to be piped or forced through the muscles and other tissues of the body. When muscles are tight this job is more difficult and less effective. Blood vessels are often completely surrounded by muscles. Lymphatic flow depends on the free movement of fluids through the tissues. Both of these can be compromised by tight muscles. This can occur generally in the body or be confined to a specified area or extremity.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *