When Would A Massage Be Most Effective?

massage for pain and stress relief

For Stress Overload & Burnout

Massage can greatly reduces one’s stress levels. Far beyond simply “feeling good” massage therapy offers an impressive range of physical, mental and emotional benefits. Only 5% of the Opinion Research Poll said individuals would seek a massage therapist just to feel good, to pamper themselves or as a special indulgence.

Muscular Tension & Tightness

The most common reason for many seeking out massage is for muscular tension, aches and strains. Normally soft tissue should be pliable and have responsiveness and tone able to move freely. Underused muscles from lack of exercise or disability can become flaccid, hypotonic, weak and unresponsive.

Muscles can become tight and ineffective for many reasons. Stress, injury, overuse & misuse of muscle groups can all cause pain and discomfort as well as restricting normal range of motion. When left unattended, these conditions can become habitual and hamper the quality of everyday life. Coming in for bodywork in the early stages of tension and over contraction of the muscles can prevent this.

Joint Aches and Pains

Tightness and inflexibility in the joints, ligaments and tendons can be caused by multiple factors, which Kristina will explore with her clients in therapy sessions. The frequent damp cold rainy weather of the Northwest can invade the joints as one ages, causing undue achy joints & inflexibility, dysfunction & inflammation in the small or larger joints. Nutritional deficiencies to the soft tissues can cause drying and eventual deterioration of the joint capsule.

Trauma & Repetitive Use Injuries

Far too many of us face our daily lives with chronic pain due to old injuries, accident, chronically stressful living or illness. Not only does skilled medical massage help to correct such conditions that cause acute &chronic pain, it acts in ways to decrease the actual pain itself.

Medical massage therapy has a role in pain management. It can greatly reduce the development of painful muscular patterning, if utilized early enough after accidents involving trauma and injury. Because many urban folks have sedentary desk jobs using the computer, there is far more repetitive use injury happening, primarily with carpal tunnel & thoracic outlet syndrome.

Pre & Post Surgery Care

Pre and post surgery skilled bodywork has been scientifically proven to be effective in increasing circulation, detoxing the anesthesia drugs & quickening the healing process of the incision area. The Acuscope microcurrent treatments clean up tissue bruising after surgery in double the time. The Acuscope also does good healing work on abnormal thickened keloid scar tissue.

Anxiety and Nervous Tension

Tension from every day stress can disrupt your sleep, leaving you tired and emotionally drained. This is especially so for parents raising young children or for those mentally over stimulated, surfing the internet into the wee hours of the morning... Some styles of bodywork have an amazing effect on the body’s nervous system, rebalancing the sympathetic with the parasympathetic, causing your body’s rhythms to slow down. The gentler forms of bodywork such as craniosacral, Trager, polarity & relaxation Swedish can do wonders for an overdriven body and mind.

Life Transitions

Life brings many changes & periodic challenges that can tax our endocrine and immune systems. Reflect upon the bodily stresses of painful periods, pregnancy, midlife crisis, and divorce, the transition of preiomenopause & menopause & teenage hormonal shifts. Colorpuncture, as a new form of energetic color therapy is quite effective in working with such hormonal shifts. Talk with Kristina to learn more about Colorpuncture specialized treatments.