Many people are unaware of the difference between a relaxation massage and a therapeutic one. A relaxation massage features smooth, gentle treatments to promote general relaxation, release muscular tension, and increase circulation. The therapeutic method does so much more.
How Is It Different?
Therapeutic is a general term for those methods whose goal is to relieve muscle pain and spasm, increase circulation, and improve flexibility by working on specific problems. These are not treatments for relaxation, it’s about pain and injury relief.
Our Licensed Massage Therapist, Melissa Darlene-Lamb Strasser, is skilled in several forms of care. Those she uses most are the following:
Deep Tissue—a modality used to break down scar tissue, activate deep muscles, and increase circulation, to relieve stress resulting from pain. It has also been shown to lower blood pressure and heart rate.
Neuromuscular—alleviates muscle pain and nervous system problems. Helps with trigger points, circulation, nerve compression, postural problems, and repetitive movement issues like golfer’s or tennis elbow.
Myofascial—attempts to relieve tension in the fascia caused by trauma, poor posture or, in some cases, inflammation. The fascia is the thick connective tissue between the skin and muscles that wraps all muscles and visceral organs. If you’ve ever seen raw chicken, it’s the clear membrane that connects the skin to the meat. All living creatures have this layer.
The fascia is spread out flat all over like a web. When issues happen, it’s like running your fingers through the web until it’s all tangled. While we can’t restore it back to its original state, massage uses strokes to spread the fascia out and fix it back into position, close to how it used to be.
Trigger point—uses alternating levels of concentrated pressure in areas of muscle spasms and knots. Trigger points are sore and painful spots found deep within a muscle that produce a great deal of pain. The pain may also radiate to other parts of the body.
Sports—manipulation of muscles specifically geared to help those with very physically demanding lifestyles and hobbies. Your therapist considers the impact of the activity on your joints, different muscle groups, tendons, ligaments, and soft tissue groups, and performs specific treatments to work on those muscles, and improve circulation too. Deep tissue therapy is often used in conjunction with sports massage.
What to Expect
If you’re a chiropractic patient, Melissa will discuss your case with your doctor to determine which type of care is best for you. Once she starts to work on you, she may determine a combination of techniques are needed to provide the best outcome.
Whether you’re a chiropractic patient or not, our doctor must evaluate your physical condition before working with Melissa. This determines if you’re physically able and okay to receive therapeutic bodywork.
Once cleared, Melissa will consult with you to find out more about your lifestyle, what your job is, where you’re feeling the pain, what caused the pain, any accidents, etc. Then she’ll do a palpation exam to locate the dysfunction, determine the appropriate treatment, and start you on the road to better health.