Bodywork and Massage Therapy
Bodywork has been called the coffee break of the
millennium. You see massage therapists' chairs and tables at airports,
art shows, doctors' offices, gyms, health clubs, health food stores,
resorts, salons, shopping malls, spas, sporting events, work places, in
hospices, hospitals, locker rooms, nurseries, storefronts, and on
cruise ships and movie sets. Bodywork in its many forms is booming.
Americans are spending an estimated $2 to $4 billion dollars a year
having their aches, pains, and anxieties massaged away. Membership in
professional associations of massage therapists nationwide has more
than doubled to over 40,000, and the number of schools and training
programs has also doubled. Beginning with a revival in the 60's, the
old image of a "massage parlor" is largely gone.
Why is bodywork and massage growing?
Relieving stress is one reason. Nine out of ten adults from executives
to overworked supermoms say they experience "high levels" of stress.
Thus it's not surprising that primary-care physicians report that 75
percent of office visits involve stress-related problems. Forty percent
of worker turnover is stress-related, and one way that businesses are
combating this is by allowing massage therapists to come work on their
employees during working hours.
Another impetus is that massage is now an integral part of many
physical rehabilitation regimens and may be covered by insurance if
prescribed by a physician or chiropractor. Some health plans cover
massage now too because it seems to produce highly therapeutic results.
Chronically ill patients who receive massage need less pain medication.
Immune systems rebound in HIV patients, and blood pressure stabilizes
in post-operative patients receiving touch therapy. Daily massage has
helped teenagers with emotional problems. Premature babies who are
massaged have gained 47 percent more weight and have been discharged
six days earlier than other preemies. Colicky infants are reportedly
less irritable and the elderly more alert. Some studies even show
improved student math scores.
The heavy use of keyboards and mice in computing has resulted in large
numbers of people developing repetitive stress injuries. This has
prompted recognition that people in many other occupations, from
chicken pluckers to violin players, suffer from repetitive stress
injuries as well.
While Swedish Massage is the most common form of bodywork, there are
many variations. Few fields have so many names-massage, massage
therapy, therapeutic massage, touch therapy, somatic therapy,
myomassage, myotherapy. Some practitioners describe themselves in terms
of one of the approximate 150 massage and bodywork modalities they
use-acupressure, cranial sacral therapy, energy healing, Feldenkrais,
Hellerwork, lymphatic drainage, polarity therapy, Reflexology, Reiki,
Rolfing, Shiatsu, sports massage, Trager, and trigger-point or
neuromuscular therapy, to name a few. Each modality has one or more
treatment aims, ranging from relaxation to dealing with specific
maladies.
Most practitioners employ multiple techniques in seeking to provide
their clients with maximum benefits, but specialization is also common.
Some specialize based on the particular technique they use. Others
specialize based on the type of clients they work with. Gabrielle
Greenberg of New York City, for example, teaches baby massage to
parents in parenting centers. Sports massage therapist Kate Montgomery
of Nashville, Tennessee, has developed a 12-step touch program for
people suffering from carpal-tunnel pain. Tiffany Field, who is known
as the "Jane Goodall of massage," works with newborns. Carol Koncan
specializes in a particular form of facial massage targeted at
rejuvenating and restoring facial tissue
Other massage therapists are working with autistic children, asthma
suffers, diabetics, people with chronic migraines, and post-mastectomy
patients. Still others specialize in working with dancers, musicians,
office workers, the elderly, hospice dwellers, bone-marrow transplant
recipients, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation patients.
Some specialize in working with particular problems, such as easing
aches and pains, lessening injuries, balancing and restoring energy,
promoting healing, re-educating movement because of disabilities, and
reducing stress.
Touch therapy is growing in the animal world as well. As a professional
horse trainer, for example, Linda Tellington-Jones saw many examples of
the emotional and physical suffering in animals. Determined to help,
she studied bodywork techniques such as the Feldenkrais Method and
developed her own unique brand of animal bodywork called Tellington
Touch or T-Touch.
Many bodyworkers like Michelle Weitzman of Venice, California, provide
relaxing hour-long massages to clients in their own homes on a portable
massage table. Increasingly popular, however, are chair massages like
those offered by Jodi Leavy of New York-based Healing Hands and Holden
Zalmac of Culver City, California. Zalmac takes his chair into an
office, sets it up in a corner and employee after employee takes turns
in his chair. He charges one dollar a minute and often has eight to
fifteen employees in a row for 10 to 20 minute massages. Some companies
pay part of the bill to keep their employees happy, relaxed, and
productive.
Bodyworkers and touch therapists can work either from home or at home.
Michelle Weitzman, for example, has her own home-based salon although
she also travels to see clients at their homes. But others like Jodi
Leavy work strictly at her client's site. Some, working independently
operate in rented office space, at health clinics, salons, spas, or
hospitals.
Our pick for an emerging niche is providing massage for menopausal and
peri-menopausal women who often suffer from severely tight neck and
shoulder muscles, general tension, and anxiety.
Follow-up
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