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Are you feeling stressed and want a method to decompress and also de-stress? Massage therapy could be the cure to your challenges. Therapeutic massage can release tension within your body to help relieve stress. Your massage session should make you feel very relaxed and peaceful. Besides the relaxation you will feel, a massage can heal a variety of ailments as well.

For most massages, the patient will lie down on a special massage table. Since the therapist will be applying oils and lotions to the patient’s skin, he or she will need to be partly unclothed. There are several different experiences that you may get with massage therapy. Other massage experiences could be either in a chair or on the floor with a mat provided.

The most common method of relaxation and stress reduction massage is Swedish Massage. The massage therapist may use long strokes, kneading, deep circular movements, vibration, and tapping to help release tension muscles in different parts of your body. This type of massage is best for people who sit all day or stand all day for their work. If you have that kind of job a lot of stress can be built up in the body such as muscle defections. A type of massage that uses more pressure to get closer to muscles near the bones is called deep tissue therapeutic massage.

Another kind of massage is sports massage therapy. Using trigger points to target pressure points in the body is involved with sports massage therapy. Sometimes this type of massage can involve pain but this can actually lead to a healthier future – a case where “no pain, no gain” can ring true.

Over time, as athletes strain their muscles, it can lead to pain and muscle defections. People with more physical demanding jobs such as construction, masonry, police, firefighter, landscaper, etc (you get the picture) also may benefit from deep tissue and trigger point massage. Getting a massage of this kind can prevent you from experiencing chronic pain further down the road. Overworked muscles can be helped to relax from this therapy and therefore get time to heal. And that will lead to less pain in the future as well.

When you go to your appointment the massage therapist will request that you fill out a health history form so he or she can evaluate your condition. This will give the therapist the information he or she needs to make adjustments for any allergies, sensitivities, or contraindications for specific types of massage therapy. You can expect a massage session to last from about one half hour to two hours. But it will depend on the condition of the patient and what he or she and the massage therapist decide will be best for treatment. One of the many benefits of therapeutic massage is that when you are done with your session you will often be pain free and feel great.

Beau Miakinkoff, LMT, LMP, CA, IAC is a graduate of Ashmead College, School of Massage and is a Portland massage therapist. She specializes in deep tissue massage therapy and essential oils treatments.

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