I get the question “why massage therapy?” a lot. Why did you get into it? Why do people get massage therapy? Why should I get it? Why are you ok with touching strangers? Why do some massages hurt so much, but make me feel better later? Why are all massage therapists so different? So why am I telling you this? I really have grown fond of these “why” questions. It tells me people are interested, and curious...I too am quite the curious soul; their why’s make me think, sometimes deeper than intended. I will only talk about a few of these “whys” for now.
From when I was very young, I had to touch everything. For those of you who have children like this, you may be familiar with the phrase, “look with your eyes, not with your hands.” On top of it all, I didn’t just touch things, but people as well, mainly if they had been hurt in some way. My little brother was the common body to experience this observable fact, it reached the point where he would rather suffer in silence than let me know he had bumped his chin. Now don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t squeeze peoples’ injuries, I was actually quite gentle, to my judgement anyways. However, when one hurts themselves, that vulnerable region becomes protected by a mental Fort Knox that may respond physically by a quick pulling in closer and a “Don’t touch!” I don’t know why I had this need as a child but I didn’t exactly grow out of it. Instead, it became a subconscious desire to take away pain, it was a modified reflex that I was mentally familiar with so I would try to control it, aim for people I knew.
I also took this into account when choosing a career. I thought the most logical option was to go to Mexico and go into Medical School, (long story for another day.) When I lived in Mexico this wasn’t really a problem, it is custom to give and receive a kiss on the cheek as an ‘Aloha!’ even when interacting with a stranger. Hugging and making physical contact throughout a conversation was socially acceptable. Therefore, the sense of touch was constantly integrated into the culture, and I loved it. When I came back to Canada, this was sincerely missed, and rightly so! It is a proven fact that feeling touch from another person is a human need, thank you psychology!
So why do people get massages? There are countless websites and endless literature that can give you a list of conditions that massage has been known and proven to help. I am not here to defend or attack them. But I will scratch the surface to what I have experienced thus far in my own journey. Many people come through my door with headaches, if you don’t suffer from regular headaches take a moment to feel blessed...and another one for good measure...there. For those of you who do, you’re not alone and there is help, this is a big problem in our society, let’s not play the blame game right now, I just want to say most reoccurring headaches can be treated with massage therapy and self-care. Example: regular 30 minute massages, perhaps trigger point therapy, followed with relaxation massage AND (self-care) drinking water and getting some sleep.
Another common issue is repetitive strain injury, how many of us have a job that we are doing the same movement every day, using the same muscles over and over. With time, these muscles are overworked and inflamed. With massage, ice and rest this too can be treated.
Our body is such an amazing design, when our muscles are fatigued, it finds a way around the problem...you may have heard the word compensation, our body is famous for it. What does this mean? Other muscles will take over the task, the action we are asking our body to do may not be their #1 priority, but they can pull it off. There is however a catch, our posture is going to change slightly and now we are risking this new set of muscles’ wellbeing. When it gets to this point all is not lost, but in time you can have another level of repetitive strain added on, not to mention some posture issues. Think of a left sprained ankle, it’s not repetitive strain injury but it is similar. Not only are you going to be putting less pressure on your left leg, but now the weight is not evenly distributed so your right side takes on more than it is used to. So yes, your right leg may be sore after awhile, but what is your leg attached to? Your hip, the hip bone is covered in muscles and ligaments vital to even the simplest of activities, walking. What is between the hip, your sacrum. The sacrum is the bone that contains our “tailbone” but right now we are going to mention that at the top of the sacrum, our largest vertebral bone sits. See how I could go on and on to how a left ankle sprain could affect us to the very top of our heads through body compensation...not only that, it may affect one person different from another but in the big picture our posture has the great potential to become unbalanced and create problems. A massage therapist’s job is to help the body take back that balance it so longs for and educate the client on what else they can do outside of the massage room to acquire physical wellness.
P.S-it will take more than one posting to do this ‘why people get massage therapy’ question justice.
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