Ask the Massage Therapist

Three more days left til Christmas! You can purchase gift certificates for massage online and print them out instantly or have them sent by email to the recipient. You can send one late on Christmas Eve and have it waiting in their inbox on Christmas morning. You can wait til the very last minute and print it out on Christmas Day!

We're excited to announce the availability of online scheduling for massage appointments! No more phone tag, you can schedule an appointment at any time of the day or night.

I've been learning a lot about the role of the brain and the central nervous system in our experience of pain. One of the people who studies this and writes about it is Lorimer Moseley, co-author of Explain Pain. His TED Talk explains, in 15 minutes, some important discoveries in pain research.

This is part II of a two-part video giving a brief demonstration of continuous flat effleurage and vibration on the back. Part I showed the effleurage; Part II demonstrates continuous vibration on the back.

I'm excited to announce the first of a series of brief videos that will introduce the principles and practice of Russian massage.

When Will Stewart, owner of 3-D Optimal Performance, asked to interview me, I was surprised and honored. Will recently began a series of webradio interviews with many of the "heavy hitters" in the field of manual and movement therapies and neuroscience.

A colleague on a private forum asked the following questions in response to some thoughts I posted yesterday. In particular, he wondered about the description of an experience I had with a client. His question:
 

Most people find massage to be a very pleasant and relaxing experience. When scientists began to study massage and documented that levels of stress hormones were lower after massage, both clients and massage therapists alike were happy to have physiological evidence of their experience.

The other day I wrote an article, directed at massage therapists, about massage and lactic acid.  However, for some clients it might be too much information, as they say, and may not answer the client's question, "What does this mean for me?"

“Monkeys, and other animals, groom each other often with a marked reduction in stress. Touch is good, and one doesn’t need to wrap it up in pseudoscientific nonsense for it to be beneficial.” - Mark Crislip discussing reflexology on ScienceBased Medicine blog

What is energy work? Practitioners of energy work claim there is a subtle human energy field which they can detect with their hands. By placing their hands on or over their subject, they are able to correct imbalances and unblock blocked energy. Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, Chakra Balancing, and Polarity Therapy are all various forms of energy work.

The world of therapeutic massage took a giant leap forward today as Ravensara Travillian presented the Project for Open Education in Massage (POEM) to the public. The world of massage therapy will never be the same.