Massage Therapy and Bodywork

One of the most important techniques for providing relaxation to your body is massage therapy. Practiced by professionally trained massage therapists, this practice provides ultimate relief to long-pending pain to the muscles and tendons. Message therapy works on the principle of applying structured or unstructured pressure on different parts of the body.

Massage therapy has a got a long binding relationship with Bodywork. Before we could understand the relationship between massage therapy and bodywork, we need to understand the definition of bodywork. Bodywork is practiced by anyone who has studied alternative medicine which deals with some form of touching or rational understanding of a human body. Bodywork could be classified in the umbrella of Somatic Disciplines which include any technique related to body-mind disciplines, movement therapy or body-mind integration.

All this leads us to a point that in most cases, bodywork and massage therapy are the same words with different definitions but are interchangeably used. The only difference that I could point out is that bodywork would encompass massage therapies and other types of touch and heal techniques. Bodywork allows the patient to benefit from a very effective treatment which would impact their posture in a positive way. Bodywork which is often combined with personal development and psychotherapy of the body is primarily used as a body relaxation technique. Massage therapy deals with application of pressure or touch on parts of the body or the whole body itself.

The procedure for a massage therapy applied on a person’s body is very simple. The person is asked to remove his clothes (happens only in some cases) and lie down on his stomach on a flat floor. A professional therapist starts massaging the body with his hands. The parts of the body which are highly impacted by massage therapy are the spinal cord (upper and lower), hip and shoulders. Many massage therapies are also done with the help of an Ayurvedic or an Aromatic Oil which enhances the effects of the Massage Therapy. Massage is applied on the subject for him to avail of physiological benefits in the form of a therapeutic massage. Massage therapy has acquired tremendous professional significance over the last few years because of which many entities have now started offering massage therapy and bodywork as a part of their services. When you go to such entities for a massage therapy, you would be made to lay flat on a massage table with you being partially disrobed or your body being wrapped around in towels. This is a highly controversial aspect of massage therapy as in some countries, private parts of the body like a man’s genitals or the nipples of woman are not draped at all. Thailand, a country which is famous for massage salons does not drape the private parts of the persons body at all.

Techniques of massage therapy and bodywork are undergoing a major sea-change in terms of the way they are practiced. Significantly, this form of treatment of body issues which do not have any side-effects of using a drug at all is gaining fast popularity in almost all parts of the world.