Massage: Creative Techniques & Mindful Approaches to Massage Therapy

Not only is massage a great way to relax the body and mind, and find relief from daily strains and stress, but a professional massage can also help to enhance vitality and general health.

When the body is stressed and locked into a fight or flight mechanism, every function of the body is also altered. This can lead to many disorders and medical conditions (such as muscle pain and spasm, headaches, fatigue, constipation, obesity, and TMJ disorder.)

By using a variety of creative techniques, a skilled massage therapist can alleviate these issues and provide many other benefits. Massage therapy, in all its many forms, has been used for healing for many thousands of years and continues to be an effective way to heal mind, body, and spirit.

Relaxation Relates to a Healthy Body

Massage therapy can focus on body parts and offer relief from pain and other issues. For example, in shoulder stiffness, the practitioner should focus on relaxing the shoulder muscle by stretching forward and rear the rotator cuff with the subject lying face down and then applying pressure and stroking.

Myofascial release technique can be applied to stretch the fascia by applying forces in opposite directions with the fingers or with the hands. This massage technique is starting gently and then increases the force when the tissues relax. Myofascial release can be used to treat poor posture, scoliosis, back pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, whiplash, and arthritis.

Integrating Creativity in Your Massage Practice

While both eastern and western massage techniques can be very technical, it is important to use intuition and creativity in your massage practice. For a massage therapist, it is very important to apply as many approaches as possible, creatively adapting to the each unique individual. Below we share a few ideas offered by Bloomington, IL based massage center N8 Touch Massage where many different massage therapists offer various massage services and treatment.

As the Bloomington massage specialists emphasize, it is beneficial to introduce some cranio-sacral massage techniques that work with the nervous system in depth. This creative massage technique can release muscle tension and promote general relaxation throughout the entire body. The massage practitioner can sense the subtle rhythms of the nervous system by accessing the points at the cranium, along the spine, and at the base of spine.

Oriental principles of Meridians from the Chinese Medicine can be used creatively together with the crani-sacral therapy. For example, the kidney and the bladder meridians are associated with the element of water, with the ability to recover from stress, and with the emotion of fear. These two meridians run around the spine and they are directly affected if we are scared or stressed.

Adapting to the individual, creatively including using various massage styles and application of unique grips (techniques) enables healing, in addition to sustainability by the practitioner. You may use the Terrier’s soft tissue grip for releasing the different muscle contractions and shortenings. Manual therapy techniques can also treat painful and inflamed ligaments and narrowed joint movements. Elements of Thai massage combined with basic grips of osteopathy, Youmeiho massage, therapeutic mud wrap, and Swedish gripping techniques can treat various physical issues.

It is also important to remember the importance of a holistic approach, as our body cannot be separated from our spirit. Stress reliving techniques and Eastern massage techniques, such as the Thai massage, are better suited to holistically treat body, mind and spirit. For more information on various types of massage and massage services, explore the