Massage Therapies
by James Khan
Massage can be applied with the hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms and feet. There are over 80 different types of massage and relaxation therapies, and over 250 types of complementary or body work therapies which have an element of massage. See: A-Z of Massage and Body Work Therapies for a list.
Most modern forms of massage training use the Clinical or 'Professional' approach to massage, which focuses on aspects like anatomy, muscles and ligaments. Other non-clinical forms of massage focus on the energetic systems of the body and the healing aspects of touch or on the sensual aspects of touch.
See The History, Death, Clinical Rebirth and Future of Massage to see how attitudes to massage and massage traditions have changed over the years.
Popular Modalities or Types of Massage Therapy
There are many types or modalities of massage. Each have their strong points, and it is worth trying out as many as possible to see which works best for you. Alternately, you should consider an experienced therapist who can give you a combination massage that brings together the best from a wide range of modalities.
The following Therapies in my view are possibly the best of the bunch:
1. Swedish Massage
This is the basis of many modern massage techniques. The form was developed by Henrik Ling (1776-1839), who was physiologist and fencing master who had studied in China. Swedish techniques could therefore be considered a modification of traditional Chinese forms of massage.
Swedish massage techniques include:
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Effleurage: Gliding strokes with the palms, thumbs and/or fingertips
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Petrissage: Kneading movements with the hands, thumbs and/or fingers
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Friction: Circular pressures with the palms of hands, thumbs and/or fingers
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Vibration: Oscillatory movements that shake or vibrate the body
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Percussion: Brisk hacking or tapping
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Passive and active movements: Bending and stretching
2. Aromatherapy Massage
Aromatherapy dates from the Ancient Egyptians. It uses essential oil from plant materials for the purpose of effecting a persons mood or health. The massage techniques can be as used in other forms, in particular Swedish massage, but strokes such as hacking and tapping are are avoided.
3. Shiatsu
This is a modern Japanese form of an ancient art. It is a very through, very deep form of massage, provided the therapist is well trained. It is derived from the Chinese amma massage, with similar pressure points called tsubo. Shiatsu is a direct descendant of this ancient massage practice.
4. Thai Yoga Massage
Based on ancient Indian massage techniques, and very similar in practice to Shiatsu. Which suggests that ancient traditions of India and China either shared or developed the same knowledge of human body, in particular the bodies energetic systems.
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Thai Massage is very similar to Shiatsu, and is some 2,500 years old. It originated from India and is derived from Ayurveda and Yoga.
Thai massage is said to have been founded by Doctor Jivaka Kumar Bhaccha, who was from northern India and a contemporary of the Buddha and personal physician to the Magadha King Bimbisara.
Bhaccha's work consisted of manipulative techniques as well as instruction in proper diet, herbs and other secret or occult practices.
Before a practitioner performs this healing work, he or she first recites a mantra to this enlightened soul in Pali, the ancient sacred language of Theravada Buddhism, the language in which the Buddha taught.
This mantra is translated as:
We invite the spirit of our founder, the Father Doctor Jivaka, who comes to us through his saintly life.
Please bring to us the knowledge of all nature, that this prayer will show us the true medicine of the universe.
In the name of this mantra, we respect your help and pray that through our bodies you will bring wholeness and health to the body of our client.
The goddess of healing dwells in the heavens high, while man kind stays in the world below.
In the name of the founder, may the heavens be reflected in the earth below so that this healing medicine may encircle the world.
We pray for the one whom we touch, that he/she will be happy and that any illness will be released from him/her.
5. Indian Head Massage
Based on Ayurveda and Yogic traditions. Indian head massage (called Champi) is very thorough form of massage that gives possibly the best massage possible for the head, shoulders and face.
6. Bare Foot Massage
Chinese, Japanese or Indian bare foot massage (called Chavutti) is given using feet. In one Indian style the practitioner often uses a rope an lots of hot, spicey oils. 
The massage is given using long and short rythmic movements of the feet.
7. Hot Stones Massage
Hot basalt stones are used, which help to relax the muscles, bring blood flow to the area and improve the effectiveness of the massage. Stones will be placed in certain areas, and typically the therapist will use Swedish massage techniques while holding stones.
8. Reflexology
Also called Zone Therapy, reflexology involves massaging specific areas of the feet, hands and ears to effect other areas of the body and to improve general health.
.jpg) Whilst the art of reflexology dates back to Ancient Egypt, India and China, it wasn't until 1913 that Dr William Fitzgerald introduced this therapy to the West as ‘zone therapy'. He noted that reflex areas on the feet and hands were linked to other areas and organs of the body within the same zone.
In the 1930's Eunice Ingham further developed this zone theory into what is now known as reflexology. She observed that congestion or tension in any part of the foot is mirrored in the corresponding part of the body.
9. Esalen Massage
This form in practice will use Swedish or other of the above massage forms, but the approach will be non-clinical - see below. Esalen Massage is taught and practiced at the Esalen Institute, a retreat and study center located in Big Sur, California.
Since 1965, many leaders in the field of massage and bodywork have taught workshops at the Esalen Institute, including John Upledger, Milton Trager, Ida Rolf and others.
Esalen and Tantric forms (below) are best received from a well trained and experienced therapist that you feel comfortable with.
It could take around 10 years of massage therapy experience and body work before a therapist is suitably qualified emotionally to give such non clinical massages.
10. Tantric Massage
Based on Indian Tantra, Buddhist Tantra or Tibetan Tantra. This is a spiritual practice where sensuality and spirituality, rather then being mutually exclusive, are both considered necessary to achieving union or oneness with divinity. Tantra can lead to a state of supreme bliss or ecstasy.
Benefits from Regular Massage Therapies
A. Physiological Benefits from Massage
Massage is a great way to relax the body. It allows the muscles and cells to relax, activates the para-sympathetic nervous system that works to slow down the body, and move you away from the stress filled, fight or flight mode of the dominant sympathetic nervous system.
Physiologically, massage brings increased blood flow to the area being massaged, which brings with it nutrients, oxygen and chi to the cellular system. It takes away waste products of metabolism, toxins and CO2 allowing the body to detoxify. Massage also helps the lymphatic system to flow and drain into the circulatory system, which helps the natural immunity of the body.
 These and other physiological benefits from a regular massage are becoming more and more essential in counteracting the ill effects of the toxic, stress filled modern world.
It is well worth taking the time and expense to have a regular massage.
Massage work should be received on a regular basis, and particularly during a detox program.
B. Non Physiological Benefits from Massage
Touch is an essential need for humans. Touch is comforting, it can help you feel connected, loved. You can feel the sensous pleasure of being alive, if you allow yourself to feel rather then mentally decode sensory data.
Massage allows you to get out of your mind, out of your concerns, fears, wories by focusing on the body.
The common state where we are continuously thinking something is actually an illness. Imagine if someone kept talking to himself, you'd say that he's mad. Well this is what we do all the time, except that our incessant internal chatter is not spoken out loud.
Are you aware of a time when you were not thinking something?
Where is all this thinking taking you - to life or to dusty death?
All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death
Macbeth, at the end of his life.
In the modern world, we spend all our conscious time occupied by mental activities of one form or another. We allow them to occupy us because we 'think' that these mental 'occupations' are so important, so absolutely necessary, so all encompassing that we don't have time to relax and drop them.
We don't have time for the body, we don't even know how to switch the occupying mind off, how to be free from it.
Life becomes One damn thing after another as Winston Churchill put it when asked to summarize the "History of The World"
Or so we 'think'. We are very proud of our mind, of our very important thoughts. The mind is said to the one thing that distinguishes man from nature - well indeed it does!
What other creature in Gods green earth tortures, kills, maims and mutilates its own kind?
As William Blake says in his 'Songs of Innocence' about the Divine Image:
Cruelty has a human heart,
And Jealousy a human face;
Terror the human form divine,
And Secresy the human dress.
This is because in the mind, unobserved, is a kind of illness, a mental affliction that chains one to the ego and allows such cruelties to take place. It is only when one is able to drop this identification with the robotic, occupying mind that the human heart and love can flow forth. Blake expressed this as:
For Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face:
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
Eastern techniques of meditation are specifically designed to allow one to drop the mind, drop the thoughts the plague and trouble one, and for a while, be free of the occupier - the Monkey mind.
Massage therapies, in particular the non-clinical approach, can in the hands of an experienced therapist allow you to get out of this mental occupation, by bringing the awareness into the breath and the living body, allowing you to genuinely enjoy being alive before it's too late.
Clinical and Non-Clinical Massage Training
Regardless of the type of massage therapy, or the techniques used, there are two basic approaches that can be used to distinguish the massage: Clinical or Non-Clinical.
Clinical is concerned more with 'Professionalism' - Uniforms, Bureaucracy, the Therapist-Client power relationship (where the Therapist is in charge), Contra Indications, Hygiene, Towel Draping regimes, No-Massage Zones of the body, Indemnity forms and set massage routines.
Non-clinical forms are more concerned with the pleasure from the touch and are more suitable for highly experienced therapists, who are trained in a wide range of massage types, and have a wide range of massage techniques at their disposal.
The therapist, or giver, needs such human qualities as the joy of giving, unconditional love, empathy, loving kindness, ability to connect with another human being, good verbal an non-verbal inter-personal skills. These are qualities that can not be taught in a classroom, but are taught by life itself.
This page looks at Clinical and Non-Massage Training |