Massage Terms: Therapeutic Body Work by Pamela Ann
DBA: Massage Ocean Style, LMBT #2311
Swedish: light sweeping strokes that can calm and relax
overall with light attention to tightness and knots. This
style is a basic form of massage that addresses the circu-
latory system.
Deep Tissue: focused strokes that go beyond the super-
ficial skin layer delving into lower layers of connec-
tive tissue and muscle. This too is a basic style of body
work that releases tightness, knots and adhesions of the
musculatory system.
Reiki: is a gentle form of body work that addresses the
etheric (energy) level by "bringing" the energy found
around us to us.
Neuromusculare Therapy: Has static strokes that aim
at a specific area of skeletal muscle/myofascial tissue.
Trigger Point Therapy: Trigger points are overly
excited/irritated tissue(knots) in skeletal muscle often
found in contracting (taut) muscles. These small areas
are palpated to alleviate pain which is often referred.
Lymphatic Massage: Is a gentle massage with strokes
that are short and light on the surface of the skin. This
simple action helps move interstitial cell fluid along
assisting the lymphatic system.
Russian Medical Massage: uses several different types
of strokes to address the different physiology systems
(nervous system, lymphatic system, musculatory system,
circulatory system ...). Specific attention is given to
either one or more of the desired physiology systems.
Russian Medical Massage can be more specific to help
build weakened muscle tissue, calm overly excited nerves,
relax trigger points as well as muscle tissue knots for
example. The direction of strokes along with the amount
of pressure and the position of the limb and/or body is
also important. These points are particularly important
when addressing the circulatory system as well as the
lymphatic system.
Structural Balancing: balances skeletal/musculature im-
balances of the body. The tool used to do this is po-
larity.
Polarity Therapy: addresses the etheric (energy) level
by using the negative, positive and neutral energy poles
of both client and practitioner. Three main types of touch
are used here; satvic (light neutral touch), rajastic (soft
positive touch) and tamasic (deep negative touch).
With today's modern stresses and sedentary lifestyle most
individuals need some sort of energetic and emotional re-
lease or balance. When one of our systems breaks down
we can become ill, overly stressed and basically unhappy.
By noting the body's structural imbalances and energy
highs & lows, it's possible to assist the body to bring
itself back into balance and to recover.
Foot Reflexology: addresses imbalances found in the
body with points on the foot that correspond to the organ
or area above. "As above, so below", that which is
above reflects below and that which is below reflects
above. When we connect with these points we "open up"
the body's natural channels. This assists the body to
"correct" the imbalance or "non-health" state.