Massage
Therapeutic Massage
Therapeutic Massage is a perfect elixir for good health, but it can also provide an integration of body and mind. Experts estimate that 80 percent to 90 percent of disease is stress-related. Massage combats this frightening number by helping us remember what it means to relax. Besides increasing relaxation and decreasing anxiety, massage lowers your blood pressure, increases circulation, helps you to sleep better, reduces fatigue and gives you more energy to handle the typical stressors of parenthood. By producing a meditative state or heightened awareness of living in the present moment, massage can provide emotional and spiritual balance, bringing with it true relaxation and peace.
Prenatal Massage Therapists recognize that touch is vital to a new mother’s physical and emotional well-being as she adapts to her new body image. Massage during pregnancy is therapeutic bodywork which focuses on the special needs of the mother-to-be as her body goes through the dramatic changes of pregnancy. Among its many benefits, pregnancy massage improves circulation, relieves fatigue, eases digestive problems, helps control blood pressure, reduces stress and tension, and boosts energy levels. This is a necessity, not a luxury.
Postpartum Massage focuses on helping to restore the body to its pre-pregnancy condition and to address the demands of breastfeeding and the physical and emotional stresses of carrying and caring for a newborn. Receiving a massage within the first week after birth is a great way to relieve any physical or emotional stressors from the pregnancy, labor and birth. It helps to speed a woman’s recovery by restoring muscle tone, enhancing the realigning process of the pelvis, increasing circulation which promotes successful breastfeeding, and helps reduce fatigue. New Moms benefit greatly from postpartum massage through their baby’s 6th month. Sleep deprivation, hormonal changes, and postpartum blues can all be reduced through massage. New Moms need mothered!
Infant Massage helps parent to better understand their baby’s cues, building parenting confidence and instilling within the child a sense of self worth. Touch is a primal need, and the first important mode of communication between a parent and their new baby. Nurturing touch communicates love, the main ingredient for physical and emotional growth and well-being. “Infant massage” improves sleep patterns, strengthens immunity, enhances neurological development, encourages weight gain, improves muscle tone, and stimulates digestion, relieving gas and constipation.
Pediatric Massage helps children and young adults to establish a sense of personal boundaries and awareness of the types of touch that do and do not feel good. Appropriate and respectful massage supports children to learn about “good touch” and to form positive body images. Specific conditions where pediatric massage is beneficial include intestinal upset or constipation, if a child has difficulty sleeping or tends to be highly active, and even the stress felt as children get older before exams or important social events. Massage therapy has also been shown to alleviate anxiety and has shown promising preliminary results in the areas of depression, negative mood, and certain types of behavior modification in children.
