Clover House Therapy - The Complementary Therapy Centre for Children

An interview with Joan Borysenko PhD Co-founder and Director of Mind-Body Clinic At Harvard Medical School and author of Minding the Body and Mending the Mind. seems to say everything we would say about massage:

 

 

Often times people are stressed in our culture.  Stress-related disorders make up between 80 and 90 percent of the ailments that bring people to family-practice physicians.  What they require is someone to listen, someone to touch them, someone to care.  That does not exist in modern medicine

 

Let me address where touch is most absent in the healing process.  One of the complaints heard frequently is that physicians don’t touch their patients any more.  Touch just isn’t there.  Years ago massage was a big part of nursing.  There was so much care, so much touch, so much goodness conveyed through massage.  Now nurses for the most part are as busy as physicians.  They’re writing charts, dealing with insurance notes, they’re doing procedures and often there is no room for massage any more.  I believe massage therapy is absolutely key in the healing process.

 

I think there are actually three important components of massage therapy that complement all forms of healing

 

First is actual physical touch.  We know a great deal about physical touch, for example on the immune system.  Physical touch releases growth hormones that will help your immune system.  Without touch, the immune system cannot recharge.  Everybody needs to be touched and although most of the massage research literature on touch deals with babies, the need for massage certainly continues throughout life.  I do believe we are a touch-deprived culture.

 

People are afraid of being sued if they touch.  You can’t even have a teacher any more touch a crying child.  What has happened in our society regarding touch is truly pathetic.  So going to a place where it is safe to be touched is very, very important.  It is effectual at the most basic hormonal, physiological and immune system level.

 

The second component is the specificity of the touch.  For example, releasing tension in the muscles, causing relaxation, doing trigger-point work and doing things of that nature.  All of this works very well via the work of massage therapy.  The effect that massage therapy can have on healing a deeper injury by releasing tension in the muscle is remarkable.

 

And the third component is the energetic aspect.  The research on energy, medicine, and touch that is therapeutic comes down to one very basic thing:  when there is a respectful intention to heal, some kind of energy flows from the healer to the one who is being healed.  So when a massage therapist (and a mum!)  has that kind of respectful care in her hands, then more is happening than just at a physical level.  Something is happening at an energetic level, as well.

 

What to expect at a Massage Session