To achieve your goals, a Touch Therapy Associates (TTA) therapist may perform one or more of the following massage, bodywork or manual therapy techniques:
Swedish Massage/Deep Tissue Massage
Irene Gauthier’s Myomassology teachings
Literally,“rubbing you the right way”. When most people think of massage they visualize Swedish Massage. Applying oil and long soothing strokes, kneading, picking up and moving your limbs and stretching your muscles; these are all Swedish Massage techniques. Swedish Massage benefits are many for your body, mind and spirit.
Deep tissue massage is an extension of Swedish Massage focusing on affecting the deeper layers of the soft tissues to release chronic patterns of tension in the body through slow strokes and deep finger, thumb, knuckle or elbow pressure on contracted areas, either following or going across the grains of muscles, tendons and fascia (connective tissue).
Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT)
St. John Method and Leon Chaitow’s teachings
A system of evaluating your body structure, posture and movement patterns to determine what form of treatment as well as what area of the body they should be applied to for optimum results. Muscle tone imbalance can lead to structural imbalance decreasing nerve, blood and lymphatic circulation. These dysfunctions often cause discomfort, pain, fatigue and other seemingly unrelated symptoms. Trigger Point Therapy, Myofascial Release, Muscle Energy Techniques (MET) and Friction Massage may be used to help bring you “back into balance”. This new found balance makes it easier for you to efficiently oppose gravity and helps normalize circulation, by creating space for these structures to function, thereby decreasing or eliminating your symptoms .
Orthopedic Massage
Whitney Lowe and Ben E. Benjamin’s teachings
Orthopedic massage combines several massage and medical massage* techniques to treat pain and soft-tissue injury. It focuses heavily on injury assessment and rehabilitation, emphasi zing the importance of selecting the appropriate modality to treat the injury or condition.
* Medical massage is performed with the intent of improving conditions that have been diagnosed and prescribed by a physician; a wide variety of modalities or procedures are utilized to focus the treatment based on the diagnosed condition.
Myofascial Release (MFR)
John Barnes style and Tom Meyers “Anatomy Trains”
Myofascial release treats the fascia, or connective tissue, of the body. The fascia is interconnected to every other part of the body, and actually helps to support the body's very structure, including the musculoskeletal system. When injury, inflammation, physical and/or emotional trauma occurs, the fascia can become tight restricting range of motion and cause pain or discomfort. It is the fascia, more so than our muscles, that holds us into dysfunctional postural positions. i.e., head forward, tilted shoulder or pelvis, twisted torso, etc. Myofascial release, as its name suggests, is focused to release the fascia and return it to a state of normalcy by applying a gentle stretch or an “engaging” stretching stroke to the r estricted area.
Trigger Point Therapy (TrP Release Massage)
Bonnie Prudden’s teachings
Trigger Point Release Massage is a method that applies concentrated finger, thumb, knuckle or elbow pressure to trigger points to break cycles of spasm and pain. The key is to find and inactivate or “erase” the trigger points that may be causing muscles to be tight or referring pain or abnormal sensations to areas of the body other than the location site of the trigger point.
Muscle Energy Techniques (MET)
Leon Chaitow’s teachings
These techniques are combined from methods used in physical therapy, osteopathy, chiropractic and manual medicine but without the focus of joint manipulation. It describes soft tissue manipulative techniques in which a client/patient, on request, actively uses his or her muscles, from a controlled position, in a specific direction against a counterforce applied by the practitioner. Highly effective in relaxing or releasing tight muscles.
CranioSacral Therapy (CST)
John Upledger’s teachings
An extremely gentle touch method of evaluating and enhancing function of the central nervous system by light manipulation of the cranial bones or specific areas called diaphragms which often are sites of fascial restriction. These manipulations are guided by client/patient response and work through self-correction.
In the case of relaxation/wellness massage sessions Reflexology, Polarity, Tragerwork, Thai Massage, or other techniques may be used.
Patient Education
Sometimes referred to as “homework” patient education techniques are suggested by your therapist and meant to be practiced by the patient/client between treatment sessions. Following our patient education suggestions can be a simple yet highly effective part of your treatment program leading to decreased stress and pain and include:
Stretching- We teach you stretches to improve or retain range of motion and flexibility by lengthening and retraining muscles and fascia to rest in a more healthy elongated state.
Ergonomics- We make suggestions to improve how you position yourself, objects or tools within your environment to decrease or eliminate physical stress on your body.
Movement- We show you how to make small conscious changes in how you move your body; sitting, standing, walking, climbing stairs, etc. more efficiently with your specific condition in mind.
Breath- We give you simple exercises to practice aimed at improving your breathing mechanics which in turn has been scientifically proven to decrease stress and pain levels.
For relaxation - wellness massage sessions Reflexology, Polarity Therapy, Tragerwork, Thai Massage or other bodywork techniques may be utilized.
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