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Massage Manual - Your Complete Reference Guide to Massage Therapy

MASSAGE is an instinctive therapy that everyone has the ability to learn. The goal of MassageManual.com is to encourage your natural abilities and give you the knowledge and expertise to practice safely and effectively on your family and friends. The information, which we will provide will also be useful to the students choosing massage therapy as a career or practising therapist, particularly the very comprehensive section on massage schools and massage spa.

You emlpoy your innate ability to touch therapeutically in your daily life. If you have a headache, you instinctively rub around the neck and the temples to soothe away the pain and tension. If you hurt your knee or bang your elbow, your first reaction is to massage it to relieve the pain. Children will hold and rub their tummies when they have stomach-ache and eventually the pain will go. A parent feels a child's feverish forehead to check for a high temperature and will massage in response to a child's bumps and cries of pain.

The healing power of therapeutic massage is also used for emotional problems. To comfort distraught friends or relatives you may put your arms around them, hold or stroke them to comfort, support and reassure them in their times of need.

Body and mind should not be regarded as separate entities. Physical symptoms such as headaches or constant fatigue are often an indication of what is 'on our mind'. Muscles contract and tighten in response to anger and anxiety or may become slack as we assign ourselves to what is happening in our lives. Within the physical body is buried a whole lifetime of experience and emotions - birth, childhood, pleasure and pain, shock, frustation, fear, grief, joy and much more besides. Massage is an excellent tool for enabling us to become more aware of what is happening deep within us.

The importance and need for touch is reflected in our everyday language. We talk of being 'deeply touched' when trying to express a reaction. We ask friends to keep 'in touch' or stay in contact' with us. We speak of 'being in touch' or 'out of touch' with our feelings. We describe others as being a 'soft touch' or a bit 'touchy'. We also experience 'gut feelings' about a particular situation.

Touch is essential for our growth and well-being. It is the first sense to be developed in the womb, and early touching while the foetus grows in the womb enhances the development of the nervous system and encourages communication between mother and baby. Children needs cuddles from their parents to give them a feeling of security and to show them how much they are loved.

Massage Manual - Your Complete Reference Guide to Massage Therapy

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