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Treatment-focused massage
Wellness massage
Thai massage
Pregnancy and post-childbirth massage
Infant and child massage
Abdominal massage
Breast or chest massage
Head, face, jaw and neck massage
Hand and foot massage
Scar rehabilitation
Hot stone massage
Lymphatic drainage technique
Sports-focused massage
Self-care techniques
Treatment-focused massage is the foundation of our work at Body Poets Massage Therapy. This means that our work is focused on treating injury, stress, chronic health conditions, and anything that impairs your ability to live comfortably. Treatment-focused massage encompasses basic massage techniques as well as all the other massage styles listed on our website.
Some of the basic massage techniques we use are:
- Swedish massage – to improve circulation and relax muscles
- Deep tissue massage – to work through superficial layers of muscle into deeper layers
- Trigger point therapy – to release “knots” in muscles that often cause referred aches (such as headaches), stiffness, and restricted movement
- Myofascial release – to free up connective tissue that may be impeding muscle movement
- Joint mobilizations – to increase range of motion in a joint
- Temperature therapy – hot and cold packs that can relax muscle, decrease inflammation, or improve circulation
- Soothing techniques – to promote relaxation of both mind and body when mental or emotional stress is your main concern, by balancing your central nervous system
- Stretching – as part of your massage treatment, various types of stretch can help rehabilitate injured or restricted muscles
- Self-care techniques – we like to provide you with a few simple exercises you can do at home to help the results of your massage treatment last longer
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When you want to use massage therapy to maintain your muscle health, our focus changes from “treatment” to “wellness”. We will, as needed, use some of the same techniques as in treatment-focused massage, but when your muscles are already healthy and your nervous system is in balance, we need to do less specific work and can pay more attention to the overall picture.
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What to wear: Comfortable, stretchy clothing
Thai massage is typically done on floor mats, without oil or lotion, and over comfortable, stretchy clothing.
Thai massage uses the body’s sen lines (similar to energy meridians) and pressure points, joint mobilizations, and supported yoga-style stretches in a full-body treatment. Thai massage can treat specific complaints and enhances overall well-being.
You do not have to be flexible to enjoy Thai massage: it can help you feel more flexible and will leave you rejuvenated.
A full Thai massage can last one-and-a-half to three hours, while specific complaints can be addressed in shorter therapeutic sessions. The shortest Thai massage session we offer is 45 minutes, but we recommend 60- to 90-minute treatments.
Elements of Thai massage can be incorporated into any massage treatment, and other massage styles can be blended into Thai massage.
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Help your body adapt to the changes pregnancy and childbirth bring by making massage therapy part of your regular health routine. Pregnancy massage, whether on a massage table or on Thai mats, can:
- Help you develop postural awareness and effective self-care
- Decrease strain on shoulders and neck
- Decrease low back, hip, and sciatic pain
- Decrease swelling in feet and hands, including carpal tunnel symptoms
- Reduce leg and foot fatigue and calf cramps
- Address specific therapeutic needs
- Help you sleep better
After childbirth, massage can:
- Help you build postural awareness and effective self-care during activities such as breastfeeding and carrying your baby
- Reduce muscle tension in shoulders, neck, and back
- Clear up pains in elbows and wrists caused by breastfeeding
- Improve sleep and decrease anxiety
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Infants and children often love and benefit from massage. Massage stimulates circulation and all the body’s systems, enhances relaxation and regulates sleep, and helps to relieve colic and gas. Massage of premature babies has been shown to help them grow faster and stronger. Massage can help relieve children’s growing pains, can keep young athletes and musicians healthy, and can help with recovery from injury.
You are welcome to stay in the treatment room during your child’s massage therapy session, if you and your child decide that is best. The same procedures around privacy, dress, covering, consent to treatment, and depth of pressure apply to children as to adults: clients of every age have the final say in what is appropriate for them, and the massage therapist’s job is to listen to the client.
Would you like to learn to massage your own infant or child? It’s easy and fun for both of you. Individual tutoring sessions are easily arranged; please contact us for more information.
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Therapeutically or for relaxation, abdominal massage is both effective and very pleasant for many clients. It can be done over the sheets, so that the abdomen is never uncovered, or it can be done with lotion or oil directly on skin. Either way, the therapist takes guidance from the client about appropriate pressure and areas to work.
Abdominal massage can relieve constipation and improve peristalsis, calm the nervous system, and release emotional stress. It can also address trigger points or injury in the abdominal muscles themselves, and help you stand, breathe, and move more comfortably.
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Regular breast and chest massage is gaining recognition as an important part of a complete health regime. Both women and men can benefit from massage of the chest wall or breast tissue as a preventive treatment and for healing from specific conditions. Major muscles, including the pectoralis major, lie under breast tissue; lymph drainage is also important in this area. Breast massage helps increase circulation, move lymph, and decrease swelling and stagnation in breast tissue. It can improve overall breast tissue health and alleviate general discomforts for both women and men. It can also address the specific impact of menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, menopause, cysts, surgery, and cancer treatments.
Breast massage is always done with respect for the client’s comfort and privacy. The chest can stay completely covered by sheets, or, if uncovered, only the specific area being worked on is uncovered at any time. The massage therapist always listens to the client, and changes or stops the massage as needed to make sure the client is always comfortable both physically and emotionally.
Self-massage of the breast tissue is a helpful part of personal self-care, and your therapist can teach you how to incorporate it into your health regime.
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The head, face, and jaw, along with the neck, are filled with muscles and with pressure points that have a huge impact on our level of comfort and relaxation. Desk work, tight deadlines, heavy physical labour, long trips, and many other factors of daily life contribute to unrecognized tension in the head, face, jaw and neck. Whether you have chronic headaches or migraine, grind your teeth at night, or simply feel stressed, therapeutic massage of your head, face, jaw and neck can help you feel better than you ever imagined.
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The hands and feet often work harder than we realize, and our bodies suffer as a result. Relieving muscle, connective tissue, and other soft tissue distress in the feet, for example, can have a positive impact on our posture and on our entire body. Injuries such as plantar fasciitis and plantar fasciosis make it hard for us to function in daily life, and therapeutic massage along with consistent self-care can help resolve these and other injuries.
Many clients find the hand and foot segment of a massage to be the most relaxing, soothing, and restorative. If you’d like to experience the delight of a full hand and foot massage, your therapist can easily focus on those areas exclusively or for as much of the massage as you choose.
Sometimes the hands and feet can be massaged when a person is in too much pain or feels too vulnerable – perhaps from serious injury, illness, or previous trauma – to want massage therapy on other areas of the body. In these cases, massaging the hands and feet – and often the head – can increase the client’s comfort in a gentle, respectful, and effective way.
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Scars from injury and surgery benefit from treatment to make them more mobile and elastic, and to improve lymphatic flow. Without treatment, these scars – both small and large – sometimes act almost as anchors or buttons, holding surrounding tissue down, blocking lymph flow and circulation, and limiting our ability to move, to breathe, and to feel truly comfortable.
Scar rehabilitation treatment can release these areas to improve our comfort, movement, and tissue health. Treatment can also change a scar’s appearance, making it less visible. Even old scars can become more mobile and less prominent.
Scar rehabilitation treatment often includes lymphatic drainage, temperature therapy, connective tissue massage, joint mobilizations, trigger point therapy, stretching, and self-care. It can also incorporate other modalities such as craniosacral therapy and hot stone massage.
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In a hot stone massage, the therapist gently heats basalt stones and lays them along various muscles of your body. The therapist also holds warm stones and uses them as a massage tool. The combination of warmth and pressure melts knots in muscles and increases circulation, soothing not just those muscles but your whole nervous system. Your massage therapist can work effectively through layers of tissue without causing you discomfort. Because it gives access to deep, sometimes resistant layers of muscle and connective tissue, hot stone massage is useful for scar rehabilitation. Hot stone massage can be incorporated into a massage treatment or done as a full treatment on its own.
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This light, rhythmical massage stimulates the lymphatic system and helps the body to eliminate excess fluids and waste products. It is a helpful adjunct to a detoxification program, supports the immune system, and helps healing after injury or surgery. The swelling around a sprained ankle, for example, is an indication that lymphatic drainage technique is required. Lymphatic drainage is an essential component of breast or chest massage, and is often important for scar rehabilitation.
Lymphatic drainage may also be helpful for reducing muscle spasms and chronic pain, increasing range of motion, and decreasing constipation, insomnia, lethargy, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue symptoms, among other benefits.
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Whatever your level of physical activity, bumps, strains, sprains, and overuse injuries can occur from athletic endeavours. Sport-focused massage keeps the particular demands of your sport in mind, allowing your therapist to treat not only the injured area but also compensatory muscles and tissues for a more effective result. Your therapist will also make sure you are familiar with effective self-care to get you back in the game faster and keep you there.
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Knowing easy and effective ways to take care of your own muscles is the biggest part of keeping them healthy. Your therapist will ensure that you have the self-care skills you need to maximize and prolong the beneficial effects of your massage treatment.
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