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"No Pain, No Pain"

Massage should not be painful. In the years that I have been doing massage, I have found that more pressure is not always better. While many clients relax to a deep pressure applied to their problem areas, some have the opposite result. The “no-pain, no-gain” attitude doesn’t apply in massage.

 

Every BODY is different. In your sessions with me, I want to apply the most pressure that feels good to you. If you feel yourself withdrawing or holding your breath, that’s too much pressure. Research about the effects of massage on the body tells us that the nerves of the skin play a huge role in the results you get from massage. Even though I am trying to massage your muscles, I can really only touch your skin. It is the nerves that decide: if they like the feeling of the touch, they send a signal to the connective tissue, the muscles, to tendons, and all the way through the nervous system to the brain which then sends the message to relax.

 

This also shines a light on how massage affects one’s mental state. For many years we have known that massage helps people with anxiety, depression, PTSD, stress, and other mood issues. There are even designated areas of the brain that are stimulated by touch at different areas of the body.

 

A massage at your perfect pressure will stimulate the production of serotonin and dopamine, decrease the production of cortisol and adrenaline, as well as convince the knots and tension to release. Alternatively, a massage given with too much pressure can leave you feeling run down, bruised, and can actually increase cortisol and adrenaline levels. This is why communication is so important in massage therapy.