Relaxation Massage by Taylor Norris, RMT

Relaxation Massage                                                     

By Taylor Norris RMT                                    unionwellness.ca

I had an interesting conversation with a client recently about what sort of massage treatment would suit his therapy needs best. He’d already been in for half a dozen treatments with me, mainly focused on relief of tension build up around the neck and shoulders, and he was now looking for a ‘regular’ sort of treatment. I asked what he meant by ‘regular’ and he replied, “You know, like a basic full body massage, whatever your regular treatment is.”

I answered that I really didn’t have a ‘regular’ sort of treatment, as every person’s needs are different, but did he mean a relaxation massage?

He asked what the difference was, so I explained that the relaxation component is meant to be a part of every massage (I give anyway), but that sometimes it needs to take a bit of a back seat during more intense tissue release. I went on saying that relaxation massage is deliberately meant to be given with less pressure and with longer slower stroke techniques in order to really facilitate a deeply relaxed state, and that no specific deep work to anything, chronic or otherwise, would be worked on.

He was interested in giving it a whirl and by the end found the treatment, as advertised, to be very relaxing and refreshing! Now, relaxation massages have become his ‘regular’ treatment.