05/06/2021
Why choose soft tissue bodywork?
The world of massage therapy is vast and varied. Many people enjoy deep tissue massage and because of the degree of muscle tightness they are experiencing. They think that approach is the only one that will loosen their brick-hard body. They may seek out deeper and deeper therapy just to get a little relief. But many of those people find that relief to only last a few days or sometimes just a few hours. Because they canât understand how different approaches work with our bodies, they wonât even consider a softer approach. What they havenât been taught is that there are many aspects to our physical makeup that contribute to the feelings of tightness and itâs not just muscles that need to be address for improved range of motion and lowered pain.
The goal in my practice is to balance posture and help your body to let go of fascial restrictions that hinder the proper function of muscles and joints and how they interact with each other. There are many ways to work with fascia and some of the ways are using a âsoftâ approach and that seems counterintuitive.
Several years ago, a client had such a wonderful experience with this approach and he told all of his farmer friends. Farmers are some of the most hard-working people on the planet and being self-employed they donât take sick days unless they absolutely canât get out of bed and then many still manage to get up and work anyway! Needless to say, they are in need of bodywork. Of the many he spoke with several came to see me. And although most of those who came admitted they felt improved, they could not wrap their minds around the fact that the approach was soft. âYou hardly did anythingâ and âI didnât feel anythingâ were common comments. Yes, some still saw the changes in their bodies and came back, but many were âweirded outâ and would not return even though the soft approached helped more than anything else they had tried.
I have found over the years that our bodies can be tense due to past traumas, such as falls, car accidents and sports injuries. Sometimes getting deep tissue work seems to be viewed by the body as another assault and though it can loosen the area of concern briefly, it goes back into a trauma response of guarding. With the soft approach the body begins to relax the guarding around the effected area and true change can begin. Add to this, understanding and implementing the things you can do daily to care for your body and you can find less pain-filled days.
If you have tried deep tissue massage and it isnât really helping, why donât you consider another approach? Soft tissue might just be the one that will work for you.
