Massage Therapy

What is Massage Therapy?

Massage therapy primarily involves the hands-on manipulation of the body’s soft tissues including muscles, connective tissue, tendons, ligaments and joints. Massage therapists may use many different techniques, but most of them involve applying pressure with their hands. The effects of massage will be explained a bit more below.

Massage therapy is a regulated profession and the title “Registered Massage Therapist” or “RMT” is protected. This means that in order to call yourself an RMT, you must complete standardized educational programs and certifications and register with the regulatory organization.

How does massage work?

There are several mechanisms that can explain massage but we aren’t in a physiology class! Massage, without a doubt, influences circulation and can improve circulation to your tissues.
Many of our painful muscles are painful in the first place because they aren’t getting the circulation that they need! Massage works in other ways besides improving circulation, it can facilitate relaxation and the release of your body’s own natural pain killers.

Many people receive massage to:

• Relieve pain
• Improve mobility and ease of movement
• Improve mood
• Relaxation

Massage + Exercise

It is our general recommendation that you combine massage therapy with an active rehabilitation program!
Why? If you’re constantly getting tight and sore, an active rehab program can help make the symptoms go away for good (or at least make them go away for a lot longer). Therapeutic exercise combined with massage therapy can be an excellent treatment combination and our physiotherapists would be glad to help you out with that!

What are the different massage techniques that you perform?

Our massage therapists are trained to perform many different techniques and to work on a variety of injuries and patient populations. Some of the more specialized techniques that they perform are prenatal massage, intra-oral massage (for TMJ issues) and lymphatic massage (for edema). All of our massage therapists can perform deep tissue massage and work with motor vehicle accidents and acute & chronic injuries. Massage therapy works very closely with all of our other practitioners to make sure you are getting the best treatment.