Is Massage Supposed to Hurt?
Have you ever had a massage that really HURT? Or where you were sore for days afterwards?
Some massage therapists frankly use too much pressure. Rather than skillfully and intuitively unwinding knots and releasing tension where the energy is specifically being held in the body, they apply force as a whole body experience. You can almost hear them thinking, “No pain, no gain!” This belief that it has to hurt to be beneficial is based on a faulty understanding of human physiology and completely ignores the fact that the body heals when it feels SAFE.
Insensitive “deep massage” causes damage to the tissue. It causes the body to try and protect itself by resisting the pressure, making it more tense. While you can force a muscle to ‘release’ by applying enough force, we believe it does vastly more harm than good (and hurts!). Your body is under enough stress without feeling attacked by your therapist!
Intuitive massage takes a completely different approach. An intuitive massage therapist seeks out areas of tension and then listens to the body. How does the body want to unwind this tension? It knows! With patient attention and skilled support, the tension will release. As you observe your own body unwinding from a relaxed and safe state of mind, you are integrating this knowledge. You are literally learning how to relax yourself on a deep level.
Does the body sometimes call for pinpoint pressure? Sure. Does such work sometimes cause localized “good pain?” Yes. But it is almost always quick and followed by a sense of release. If your body has a lot of these points of pain, what it needs is overall energy balancing first (and that’s what we’ll do!).
What You Get From Your Investment in Intuitive Massage Therapy Sessions
What you will notice after a series of sessions is that your body will become better at unwinding tension on its own. Between massages, you will notice a pain and bring the same relaxed awareness to it that you did on the massage table… and the pain will start to melt. On its own. As something YOU have learned to do for YOU. Not only that, when you do come in for your regularly scheduled massage, your body will start feeling relaxed very quickly. You will experience a deeper level of physical and emotional peace than you had thought possible. Because… you feel safe, listened to, deeply respected.