Hint: It’s not where you expect it.
When you’re in pain — whether it’s in your back, neck, shoulder, leg… wherever — you want it to go away, and the sooner, the better. Maybe you’ve put ice on the area or tried heat. Nothing seems to work. If you’re popping aspirin like candy, you need to get treatment. Now.
If the pain is severe enough, see your doctor. If your pain is more annoying than debilitating, find a therapeutic massage therapist you trust (like Lawrence Hines) for treatment. Therapeutic massage is an alternative to prescription pain pills, and might actually help the underlying cause of your pain.
Where the Pain Starts
The human body is a complex organic mechanism, made up of millions of cells connected by bone and muscle and nerve and lymph and blood. But it’s infinitely more complex than that. There’s also fascia, skin and organs. The point is that the body’s a very dynamic machine.
So when you say your neck hurts or your finger tingles, that feeling may originate somewhere besides where your symptoms are currently making themselves known. An example of this is when you have a pain radiating down your leg. That pain isn’t usually in your leg. It may start in your lower spine or with a pinched nerve in your buttocks. To treat the pain, you have to address the issue where it starts.
Therapeutic Massage Treats Pain
When you go in for a therapeutic massage complaining of specific pain, your Asheville massage therapist will likely spend some time on other areas of your body as well. It’s not because the therapist doesn’t know where your pain is. It might be because he is treating your pain at the source.
Of course, a massage often involves rubbing the whole body — remember that it’s all interconnected. Massaging your fingers and hands can relax your neck muscles. Conversely, massaging your jaw can relax your shoulders. Your body may react to a massage in unexpected ways — unexpected to you, that is.
Therapeutic Massage Healers
But an experienced massage therapist knows where your pain starts and how to stop it. Maintaining a valid massage license involves hours and hours of education and hands-on experience. A therapeutic massage therapist like Lawrence Hines of Asheville Therapeutic Massage can determine the source of your pain by talking to you about your symptoms and feeling how your body reacts during your massage.
So if you wonder why your massage therapist is working on your shoulders when you complained of lower back pain, you can rest assured that the therapist is working to pinpoint the origin of the pain and treat it. Masseurs and masseuses who work in therapeutic massage are indeed healers. Their hands are their tools.
Your bones and muscles and nerves and lymph nodes contain all the information they need to heal you. Your pain is not always straightforward, but massage treats the entire body, including the fascia, skin and organs. They’re all interconnected, and they can work to ease your pain. In the right hands. Schedule a massage with Lawrence today.