At Dublin Therapeutic Massage Clinic, like many other centres and individual, we appear to segregate our treatments into therapeutic and relaxing, like sports massage and holistic full body massage. Therapeutic massage is generally considered a treatment that works specifically on tackling a physical imbalance: pain in your lower back, frozen shoulder, cramps in your legs and feet. And yes, our treatments for these complaints are therapeutic. We aim to get to the root of the problem and correct it. This is all very important for us. Ongoing physical pain damages our ability to exercise, work and relax and it causes frustration, anger, fear, resentment and depression. Through treatments to correct the physical pain, the mental and emotional side effects are eliminated too. We are then happier, calmer, more energised and better able to work, play and relax.
But there are other triggers that lead to that same frustration, fear, anger, resentment and depression. For example, your partner and children continually turn to you for support, encouragement, answers, to vent their own issues. Where do you turn? Your left feeling tired, with no life of your own, holding the world on your shoulders and no one to help you carry it. Who's to say a simple full body massage is not therapeutic in this situation? One hour to yourself, with no one seeking your attention, where you can rest body and mind, is a fantastic way of boosting your energy levels, your coping levels, giving you a new sense of being rewarded for your hard work. This ‘simple' treatment then is therapeutic in that it reduces/eliminates the frustration and resentment towards your family. I'd say that is just as important as addressing the chronic pain. It also leaves you happier, calmer, more energised and better able to work, play and relax.
There are many reasons people come for treatments and whatever those reasons, they are important to that individual. No matter what the treatment is, if it helps that individual deal with an issue they have at that time, then it is therapeutic. Our hope is that people recognise the value of these treatments; massage, Reiki, reflexology, aromatherapy or any other modality. If more people sought help with the minor things in their lives, ways of dealing with stress, understand the importance of personal time-outs, less people would develop serious illnesses or become susceptible to chronic pain. I'm not saying we can cure cancer. I'm saying that CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) treatments are there to help prevent cancer, to support the whole system to more speedy recovery and to improve the quality of life in terminal cases. The important part for everyone is the prevention. CAM, ultimately, is preventative healthcare. Its underlying goal is to educate people to the importance of taking care of yourself; body, mind, emotions, spirit. If you owned a diesel car, would you put petrol in it? Of course not. It would seize the engine. By eating the wrong foods, we are running on the wrong fuel and it is inevitable our system will crash at some stage. It is the ingenious of our systems that keep us going as long as we do.
Looked at from this perspective, all CAM treatments, even ones traditionally seen as almost ‘beauty' treatments, are therapeutic. Ultimately, what makes any treatment ‘therapeutic' is the reason the client has come in and the therapists understanding of this and their intent to help.
