Holistic Massage Therapy

History of Massage Therapy

The history of massage probably begins before we could properly call ourselves human. Healthy touch has been used by people of all cultures since the beginning of time to improve one's general health and vitality. We instinctively rub a pain or an ache. We use touch in healing without even thinking about it, which suggests that could be the basic principle of all healing and medical practices.
    Massage may be the oldest and simplest form of medical care. Egyptian tomb paintings show people being massaged. In Eastern cultures, massage has been practiced continually since ancient times. It was one of the principal method of relieving pain for Greek and Roman physicians. Julius Caesar was said to have been given a daily massage to treat neuralgia ( episodes of intense, stabbing, electric shock-like pain in the areas of the face ).
    Doctors such as Ambroise Pare, a 16th-century physician, praised massage as a treatment for various ailments. Swedish massage, the method most familiar to Westerners, was developed in the 19th century by a Swedish doctor, poet, and educator named Per Henrik Ling (1776-1839). Technically Ling developed a system of medical gymnastics known as 'The Swedish Movement Cure' based on a study of gymnastics and physiology, and on techniques borrowed from China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. We know that Ling's massage was borrowed from the Turks, who still used (use) it in the 'Turkish Bath', or Hamam, however Ling himself was Swedish, so his system became known as Swedish Massage.
    Physiotherapy, originally based on Ling's methods, was established with the foundation in 1894 of the Society of Trained Masseurs. During World War I patients suffering from nerve injury or shell shock were treated with massage. St. Thomas's Hospital, London, had a department of massage until 1934. However, later breakthroughs in medical technology and pharmacology eclipsed massage as physiotherapists began increasingly to favor electrical instruments over manual methods of stimulating the tissues.
    Until recently, massage therapy had lost some of its value and prestige with the unsavory image created by "massage parlors" that used the therapeutic name to offer much more "adult" services. This image is thankfully fading as awareness of the value and therapeutic properties of true massage grows.
    Massage is now used in intensive care units, for children, elderly people, babies in incubators, and patients with cancer, AIDS, heart attacks, or strokes. Most American hospices have some kind of bodywork therapy available, and it is frequently offered in health centers, drug treatment clinics, and pain clinics.
    A variety of massage techniques have also been incorporated into several other complementary therapies, such as aromatherapy, Reflexology, Rolfing, Hellerwork, and osteopathy.