Integrated Massage

Maybe you’ve heard the term before--but what does it mean? Basically, it’s the hallmark of a serious therapist, one who has evolved above and beyond the little box-like massage categories like Swedish and Deep Tissue massage.  Ever walked into a spa or a franchised discount massage chain and stared at their services menu and thought, “gee...do I want Swedish or Deep Tissue today?  Hmm...I don’t want it to HURT like that elbow-nazi I had before, but I also don’t want to waste my time with a fluff-and-buff massage, either. Let’s see...I need something relaxing. Swedish might be good. But I can also still feel that crick in my neck that I woke up with this morning. There was that one good therapist I had several months ago who magically seemed to know what I needed, but I haven’t seen him lately, so he must’ve moved on.  Now I have to start all over from scratch, and never know what I’m going to get.  Oh well, back to Square One: which type do I go with today? Gosh, I wish I could just get a combination!”

If this situation sounds familiar, or even if it doesn’t but you want to avoid it, you’re in exactly the right place!  That “combination” is Integrated Massage, a blend of all the various styles, knowledge, and experience that a professional therapist has diligently accumulated over the years. Each Integrated therapist’s style is unique, and often, therapists will give a slightly different massage each time.

In our earlier days, we, too, differentiated between different types of massage, charged different rates for each type, and placed the burden on our clients to know which type was best for them. It didn’t take us long to realize that this strategy just doesn’t work. Human beings are unique packages of a mind, body, and soul, not little boxes to be categorized into a system someone else created. Life became a lot simpler for both our clients and ourselves when we developed our own style and started adapting it to each individual client, on each visit, based on their needs and preferences.  Today, we blend several different styles such as Swedish, Deep Tissue, Hot Stone massage, Neuromuscular Therapy, Reflexology and Acupressure, passive and resisted stretching, and others to give you what we hope is a unique and fulfilling experience every time.

The way we see it, there are two main approaches to massage - Build-Your-Own, or Goal-Oriented.  When all is said and done, however, what actually happens in our studio is usually a blend of both approaches, so please don’t think you have to choose one or the other. It’s not as complicated as it sounds; these are all JUST IDEAS only to get you thinking about things you may not have thought much about before.  During our pre-session consultation, we’ll discuss what you’d like to get out of your visit and we can incorporate any (or none) of the ideas below.

You can Build-Your-Own, if you wish.

You can customize the massage you want by answering the following questions for yourself:

• Are you looking more to relax, dissolve and work through knots, improve flexibility, or to manage and relieve pain--or maybe a combination?
• Which parts would you like worked? Which would you like left alone? Do you like scalp massage? Face massage? Abdominal massage? Upper pectoral massage?  TMJ work? Lots of work on the hands or feet?
• Do you like light, medium, or heavy pressure?  Do you like various depths of pressure, depending on the region being worked on?
• Do you like broad, flowing strokes or concentrated pressure on specific points?  Do you like to feel energized, relaxed, or worked over/wrung out afterward?
• Do you like the finer luxuries, such as more extensive use of Hot Stones or aromatherapy?
• Do you like athletic techniques like passive or resisted stretching of the muscles, tendons, and joints?
• Do you like Oriental/Eastern modalities such as acupressure or reflexology?
• Do you like trying new cutting-edge therapies with electronic gizmos like biofeedback or electro-stim?
• Do you have any special considerations such as tissue congestion or pregnancy?
   

Goal-Oriented Massage

This is where you simply come in and tell us “I just want to (x)”, where “x” can mean anything from “relax” to “get rid of this migraine”, and you don’t care how we do it. People typically come in asking us to do whatever we have to do, as long as we do everything we can to get you closer to your goal.

• First, we examine your paperwork closely.  The more complete it is, the more of a health history we have, and the more we can help.  We may follow up with a few basic questions and answers.
• If necessary, we’ll further assess what’s going on by running some basic musclular/posture tests (from massage school) or orthopedic tests (learned in chiropractic school) that can give us some clues as to what may likely be causing your issues.
• Then, we’ll put a series of Neuromuscular protocols to use that are designed to re-balance the specific areas that may have become problematic, thus contributing to your issues. We may work several areas, even if only one area is painful, if we think they may unknowingly be contributing to your problem. This also often serves to reinforce the work we did on the problematic area itself.
• We may then teach you some exercises or stretches to work on between sessions. These can further reinforce our session work, helping you restore balance and diminish your pain/discomfort even faster.
• Please understand that often, by the time you begin to feel pain or discomfort in an area, that area has been disrupted and dysfunctional for some time already. This means that your issue is often already chronic, and it got that way through a whole process.  Since it didn’t get that way overnight, it’s not going to go away overnight, either.  We actually have to go in and retrain your body, which is a lot like trying to make a full U-turn with a team of bounding horses; it can be done, but it’s probably not going to happen on a dime. We have worked miracles! They just take time. The absolute most important key is consistency--keep your regular appointments, and don’t give up!
   

Some Fun Ideas to get your creative juices flowing...

General Wellness Session - for someone who needs a tune-up, or who feels a little run-down and wants to catch up and feel on top of the world.
Hot Stone and relaxation massage to stimulate circulation, balance the nervous system, and promote relaxation, wellbeing, and the flushing of toxins from the tissues.
Energy Meridian Balancing with biofeedback to help stimulate the major Chinese meridians and give you that burst of calm, balanced energy. Normal has never felt so good!

Cubicle Farm Session - for Blackberry users, cell-phone text messagers, desk workers, and mouse jockeys!
Corrective targeted therapy focusing on the neck, shoulder, forearm/wrist, and hands.  Clinical massage designed specifically for pain management and circulation/nerve supply restoration.
Reflexology on the feet to reinforce the clinical massage.
Lavender Aromatherapy for stress.
Cold packs applied to the wrists to decrease inflammation of the tendons passing through the carpal tunnel of the wrist.

Chair Potato Session - for office workers confined to a desk 25 hours a day, or truck drivers, couriers, and frequent airline passengers.
Corrective massage on the neck, shoulders, back, glutes, hamstrings, calf muscles, and upper pectoral muscles.

Post-Surgical Session - usually in the form of a 90-minute or 2-hour lymphatic massage
Myofascial release (gentle sustained stretches of the skin and connective tissue)
Trigger Point therapy to release trigger points in areas of stress and trauma (usually near incision sites)
Lymphatic Detox/Drainage to drain all of the waste products/fluid buildup/edema/swelling from the trigger points, tight tissues, and physiological reactions common after surgery.

Nerves of Steel Session - total much-needed relaxation for overstressed moms, VIP executives, sales associates, and managers
Relaxation massage on the scalp to promote deeper relaxation
Relaxation and gentle deeper massage on the back, also for relaxation
Lavender Aromatherapy for stress relief.

Again, these are all just ideas! They’re not literally part of our “menu” or anything, they’re just for fun.  But, if one of them sounds good to you, then by all means, please tell us!

4th Consciousness
Integrative Massage & Bodywork
Frisco, TX.  75034 / 75035

Serving: Frisco, Plano, Allen, Far North Dallas, McKinney, The Colony, Prosper, Celina, Addison, and Little Elm; and parts of: Carrollton, Richardson, North Dallas, Lewisville, Farmers Branch, Parker, and some surrounding outlying areas.

© Copyright 2004-2008, 4th Consciousness Integrative Massage & Bodywork, All Rights Reserved                    Revised 08 Sept 2008