Orthopedic Massage: Restoring The Balance

What Is An Orthopedic Massage?

Unlike traditional massage therapy, Orthopedic Massage isn’t a technique or set of techniques. Orthopedic Massage Therapy is a multidisciplinary approach to relieving muscular and soft tissue pain, dysfunction, and injuries. Meaning that the approach used in orthopedic massage is more comprehensive and seeks to resolve the client’s pain by restoring the structural balance and increasing flexibility throughout the body. This provides the client with a means to heal more quickly from a recent surgery, or to avoid it altogether.

How It Works

There are three stages to an Orthopedic Massage:

1. Assessment and Evaluation:
   The Orthopedic Therapist will discuss with the client the origin of the pain. Where is it and why? This helps the massage therapist to identify the possibilities involved in creating pain or restricting movement. This understanding is then used to determine whether or not it is safe to do massage, and what techniques would be effective.
2. Treatment Strategy:
   Once an evaluation has been made, a plan is set in motion. The assessment provided will point to particular tissues and techniques that will compliment the condition being treated without aggravating it.
3. Treatment Application:
   During the massage session, additional information is gathered through more detailed palpation of the tissues and by monitoring the tissues’ responses to the technique being performed. The client’s experience of the treatment’s effects are also considered. This may result in the treatment being modified as information is gathered, leading to a better result than if the initial strategy had been followed.