Do you ever wish there were a magical oil to squeeze into your aching joints? Some sort of magic gas to pump you up? Is it difficult for you to fall asleep when you want to? When you need to? Do you find yourself in a state of “Suspended animation” just when you need to concentrate and finish a painting, a sculpture, or even finish the inevitable bookkeeping nuisance that surrounds your work? Do your muscles and tendons go sore on you? Do you show signs of less flexibility? Less endurance? Do you feel over–extended? Are you getting anxious more often? More depressed?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, your solution may lie in a different kind of art–massage therapy (MT, for short)–the healing art which creates balance and restores that necessary sense of well–being.

Anybody who has ever given or received a friendly backrub already knows something about MT. From the animal world to the human species, all living beings have an inborn bio–emotional need to maintain balance. Balance is the secret of good health. And that ever–present need for the maintenance or restoration of balance responds, almost without execption, to Massage therapy in a positive way.

Much in the way that any artistic performance, visual and otherwise, can be astonishing, average, or (sadly) mediocre, MT too can result in an experience of varying magnitude, depth, and overall sense of well–being. And the deprivation of touch–not unlike the stifling of art–is almost certain to be detrimental to society at large. How ironic that so many of us feel more comfortable or secure touching a pet than touching another human being. Or being touched. The perfect opportunity for all people to maintain their health, to reduce stress, overload, and to prevent disease without the side–effects of over–used medication (or drugs), without the traumas (or high cost) of surgery and with a great margin of safety at a reasonable cost is massage therapy.

With the dubious help of the conventional media, most Americans–even artists who should know better–have for the longest time considered Massage therapy a luxury, or a whim, or something you always thought about but never quite got around to. But all that, fortunately, is changing. According to the a study by the Harvard Medical School Massage therapy is one of the three most often used alternative healing arts. And it is more and more recognized as anything but a frivolous luxury. Especially now, when according to the American Medical Association, more than half of all visits to physicians are for stress–related complaints, it is easy to relate to the way in which renowned pharmacologist and professor, Dr Candace Pert, puts it when she says, “I think we could replace 90% of mainstream medicine with a weekly massage… Examining lifestyles with an eye to prevention is a key focus for good health.”

Cathartic as art may be, the lives of most artists are not without stress overload. And their need to regain and maintain balance is as necessary for their body mind health as for their continued creative growth. In an age of technological opportunity and constant change, Massage therapy is fast becoming the brush with which a healing artist¾ can paint and re–paint your well being. Massage therapy is a holistic, drug–free healing art which recognizes and incorporates the scientific approach to healing of the West with the artistic, intuitive, energy–based approach of the East. Essentially MT is the manipulation of soft–tissue for the purpose of restoring or maintaining balance within and among the various systems of the bodymind complex while the body is at rest and the mind is letting go. Naturally, a healing art as old and as cross–cultural as massage has bred many techniques and approaches, so many that some massage therapists–experienced and well trained in many techniques–may not know them all. Often the same technique is practiced quite differently by different massage therapists. And sometimes–for marketing reasons–the same technique has different names! With few exceptions, therefore, as in art, for the person on the receiving end, technique per se is an unimportant issue. It is the attention to the client¼s condition, response and the result that counts.