Massage Therapy
Massage is the manual manipulation of soft body tissues (muscle, connective tissue, tendons, and ligaments) to enhance health and wellbeing. But whether there is a specific goal or not, massage therapy tends to increase the general health and wellbeing of the recipient.
Our definition excludes some kinds of bodywork, such as craniosacral therapy, Traeger, and Feldenkrais. It also excludes therapies that are primarily energy work, such as Healing Touch, Reiki, acupressure, and reflexology.
Levine, Andrew S., and Levine, Valerie J. (1999). The Bodywork and Massage Sourcebook. Los Angeles: Lowell House
Sherman, Karen J., Dixon, Marion W., Thompson, Diana and Cherkin, Daniel. (2006). Development of a Taxonomy to Describe Massage Treatments for Musculoskeletal Pain. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 6, 24.
Werner, Ruth. (2008). A Massage Therapist's Guide to Pathology, Fourth Edition. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Yates, John. (2004). A Physician's Guide to Therapeutic Massage, Third Edition. Ontario, Canada: Curties-Overzet Publications, Inc.
