Types of Massage

Drawing upon a a myriad of massage and injury treatment techniques and a lifetime of learning and teaching experiences, Julie offers 3 basic types of massage, each of which she customizes to fit your needs. They include:

  • Full Body or Circulatory Massage
  • Sports Massage
  • Injury Treatment

See contact page for rates and contact information.

Full Body Circulatory Massage

The full body massage is comparable to “old fashioned” Swedish Massage. It uses oil and is vigorous, systematic and thorough. Deep broad-hand pressure (mechanical/Russian effleurage) focuses on returning used (veinous ) blood back to the heart. It paves the way for oxygenated (arterial) blood flow, cleaning and priming the muscles.

Although you don’t attain increased circulation equivalent to a cardio workout, you will experience the same post-exercise relaxation, without doing all the hard work!

Sports Massage

Sports Massage uses no oil and can be done with clients draped (under sheets) or in loose clothing / athletic attire. This type of massage consists mainly of flat, broad-hand compressions, jostling, and joint mobilization techniques. It is used for recovery from training or competition by increasing circulation. It promotes better cell nutrition and removal of waste products, by relaxing tight muscles, and by inducing general mind/body relaxation. It is ideal for people who receive massage for the first time.
Julie uses four sports massage techniques:

  • Pre-event sports massage — a short, stimulating massage 15 – 45 minutes before the event. It is directed toward the parts of the body that will be involved in the exertion.
  • Post-event sports massage — given within an hour or two of the event, to normalize the body’s tissues.
  • Restorative sports massage — given during training to allow you to train harder and with less injury.
  • Rehabilitative sports massage — aimed at alleviating pain due to injury and returning the body to health.

Injury Treatment Massage

Julie uses the following four techniques to relieve pain and swelling due to accute or chronic injuries and post operative situations.

Onsen Techniques®

Onsen techniques® uses three tools to find and treat the source of pain:

  • Muscle Energy Technique ( MET) — A method to identify and correct structural deviations by using highly specialized applications of Hold/Relax Stretching.
  • Manual testing (Active, Passive, Resisted & Fatigue) of individual muscles used to identify & restore proper range of motion (ROM), strength imbalances and sources of pain/injury sites.
  • Transverse Friction Massage (or Cross Fiber Friction) is used to treat injury, alleviate pain and/or reduce soft tissue restrictions.

Positional Release Therapy

Positional Release Therapy (PRT) is an osteopathic technique that might best be described as the most recent evolution of Strain/Counter-strain, consisting of passively placing clients’ limbs in various positions, each of which constitutes complete slack (and is painless) for a tender point being treated. Each position is held for 90 seconds, which is sufficient time for the nervous system to decide that since there is no pain at that site, it no longer needs to send a guarding signal. Passive replacing of the limb renders the tender point pain free.

Structural Relief Therapy

Structural Relief Therapy (SRT) diverges somewhat from PRT and was developed by Taya Countryman LMP.

Lymphatic Drainage Massage

Lymphatic Drainage Massage is applied mainly for injuries or post- surgery swelling. It consists of methodical repetitions of right angle stretches to the skin. It is very lightly applied and very relaxing to the nervous system. Because it is a massage technique designed to help the body rid itself of extra fluids, it can mean a visible slim-down for the water-retentive among us.