Humans have recognized the benefits of massage therapy for thousands of years. Far from being "new age-y” or a “recent health fad” massage is a treatment humans have been using for as long as we know.
In ancient India, the traditional medicine wisdom, Ayurveda, includes massage therapy. Therapeutic massage was a practice passed down through generations and used to heal injuries, relieve pain, and prevent illnesses. Ancient China had similar ideas in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Chinese tradition of massage therapy was developed from the combined expertise and methods of doctors, practitioners of martial arts, Buddhists and Taoists and laymen who offered massages for relaxation. In TCM, massage therapy is a treatment related to acupuncture!
The Egyptians are credited with adding Reflexology (applying pressure to specific points to hands and feet) to the massage therapy repertoire. There are even Egyptian tomb paintings that depict massage therapy! From Egypt, massage therapy traveled to Greece and Rome, where Greek athletes used massage to condition their bodies for competition. Hippocrates, often called the “father of Western medicine,” treated physical injuries in the 5th Century BCE with massage, and is the first recorded to prescribe a combination of massage, proper diet, exercise, fresh air and music to restore health imbalance. We hear variations on this prescription even in our modern day and age! And of course, there are the famous Roman baths where average citizens would soak and receive spa treatments including massage to loosen joints and promote circulation. Unfortunately, the highly popular baths and massages eventually gained a reputation as being about excess and the pursuit of pleasure (a reputation that lives on today) and they were publicly condemned by Emperor Constantine for promoting sexual abuse.
In the centuries that followed, massage therapy declined in popularity as other medical avenues were explored. In the early 1800s a Swedish doctor, gymnast and teacher Per Henrik Ling created the “Swedish Movement Cure” which was a combination of medical gymnastics (think old-school physical therapy) and massage therapy with the goal of improving chronic pain. This eventually led to the modern Swedish massage technique. Many of the specific massage movements included in Swedish Movement Cure are still frequently used today, such as effleurage, petrissage, and friction. Ling pioneered many of the the core ideas of massage that are still essential today. For example, be believed that massage is scientific and holistic and required movement and manipulation prescriptions to be based on anatomy and physiology, and proven by clinical trial and measurement. Ling also believed in the unity of the person—body, mind, and spirit—and that movement profoundly affects the whole person in maintaining or restoring health.
In the 1700s massage made its way to the New World where massage therapy was first seen as a profession in the United States. It was not unusual for surgeons to have assistants who helped patients with medical gymnastics (movement and manipulation, similar to physical therapy) and manual therapy. In the 1800s massage was used as a treatment for Society ladies suffering from “melancholy.” Melancholy was characterized by anxiety, fatigue and depressed mood and the cause was thought to be isolation and lack of engaging activity. (Sound familiar?)
By the 1900s massage was being used regularly by physiotherapists, which helped massage become more mainstream and respected. Notably, massage was used to treat World War I patients who suffered from nerve injury or shell shock. In the 1950s Physical Therapy was established as its own discipline, separating it from Massage Therapy. In the last 30 years there’s been a shift in Western society toward more holistic and non-pharmacological approaches to pain relief and treatment, increasing the popularity and availability of massage therapy.
Massage has had a long journey! As practitioners and scientists learn more about the human body and mind, massage therapists continue to refine their skillset and implement new methods along with the tried-and-true practices that have been around for hundreds or thousands of years. Massage is being recognized more in the mainstream for the healing benefits it offers to body and mind.
Feeling melancholy? Make an appointment with one of our massage therapists for a time-tested treatment