The Healing Touch: More Than Just Relaxation

What Are The Benefits Of Massage For The Body?

The transformative power of touch extends far beyond simple relaxation. Massage therapy works as medicine for your body—touching mind, body, and spirit down to the cellular level. Tricia Fraizer of Reflections of Health School of Massage joins us to unpack this holistic approach to wellness that could change your health journey forever.

Fascinating research from the National Institute of Health reveals that human touch isn't just pleasant—it's essential. Studies show infants who receive regular touch thrive, while those deprived of it struggle developmentally. This fundamental human need continues throughout our lives, explaining why massage therapy delivers such profound benefits beyond momentary comfort.

Experienced massage therapists possess an almost detective-like ability to identify problems in your body before you become aware of them. Your system silently compensates for minor issues until they cascade into major problems potentially requiring surgery. From "text neck" (the modern epidemic caused by looking down at phones) to occupation-related repetitive strain injuries, massage therapy provides targeted relief and prevention. Each centimeter your head tilts forward adds pounds of pressure to your spine—a sobering reality in our device-focused world.

Ready to experience the healing power of touch? Your journey toward better health could be just one massage away. Call or text 423-804-3067 to schedule your consultation and discover how massage therapy might be the missing element in your wellness routine.

To learn more about Reflections of Health School of Massage, Inc. visit:
https://www.ReflectionsofHealth.com
Reflections of Health School of Massage, Inc.
1604 Lamons Ln, Ste 207a
Johnson City, TN 37604
423-804-3067

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Reflections of Health Massage
School Podcast, where healinghands become powerful careers.
Whether you're looking toescape the 9-to-5 grind, earn
extra income during college orfinally get paid for all those
family shoulder rubs, massagetherapy could be your next big
move.
Join us as we explore the powerof touch, the path to purpose,

(00:26):
and why starting your journey inmassage therapy might be the
smartest decision you'll evermake.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
We all know massage feels good, but did you know it
also plays a powerful role inhealing?
Know massage feels good, butdid you know it also plays a
powerful role in healing,recovery and even emotional
wellness?
It's more than relaxation, it'smedicine for your body.
Welcome back everyone.
Skip Monty here, co-host slashproducer, back in the studio
with a very special guest today,ms Tricia Frazier of
Reflections of Health.
School of Massage Tricia.

(01:01):
How's it going?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
I'm glad to be here.
Thanks for having me Skip Goingpretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Awesome.
Well, since you would probablyknow better than most people,
can you explain this to ourlisteners?
What are the benefits ofmassage for the body?

Speaker 3 (01:21):
So, in a nutshell, it follows the wellness model of
touching the mind, the body andthe spirit.
So in every aspect of yourwhole being, massage plays a
part, all the way down to thecellular level of your body.
You can think of the differenthormones that you release when

(01:42):
you have joy or sadness, or thedifferent feelings that you have
.
One thing that I'd like topoint out is studies have been
done on infants.
I believe it was at NationalInstitute of Health, if I'm not
mistaken, where they took thestudies of infants that were
touched versus infants that werenot touched, and the infants

(02:06):
who were touched thrived and theinfants who were not touched
did not thrive.
And so that plays a part in usas a human being and that we
need that touch to be able toexist in this world that we are
in.
And so that's as far as I know.

(02:27):
You know, as far as Iunderstand it and agree with is
that that's on the mental leveland the spiritual level.
And as far as the body isconcerned, you know, there are
times that I have clients thatthey come in for a specific
problem, or even not a specificproblem, and I will be working
on something and notice thatthere's some integrity in the
fibers.
That's different, that feelsdifferent.

(02:48):
There's a muscle bundle.
They didn't even know it washurting until I touched it, and
so they even expressed that, wow, I didn't even know that that
was sore.
So there's sometimes that ourbody will actually adjust to
whatever's going on and we don'teven know that we've adjusted
to it.

(03:09):
So we're living with thisproblem that we have in our body
and we don't know that we needto get that problem fixed until
somebody's working on it.
And if you don't have somebodythat's working on it, eventually
that problem becomes even moreexponentially larger to where it
creates more problems down theroad to where you then you're

(03:31):
going to the doctor for possiblehip surgery or rotator cuff
surgery or something to thateffect.
So it does snowball to thatlevel.
But think of what you couldhave done if you'd stopped it
when you didn't even know it wasa problem.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Early on.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's the way yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
So what are some common health conditions that
massage therapy can help manage?

Speaker 3 (03:53):
So I have a lot of clients that I see that have
fibromyalgia.
I've got a few that have lupus.
A lot of people have problemswith their body mechanics as far
as what they do on the dailywith their job, and that's that
repetitive motion that they dothat causes that problem to
happen inside of their system,because the body is not meant to

(04:16):
do that constantly, over andover again.
I'll use this one, for exampleWorking at a desk, your elbows
are shortened.
The muscles around your elbowsare shortened because they're
not in anatomical correctposition at all times.
So they're shortened.
Because you're typing on acomputer, then you've got what I
like to lovingly refer to astext neck.

(04:37):
So we have become a society thathave our phone attached to our
hand, and so when we drop ourhead to look at the text, then
what happens is our head getsoff of its axis and I believe,
if I'm not mistaken, everycentimeter that your head tilts
off of your spine is another somany pounds of pressure on your

(05:01):
neck.
So your head weighs about sixto eight pounds give or take,
and so think about everycentimeter, dr John, my teacher,
actually told me many years ago, and I do remember this.
He held his arm out, straightout to the side, and he said
imagine I'm holding a bowlingball straight out and if I drop

(05:21):
my hand down one centimeter, howmuch heavier did that bowling
ball just get for me?
And it's the same with our headbecause it's sitting on a
strategically placed spine.
You know, we're all wonderfully, beautifully made and if it
tilts just a little bit to theside, to the front, however, it
puts that much more pressure onour spine and those muscles.

(05:44):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Wow, yeah, well, if somebody's got that condition,
if they've got what you saidtech's neck or any kind of
condition, how often I mean onaverage should somebody get a
massage for the optimal benefits?

Speaker 3 (06:01):
So it is a case by case basis.
I do believe that you know theyhave that initial consultation
with the massage therapist oftheir choosing and in my years
of doing this I've seen it towhere we might do twice a week
for a couple of weeks and andthen we back off until we get
you to once a week, and thenevery two weeks, and maintenance

(06:23):
is about roughly once a monthto continue when you have a
consistent problem that keepsreoccurring because of, for
example, your job, or you knowyou're not going to put the
phone down, You're going tocontinue to text, so it's going
to continue to be a problem.
So in order for you to have amore quality of life but also be

(06:44):
able to do your job, we allhave to work then once a month
would be where you'd want to endup, but it may be, depending on
the situation and how far goneit is.
You might have to start outwith twice a week or once a week
until you can get back to thatonce a month.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well can massage therapy aid in recovery from
sports injuries or surgery.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Oh, absolutely.
There's several differenttechniques.
We have about 70 differentmodalities that people use or
specialize in, and there aresome massage therapists that
specialize in sports massage.
You'll even know that a lot ofsports teams have their own
sports massage therapists, evendown to, I think, collegiate

(07:29):
level.
Then, of course, you've gotyour professional levels.
They have those people on staffin order to take care of them.
Also, there's massagetherapists that go to events
like triathlons.
I believe the first time thatmassage was introduced at the
Olympics was in 1984.
So that's when that startedthere.
And if you're familiar withMichael Phelps of course he's

(07:52):
retired now breaks my heart.
I love to watch him swim, butthere was his last event.
I cannot remember what yearthat was.
It showed his back and he washaving what is known as cupping
down on his back and it was topull the lactic acid out of his
muscles, and that is a techniquethat massage therapists use.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Wow, cupping.
Yeah, I've heard.
I've heard of that.
Well, tricia, I love it Beenvery informative.
We've actually touched on abunch of deeper subjects.
Maybe we can target some ofthose like sports injuries and
mental health, stress, that sortof thing, in a future episode.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Absolutely.
There's all kinds of differenttrauma that happens to the body
and again in the mind, body andspirit.
It's just how it presentsitself and what you've had to
deal with in your life and howwe address it in the massage.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Gotcha.
Well, we'll get you back in thestudio.
We'll delve a little deeper ina future episode.
Okay, sounds great.
Have a great rest of the day.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
Thank you, Skip you too you skip.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
You too Think you've got the touch.
Let's make it official.
Call or text 423-804-3067 toschedule your tour and
consultation, or visitreflectionsofhealthcom.
Your future could be just onemassage away and, let's be
honest, being everyone'sfavorite stress reliever isn't a
bad gig.