Why massage? And why all types are good.

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The masseur must adjust his massage work accordingly when called upon to perform comforting, nurturing massage in certain clients, i.e., those with with cancer, hip or knee replacement, or severe injuries: because these clients are in pain, and the goal here is to reduce pain. Reducing pain is the first step in healing. Nurturing massage is absent of the typical M4M sacral chakra so-called service although often a client who is in need of therapeutic touch also desires the sacral chakra release. The cancer patient (or the dying patient: hospice massage) not so much, simply because the chi/life force of the latter is so compromised. 

In nurturing massage, the client is nourished by touch, like a baby with its Mother, protected, sustained and revitalized in the warming glow of touching providing the love/healing vibe. That's not to say the sacral chakra massage is a lesser service, they are just different approaches to touch for men and sometimes, but much less frequently for women. 

And why exactly does good, skilled massage make us feel better? Dehydrated muscles are re-hydrated through massage, inflammation is reduced, endorphins and dopamine (the body's own pleasure/heroin chemicals are released (both through nurturing touch and through sacral chakra touching). But mainly, the purpose of therapeutic massage is to keep soft tissues soft.

With age, injury, disease (or simple lack of hydration or exercise) muscles become hard, inflexible and stiff: range of motion is limited, thus leading to a greatly diminished quality of life. I personally recall crawling to the toilet on all fours when in the midst of having Lyme disease, my walking ability was impossible due to pain and inflammation of all my joints. This passed, thank God (although once infected the spirochetes will always be living in various parts of the body. My point is the main purpose of therapeutic massage is to keep soft tissues soft and the main purpose of sensual touch (sacral chakra massage) is release.

Take neck work and feet work for example: simply rubbing the feet is one way to feel good. However if the practitioner is skilled and experienced, he knows how to work around the 

malleolus how to move and do friction around and between all the bony landmarks of the ankle, thus providing deeper, more long-lasting relief from foot or ankle pain, as opposed to the clueless, but well-intentioned rubbing of the bottom of the foot. If you've ever had neck massage by an amateur, you know immediately that they are clueless as to how to use their fingers, thumbs and hands to get into the neck and release tension and pain (occipital release, Sterno-colloidal release behind the ears, working the masseter (jaw muscles), good scalene friction, (front, side and back), etc.

There's an entire arsenal of tools available (kinds of massage strokes besides the basic 5 Swedish strokes) to treat the whole body/mind not to mention knowledge of landmarks to recognize (insertions, origins of muscles and their individual functions) and what not to massage (deep friction on the spine can be tortuous, especially for the frail and elderly), and leave the eyeballs alone : ).

When working on the cancer patient I thought about mentioning visualization (to shrink the tumor) but didn't go there. My job was not to talk and lecture but to make him feel better by touch in the moment. On the same note, a client with a new knee replacement can feel the new knee to be heavier than the non-affected knee. And then there's that feeling of having something in your body that's NOT a part of your body. The trade-off is less pain and better functionality especially in the basic ADL (activities of daily life, i.e., getting up and down the stairs ; ) but the feeling of having something foreign in your body will always be there. Who was it that said "it ain't the work, it's the stairs." (?).