Also called on-site and seated massage, chair massage includes techniques that provide fully-clothed seated massage, bodywork and somatic therapies to clients, generally in a corporate or business setting. Practitioners utilize shiatsu, amma and/or Swedish techniques.

Techniques which utilize deep tissue/deep muscle massage are administered to affect the sub-layer of musculature and fascia. These techniques require more advanced training and a more thorough understanding of anatomy and physiology. The muscles must be relaxed in order to effectively perform deep tissue massage, otherwise tight surface muscles prevent the practitioner from reaching deeper musculature. It helps with chronic muscular pain and injury rehabilitation, and reduces inflammation-related pain caused by arthritis and tendinitis. It is generally integrated with other massage techniques.

The fascial system is one continuous, laminated, connective-tissue sheath that spreads without interruption throughout the entire body in a three-dimensional web. Fascial mobilization allows therapists to locate and address restrictions in the fascial system which are causing asymmetries, postural malalignment, abnormal tensions, and pressures that can lead to pain and dysfunction. The goal of fascial mobilization is to produce a well-balanced, symmetrical, and mobile body within the skeletal, soft-tissue, and craniosacral systems.

Geriatric massage, with its focus on the elderly, addresses the psychological and physiological aspects of aging and its associated diseases. Bodywork, often limited to a shorter time span, is performed in residential care facilities.

Also known as visualization, guided imagery is a relaxation system utilizing imagination and thoughts to improve one's physical, mental, and emotional health. Often involving a process of listening to music or a person's voice, the participant can take hold of imagery, symbols, and deep feelings to stimulate the body's immune system, fight disease, and improve their overall health. Many seriously ill patients have used this technique to imagine the destruction of their disease and/or disorder.

Healing Touch is an energy-based therapeutic approach to healing. Healing Touch uses touch to influence the energy system, thus affecting physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health, and healing. The goal of Healing Touch is to restore harmony and balance in the energy system to help the person to self-heal. The quality and impact of the healing is influenced by the relationship between the giver and receiver.

Holistic medicine recognizes that the mind, spirit, lifestyle, environment, and other aspects of a person's existence significantly affect the functioning of the physical body. Thus, in evaluating and treating illness and prescribing preventative intervention, this approach treats the whole person, addressing more than just the symptoms or disease. Holistic practitioners may utilize a combination of conventional treatments along with alternative therapies.

Qualified instructors teach parents how to properly massage their infants. Infant massage is also utilized in hospital neonatal care units. This specialized form of touch is successful, not only in the critical weight gain of premature infants, but also in creating a strong bond between parent and infant and exposing a young child to the benefits and pleasures of touch.

Alternative and conventional (allopathic) methodologies are combined to stimulate the person's natural healing response.

An effective set of tools that can be used to mobilize the latent, innate healing abilities of clients to support rehabilitation, recovery, and health. It helps the client facilitate an enhanced awareness of the unconscious imagery they already have, while helping her learn to meaningfully and effectively interact with this process on her own behalf.

Intuitive work is a way of incorporating the perceived and received information that extends beyond the five senses, transcending what is considered ordinary thinking patterns and reasoning processes. The four main mediums by which intuitives receive and perceive information are clairsentience; clairvoyance; clairaudience; and “knowingness” — impression or inspirational thought. The challenge for bodyworkers is how to respectfully incorporate intuition into their work while maintaining responsibility/ respect toward the client. While the science aspect of bodywork focuses on the technique of touch (information accessed through the left hemisphere of the brain), the art aspect of bodywork focuses on how to touch with care and sensitivity (information accessed through the right hemisphere of the brain). As obvious tools for listening, hands touch with the intent to hear and see — information accessed through the temporal lobe. These three parts of the neurological system are considered the intuitive network.

Kinesiology is the study of the principles of mechanics and anatomy related to human body movement, specifically the action of individual muscles or groups of muscles that perform specific movements. Applied kinesiology involves muscle testing to assess a client's condition.

Developed by dancer/choreographer Elaine Summers, kinetic awareness is a system of bodywork that aims to increase knowledge of the human body by understanding tension as a positive and necessary part of movement affecting health, attitude, and emotional well-being. Designed to improve mental image, clients can gain a heightened sensitivity to posture and movement. All parts of the body are encouraged to be free to move in all directions in which it's possible. A goal of kinetic awareness is to free the body so it is always moving away from pain and toward pleasure. There are five phases of awareness, including attention to breathing, simultaneous movement of body parts, level of tension, speed of movement and relation to others.

The Kripalu bodyworker guides the client into a state of relaxation and meditation for the purpose of releasing physical and mental tension. This technique, based on Kripalu yoga, uses specific massage strokes and verbal/nonverbal procedures to aid clients in reconnecting with their body's own healing wisdom.

Kriya Massage, developed by Kamala Renner in 1970, is different from any traditional bodywork training because of the emphasis on the intuitive aspect by the practitioner in flowing with the “Kriya” movement while performing the massage. Kriya is defined as spontaneous energy movement. Kriya Massage is an art form that integrates the universal, life-affirming flow of energy between the practitioner and client, with any classical massage techniques integrated into the dance. Kriya Massage is a bodywork dance with the individual creating her own style in harmony with four universal forces. The strokes and techniques used in Kriya Massage are a combination of energy work, Swedish, neuromuscular, and somato-emotional release work done in a connected smooth pattern. The experience of a Kriya Massage is one of stepping out of time and space as a means of taking inventory of one's condition, then allowing the subconscious to shift and adjust programmed responses to life. The healing quality of Kriya Massage is accomplished by transforming attitudes. Giving, as well as receiving, a Kriya Massage is a regenerating experience. (Adapted from Holistic Health Directory.)

Stones of all shapes and sizes and varying temperatures, ranging from zero to 140 degrees, are used during LaStone massage therapy to elicit physical healing, mental relaxation, and a spiritual connection to earth energy. Warm stones encourage the exchange of blood and lymph and provide soothing heat for deep-tissue work. Cold stones aid with inflammation, moving blood out of the area, and balancing male/female energies. Stones are placed in varying positions on the body for energy balancing or may be used by the therapist for specific trigger-point work. The alternating heat and cold of thermotherapy brings the entire body into the healing process, with a rapid exchange of blood and oxygen and alternating rise and fall of respiration rate as the body seeks homeostasis. LaStone therapy requires less effort from the practitioner's own body and delivers healing warmth to the hands, benefitting the therapist, as well as the client. Founder Mary Harrigan drew from the wisdom of ancient healers in using thermotherapy as the basis for her approach.

Lymph Drainage Therapy is unique in that healthcare professionals learn how to palpate the lymphatic flow. As they develop their skills, they can then identify the rhythm, direction, and quality of the lymphatic flow. Advanced practitioners will be able to precisely map the lymphatic flow to find alternate pathways for drainage. Developed by Bruno Chikly, M.D., Lymph Drainage Therapy evolved from years of training in traditional medicine, Oriental medicine practices, and manual therapies. (Definition provided by The Upledger Institute.)

The therapeutic use of magnets may be older than acupuncture, originally involving a material called magnetite applied in a poultice. Today's magnet therapy is still applied to the skin, but employs steady or pulsed magnetic fields from either electromagnets or less powerful permanent magnets. Fixed magnets may also be taped to the body for a period of time. Magnet therapy is used to relieve pain and discomfort and to aid in healing with a variety of physical and emotional disorders, such as arthritis and stress. Treatment may be administered by the therapist or, as in the case of taped magnets, by the client.

The strokes applied in manual lymph drainage are intended to stimulate the movement of the lymphatic fluids in order to assist the body in cleansing. This is a gentle, rhythmical technique that cleanses the connective tissue of inflammatory materials and toxins, enhances the activity of the immune system, reduces pain, and lowers the activity of the sympathetic nervous system. The most widely taught and generally accepted form of this technique was created by Dr. Vodder of Austria and requires advanced training and precise movements.

Massage or massage therapy are systems of structured palpation or movement of the soft tissue of the body.
The massage system may include, but is not limited to, such techniques as, stroking, kneading, gliding, percussion, friction, vibration, compression, passive or active stretching within the normal anatomical range of movement; effleurage (either firm or light soothing, stroking movement, without dragging the skin, using either padded parts of fingertips or palms); petrissage (lifting or picking up muscles and rolling the folds of skin); or tapotement (striking with the side of the hand, usually with partly flexed fingers, rhythmic movements with fingers or short rapid movements of sides of the hand). These techniques may be applied with or without the aid of lubricants, salt or herbal preparations, hydromassage, thermal massage or a massage device that mimics or enhances the actions possible by human hands. The purpose of the practice of massage is to enhance the general health and well-being of the recipient. Massage does not include the diagnosis of a specific pathology, the prescription of drugs or controlled substances, spinal manipulation or those acts of physical therapy that are outside the scope of massage therapy.

An outgrowth of massage and other systems is bodywork, defined as various forms of touch therapies that may use manipulation, movement and/or repatterning to affect structural changes to the body.

Somatic means of the body and is often used to denote a body/mind or whole-body approach, as distinguished from a physiology-only perspective.

Another term meaning therapeutic muscle massage.

Performing medical massage requires a firm background in pathology and utilizes specific treatments appropriate to working with disease, pain, and recovery from injury. The therapist may work from a physician's prescription or as an adjunct healer within a hospital or physical therapy setting.

A variety of techniques that utilize movement re-education and proper body mechanics in combination with massage or soft tissue manipulation. After observing the client, the therapist will determine which corrective measures are necessary to accomplish specific goals. Active client participation is important while the practitioner uses verbal instruction, hypnosis and imagery, deep muscle and connective tissue manipulation, and mobilization in the movement re-education process. Registered practitioners may include graduates of The Feldenkrais Method, the Alexander Technique, and other movement-based disciplines.

Muscle energy is a direct, noninvasive manual therapy used to normalize joint dysfunction and increase range of motion. The practitioner evaluates the primary areas of dysfunction in order to place the affected joints in precise positions that enable the client to perform gentle isometric contractions. These directed movements help correct neuromuscular and joint difficulties.

This technique combines compression, extension, movement, and breath to give therapists a tool to provide relief from pain, treating such conditions as carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic low back pain, plantar fasciitis, sciatica, tennis elbow, knee pain, shin splints, frozen shoulder, hammer toes, piriformis syndrome, tendinitis, trigger finger, and much more.

Myofascial release is the three-dimensional application of sustained pressure and movement into the fascial system in order to eliminate fascial restrictions and facilitate the emergence of emotional patterns and belief systems that are no longer relevant or are impeding progress. First, an assessment is made by visually analyzing the human frame, followed by the palpation of the tissue texture of various fascial layers. Upon locating an area of fascial tension, gentle pressure is applied in the direction of the restriction. Myofascial release is an effective therapeutic approach in the relief of cervical pain, back pain, fibromyalgia, scoliosis, neurological dysfunction, restriction of motion, chronic pain, and headaches.

Based on the discoveries of Drs. Janet Travell and David Simons in which they found the causal relationship between chronic pain and its source, myofascial trigger point therapy is used to relieve muscular pain and dysfunction through applied pressure to trigger points of referred pain and through stretching exercises. These points are defined as localized areas in which the muscle and connective tissue are highly sensitive to pain when compressed. Pressure on these points can send referred pain to other specific parts of the body.

A holistic approach to relief of back and neck pain based on concepts and principles from Rolfing, osteopathy, and related physical medicine. Focused on detecting and correcting strain patterns to prevent back/neck pain, this technique combines deep-tissue work with assisted stretching and non-force spinal alignment.

See Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy.

This technique is a holistic healing system which utilizes the best of American kinesiology and European neural therapy. Neural kinesiology recognizes and assesses the need for therapies in each of the four primary categories — neurological, structural, biochemical, and psychological.

This therapy utilizes a form of positive kinesthetic conversation with the body to imprint new learnings on the motor control center of the brain, and replace damaged imprints created through trauma, injury, or repetitive strain.

This comprehensive program of soft-tissue manipulation balances the body's central nervous system with the musculoskeletal system. Based on neurological laws that explain how the central nervous system initiates and maintains pain, the goal is to help relieve the pain and dysfunction by understanding and alleviating the underlying cause. Neuromuscular therapy can help individuals who experience distortion and biomechanical dysfunction, which is often a symptom of a deeper problem. It is also used to locate and release spasms and hypercontraction in the tissue, eliminate trigger points that cause referred pain, rebuild the strength of injured tissues, assist venous and lymphatic flow, and restore postural alignment, proper biomechanics, and flexibility to the tissues.

Pilates is a series of movements, done from a sitting, reclining, kneeling, or standing position, designed to increase strength and flexibility, release tension, and relieve chronic neck and back pain. Developed by German-born Joseph Pilates in the 1920s, this method combines elements of Eastern and Western disciplines, including yoga, tai chi, and ancient Greek and Roman exercise protocols. Specially designed apparatus are used for stretching and strengthening exercises and can be calibrated to the client's needs. Repatterning movements and proper breathing techniques are important components of the training. The Pilates method is used in physical rehabilitation and is popular with athletes and performance artists, as well as those seeking to improve body conditioning.

Polarity therapy is based on universal principles of energy — attraction, repulsion, and neutrality. The interrelation of these principles forms the basis for every aspect of life, including our experience of health, wellness, and disease. With this understanding, polarity therapy addresses the interdependence of body, mind, and spirit, the importance of relationships, and the value of creating a way of life in harmony with nature. Founded by Austrian-born naturopath Dr. Randolph Stone in the mid-1920s, polarity therapy is a clothes-on, noninvasive system complementing existing systems with an integrated, holistic model. Polarity is based on the belief that positive and negative poles exist in every cell. The body is gently manipulated to balance the positive and negative energies. In addition to physical manipulation, blockages and toxins are eliminated through a cleansing diet and simple exercises. Treatments are suggested in a series of four. Training to become a practitioner is 430 hours.

Performed by a trained perinatal specialist, many methods of massage and somatic therapies are both effective and safe prenatally, and during labor and postpartum periods of women's pregnancies. Prenatally, specific techniques can reduce pregnancy discomforts and concerns and enhance the physiological and emotional well-being of both mother and fetus. Skilled, appropriate touch facilitates labor, shortening labor times and easing pain and anxiety. In the postpartum period, specialized techniques rebalance structure, physiology, and emotions of the new mother, and may help her to bond with and care for her infant. Specialized, advanced training in the anatomy, physiology, complications, precautions, and contraindications is highly recommended, and many practitioners require referrals from physicians prior to therapy.

This traditional Chinese treatment combines hands-on and hands-off techniques that balance the flow of qi (energy) through the body, move and relieve qi blockages, and improve circulation. Qigong is also a combination of timed breathing and gentle flowing movement, meditation, visualization, and conscious intent all working together to achieve an integrated adjustment of mind and body in order to better cultivate, circulate, and balance qi, or life force. Qigong theory is the basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine and is used to treat many serious illnesses, as well as for relaxation. See Qigong Meridian Therapy.

A method to reorder the major body segments, Rolfing was founded by American biochemist Dr. Ida Rolf in the 1940s. Rolfing utilizes physical manipulation and movement awareness to bring head, shoulders, thorax, pelvis, and legs into vertical alignment. It allows more efficient use of the muscles with less expended energy by lifting the head and chest and lengthening the body's trunk. A sense of lightness and greater mobility often result from Rolfing. Treatments are offered in a 10-session series, as well as advanced sessions. See structural integration.

Developed through the collaboration of a nursing professor and a spiritual healer, Therapeutic Touch is based on ancient energy healing methods. Practitioners, primarily nurses, are trained to feel or sense energy imbalances in the client and to use “laying on” of hands to disperse blocks and channel healing forces to the client's body. The therapist uses a light touch or holds the hand above the body, with the client generally seated. Meditation is used by the therapist to center herself and strengthen her connection to the client's energy system. Therapeutic Touch has been applied in an assortment of medical situations, including the care of premature infants and emergency room patients. It is known to induce a state of relaxation within minutes. Therapeutic Touch is considered safe because of its gentle, noninvasive approach. Developers of this technique affirm that everyone has the potential to heal with Therapeutic Touch and may be taught the methodology in one day.

Developed by chiropractor John Thie, Touch for Health combines methods and techniques that include acupuncture principles, acupressure, muscle testing, massage, and dietary guidelines. The method of treatment requires a second person who performs muscle testing. This determines which muscles are strong or weak, indicating if a physical problem or organ malfunction exists. Once weak muscles are determined, a variety of methods are used as part of a muscle strengthening program. Such techniques include finger pressure on neuro-vascular holding points on the head and pressure on the acupressure holding points. After the muscles have been strengthened, Touch for Health theory states that energy then flows through the body, improving vitality and ability to maintain good health. See kinesiology.

Trager is an approach to bodywork developed in the 1920s by American medical practitioner Dr. Milton Trager. It makes extensive use of touch-contact and encourages the client to experience the freeing-up of different parts of the body. The approach consists of simple exercises called Mentastics and deep, nonintrusive hands-on work, including fluid, gentle, rocking movements. The idea is to use motion in the muscles and joints to produce positive sensory feelings that are then fed back into the central nervous system. The result is a feeling of lightness, freedom, and flexibility. A Trager session takes from 60 to 90 minutes. No oils or lotions are used. The client wears a swimsuit or underwear and lies on a well-padded table in a warm, comfortable environment. No long, broad strokes are used over the surface of the body and, unlike various techniques of deep tissue manipulation, it does not utilize extreme pressure or rapid thrusts to create structural change and does not produce pain as a necessary adjunct to its effectiveness. During the session, the practitioner makes touch-contact with the client in such a gentle and rhythmic way that the person lying passively on the table actually experiences the possibility of being able to move each part of the body freely, effortlessly, and gracefully on their own. The practitioner works in a relaxed, meditative state of consciousness. This allows the practitioner to connect deeply with the recipient in an unforced way, to remain continually aware of the slightest responses, and to work efficiently without fatigue. After getting up from the table, the client is given instruction in the use of Mentastics, a system of simple, effortless movement sequences to maintain and enhance the sense of lightness, freedom, and flexibility instilled by the table work. Mentastics is Dr. Trager's coinage for “mental gymnastics” — a mindfulness in motion — designed to help clients re-create for themselves the sensory feelings produced by the motion of their tissue in the practitioner's hands. It is a powerful means of teaching the client to recall the pleasurable sensory state that produced positive tissue change. Because it is this feeling state that triggered positive tissue response in the first place, every time the feeling is clearly recalled the changes deepen, become more permanent, and are more receptive to further positive change. Changes described have included the disappearance of specific symptoms, discomforts, or pains, heightened levels of energy and vitality, more effortless posture and carriage, greater joint mobility, deeper states of relaxation than were previously possible, and a new ease in daily activities.

Trigger point myotherapy is a noninvasive therapeutic modality for the relief and control of myofascial pain and dysfunction. The goal of treatment is the client's recovery from or a significant reduction in myofascial pain. The treatment goal is achieved through a systematized approach. Treatment consists of trigger point compression, myomassage, passive stretching, and a regime of corrective exercises. Success may be measured subjectively by the level of pain reduction experienced by the client and objectively through increased range of motion, strength, endurance, and other measures of improved function. Trigger point myotherapy relies heavily on client-therapist interaction, including verbal and nonverbal elements. The myotherapist encourages the client to be personally responsible for their improvement, with attention to such factors as nutritional intake, stress, proper exercises, mechanical abnormalities, and other physical components. These elements protect the client from delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment, or contraindicated treatment, which are the concerns of first order. Trigger point myotherapy is an integrating approach to myofascial pain and dysfunction.

Vibrational Healing Massage Therapy (VHMT) is a bodywork therapy designed to restore one to fluidity. It is like massage therapy, providing touch techniques and distinctions that help a person live in their body as a liquid process, freeing pain as we have known it. VHMT works with the physical structure to free up past tensions and stresses that have been held in the body. This reawakening of the nervous system restores circulation to injured areas, moves energy and emotions, and helps in the letting go of chronic pain or stiffness. There are approximately 16 basic techniques that serve to align, loosen, and connect the body so tensions can reverberate freely. Special sensitive stretching, rebounding, and torquing are some of the techniques helping clients to become aware of where they have been holding. Practitioners and recipients alike begin to feel not only their vibrations move within them, but also new circulation of their basic metabolic fluids flowing again to once-rigid areas. As they listen to people's body rhythms and frequencies, practitioners of VHMT facilitate a clothes-on massage therapy that is rhythmic and fun, like playing a fine-tuned violin or guitar. VHMT includes new distinctions of awareness in thinking, speaking, walking, standing, and sitting which allow for fully-connected and communicative bodies. These concepts are: The Fluid Body Model — a body of knowledge where we experience being in our bodies in a whole new way, acknowledging and honoring the fluid, evolving processes that we are; Disease as a Strategy — a self-responsible way of thinking that allows us to access self-healing and growth; and The Language of Healing — a way of speaking responsibly about our bodies and lives, so that when we speak, we are causing and accessing healing and transformation to happen.

Visceral manipulation enhances the normal mobility and tissue motion of the organs of the visceral system. Hypertonicity, displacement, and adhesions can all cause organs to work against each other, creating chronic irritation and fixed, abnormal points of tension. The visceral organs are dependent on their ability to move freely in the visceral cavity to then work correctly and efficiently. When they are pulled out of their effective positions, they cease to function properly. By freeing each organ to work compatibly with the others, a therapist can potentially alter and improve the structure and functioning of the entire body.

The word yoga describes a variety of Hindu practices developed in ancient India to unify body and mind with universal spirit, thereby encouraging physical and mental well-being. Yoga most commonly involves a series of stretching postures (called asanas), breathing exercises, and meditative practices. Diet is also considered important to this discipline. Yoga increases flexibility, improves muscle tone, and is helpful in the reduction of stress.