Types of Massage

Whether you’re new to massage or you’ve received many it’s helpful to discover and rediscover the tools you have around you. In this article I’ll walk you through a quick description of the types of massages I do, what modalities I typically use and what they can accomplish.

At Althea Fera Wellness, I separate my services into relaxation, therapeutic, and energy work. With each offering I combine several different modalities (styles) of massage in order to help you accomplish your goals and to increase effectiveness of my work.

Unwind Massage

The Unwind Massage is designed to help you enter a relaxing flow state, reduce tension, and help you move through life with ease. The modalities that typically inspire my work are Swedish, Lomi Lomi, and stretching.

Swedish is the basic, popular massage that you will normally receive in most spas. It’s design to increase blood flow throughout the body, break up surface tension in the muscles, connective tissue, and skin, and to relax you. You can request light to deep pressure and anywhere in between, depending on what works best for you.

Lomi Lomi is a traditional Hawaiian style of massage. It consists of long fluid strokes, using hands, forearms, and elbows. And the most important part loving compassionate touch. (which I include in ALL of my massages)

Stretching helps move the muscles and connective tissue into a longer range of motion, reintegrating motion into the muscle so there is more range and less pain.

Functional Massage Therapy (FMT)

The Functional Massage Therapy (FMT) is designed to help relieve pain, increase mobility, and help address injuries. I have developed this technique through finding what works best with my clients over the years and from my own personal injury and pain healing process.

I combine several techniques including neuromuscular feedback, somatics, stretching, deep tissue, osteopathic manipulations, tui na, shiatsu, and more. This work is systems-based and will take into account how the body is connected and works together in order to address underlying imbalances and remove blocks. Through this style we’ll reteach your body how to live without pain and to move freely.

Neuromuscular Feedback and Somatics involve moving into and out contraction and relaxation of the muscle, with out with out pressure or resistance from me. This active participation help your brain reconnect to the muscle and consciously control when it is turned on and turned off. This creates a better version of muscle memory.

I think of these techniques in this way, as we live our lives we essentially do the same things, the same way, all day long. We pick up the phone the same way, sit in our chairs, walk, stand, sleep, etc. To save energy we develop muscle memory, so we don’t have to think about it, and do whatever task we have at hand. So, even though this is great for our brains, we tend to not use the best posture or movement patterns, which over time set us in painful patterns and we lose conscious control of turning the muscles on and off. Nueromuscular and Somatics work to reintegrate the conscious control of the muscle so you can turn on better patterns.

Deep Tissue, often confused for just deep pressure, is a technique the involves getting through the top layers of tissue into deeper layers. It is slow work, and typically you won’t be able to get a true deep tissue full body massage. With deep tissue it is better to stick to one or two focal areas during an hour, and just get deeper pressure on the rest of the body, if it feels good to you.

Deep tissue can involve skin rolling, less oil or lotion, crossfiber friction, and spending more time sustain pressure on a tight area. It does not need to be extremely painful. You should ALWAYS be able to relax through bodywork. If your feel your body tightening up, then communicate and I’ll adjust the pressure.

Osteopathic Manipulation is specified stretching of joints. It can help me determine where there is tension due to muscles or due to joint misalignment and will help me refer you to a professional, (I.E. chiropractor) if I notice any alignment issues. This technique helps increase range of motion in joints and can help reduce pain in and around joints.

Tui Na is a chinese massage technique that incorporates myofascial release, acupressure points, muscle work, and more. I especially use a certain technique to reduce sensitivity in certain areas.

Shiatsu is a Japanese style of massage that is traditionally done on a mat. It includes compression, stretching, rocking, and working of meridians and acupressure points. I incorporate many of the stretches I learned to help increase range of motion and help induce a relaxed state. Shiatsu is the only type of massage that I consistently fell asleep during, especially the stomach work! Crazy right!? haha

Past Hurt Healing (Coming Soon)

This technique is more about healing and integrating from trauma, big or little, it came about through my own work with traumatic experiences, through things I learned through my mentors, Ayurveda, Yoga, Chakras, and Energy work. It is designed to help remove the stuck trauma patterns in the body, so it will be BIG work. I highly suggest you seek out help with a therapist, spiritual healer, or other trauma expert, especially if you experienced some big T trauma. I will NOT continue through with the session if I feel that it is putting you or myself in an unsafe space.

This work is meant to get at the subconscious, at your spirit, and help your body release the trauma. We’ll work with guided imagery, journaling, and energy work. The sessions are meant to be intuitive and will change based on what I feel that you need at the moment. This offering is a package and I highly suggest booking several sessions close together in order to help us get through the work and not just bring it up. But we can only go as deep as you are ready to go.

Other types of Massage: ask me about scheduling these or adding to a service

Craniosacral is a gentle, but profound technique that opens up the pathways for the cerebrospinal fluid to flow freely through its own circulation. It consists of holding certain connective tissue complexes at the head, chest, rub cage, sacrum, and the feet. Once the flow is reset we help direct the flow and release small connective tissue blocks that might be stopping the flow.

Lymphatic Drainage is another gentle technique to help improve circulation of lymph throughout the body. Whether you have swelling from an injury or just wake up with that sleepy morning face lymphatic drainage can help set you straight. LD is slow and it is best to focus on one area of the body at a time, for example, face, legs, or arms.

Skin Brushing is another version of lymphatic drainage along with exfoliation. I provide a skin brush for you to keep and use as I show you. It can help reduce swelling, cellulite, improve immunity, make your skin oh so soft, and it definitely wakes me up.

Other coordinating services

corrective exercise Along with massage, I will almost always give corrective exercises and stretches as homework for my clients. My clients who incorporate these, usually see dramatic improvements on another level compared to my clients who do not add these in. as with everything I do, it’s a system approach and I plan out the exercises and stretches to help increase your results, rebalance, and reintegrate muscle movement and reduced pain.

Integrated Health Coaching Need a guide by your side in your journey to health, consider setting up a discovery call. We’ll discuss how I can help create a new lens for life, support you through you challenges, and empower you to achieve your health and well being goals!