therapist recommends body work (massage therapy)

how might bodywork compliment talk therapy? anyone have any experience to share?

For us, it helped us get more comfortable in our body, helped us know where we began/ended...how we were separate from other people as it helped us learn our own body's boundaries. Also, it was very comforting, nurturing, and a good thing to do for ourselves.

I was a massage therapist for 15 years. Do you have any specific questions, or you can send me a PM. It's great for all kinds of things, physical and emotional, and is a wonderful way to allow safe nurturing touch into your life, provided you find a good massage therapist. Is your T referring you to someone? The professional organization is the AMTA (American Massage Therapy Assn). You can check the website to find someone in your area. Bear in mind that it's kind of like finding a therapist, you don't always click with the first one.

Thanks you SarahMichelle & kirbydog. I've actually had my first appointment and did click with the massage therapist. she was great! safe nurturing touch is a good way to describe it. i will be going back!

I was just wondering how (and if) it will affect my regular therapy.

I've had body work for decades. Even when I wasn't in therapy, I'd often get emotional releases from a really talented massage therapist. I hold a lot of stress in my muscles (I suspect most people do) and releasing the muscle stress can help me release the emotional stress, too.

It's gotten a bit more intense since I've been in psychotherapy. I think it's because a lot of emotional things are close to the surface for me. Sometimes (not very often), I've had flashes of what I think is memory during a massage. One time the MT was massaging my pecs and I had a very distinct image of being bathed as a very small child. I felt sad about it, for reasons I don't understand. I brought that to my T to talk about.

It doesn't happen every time, by any means. But when I'm in the right mind space and the massage therapist is very attuned to me, it does. I have one MT I use that consistently helps me emotionally release. We clicked the minute I met her and I have her do body work (sometimes with aromatherapy) every time I'm in her town.

Does "massage therapy" differ from regular massages by a licenced masseur/masseuse? It's very common in Sweden for companies to hire the services of a masseur/euse once or twice a month for their employees, as a fringe benefit. (30-minute back and shoulder massage is the norm I think. At least that's what we have been offered at all the workplaces I and my H have worked at.) But maybe that's not the same thing as massage therapy. ("Body work" is a completely new term for me. Does it mean the same thing?)

Unfortunately, I've been getting more uncomfortable with the way my body looks over the last year or two, so I've stopped signing up for massages. It's painful (physically) but very beneficial for me to get them.

I had a former T suggest massage therapy as well, and I was lucky to have a good friend who recommended a great massage therapist. That was seven years ago, and I still see the same massage therapist once a month (or more, when I can afford it!) and I tease her that she should charge more since she does double therapy - listens to me whine and offers encouragement and support as well as take care of my over tired body!

Seriously though, it does help a lot - I am not comfortable with touch at all, and in working with her it has gotten much more tolerable.

when I was in cancer treatment last year I went to a massage therapist at the cancer center. I hate being touched and am really uncomfortable about my body, but after getting thru the first one I became a fan. I was emotional, but I think it was more about what I was going thru at the time. When you are in treatment you have to stay strong, mostly for your loved ones, you never relax. So getting a massage and letting my "tough" slip away for a half an hour would usually result in tears. No sobbing though.

Apteryx, here in the US, there are some questionable practitioners of massage; they "practice" in massage "parlors" and it's generally expected that they provide more than just massage. It's more common to refer to them as masseuses. So, to differentiate between them and the legitimate, licensed people who provide therapeutic massages are Licensed Massage Therapists (LMT).

Body work encompasses therapeutic massage along with other body-centered therapies, like Reiki, reflexology, etc.

I have done massage stuff and sacral cranial energy work. I think for me, the therapist believes or at least states that I "exist and engage only above the neck" and encourages anything that might lead to feely stuff.

My T has encouraged me to get massages several times. I carry so much tension in my body, and she thinks it would help with my anxiety if I could just get my body to relax and learn what that feels like. However, I have severe issues with touch and just the idea of a massage completely freaks me out. Maybe I'll get there someday, but it's not going to be now.

I don't know if this helps, but I had two clients who didn't remove their clothing at first, and it was wonderful for them. I did some more stretching/range-of-motion things, graduated to food and head massage, then progressed from their. Or, if you don't want touch at all, have you tried yoga? It is really wonderful and has some similar benefits to massage.

Those are great ideas, Kirby. I know some people who were very nervous about touch and whose first massage experience was a chair massage - fully clothed and just working on the neck, shoulders, back and arms. They liked that the MT stood next to the chair and not over them on a table.

thanks, everyone, for sharing your thoughts and experiences.