Our Techniques and Specialties

Your orthopedic massage practitioner will generally use a variety of soft-tissue techniques to loosen your muscles and connective tissues and help balance the tension around your joints.  Some commonly used techniques are :

• Active engagement – Practitioners use active engagement (or AE) to reach deep, hard-to-access muscles, treat overuse injuries, and assist clients with well-developed musculature. Your practitioner will compress your muscles, stroke them lengthwise, and apply perpendicular motion. It is of particular use for targeting specifically located muscle tightening injuries like whiplash and lumbar pain.

• Circulatory Massage - Massage facilitates circulation because the pressure created by the massage technique actually moves blood through the congested areas. The release of this same pressure causes new blood to flow in. The squeezing and pulling also flushes lactic acid from the muscles and improves the circulation of the lymph fluid which carries metabolic waste away from muscles and internal organs, resulting in lower blood pressure and improved body function.

• Myofascial release – Your skeletal muscles and connective tissues can be held in place by tight fascial tissues. This manual massage technique releases the bonds between fascia and muscles with the goal of eliminating pain and increasing range of motion. Myofascial techniques commonly involve slow spreading, stretching, or skin rolling. 

• Manual Lymphatic Drainage - a light, rhythmic, skin-stretching massage that helps promote the movement of lymphatic fluid out of the swollen limb. It can be particularly helpful after lymph nodes are removed which is common in surgical interventions for cancer.  

• PNF stretching – Properly called proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, this common clinical and sports rehabilitation therapy can increase your passive and active range of motion.

• Trigger point therapy – Trigger Point Therapy applies concentrated finger pressure, and breath work, to trigger points to break cycles of spasm and pain. Trigger points are irritated areas in muscle fibers that, when compressed, may elicit pain or a twitching response in local or distal regions. As defined by Dr. Janett Travell, a trigger point is a hyperirritable tender spot in an abused muscle that refers pain (“triggers pain”) to other muscles

• Cross Fiber Friction - Friction techniques applied across the “grain” of muscle fibers to create a stretching and broadening effect in large muscle groups; or on site-specific muscle and connective tissue. Application of deep transverse friction can reduce adhesions and scar tissue during the healing process, and help promote strong, flexible tissue development.

• Nerve mobilization techniques – Also called neural mobilization and neurodynamics, this method can improve nervous system function by identifying a strained nerve and locating its source of pain. 

Our Therapists