Touch Therapy (Massage)
Introduction
Alternative medicine has increasingly gained popularity as more and more people are seeking new ways to maintain optimal health outside of the traditional biomedical paradigm. In this section, we will focus on the science and the art of touch therapy, specifically, massage therapy. We will examine its history and some exciting current research.
Massage therapy is the manipulation of the soft tissues of the body to normalize those tissues. It involves using a series of manual techniques that include applying fixed or movable pressure, holding, and/or causing movement of or to the body, using primarily the hand but sometimes also other areas such as forearms, elbows, or feet (Cook, 1999). Therefore, a note of distinction here: touch therapy is different from therapeutic touch. The latter actually does not involve touching the person. The practioner simply places her hand a few inches above the person's skin to manipulate the human energy field. Effects of therapeutic touch are controversial and not well supported by clinical studies (Rosa, Rosa, Sarner, & Barrett, 1998; Griffin & Vitro, 1998).