When most people think of massage therapy, they think of relaxation. But, there's been a new development in the area of massage: medical massage therapy. Because it has such an incredible, some say practically miraculous, ability to heal injuries and to reduce pain, massage has now started to be used in the field of practicing medicine.

Alternative therapies are often slow to be adopted by the medical communities, and medical massage therapy is no exception, but it is gaining a foothold and becoming more widely accepted and recommended by physicians. Medical massage therapy is usd to address certain discomforts of patients. The purpose of these types of massage is to relieve areas of dysfuntion and problems with any soft tissues in the body. This type of massage therapy is rather different from the more common therapeutic massage because it's primary purpose is not the relief of tension or of stress from the patient. Instead, medical massage therapy is designed to be used with those who are trying to recover from surgery or from injury.

Generally, the doctor will recommend medical massage therapy to the patient and let them know that the major benefit to them will be to help speed up healing and reduce recovery time. After an injury, often the patient will avoid using the surrounding muscles until the injury has healed, at least to some degree. But, when this happens the movement of the area is severly limited, the muscles around the area of injury become very stiff, you lose muscle tone and can even begin to atrophy with enough time. Medical massage therapy can be used to bring circulation to the unused muscles, helping to rehabilitate them. This in turn helps promote the ability to move, which encourages healing. At the same time, this also stimulates proper functioning of the area, and continued healing, while it also prevents additional injuries to the area.

During a medical massage therapy session, the therapist will manipulate the soft tissues of the affected area using a variety of hand techniques, soft tissue massage, range or motion techniques, passive and active stretching and other therapeutic modalities such as hot or cold therapy.

Medical massage therapy is geared toward improving the general well-being of the client while working on specific issues. A massage therapy session will typically last from 45 minutes to an hour. This tupe of therapy is not available to just anyone and normally must be recommended bya physician for the purpose of healing or to prevent further injury. The primary goal of medical massage therapy is to use a series of treatments to promote healing.