Massage vs. Bodywork

What’s the Difference?

Treating the Root Cause

Bodywork looks beyond the immediate symptoms to find an underlying pattern that may have given rise to that symptom or cluster of symptoms.

The spot that first registers pain is often the “weakest link” in a complex web of imbalances.

Changes to the myofascial network cannot be made all at once. Bodywork proceeds somewhat stepwise by a series of approximations towards a more harmonious condition of structural balance.

Typically, a series of sessions is required with enough time allotted between treatments to allow the person to adjust to the changes.

There are several bodywork techniques available, including:

• Structural Integration 
• Neuromuscular Therapy
• Myofascial Release
• The Feldenkrais Method^®

Goal Oriented, Site Specific

Each person’s structure is unique.

There are some structural patterns and themes that are widespread, and generalizations can be made. However, effective bodywork must be tailored to each client’s structural idiosyncrasies.

Adjustments made to the body and the types of strokes applied must be selected with care and cannot be protocol driven.

Going from Massage to Bodywork

Therapists in the field of massage have clients who come in every day with nagging aches and pains that interfere with the most basic of activities.

For massage therapists and their clients, the question then becomes, “What more can be done?”

Unbeknownst to most people, advanced therapy techniques and methods have been in use as far back as the 1960s!

Advantages of Bodywork Therapy

The key difference between bodywork and standard massage therapy is the level of training.

Massage therapists often lack the skill and training necessary to provide long term relief from chronic pain and are unable to describe in detail why a client may be experiencing pain.

Contrast that with a bodyworker with advanced training in anatomy and physiology. Bodyworkers thoroughly assess a client’s body, allowing the session to be very detailed in its approach and provide not only better pain relief, but longer lasting results!

Hands-on techniques for bodyworkers differ greatly from that of an average massage therapist. Instead of using long, connected strokes throughout the body to help relax the client, bodywork techniques are very focused and geared towards releasing what is called “soft-tissue.”

Soft-tissues are a ground substance that give shape to all the muscles as well as the organization of bones, organs, and nerves.

Bodyworkers directly engage and manipulate this underlying tissue, releasing areas where the tissue has become restricted or tight, and in so doing, the therapy allows the body to reestablish healthy organization and function.

For these reasons, when someone asks us “What’s the difference?”, we tell them that bodywork is a “goal oriented, site specific type of therapy focused on helping balance the body”.

Treating Causes, Not Symptoms

How is Advanced Bodywork, well, advanced?

Advanced bodywork is yet another level of education that is added to the therapist’s toolbox to make sure that the goal of change is being met. However, the area of education is not what some might assume being as we are massage therapists. That area of education is movement evaluation and movement screening. 

Using a movement-based education for assessment and treatment allows for a deeper understanding of how a person’s body has gotten to the state of needing change and a better understanding of how to get the change to occur. Analyzing standing, walking, and using movement screens are tools we use to give us a picture of how your body functions or compensates. This information is how we design a session for optimal results.

These movement screens and evaluations are then used to create a homework plan of suggested exercises and stretches to help prolong the results of any given session as well as help strengthen any power deficits that might exist. Allowing for a longer lasting more permanent change.