Massage Therapist
Duties of a Massage Therapist
A message therapist is a person that performs manipulations on a client’s soft tissues in order to achieve a desired effect. Specifically, the massage therapist works to help improve the circulation of the body and to help remove the waste from the muscles of the clients.
A massage therapist may help a client in a number of ways. For example, a doctor may recommend treatment with a massage therapist in order to help treat a painful ailment. Or, the massage therapist might help to decompress the client’s overworked or otherwise tired muscles. As such, doctors are increasingly working alongside massage therapist professionals in order to better meet the needs of their patients.
A massage therapist may also be able to help a client in psychological matters. For example, with the help of a massage therapist, a client might be able to reduce stress or simply improve his or her overall health. A massage therapist may also specialize in specific forms of therapy, such as helping to rehabilitate those with sports injuries.
There are over 80 different forms of a massage that a massage therapist may choose to utilize. These forms of massage are referred to as modalities. A few of the modalities that a massage therapist may choose to specialize in include acupressure, deep tissue massage, Swedish massage, reflexology, neuromuscular massage, and sports massage. The type of modality a massage therapist chooses to pursue will impact the techniques that are utilized with the client.
In many cases, the massage therapist will choose to specialize in just one or two modalities. In this way, the massage therapist can meet the specific needs of a client. In order to further meet the needs of the client, the massage therapist also completes an interview with the client in order to learn more about his or her medical history and what the client hopes to gain from the massage session. During this time, the massage therapist may also discuss the techniques that he or she employs, which will help the patient better determine if the modality the massage therapist utilizes is a good match.
