Both ancient and modern cultures have developed some form of touch therapy for healing that involves rubbing, pressing, massaging, and holding. All cultures understand that touch is essential to people of every age, including infants, children, and adults. Although attitudes toward touch vary from one culture to another, the widespread use of bodywork practices to improve health and healing indicates that these are natural manifestations of the desire to heal and care for one another.
Nevertheless, cultural differences have influenced the development of touch. For example, whereas the Eastern worldview is founded on the concept of energy, the Western worldview is based on the “reductionist” view of health (a view that proposes that matter can be reduced to specific components). These cultural differences have created a variety of different approaches to the use of touch, and the blending of Eastern and Western techniques has resulted in an explosion of new bodywork healing modalities. This may be due, in part, to a healthy response to the fast-paced technologic revolution and the desire to provide individuals with a sense of balance and caring.
Trivieri and Anderson (2002) define the term bodywork as “therapies such as massage, deep tissue manipulation, movement awareness, and bioenergetic therapies, which are employed to improve the structure and functioning of the body” (p. 119). They add that the benefits of bodywork include pain reduction, musculoskeletal tension relief, improved blood and lymphatic circulation, stimulation of lymphatic drainage to encourage the elimination of waste from the body, and the promotion of deep relaxation.
Both contemporary and traditional bodywork therapies are based on one or more of the following principles or techniques (Clay & Pounds, 2008; Trivieri & Anderson, 2002):
- The individual is a whole organism (everything is connected).
- Shortened muscle tissues are not as effective as long, relaxed muscle tissues.
- The soft tissues of the body respond to touch.
- Pressure or deep friction can be used to alter muscular and soft tissue structures.
- Movement can be used to affect physiological structure and functioning.
- Education and awareness can be used to change or enhance physiological function.
- Breathing and emotional expression can be used to eliminate tension and change physiological functioning.
Most bodywork practitioners employ a combination of methods in their practice. Although the techniques for manual bodywork therapies vary among practitioners, the objectives are similar—to relax, soothe, stimulate, and relieve physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual discomfort.