Today is your first day in a massage therapy class; you’ve done your “homework” in reading everything you could find on massage therapy before you applied to your school. You’ve studied the many forms of massage therapy that you’re eager to learn. You’re ready to begin!

One of the first massage therapy classes you will take is in human anatomy. You need to become very familiar with the body; its muscles, tendons, joints, connecting tissue, structure of organs, and the chemical makeup of the body. You can’t treat a problem if you don’t know what part of the patient’s body is affected and what you need to do about it.

By studying anatomy in your massage therapy class, you will learn how medical and psychiatric conditions affect the body. Stress, in particular, causes many of these conditions and your anatomy massage therapy class will teach you how to practice your skills on stressed-out patients and help them gain a feeling of relaxation and well-being.

You will learn the history of this combination of art and science; several of your massage therapy classes will teach you how this holistic approach to pain and distress has been used for thousands of years. Before there was surgery for herniated disks in the lower back, there were the natural healing arts of herbology, reflexology and massage therapy.

Ancient healers used massage to treat fatigue, injury and illness. The art has greatly advanced in the modern age because of what we now know about blood circulation, connective tissue, and necessary oxygen levels in the body.

Are There Different Kinds of Therapeutic Massage?

Absolutely! Just as a physician would not prescribe the same medical treatment for every patient, your massage therapy classes will teach you to evaluate a patient’s symptoms and decide upon what type of massage is right for him or her. This is an absolute necessity; unless you’ve properly diagnosed the source of the patient’s physical and emotional pain, you can’t know how to help the patient through massage.

A physician wouldn’t give a patient a shot of penicillin for low back pain; you, as a massage therapist will use the information you learned in your massage therapy classes and only select a massage protocol that fits the patient’s needs.

In your massage therapy classes you will master the different kinds of therapeutic massage such as Swedish massage, neuromuscular techniques, lymphatic massage, reflexology, acupressure massage and the Japanese art of Shiatsu massage. Each of these categories has sub-categories of specific massage techniques. Massage students typically practice on each other or on their instructor. The only way to learn message is to give a massage under the scrutiny of the instructor. Before you ever touch anyone, your massage therapy classes in anatomy and conditions that can be helped through massage will have provided you with the instruction that you must know.

Your first massage therapy class may seem a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but with each class and each practice session, your confidence will improve to the point where you feel comfortable in accurately treating patients.

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