Massage Therapy and Homeopathic Medicine for Ventura, Santa Barbara and L.A. Counties

Acupressure is an ancient healing art that uses pressure to press key points on the surface of the skin to stimulate the body's natural self-curative abilities. Acupuncture and acupressure use the same points, but acupuncture employs needles, while acupressure uses the gentle, but firm pressure of hands and feet. Acupressure can be effective in helping relieve headaches, eye strain, sinus problems, neck pain, backaches, arthritis, muscle aches, tension due to stress, ulcer pain, menstrual cramps, lower backaches, constipation, and indigestion. The origins of acupressure are as ancient as the instinctive impulse to hold your forehead or temples when you have a headache. Everyone at one time or another has used their hands spontaneously to hold tense or painful places on the body.

Both pets and performance animals experience soft-tissue damage in their daily lives just as humans do. Therapeutic massage provides significant relief, stimulates healing, and promotes stress reduction and relaxation. Other benefits include enhancing performance by increasing range of motion, maintaining muscle tone and joint flexibility, improving disposition, preventing injuries, stimulating areas affected postoperatively, recovering from skeletal and muscular surgery or injury, relieving muscle pain by releasing endorphins, and relieving discomfort from arthritis, lameness, and hip dysplasia.

Used as a healing technique for thousands of years by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, essential oils aid in relaxation, improve circulation, and help the healing of wounds. Specific essential oils are blended and added to a carrier oil, to be used during the massage. Each oil has its own unique characteristics and benefits.

This barefoot massage technique uses deep compression effleurage strokes that glide over the body. Gravitational centrifugal and centripetal movements relieve pain symptoms in chronic soft-tissue damage. Correct application will provide deep relaxation while stretching chronic shortened muscles of the body. Bars are used above the head for leverage, and lubricant is essential for its application. No anxiety should result from this application, and client range of comfort is maintained at all times.

Are you tired of trying creams and pills that claim to rid the body of cellulite or tighten the skin and face? Cellulite does not go away without regular exercise and living a healthly-stress free lifestyle, but massage therapy and cupping can help, by using lymphatic drainage techniques to stimulate lymphatic flow, eliminating stagnated fluids above and around the tissues that cause the 'orange peel' look and increased weight and sagging of skin, and using gentle massage cupping on the face also clears puffiness and fine lines and tightens the skin. I use specific essential oils and homeopathic gels along with massage cupping for this treatment. (to see greatness results treatments are usually 1-2 times per week for 8 sessions.)

Cupping developed over time from the original use of hollowed animal horns to drain toxins out of snakebites and skin lesions. Horns evolved into bamboo cups, which were eventually replaced by glass. Therapeutic applications evolved with the refinement of the cup itself, and with the cultures that employed cupping as a health care technique. The true origin of cupping therapy remains in obscurity.

The Chinese expanded the utilization to include use in surgery to divert blood flow from the surgery site. Cupping eventually developed into a separate therapy, with healers treating a variety of conditions. Early written records date from 28 AD, and a traditional Chinese saying indicates "acupuncture and cupping, more than half the ills cured". Chinese medicine observes that cupping dispels stagnation of Blood and Chi, along with external pathogenic factors that invade a weakened constitution. A depleted constitution is often a result of depleted "Jing Chi", or original essence.  This will usually progress to a weakened "Wei Chi", or defense (immune system).

The Egyptians produced a text on ancient medicine that discussed the use of cupping for conditions such as fever, pain, vertigo, menstruation imbalances, weakened appetite and accelerating the "healing crisis" of disease. From the Egyptians, cupping was introduced to the Greeks and eventually spread to ancient cultures in many countries of Europe and even the Americas.

Techniques that utilize deep-tissue/deep-muscle massage are administered to affect the sub-layer of musculature and fascia. These techniques require advanced training and a thorough understanding of anatomy and physiology. The muscles must be relaxed in order to effectively perform deep-tissue massage, otherwise tight surface muscles prevent the practitioner from reaching deeper musculature. It helps with chronic muscular pain and injury rehabilitation and reduces inflammation-related pain caused by arthritis and tendonitis. It is generally integrated with other massage techniques.

Geriatric massage is a form of massage designed to meet the specific needs of the elderly. Most people in their golden years suffer form a variety of age-related dis-eases such as Parkinson's, arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. As a result they have poor circulation and limited physical activity. Many elderly are also anxious, depressed and lonely. Geriatric massage can help them maintain and improve their overall health and can relieve anxiety and depression and provide comfort to touch-deprived elderly patients. Sessions are usually no longer than 30 minutes, Going with that shorter and more frequent sessions are shown to be more beneficial than longer and less frequent treatments.

Stones of all shapes and sizes, and are heated to 140 degrees, are used during hot stone massage to elicit physical healing, mental relaxation, and a spiritual connection to earth energy. Warm stones encourage the exchange of blood and lymph and provide soothing heat for deep-tissue work. Stones are placed in varying positions on the body for energy balancing or may be used by the therapist for specific trigger-point work.

There are many reasons to massage a infant/child some of the few reasons include: Strengthens the immune system, Teaches infants that touch is a form of expression, Helps tone muscles and aids growth, Increases infant's body awareness, Deepens respiration, Stimulates digestion, Relaxation and enhancement of neurological development, Speeds myelination of the brain and nervous system. Massage for children can help many illnesses prone to children such as: colic, ear infections, growing pain and also helps with children when learning to walk and has been shown to help relax children with disorders such as ADHD, Autism, FAS and Down Syndrome to name a few.

The therapeutic use of magnets may be older than acupuncture, originally involving a material called magnetite applied in a poultice. Magnet therapy is used to relieve pain and discomfort and to aid in healing with a variety of physical and emotional disorders, such as arthritis and stress.

Performing medical massage requires a firm background in pathology and utilizes specific treatments appropriate to working with disease, pain, and recovery from injury. The therapist may work from a physician's prescription or as an adjunct healer within a hospital or physical therapy setting.

Myofascial release is the three-dimensional application of sustained pressure and movement into the fascial system in order to eliminate fascial restrictions and facilitate the emergence of emotional patterns and belief systems that are no longer relevant or are impeding progress. First, an assessment is made by visually analyzing the human frame, followed by the palpation of the tissue texture of various fascial layers. Upon locating an area of fascial tension, gentle pressure is applied in the direction of the restriction. Myofascial release is an effective therapeutic approach in the relief of cervical pain, back pain, fibromyalgia, scoliosis, neurological dysfunction, restriction of motion, chronic pain, and headaches.

With prior experiences working closely with both Chiropractors and Acupuncturists I have developed a massage routine that provides relief from chronic pain in areas such as in Sciatica, leg cramps, low back and chronic neck/shoulder pain, fibromyalgia and migraines. With regular massage treatments and other activities like Yoga and Meditation most will find long term relief from their pain without the need of drugs or surgery.

Polarity therapy is based on universal principles of energy--attraction, repulsion, and neutrality. The interrelation of these principles forms the basis for every aspect of life, including our experience of health, wellness, and disease. With this understanding, polarity therapy addresses the interdependence of body, mind, and spirit, the importance of relationships, and the value of creating a way of life in harmony with nature. Polarity is based on the belief that positive and negative poles exist in every cell. The body is gently manipulated to balance the positive and negative energies.

Performed by a trained perinatal specialist, many methods of massage and somatic therapies are both effective and safe prenatally and during labor and postpartum periods of women's pregnancies. Prenatally, specific techniques can reduce pregnancy discomforts and concerns and enhance the physiological and emotional well-being of both mother and fetus. Skilled, appropriate touch facilitates labor, shortening labor times and easing pain and anxiety. In the postpartum period, specialized techniques rebalance structure, physiology, and emotions of the new mother and may help her to bond with and care for her infant.

Sports massage is designed to enhance athletic performance and recovery. There are three contexts in which sports massage can be useful to an athlete: pre-event, post-event, and injury treatment. Pre-event massage is fast-paced and stimulating, it helps to establish blood flow and to warm up muscles. With post-event massage the intent is to calm the nervous system and begin the process of flushing toxins and waste products out of the body. Post-event massage can reduce recovery time, enabling an athlete to resume training much sooner than rest alone would allow. When an athlete sustains an injury, skillful massage therapy can often speed and improve the quality of healing.

Noninvasive treatment helps decrease protective muscle spasms and alleviate somatic dysfunction in the musculoskeletal system. By using palpation and passive positional procedures, the therapist practicing STRAIN / COUNTERSTRAIN therapy can help restore pain-free movement. The position that relieves the referred pain is held for ninety seconds. After resuming the original position and pressing the trigger point, the referred pain is gone.

One of the most commonly taught and well-known massage techniques, Swedish massage is a vigorous system of treatment designed to energize the body by stimulating circulation. Five basic strokes, all flowing toward the heart, are used to manipulate the soft tissues of the body. The many benefits of Swedish massage may include generalized relaxation, dissolution of scar tissue adhesions, and improved circulation, which may speed healing and reduce swelling from injury.

Trigger point is a noninvasive therapeutic modality for the relief and control of myofascial pain and dysfunction. The goal of treatment is the client's recovery from or a significant reduction in myofascial pain. The treatment goal is achieved through a systematized approach. Treatment consists of trigger point compression, passive stretching, and a regime of corrective exercises. Success may be measured subjectively by the level of pain reduction experienced by the client and objectively through increased range of motion, strength, endurance, and other measures of improved function.