EP 25: Benefits of Massage Therapy for Stress

Our mission is to give you tools and strategies that will help you move from being stressed to feeling your best.

In this episode we continue our series on mind body therapies that we have found helpful in our healing journeys. We feature Michele Arsenault, RMT, to discussed how massage therapy works and how it reduces stress.

Co -hosts Deb Timmerman and Barb Fletcher, are certified HeartMath® Trainers, and certified stress educators, who are skilled at helping people discover the power of living form the heart.  To take the Stress and Wellbeing Assessment in Canada, click here. To take the Stress and Wellbeing Assessment in the US, click here. 

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Barb Fletcher, Deb Timmerman, Michele Arsenault

Deb Timmerman  00:00

Hello, everyone, I'm Deb Timmerman, welcome to our series of 52 practical tools for less stress in life. This is episode 25.

Barb Fletcher  00:11

I'm Barb Fletcher, our goal is to give you tools and strategies to help move you from being stressed to feeling your best. We're continuing our series on modalities that we've used and love as part of our healing journey, and today, we have a very special guest, Michelle Arsenault, who's going to lend her expertise on the subject of massage. So, Michelle is a registered massage therapist, acupuncturist therapist or Reiki master and an energy worker. She owns a clinic in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada, which is close to where I live and I have benefited from her services where she and her staff offer acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, reflexology massage therapy and several other modalities. Her goal is for each client to experience healing and homeostasis, which is the body's natural balance. Welcome Michele.

Michele Arsenault  01:12

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Deb Timmerman  01:16

Michelle, can you start our conversation today with telling us a little bit about your journey to becoming a massage therapist?

Michele Arsenault  01:24

Yes, so I graduated from the Atlanta College of therapeutic massage in Fredericton, New Brunswick in 2016. With honors as valedictorian, I was an energy worker for about 20 years before I discovered massage therapy. And I would work my full-time job and pack up my table and go to client's homes offering Reiki and reflexology in the evenings. and I thought that was a great gig. And I enjoyed it a lot, but it wasn't a career. So, my path to massage Fast Forward 17 years later and I finally decided to make massage therapy a career, which allowed me to do what I love and be able to offer that healing energy to people every day. So, now I have the pleasure of working as a registered massage therapist and it's definitely a passion, as well as a career path for me. Being able to incorporate all those other things that I did before, energy work and other types of modalities into my practice, and so it's really given me a lot of joy to be able to do what I love and make it a career.

Barb Fletcher  02:48

Can you talk a little bit about the different kinds of massage that you do, if I recall correctly, you traveled to the west of Canada to learn a particular kind of massage.

Michele Arsenault  03:00

Yes, I spent some time at the Temple Mountain Spa in Lake Louise, Alberta. And when I was there, I learned about Thai massage, or Thai stem massage, which is a bundle. It's a bundle of herbs imported from Thailand, and you steam that and then you can use the Thai stem, you hold on to the stem of it to massage the person with that herbal compress. And  we also incorporate Thai stretches a bit like Thai Yoga into that treatment. So, it's extremely beneficial and has many, many properties of helping the body detox and de stress and just sort of It's a full, full body treatment. So, that is one practice that I've added on to my massage practice. The great thing about massage therapy is there's so many things that you can add to it. And so,  I'm always customizing my treatments and adding different modalities in with the massage which, of course, makes it much more beneficial for my client who's on the table. So that's one thing that I do. Cranial sacral therapy is another modality that I add into my massage practice, which deals with the bones and the cerebrospinal fluid and with that modality I'm dealing with the detressing the spine and that system in the body which carries a lot of stress from everyday life or sometimes from injuries and things like that. So those are some of the things that I incorporate into my practice, but I have there's many more.

Deb Timmerman  04:54

So, tell us a little bit more about the different styles of massage. You mentioned Thai But isn't there deep tissue? And then there's also some gentler? Can you go into some of those specific massage therapy techniques that people might enjoy? 

Michele Arsenault  05:10

Yes, absolutely. Most licensed or registered massage therapists are trained in Swedish massage techniques. So Swedish massage incorporates a whole gamut of different techniques that are used, and it ranges from mild to deep tissue massage. That is the most common umbrella that many different techniques will go under. And of course, with the deep tissue massage, it is still a form of Swedish massage, just the therapist is incorporating deeper pressure and firmer pressure, which is subjective to the person. But yeah, some people's deep tissue might be mild to someone else. So, it's very subjective as far as the pressure that's used during a treatment. So, Swedish massage is one type and then the other types that are also quite common, you might hear people talk about myofascial massage. The myofascial massage deals with fascia, or the connective tissue in the body, and of course, this is normally used without lotion. So, it's quite a different technique and style of massage. With the myofascial, you're targeting the fascia in the body, or the connective tissue, which often gets stuck, and you might feel like tightness or pulling in the body. So, with that technique, the therapist is really tuning in to the person's body and their tissue and listening and following it and releasing the restriction but also honoring the body at the same time. So that's another type. There are many types of massage. So, there's sports massage, which is targeted, for athletes. There's pregnancy massage, hot stone massage, lymphatic drainage massage. So lymphatic drainage is a type of treatment that's using targeting the lymphatic system and helping to detox the body. There are many other types as well and that's just to name a few. 

Deb Timmerman  07:25

I'm sitting here, listen to all those and thinking about all those types of massages that I've had over the years, and kind of relaxing, just listening to her talk. Because they're all really pleasurable. And you're right, they are all very different, aren't they? 

Michele Arsenault  07:39

Yes

Deb Timmerman  07:39

As somebody who, is performing, but also for the receiver?

Barb Fletcher  07:45

Yeah, it's really about the benefits. And each one of them is specific and targeted to various parts of the body. So, we talked about those benefits. What would you say is the biggest benefit of massage for someone who hasn’t experienced it before?

Michele Arsenault  08:04

I would say for most of us in our life, stress is a great thing to alleviate with massage and I think that for most people, if they haven't tried massage, they're quite surprised at how beneficial it is for them. I've had some people who waited 80 or 90 years to try massage and had an injury or a strain and the doctor is like, Well, have you tried massage? And they're like, No, I haven't. So, they come and they're so surprised at how much relief they have and they're like I will surely try this years ago. I always say stress relief and overall muscular relief, which if you can relieve the muscles of tension and stress or even injury, then the body can relax, and the mind can relax, and you're not focused on it so much. So, it's taking people away from that fight or flight mode in the body in the mind and bringing them into that relaxed state where they can rest and repair and that's part of the process of massage. So that would, I would say that would be the biggest benefit.

Barb Fletcher  09:15

So, the benefits apply to everybody doesn't matter what their age is.

Michele Arsenault  09:22

Yes, anybody can benefit from massage. I have worked on small babies. I've worked on teenagers and young people, elderly, athletes, pregnant women, really anyone can benefit, and the therapist would just of course modify the treatment according to whoever is in the treatment room at that time. So, it's definitely an overall therapy that that anyone can benefit from, yes.

Deb Timmerman  09:50

So, massage works by increasing the blood flow to that muscle or muscle group and then the relaxation happens. Can you tell us a little bit about that piece of how it works?

Michele Arsenault  10:07

Yes, so massage therapy does help to increase blood flow to the muscles, it speeds up recovery, and helps to deliver nutrients to the muscles into the body so that they can function properly and that helps to dispose metabolic waste, which can cause pain and delay recovery. So, the benefits include reducing stress, increase the relaxation, reducing pain and tension in the body and in the muscles, also reducing muscle soreness, improving circulation and helping to improve immune function. So yeah, there's many benefits.

Barb Fletcher  10:48

How has massage really helped you as it relates to stress?

Michele Arsenault  10:52

Massage for me has been something that I do on a regular basis to alleviate stress in my life, and I do find it works on many levels. I have an injury then of course it helps to target that, but deeper than that, it helps me to maintain steady stress on a regular basis. So, I usually book massage monthly, as well as other therapies float spa and massage or whether it's reflexology and massage. I have many practitioners that I go to on a regular basis and because I do this for a living, there's not much that I'm not willing to try as far as incorporating other modalities in with my massage treatments. I find that I mix it up quite often one month, I might do reflexology, and massage and the next month I might do a little coaching and massage. So, there's no end to how I incorporate my massage treatments, but it's a regular part of my life and practice and also how I still take care of myself, and he stress.

Deb Timmerman  12:00

Sometimes massage therapists offer reflexology, like you do, but they are two specific modalities. Can you talk a little bit about the difference between reflexology and massage therapy?

Michele Arsenault  12:14

Yes, so reflexology and there's different types of course of reflexology, there's facial, there's hand there's foot reflexology. I specifically work with the feet. So, the bottom of the feet is like an anatomical map of your body with over 700 reflexes on the bottom of your foot and the reflexologist will target a routine that incorporates all 11 systems in the body, muscular digestive endocrine, so it's really a full body treatment, when you receive reflexology. And to incorporate that into massage treatment gives your body a full benefit in ways that just massage or just reflexology might not so the thing that I love is when I'm working on people, sometimes I'll start with the feet. And the feet really do tell stories about where I need to go in the body. And then the person's like, Well, how did you know that and I'm like, well, your feet told me. So, it's really quite an art when you start combining these different things together. And if you can find a great therapist, or maybe several therapists, then it can really be beneficial as an overall all body full body treatment body, mind, and soul.

Deb Timmerman  13:35

I absolutely love getting reflexology on my feet. I like it better than massage. It's just different. But you can tell which body systems are hollering at you sometimes more so than you can with massage because those points are tender on your feet as the therapist massages. And it's just amazing how light you feel and how they're only working on one part of your body, and you have this overall body experience.

Barb Fletcher  14:06

My favorite as well.

Deb Timmerman  14:09

So, Michelle, does massage work for everyone. Is it something that everyone can do? You mentioned from babies till older people. So how does that work?

Michele Arsenault  14:20

Massage Therapy works for everyone. There are some contraindications. And by that word, I mean there are some conditions that would not be massage would not be indicated for if you had obviously an open wound or an abrasion or injuries and that sort of thing. Sometimes heart conditions. So it's not that massage couldn't be used on that person but the treatment plan would be modified and you may have to check with your medical doctor to see if they recommend massage for your condition or whatever you're coming In for sometimes, if you might have an injury or a fracture, for example, there may be other compensating structures in the body that needs to be released because the rest of the body is working harder to maintain balance, and your body always wants to find a balanced posture. So, if you have an injury for an example, other parts of the body, like the other opposite side of where the injury is, might be working harder on that part of the body might get tighter as it tries to keep your posture balanced. So that's an example where something it's not that massage wouldn't be indicated. But the treatment would be modified according to that or pregnancy or different things. So, massage can always be used. But sometimes you may have to check with your doctor first to get the go ahead and okay for that.

Deb Timmerman  15:59

Thank you so much for joining us today. Sorry about the techie issues on the front end. Zoom is down by us, so we had to kind of punt here. So anyway, just in closing, massage therapy, it's one of the most effective and widely use complementary therapies. And I think the really nice thing about it is that it's usually the price points aren't too terrible, but they do vary by region and type of therapist and what kind of modality you're going to do. So, if you're looking to find a licensed therapist in your area, you can check the American or Canadian Massage Therapy Association. They both have websites. Ask your family and friends for their favorite practitioner. That's usually how I find mine. Or I have noticed that a lot of times on the local Facebook feeds like in the neighborhood chatters, there's the question posted of "who's your favorite massage therapist.” So that's a good place to find them. Of course, we'll put the connection points to Michelle, if you happen to be in New Brunswick, in the show notes so that you can connect with her. Here's a quote we'd like to close with and it's by John Ruskin, he said, "we think or what we know or what we believe, is in the end of little consequence, the only thing of consequence is what we do. We urge you to take one small step this week towards reducing the stress in your life and increasing your wellbeing, whether that's taking some of our tips from our previous podcasts or booking a massage with your favorite therapist. Until next time,