If you’re an active person, chances are you’ve had an accident, and your body could benefit from therapeutic massage.
Therapeutic massage may relieve pain through several mechanisms, including relaxing painful muscles, tendons, and joints, reducing stress and anxiety, and possibly helping to “close the pain gate” by stimulating competing nerve fibers and impeding pain messages to and from the brain.
Following an accident, or surgery your doctor may prescribe massage as part of your treatment plan. Massage can address the stress that goes with a traumatic event like an accident or surgery. It can help address many sprains, strains, impact injuries, and other injuries common in an accident.
Typically, the goals of massage therapy in injury recovery are to:
- reduce stress
- reduce pain and swelling
- improve circulation
- improve range of motion
- increase foot and hip stability
Immediately after an accident, massage therapy can help you recover by helping to restore balance to your autonomic nervous system – i.e., the relaxation benefits of massage can help reverse the effects that the shock and trauma of an accident can have on your nervous system. Massage also promotes the circulation of both blood and lymph, which can help manage the swelling (edema) that usually comes with accident injuries. During the sub-acute stage (a few days to a few weeks, or even longer, after the accident), massage can help maintain and improve range of motion and may help prevent the formation of scar tissue and other myofascial adhesions. Karen works with orthopedic type injuries and can address specific musculoskeletal injuries like whiplash, neck pain, back pain, headaches, shoulder sprains/strains, etc.
Karen Larson, LMT is a Myofascial detangler extraordinaire! She has developed her own highly effective technique over her 18-year career. In addition to the usual issues bodywork addresses, she specializes in impact injuries such as bike crashes, falling off horses, tires falling on feet, joint sprains, pre/post-surgery soft tissue work, face, jaw issues, and more!