Got Your 6
Massage Therapy
Got Your 6
Massage Therapy
About Registered Massage Therapy and Beyond
About Registered Massage Therapy and Beyond
The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind
~Paracelsus
A Bit About the Modalities Offered
A Bit About the Modalities Offered
Our health, bodies and lifestyles are multi-facetted and so must be our health care. We provide such care drawing upon multiple wholistic and integrative disciplines to fully customise your health care experience and maximise your growth in health physically, mentally and emotionally.
Massage Therapy
Massage Therapy
Massage Therapy is the manual manipulation of soft tissues including muscles, fascia, connective tissues, tendons, and ligaments to optimize and restore function and overall health. Registered Massage Therapists (RMTs) use a variety of techniques such as myofascial release, trigger point therapy, hydrotherapy and therapeutic exercise to name a few of many. Massage therapy is well suited to a variety of situations. Patients often seek massage therapy to help manage chronic pain, injuries, surgeries, pre/postpartum care, back and neck pain, stiffness and reduced range of motion, stress relief, disease and illness care as well as part of a preventative wellness plan. It provides benefits and optimal health for folks of all ages from infants to the last stages of life.
Many people also choose to see an RMT because of the calming, relaxing benefits of massage and to help manage stress. Also, massage therapy can improve mental health by work with the body’s nervous system. In addition to aiding the healing process of the physical structures in the body, massage therapy will almost always have a positive effect on mental health. This is achieved by reducing the activity of the sympathetic nervous pathways while increasing the firing of parasympathetic nervous activity. This effect alone has a substantial cascading influence over hormones, blood pressure and heart rate, thus attributing relief to chronic stress, anxiety, and even depression.
Cupping
This ancient treatment can be thought of as the inverse of massage. Instead of applying pressure to muscles, suction pulls skin, tissue, and muscles upward. This relieves pain while also removing metabolic waste (often referred to as "toxins") from your body. Originating in China, the art of cupping is great at helping stimulate the flow of fresh blood and Qi (life force) to specific areas of the body. Cupping is a form of myofascial release using suction to soften and release adhesions, restructure the fascia, release toxin buildup in the tissues, and reestablishes the natural space between structures for more effective movement and circulation. There are 2 types of cups that are used, silicone or glass. Here at Got Your 6 silicone are the type used. The cup is placed upside down on the desired area of the body. Once in place, the cup creates a vacuum effect within it which causes skin to rise and redden as blood vessels expand. This type of cup can also be used with massage oil, which allows the cups to be moved around a patient’s body while gently stretching the underlying tissue in a passive manner. Joint mobilizations may also be combined with silicone cupping to help increase your range of motion in a specific area. A number of different pressure levels can be used in silicone cupping too, including levels that are almost completely painless and levels that don’t result in red circles. These circular "bruises" are common after receiving stationary cupping therapy; the suction from the treatment brings blood to the surface of the skin causing the colouration and is not as a result of tissue damage as is the case with a bruise. As such, these circles fade quickly and rarely result in pain. The treatment increases the flow of nutrient-rich blood into a specific area of the body which also greatly aids in recovering from injuries faster.
Herbal Medicine
Herbal Medicine
Why consider herbal medicine as part of your health care? Didn't the use of plants as medicine dissolve into obscurity in the Dark Ages and are considered as folk remedies and old wives' tales? The short answer is an unequivocal no. The plant kingdom is a storehouse of active chemical compounds with over 40% of prescription drugs used containing at least one ingredient derived from nature. As an example, the many cardiac glycosides from Foxglove (Digitalis), commonly found in flower gardens, are used for the management of several phases of heart disease. An important drug in chemotherapy for certain forms of ovarian and breast cancer is derived through a semi-synthetic process from the English Yew (Taxus baccata) reaching sales of 1 billion per year. With all the advances of modern medicine there is still nothing to replace morphine, derived from the Opium Poppy, as a pain reliever for major trauma. The only potential replacement on the horizon is derived from a tropical frog.
The fact is, herbs are a very important and integral part of modern medicine and herbal medicine in their whole form, rather than a single chemical derived from them, have come to play an important role in healthcare both for the consumer as well as in scientific interest with many controlled clinical trials, the gold standard of scientific evidence. Many are showing the efficacy of a herbal remedies are the same as their prescription drug counterpart yet are as safe or safer and are less expensive.
Reiki
Reiki
Reiki is an ancient form of energy healing dating far before any written history. Its origin is also unknown with some evidence pointing to India and Tibet with the traditional practice used mostly today descending from Japan. True health means so much more than just healing the body, as the mind, emotions and energy flow must also be restored. Healing practices left to focus only on the physical proves to be short lived with the body falling back into a state of disease or dis-ease unless the mind and emotions are also healed; only then can health remain constant. Reiki is a form of healing which affects all systems and creates balance and homeostasis. The energy body extends beyond the physical body and it is there that the practitioner will work with their hands becoming a channel of the universal healing energy to flow through to the recipient. The results and benefits will be experienced on all levels physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Essential Oils
Essential Oils
Essential oils are derived from plants and hold intense healing properties. I always describe my work with these oils in massage as being completely therapeutic in that while they may smell pleasant, that is not the purpose of them in this setting. My work with essential oils is not "aromatherapy" but, like herbal medicine, they hold very specific healing purposes. An example is the use of marjoram to ease muscle spasm or basil to aid in neural regeneration.
Those with scent sensitivities who get headaches from smells, even the most severe of sensitivities, have reported no ill effects from the truly pure essential oils. Walking through a field of flowers wont trigger headaches yet perfumes, deodorants or soaps of those same scents can give headaches almost instantly. People are affected by the synthetic imitation of the smell or other chemicals in the blend. Many essential oil brands claiming purity and therapeutic use contain synthetics due to the industry not being regulated and therefore trigger reactions. In my own extensive research, I have found only three manufacturers to be truly pure, so please use extreme caution when attempting to use essential oils on your own. For those who do have these sensitivities, you may ask yourself, if someone is peeling an orange in the same room as you, do you hold your nose and run from the room? If you're chopping up fresh basil for dinner or picking peppermint from the garden does it trigger a headache? Are these off- limits activities? If you answer "no", then the essential oils I use will be safe for you.
How about allergies then, you may ask? If you're allergic to lavender does this mean you cannot use the essential oil from lavender? Simply put, allergies are from proteins and/or polypeptide nitrogenous molecules which are typically 100 to 1000 times larger than essential oil molecules in both size and weight. An allergy occurs when an antigen (something from the outside world) enters our bodies and our body over reacts thinking it is a threat and attacks it with antibodies from our immune system. The antibody binds to the antigen to expel it from their body. In order for this to happen it must be able to form a protein. Essential oils are too small and have no proteins for an antibody to attach too. Occasionally, someone may have a placebo effect based on the mind correlating the smell of a plant to a reaction as added protective measures. Someone who is very allergic to lavender has trained their sense of smell to alert them should they come in contact with it. The body has a placebo effect reaction based simply on the mind telling their body they should react. Our limbic system has such a huge pull on our lives and the power of our minds will out-rank the power of our physical body. Folks can get so worked up that they can react even though, scientifically, the way allergens work, they would not react if they could control their mind and override this instinct.
The use of essential oils may be included in the regular massage treatment, should you choose, at no extra charge due to their value to our health.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what
lies within us
~ Henry S. Haskins