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Whatever type of therapeutic body massage services you avail of from professional massage therapists, be it foot massage, back massage, Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, sports massage or reflexology massage, you should also make sure to ask your body massage therapists for the proper after care advice and instructions. Such after care will enhance the benefits of the therapeutic body massage services you enjoyed at the professional therapeutic body massage facility in Charlotte NC.

Psychotherapist and massage therapist Su Fox of the Massage Training Institute highlights the importance of prior consultation and after care to each holistic massage therapy session.

According to Fox, the relationship of trust and confidence between the therapist and client is established during the consultation prior to the massage session. The therapist should elicit all the discomforts and illnesses of the client as well as his expectations from the session. The therapist should then explain to the client what will transpire and the expected effects. The actual massage therapy session then cements the relationship between the therapist and client.

After the session, Fox adds that after care advice rounds off the relationship between the therapist and the client. The therapist has to teach the client how to translate the stretches and movements of the massage therapy into exercises that the client can continue to do at home in between massage sessions. The therapist should also correct any bad habits the client has in terms of posture and body movement.

The most dedicated massage therapists at professional therapeutic body massage clinics that offer foot massage, back massage, Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, sports massage and reflexology massage also offer advice on proper massage after care to every client. When you have found such a committed therapeutic body massage facility, you can return the favor by availing of their massage services gift cards to give to your family and closest friends in Charlotte NC.

Article by Massage Envy – Arboretum

How convenient and luxurious is it to be able to get a full body massage therapy session in a shopping center? Well, you can indeed get a relaxing and therapeutic massage at the Arboretum Shopping Center in Charlotte NC. Just how lucky can you be?

The Arboretum Shopping Center has more than 90 specialty stores, shops and dining establishments. Located among these is a body massage spa where you can get Swedish massage therapy, deep tissue massage therapy and sports massage therapy. If you happen to be pregnant, they have pregnancy massage therapy, as well. You can finish a day of shopping with your choice of therapeutic massage right there in the middle of all the action in Charlotte NC.

While the Arboretum Shopping Center is located at Providence Road and Highway 51 in Charlotte, it is named after the North Carolina Arboretum which is actually located at 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way in Asheville, inside the Pisqah National Forest’s Bent Creek Experimental Forest.

An arboretum is a facility where a large variety of trees, shrubs and other woody plants are cultivated and exhibited for scientific, educational and ornamental purposes. The North Carolina Arboretum is also a botanical garden, though, and goes beyond trees, shrubs and woody plants to include all other plant varieties, as well.

Historically, in 1898, the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted wanted to build an arboretum at the Biltmore Estate – a chateau-style mansion also in Asheville. Olmstead was hired by the Estate owner, George Washington Vanderbilt II, to design its grounds. Olmsted’s arboretum was not to be, though.

In 1986, the Arboretum was established as a facility of the University of North Carolina. In 1989, it was officially named as the North Carolina Arboretum.

Although still undergoing continuous development even as it is already open to the public, the 434 acre facility has 65 acres of cultivated gardens, among these the Quilt Garden, Heritage Garden, Stream Garden, Canopy Walk, Plants of Promise Garden, Cliff & Betty Dickinson Holly Garden, National Native Azalea Collection and Plant Professional Landscape Garden.

There are more than 10 miles of hiking and biking trails for visitors to enjoy, ranging from easy to moderate and difficult.

The collection of trees includes 59 year old Metasequoias planted in 1950. Measuring over 100 feet or 30 meters tall, these trees are reportedly the tallest Metasequoias in the south.

The North Carolina Arboretum also takes pride in its bonsai collection. Bonsai is the Japanese art of growing trees in pots and keeping them dwarfed by the careful pruning of roots and stems which also creates aesthetic shapes that give the illusion of great age.

A huge donation of bonsai plants from Mr. and Mrs. George Staples in 1992 started the Arboretum’s collection which now numbers about a hundred on display, with more then a hundred others in development stages. The collection has Asian trees including the Japanese maple and Chinese elm, tropical plants including the willow leaf fig, and American tress including the limber pine and bald cypress.

Indeed, a visit to the North Carolina Arboretum is enriching, refreshing and calming. It is quite appropriate for a shopping center named after the Arboretum to also provide a place for serene rest and relaxation amid the hustle and bustle of city life. So take a break from your shopping spree and fit in a body massage therapy session at the Arboretum Shopping Center at Charlotte NC. Spread the wellness spirit, too, by giving away massage gift cards to your shopping buddies from Charlotte NC. You could even set a group date to enjoy a massage all together after one of your exhausting shopping sessions.

Article by Massage Envy Arboretum

To live long, healthy and happy lives, we need to build good lifestyle habits. Jen Bondeson lists some of them in her article in the Summer 2009 online issue of Massage Envy Magazine. The magazine adds body massage therapy as an important habit to put on your list. People in Arboretum and Charlotte NC can easily do this.

Bondeson identifies five tasks that she believes you should include in your daily habits in order to achieve and mainatain your best health status for the long term.

Proper Diet

Bondeson advises eating the right kinds of food at the right time. This means not skipping breakfast and eating it at the start of your day. She considers this the most important meal of all since it provides you with instant energy while revving up your metabolism and enabling you to burn more calories.

All other meals should be properly monitored, as well, Bondeson says. She advises using the natural color of food as your guide. This is because food of various colors represents different vitamins and nutrients. Meals should, therefore, be colorful, with more colors meaning a wider mix of nutrients and vitamins.

Bondeson also cites the recommendation of the American Dietetic Association to choose more nutritious sweet potatoes over white potatoes and deep-green romaine lettuce over iceberg lettuce.

Proper Exercise

Bondeson refers to the findings of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that 70 percent of adults in the United States do not get active enough to reap health benefits. She quotes the American Heart Association spokesman, Richard A. Stein, M.D., saying, “Exercise is one of the best things you can do to live longer and better.” Stein explains that exercising vigorously for 30 to 40 minutes three to five days a week can increase and extend energy throughout one’s day, decrease weight, improve quality of sleep, lower the risk of heart attacks and depression, and raise self-esteem.

No Smoking

Once again, Bondeson refers to the findings of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that 440,000 premature deaths each year are caused by smoking. She also quotes Dr. Stein as saying, “The benefits of stopping smoking are extraordinary. Simply put, you’ll add years to your life.”

More Laughter

Laughter is not only the best medicine but is also the best preventive medicine, it seems. Bondeson recommends integrating more laughter into each day because it increases the flow of blood to the heart and the amount of oxugen in the blood while lowering blood pressure. She cites a study of cardiologists from the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore saying that “a strong sense of humor may even help protect you against a heart attack.”

Enough Sleep

Bondeson says the National Institutes of Health requirement for adults is an average of eight hours of sleep every night. She points out that this is also very critical to your health and recommends that you sleep early in order to have adequate rest.

Regular Massage

Massage Envy Magazine adds regular massage to the list because it not only relieves stress but also lowers blood pressure, increases circulation and reduces pain from a variety of conditions. If you are able to have daily massage sessions, you would be very fortunate indeed. A weekly or monthly schedule would also be very beneficial if this is more practical for you.

Therapeutic massage comes in various styles. You can avail of Swedish massage therapy, deep tissue massage therapy, sports massage therapy or pregnancy massage therapy from reputable body massage clinics. You may also purchase body massage gift cards from these massage clinics in Arboretum and Charlotte NC. Make it a regular part of your healthy lifestyle.

If you avail of therapeutic body massage services from professional massage therapists, it would be good to know of best practices in after care that you should expect from your therapist. These best practices are applicable for any therapeutic body massage services you avail of, including foot massage, back massage, Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, sports massage or reflexology massage. You might want to choose the services of body massage therapists in Charlotte NC who apply these best practices.

In her article titled “Aftercare or Afterthought? What Happens at the End of the Massage Session” at PositiveHealth.com, Su Fox writes of the kind of after care she gives her clients in her massage therapy practice. Su Fox is a psychotherapist and a massage and craniosacral therapist who is also a senior tutor and assessor at the Massage Training Institute. She is the author of the books “Practical Pathology for Massage” and “Relating to Clients: The Therapeutic Relationship for Complementary Therapists” and co-author of “Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology for Massage,” all from Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Fox believes that after care is a very important part of massage therapy and that a proper holistic massage session should be made up of consultation, massage treatment and after care.

The consultation before the massage treatment is when the massage therapist asks the client about his reasons for having a massage, his expectations from the massage session and any discomfort he has been experiencing in his body. All illnesses should be disclosed by the client at this point. The therapist, on the other hand, explains what will happen during the session and which of the clients’ expectations are likely to be met and which are not. It is at this point that the relationship between the therapist and the client is first established. That relationship is then cemented by the actual massage treatment, where the therapist earns the client’s full trust by the quality of the massage given. According to Fox, the relationship is then balanced off by after care.

Fox points out that holistic massage should take into consideration the needs of the individual “within the context of her whole life.” She, therefore, feels that the client should be able to take home something more than immediate relief for her discomforts from the massage therapy session.

Fox identifies after care as the method by which the therapist can teach the client how to integrate lessons from the massage session into her daily life so that its benefits become long term. She says the movements and stretches done by therapists on the client’s body can be translated into movements taught to the client to be done regularly at home. If bad habits in terms of posture and movement are observed or elicited during the consultation period, these can be pointed out by the therapist. The client can then be taught how to move correctly and hold his body correctly in different situations. Of course, Fox says, the client’s health, lifestyle and skill level should always be taken into consideration for all recommendations given by the therapist.

Fox further reminds therapists that they should be observant of signs in the client’s body that may warrant referral to other specialists. She cites an example of a mole on one of her regular clients’ back which she observed to be growing in size. She advised him to have it checked by a doctor.

If the massage therapists in your favorite massage clinic apply the aforementioned best practices in after care when you go for foot massage, back massage, Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, sports massage or reflexology massage, you might want to show them your appreciation by purchasing body massage gift cards to give as presents to your family and friends in Charlotte NC.

Cancer is often a very painful disease. In its advanced stages, it is usually incurable. Care for patients with advanced cancer therefore focuses mainly on pain relief and providing the best quality of life possible under the circumstances. Therapeutic body massage services have been proven to be of great benefit for the alleviation of pain and other discomforts of patients with advanced cancer. There are massage therapists from professional massage clinics that specialize in this specific therapeutic body massage which may include foot massage and back massage. This could be from the same massage clinics that also offer therapeutic reflexology, deep tissue massage, sports massage and Swedish massage in Charlotte NC.

When patients with advanced cancer experience great pain coupled with loss of hope for any cure, they are very often thrust into deep depression and anxiety. Members of the family, close friends and caregivers are, therefore, concerned not only with the alleviation of these patients’ physical pain but also with the elevation of their moods and emotions. Fortunately, research results show that therapeutic body massage services can indeed decrease the pain felt by advanced cancer patients while at the same time having a positive impact on their mood. Even if these effects are only temporary, such short periods of comfort are of immense value in their condition.

The September 16, 2008 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine published the study entitled “Massage Therapy versus Simple Touch to Improve Pain and Mood in Patients with Advanced Cancer: A Randomized Trial”.

The study was participated in by 380 adult patients in advanced stages of cancer. They had all been suffering from pain at levels rated as moderate and higher.

The participants were randomly assigned to either a massage therapy group or a simple touch group. The massage therapy group was given six voluntary sessions of 30 minute therapeutic body massage services with unscented massage cream by trained massage therapists in a span of two weeks. During the same time period, the simple touch group was given six voluntary sessions of 30 minutes each when untrained personnel would place both hands on each of 10 specified body areas for three minutes. Unscented massage cream was also used.

Assessments were performed on the patients before the two week treatment period, right after the two week treatment period, and every week thereafter for the succeeding three weeks. Patients in the massage therapy group were found to have experienced better pain relief and had more elevated moods as compared to patients in the simple touch group. The effects of the therapeutic body massage services were only short term, though.

Licensed massage therapist Tracy Walton has treated a lot of patients in advanced stages of cancer. According to her, these patients value therapeutic body massage services despite the short term benefits because it gives them respite from suffering. According to Walton, “My clients tell me that they don’t just fight cancer: they endure, yield, pray, grieve and persevere. Cancer requires people to spend time in confusion, terror, and mystery.” While undergoing therapeutic body massage services, these patients allow others to help them relax and recharge.

All therapeutic body massage services given by professionally trained massage therapists from reputable massage clinics are beneficial to the health, including therapeutic foot massage services, back massage services, reflexology massage services, deep tissue massage services, sports massage services and Swedish massage services. For patients in advanced stages of cancer, however, the most appropriate and beneficial therapeutic body massage services would be from licensed massage therapists who had been specifically trained in therapeutic oncology body massage. These massage therapists will know how to properly customize each session according to the particular needs of patients with advanced cancer. If you have a family member or friend who has need for such therapeutic oncology body massage services, you could perhaps give him or her gift cards to a professional massage clinic in Charlotte NC to show your concern.