....Basically, it is any form of healthy touch by your hand, a machine or a massage tool. But in its broader sense it is an educated and trained skill of touch, requiring certification and license to practice legally. It is a professional art among the arts, a divine method of health and healing. It is a God given gift, and natural remedy, a professionals profession, a form or modality of physical therapy, it coincides with chiropractic therapy or treatment, it is a scientific subject and practice based on systematized physiology, commonly called "Swedish Massage".

As humans we are all emotional, but massage is not chiefly about emotions, arousal, or having anything to do with sex, (though these benefits can be obtained correctly and morally). It is a tactful talent and a therapeutic trade, it is a valid, legal, certified form of therapy in the medical field, and it is among prescribed natural medicine.

But depending on the relationship between the giver and the receiver, massage could be seen, understood, and or approached differently. I say this because between a husband and a wife massage is a God given legal loving privilege to touch, between a mother and her child it is love and necessary affection, between pure family members it is a way to say "I care", between true noble friends, it is basic social sympathy in human relations, between a nurse and a patient it is an energy consuming task, between boyfriend and girlfriend or committed lovers it is "the wilderness of temptation", between acquainted people it is high risk and may be considered strange, and between strangers it can be totally out of place, outrageously off limits, a sin, and definitely illegal with penalties by law, between a pervert and a prostitute it is all about immoral cheap sex and money. But between a certified, licensed, professional, who is a serious, honest, trustworthy therapist, and a true sincere client seeking professional help, it is strictly a healthy business--a noble enjoyable job.

Massage Therapy is...

• A science that can stand alone in the medical field of natural medicine.
• A professionals profession that demands much gratitude and respect.
• An art that needs to be studied thoroughly and practiced extensively to be successful.
• A gift of God, requiring cultivation and investment between The Creator, the therapist, and the receiver's mind, body and spirit.
• A physical therapeutic talent, ministered with utmost care, divine compassion, and empathy to promote health and healing.
• A tactful trade that earns one a practical livelihood under certification, licenses and insurance.
• A natural medicine in the prescribed medical field.
• A very successful method of promoting perfect health which requires perfect circulation.
• A form of physical therapy, complimentary to chiropractic therapy, osteopathy, and other allied health professions.
• An emotional modality or form of health and healing that helps to improve the condition of your emotions.
• A good conversation through flesh--communicating feeling, refreshing sensation, and awe-inspiring newness.
• A thought through the physical body by touch, one gives, one receives, both respond, while the giver is touching emotions, the mind, the spirit as well as the flesh.

By Gregory Roger Gilbert
Certified Massage Therapist
Massage Educator
Master of Massage Therapy