Registered Massage Therapy

Registered Massage Therapy (RMT) services are available at Pure Form Physio. Massage Therapy is a form of treatment whereby the clinician uses their hands to resolve or manage muscle and joint pain and postural problems. It can help increase flexibility, and reduce muscle tightness. Whether you are looking for stress relief, help for a new injury (e.g. low back pain), or a nagging chronic problem (e.g. a stiff and sore neck), massage therapy can be of assistance. Massage therapy is patient-centred, natural, and non-invasive.

A massage therapist may be the only practitioner you see, or they may work in tandem with other practitioners (e.g. physiotherapist, medical doctor) to assist you. Patients seek out massage therapy for the relief of pain and dysfunction brought on by:

sustained postures and positions, such as spending too much time on the computer
inflexibility and tightness that lead to symptoms of muscle pain
sports injuries
injury or chronic conditions such as arthritis
nerve irritation such as sciatica or carpal tunnel syndrome
the pain of whiplash from a motor vehicle accident

If you have been injured in an accident and ICBC has allowed you to receive treatment, you can usually receive 12 visits with a Registered Massage Therapist. If you choose to do this, you can still receive your ICBC- covered physiotherapy visits. The goal is to assist you to a full recovery, and physiotherapy and massage therapy combined (on separate days) has worked for many people on their road to feeling better.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What does a Massage Therapist treat?

Plantar Fasciitis: Arch pain (plantar fasciitis) is due to inflammation in the soft tissues in the bottom of the foot. Your RMT will work on the calf and foot muscles to relax tension here and take the strain off the arch muscles. Combined with physiotherapy for shockwave therapy and strengthening exercises, you should find a resolution of your pain soon.

Knee Osteoarthritis (Knee OA): Of six studies that evaluated massage therapy for osteoarthritis of the knee (408 total participants), five found that it provided short-term pain relief. Your RMT will work on the tight thigh and calf muscles to take tension off of the inflamed knee and may give you some advice on exercises to strengthen the area.

Runners Knee (Patello-femoral pain): This condition, which is pain around the knee cap, is due to running too far, too fast and too often. This leads to fatigue and tightness in the thigh muscles that attach to the knee. Your RMT will help to relax those muscles and take tension off the knee cap.

Rotator Cuff pain: This is pain on the outer shoulder. It can be due to throwing a lot (e.g. baseball), mistakes in swimming or weight lifting technique, or simply part of the fun of getting a bit older. Your RMT will likely find trigger points in your shoulder muscles that you didn’t even know were there. Deep pressure to these points will help take tension off of the inflamed rotator cuff muscles and neck and restore your shoulder to pain free, or less painful, motion.

Low back pain: Lower back pain is the most common condition see by RMT’s. Our lower back muscles become tight from many causes, including sitting too long through the day, weight gain, mistakes in lifting at home or at the gym, pregnancy, car accidents, and the natural processes of aging. By relaxing the muscles around you lower back and hips, and giving advice on how to keep them more supple, your massage therapist will work with you to help you get relief.

Neck pain and shoulder pain: Research studies done in 2013 and 2016 showed that massage therapy can reduce neck pain in patients. By relaxing the muscles around the upper back, back of the neck, front of the shoulders, you will find relief with massage. Often meditation and easy strengthening exercises help too.

Headache: There are many reasons for headaches occur, but the most common is a tension type headache. The muscles of the jaw, head and neck can conspire to create tension in the muscles of the scalp. This leads to pain. By helping to relax these head and shoulder muscles, your headache will likely improve.

Sciatica: Whether your sciatica is due to a low back injury or degeneration or to pressure from the buttock muscles (such as the piriformis muscle), relaxing these areas with massage can help.

Carpal Tunnel syndrome: This problem, tinging and numbness in the hand(s), is due to compression on the median nerve at the palm side of the wrist. By easing tension in the forearm muscles and neck, that nerve can be decompressed and the pain and tingling can reduce.

Why should I see a RMT and not a masseuse or “body worker” for my injury?

RMTs are covered by insurance, regulated and certified by government agencies, and trained as medical professionals. You can trust them to care for you properly and treat you with respect. A non-registered masseuse offers no such protections or guarantees of having any skills relevant to your condition, although may be fine for relaxation at a spa.

What are the benefits of massage therapy?

According to the respected Mayo Clinic, the benefits of massage
– Reducing stress and increasing relaxation.
– Reducing pain and muscle soreness and tension.
– Improving circulation, energy and alertness.
– Lowering heart rate and blood pressure.
– Improving immune function.

Which Massage Styles Are Best?

Many different terms get used in discussing massage therapy, and there are different styles of massage. To complicate things more, there are many different health care providers that perform different types of massage. It would be unlikely that any one massage therapist would treat in all the different styles. Swedish massage and Thai massage are about as different as Sweden is from Thailand!

How can you tell whether a certain style will actually help you?
To help you decide what style of massage therapy is best for you, you should ask yourself a question. Do you simply want a massage for relaxation and stress control? Or do you need symptom relief or help with a certain health condition? Your massage therapist at Pure Form will customize your massage, depending on your age, condition, or any special needs or goals you have.

Here are some links to help you to learn more about massage therapy: