PAMT Therapeutic vs. Industry Therapeutic

Hello and welcome to our very first blog. In our blog, we hope to demystify common questions we often get from our clients and community. We thought a good way to start would be to explain the differences between a therapeutic massage at PAMT and a standard therapeutic massage found elsewhere. 

Let’s start off with the word therapeutic – it holds many meanings.  Some of the more commonly used definitions and synonyms are:

1. Relating to the healing of disease.
   • Having a good effect on the body or mind; contributing to a sense of well-being.
2. The branch of medicine concerned with the treatment of disease
3. A treatment, therapy, or drug

Synonyms: healing, medicinal, restorative, health-giving, corrective, beneficial


 
Given these definitions, most massage is therapeutic in nature.  Often times the term therapeutic is used to make a session’s benefits more clear.  Some common effects of Therapeutic Swedish massage for example are reduced stress, increased circulation, greater access to the parasympathetic nervous system and a greater sense of general wellbeing.  These sessions also tend to be client directed and ‘feel good’ oriented - a day to day approach. 
 
While the effects above are also usually present at a location such as PAMT, our main focus is gaining a more stable and direct solution to pain.  We aim for partial or whole healing of many conditions as well as steady improvement of chronic and acute pain.  Our process starts with a rigorous education for our therapists in order to enable them to foster a space that will create long lasting effects for their clients. The end goal is to create effective treatment plans that get down to the root causes of pain – a prolonged approach.
                                            
Both of these therapeutically based approaches have value and benefit and comparing the two is almost like comparing apples to oranges.  Since both have therapeutic benefit how do you know which one will work the best for you?  Our advice?  Try out both and don’t be afraid to speak frankly with your massage therapists about your goals.  We are all here to help you reach whatever goals you may have so dream big and always stay Active for Life!