Snappy massage therapists used to make fun of “skin massage”, using it as a stand-in for a massage of no connection, a mere application of oil, an unmemorable massage of no consequence.
But hey, snappy aside, there is a really awesome aspect to skin massage worth thinking about – and doing.
Here we are dealing not with lilting pressure, but often no pressure, and a term perhaps last heard on whaling ships: furling.
Furling, really? Yeppers-peppers.
Sometimes a pain complaint from a client is the ghost of the past. An imprint still there long after the trauma is gone. If lucky, the massage therapist may feel it in the easiest structure to touch and modify, the skin.
Once in a while I find one of these morphed patches of skin, right at the beginning of a massage when I am scanning and feeling the area of complaint. It might be over a stuck infraspinatus, a wedged down trapezius, or a plastered temporalis.
When I find these spots, I gently- heed that word – gently try to pick up the skin between thumb and forefinger, skin only, and see if the pain disperses. Sometimes the planets align, and the pain goes whoosh! The client may think it was magic (not a bad way thought when it comes time to re-book) and it certainly can seem that way. Of course it is not, just another expression of starting at the beginning and checking layer by layer of the structures involved in a pattern of pain or tension.
If the skin won’t open to lifting touch, it is time to go on to gentle rocking, range of motion, itsy-bitsy circles, anything to remind the skin that it is supposed to move moderately independent of the structures below. Sometimes that is the key, and the skin releases.
If it does not let go, it puts the massage therapist on the ship deck with the whaling sailors. We probably all furl, but perhaps don’t call it that because we drop words unique to the 19th century. But I like antiques, and this antique tells the story best. To furl, we pick up all of the portion of a sail, bunch it up and smooth our bunch before we seek to add more.
Massage furling is picking up a bit of skin, with a bit of adipose, and possibly a bit of connective tissue and muscle, and gently rolling it to smooth and open the adhesions.
Reminder time, this is a gentle technique. One of my buddies did this as a pinch, a locking pliers kind of pinch, which made me levitate, and wouldn’t let go until I came back down to the table. Fun amongst therapist friends, but zooming across the pain threshold will lose you most clients. Gentle takes the day.
It’s a cool way to begin a massage with first relieving the pain, then following with a Swedish or mixed technique massage to address the entire body.
Well, call me Ishmael. Skin massage has some purpose too!
Joyful, Useful Skin Massage
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