Background and History
(Margarida Sardo, Byodo-in temple, flickr. CC: BY-NC-SA 2.0.)
Massage therapy is an ancient modality, having been used for over 5000 years. In the earliest available texts, massage is mentioned. The cultures of Japan, China, India, Greece, and Rome all used massage. Hippocrates emphasized the value of massage in medicine, viewing massage as a primary healing approach.
In the 1850s Swedish massage was brought to the United States by physicians who had studied there. It became popular for a variety of health concerns. In the 1930s and 1940s, however, massage was not supported widely by the medical community and use declined. In the 1960s and 1970s, massage and other forms of bodywork became increasingly popular and have remained so over the following decades. Professional associations formed in the '70s and '80s, and in the '90s, the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodyworkers was formed to develop national standards and to create a certifying exam.
Massage is now used frequently for many health concerns, from basic relaxation and stress reduction to treatment of specific musculoskeletal injuries to chronic pain. Massage use ranges all ages from premature infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting to elderly patients in hospice care and is performed in a variety of settings.