Massage Therapies

What is Massage Therapy?

The Mersea Road Clinic in Colchester has a team of highly qualified Massage Therapists who offer a wide range of approaches, depending on what your body requires.

You can attend the Clinic for Massage Treatment alone without seeing an Osteopath, but if you are currently seeing an Osteopath they may recommend you to a Massage Therapist to aid your recovery.

The Mersea Road Clinic offers massages of 30, 45 and 60 minutes so that your session can be tailored to address your needs appropriately. A typical full-body massage session lasts for about one hour, although shorter sessions for treating specific areas are available.

On the first visit patients are asked a number of questions concerning general well-being, injuries and medical conditions that the Therapist should know about, in order to determine if there are any contra-indications (physical conditions that would prohibit or limit a massage treatment). As western massage therapies are performed directly on the skin, clothing is usually removed for a full-body massage, although underwear is worn. Towels cover areas not being massaged and help to keep the body warm.

Mersea Road Clinic
Mersea Road Clinic

Who can have a Massage?

  • Sports men or women
  • Someone suffering with aches or pain
  • Anyone suffering with headaches or migraines
  • Anyone with limited range of motion
  • Someone with limited or poor sleep
  • Anyone feeling stressed or anxious
  • Someone who is in need of "me time"

Types of Massage Treatments

The Mersea Road Clinic offers the following massage approaches: –

Sports Massage is the technique of kneading and manipulating soft tissue in order to help prevent sports injuries, treat injuries already incurred and improve performance. As participation in sports becomes more popular at all ages and performances improve from year to year, more is demanded of the athlete. Regular Sports Massage is part of the training programme of all top sports people. The prime purpose of Sports Massage therapy is to help alleviate the stress and tension which builds up in the body’s soft tissues during physical activity. Where minor injuries and lesions occur, due to overexertion and/or overuse, massage can break them down quickly and effectively. Above all, it can help prevent those niggling injuries that so often get in the way of performance and achievement, whether one is an athlete, ardent keep-fitter or a once a week jogger.

Anyone can benefit from Sports Massage, including people in physically demanding jobs and those not quite so obvious (occupational, emotional and postural stress may produce many similar characteristics to sports injuries). Sports Massage tends to be deeper and more intense than other massage approaches. It is based on the various elements of Swedish Massage and often incorporates a combination of other techniques involving stretching, compression and friction, toning and trigger point response techniques similar to Acupressure and Shiatsu. The skilled therapist brings together a blend of techniques and knowledge during the treatment, to bring about optimum performance and provide injury-free training by minimising post event injuries.  

There are three areas where Sports Massage is used to benefit athletes:

Maintenance Massage
A regular massage treatment programme concentrating on particular muscle groups can help the athlete maintain or improve range of motion and muscle flexibility.

Event Massage
Pre-event treatment is used as a supplement to an athlete’s warm-up to enhance circulation and reduce excess muscle and mental tension prior to competition. Post-event massage is geared towards reducing the muscle spasms and metabolic build-up that occur with rigorous exercise.

Rehabilitation
Even with preventative maintenance, muscles cramp, tear, bruise and ache. Sports Massage can speed healing and reduce discomfort during the rehabilitation process.

Deep Tissue Massage is a technique that focuses on the deeper layers of muscle tissue. It aims to release the chronic patterns of tension in the body through slow strokes and deep finger pressure on the contracted areas. It helps to break up and eliminate scar tissue. Deep Tissue Massage usually focuses on more specific areas and may cause some soreness during or right after the massage, but if it’s done right the patient should feel better than ever within a day or two.

Swedish Massage can be defined as the systematic and manual manipulation of the body’s soft tissue (i.e. the skin, muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia) for therapeutic purposes promoting health and well-being.

Our Massage therapists utilise Swedish Massage as the foundation for a therapeutic treatment and blend in various techniques, depending upon your body, to address your specific needs.

Swedish Massage is a gentle, flowing technique which uses varying degrees of pressure and stretching movements onto the body’s soft tissues. It is most commonly used for relaxation and improving well-being.

Thai massage dates back to the 14th century, the techniques are taught by sacred word with no written information and is passed on through family generations. Everyone taught by Ytsara received sacred training delivered by one of the elders.

Thai massage is deep & effective, it works using the principles of traditional eastern medicine, through elements of western influence are done to benefit the client further. These massages will encourage blood flow, stretch muscles, ease joints & relieves stiff and sore muscles.

Treatments start with a cleansing foot ritual to calm the mind, points on the feet are stimulate to awaken the nervous system and encourage the bodies healing process.

A Thai massage is done over the towel to mimic how the Thai monks would massage the royals as they believed their skin was sacred. This technique is used to stretch the muscles.

Traditional Thai massage using oils enriched with healing & stimulating herbs are applied to the skin and deep massage is performed to relieve muscle tension & stimulate circulation.

A warm poultice is applied to the body to warm muscles. The warmed medicinal herbs inside the poultice are the perfect remedy for sore over worked muscles.

Tok Sen – a traditional method only used by Ytsara practitioners, ‘Tok’ means strike whilst ‘Sen’ refers to the meridian lines of the body.

This treatment is a therapeutic vibrational therapy which works deep into the muscle for instant tension release.