What is 건마 massage therapy anyway? One thing we can say for sure is that it has become a fast growing profession. A couple of decades ago, you never even heard of massage therapy. But since then interest has grown tremendously. Even insurance companies understand and recognize the benefits of a skilled massage therapist.
The term massage therapy is used when talking about health and healing practices that involve touch and movement. It is a profession in which the therapist applies some manual techniques, and may apply at adjunctive therapies. These techniques when applied have the sole intention of trying to positively affect the health and well-being of the client.
So where did massage therapy come from?
The word massage is most likely to have emerged from the Greek word ‘Massein’, meaning ‘to knead’ or the Arabic word ‘mash’ meaning ‘to press softly’. Massage is really the oldest form of physical medicine known to man. It can be traced all the way back to the early Chinese medical manuscripts around 400BC. Hippocrates was known to advocate massage. And he was born in the fifth century and was also known as “the father of medicine”. It was used and written about in Roman times, with history recording Julius Caesar had received massage to help relieve neuralgia!
Massage therapy dates back thousands of years. Ancient writings of many cultures have referenced the term massage.
They included:
- ancient Greek
- ancient Rome
- China
- Japan
- Egypt
- Indian subcontinent
In the United States massage therapy became popular for a variety of health purposes in about that mid 1800’s. Around the 1930s and 1940s massage therapy fell out of favor. This was because of scientific and technological advances in medical treatments. Massage therapy interest was revived in the 1970s. Athletes were the one who mainly used this form of therapy back then.
There are over 80 types of massage therapy. Most of the time what happens is when people find a method or two that they like, they will usually stick with their practitioner who use this form of therapy. Then there are times when people find a particular massage therapist that makes them feel comfortable and that individual will remain a loyal customer to this particular massage therapist.
