“The healing power of massage therapy is a gift from God; massage therapists bring peace and well-being to the body, mind and spirit of their patients.”
Throughout antiquity humans have used the art of touch to heal, console and love one another. Couples were, and are still, showing each other their feelings by using touch. An infant first feels the gentle and reassuring stroking from it’s mother’s touch, thus guiding the child into a healthy adulthood.
The first written records on massage therapy were found as far back as 2700BC and it was considered a sacred method of natural healing. At that time massage therapy was administered only by the equivalent of our modern day doctors. Through the years many improvements to the techniques were made, specifically to reduce knots, loosen tight muscles and relieve pain through rubbing.
The art of massage therapy was passed down from generation to generation. Some therapists are believed to be blessed and gifted by God with what is known as “healing hands”. This is why people of old thought that the treatment was magic, what with patients recovering well from various ailments.
By the late 1800s, massage therapy was adopted in Canada and the USA. Deep tissue massage was used for decades in both countries before solid guidelines and procedures were established in the mid 1900s.
The first known deep tissue massage clinic in the USA was opened in 1949 by a Canadian doctor named Therese Phimmer. Her book “Muscles – Your Invisible Bonds”, in wide use now, served as the first formal guide for Deep Tissue Massage Therapists in the West.
Source: Wikipedia – History of Massage.