A special edition of AMTA's popular e-zine sent to you by your local AMTA member designed to present you with information on the benefits of massage.
A Message From Your Massage Therapist
Touch is a vital element in our society. It is one of the first senses we experience as infants, with the doctor’s hands guiding us into the world and gently placing us in our mother’s loving arms. Throughout the years, the Touch Research Institutes in Miami has been at the forefront of researching massage, especially its effects on children. But other countries also have been researching massage with children, namely Sweden. At the Stockholm-based Axelsons Gymnastika Institute, preschool teachers have been enrolling in a “children and massage” course and putting the course into practice in their classrooms. The effects of massage have been positive with the children, as you will discover in the article “Preschool Children In Sweden Experience Benefits Of Massage.”
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In This Issue
- Preschool Children In Sweden Experience Benefits Of Massage by Rolf Elmström
- Did You Know?
- Massage Therapy: Q & A
- Ease Into Fall With A Massage
- Table Tips
PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN SWEDEN EXPERIENCE BENEFITS OF MASSAGE
By Rolf Elmström
In our modern society, stress has become a serious problem. The tempo of life has rapidly accelerated, and we notice that we are always short of time. Communication is done more and more using technology and machines. Our children’s natural play is being replaced by sitting in front of TVs and computers.
To counter this behavioral pattern in children, Axelsons Gymnastika Institute, which is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and is one of Scandinavia's largest and most prestigious therapeutic massage schools, studied the effects of massaging children, with favorable results.
While the Miami-based Touch Research Institutes (TRI) is carrying out a great deal of research on the importance of touch in the United States, in Sweden, Karolinska Institute Professor Kerstin Uvnäs-Moberg has shown that the level of the peace-and-calm hormone, oxytocin, increases with touch, and at the same time the stress hormone cortisol decreases.
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| At Axelsons, teachers are being taught how to massage their students. |
Together, Uvnäs-Moberg, Professor Annelise von Knorring from the Psychiatric Clinic for Children in Uppsala, and researchers from Axelsons Gymnastiska Institute have done a study on 150 children in preschool.
The study clearly shows that with massage:
- Levels of aggression, anxiety and stress are lower;
- Children function better in groups; and
- Psychosomatic illnesses are fewer.
After being in contact with researchers from TRI, the Swedish researchers realized the importance of touch and massage, especially to young children. Therefore, they started the project Massage at Preschool and School at the Axelsons Gymnastika Institute. They believed it was important to spread this knowledge, starting first with kindergarteners.
Axelsons organizes courses for people working with children. The purpose of these courses is to provide the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to introduce massage in schools. The courses include elementary massage, how to massage, the strokes used, where and when not to massage, and how often you can massage. Students learn how to give a whole body massage, give a massage sitting on a chair, massage children, teach children to massage one another, and learn how to integrate massage into everyday schoolwork.
Through Axelsons, some 8,000 teachers have been trained in teaching massage to children throughout the country during the last five years. Reports have flooded back to researchers about what a great difference massage makes in the children’s groups, such as:
- Groups become calmer;
- There is less aggression in the groups;
- Children fight less;
- Children can concentrate easily;
- Children develop empathy; and
- Children learn to say no to unwanted physical contact.
The children are enjoying their experience with massage, and have even brought their knowledge home to their families. Says one 9-year-old girl, “When my father is angry, I give him massage, and then he is not angry any more.”
Teachers also have benefited from the course. From one teacher’s comment after a course: “This is the best further-training course I have been on, and I have been on many. Since I took this course, the children in my class have had 20 minutes every day to massage one another. The first term the children practiced together with me, but now they work two-and-two in their own rhythm directly at their desks.”
Touch is the first sense we develop, and it is extremely important for communication and learning. Everyone needs both physical and psychological contact with others. As an added bonus, positive physical contact nourishes both the giver and the receiver. It is the hope of the researchers to continue to work in Sweden with massage and children, and that these children will take this positive experience with them into adulthood.
~Rolf Elmström, an administrator at the Axelsons Gymnastika Institute, can be contacted at: rolf@axelsons.se.
Q: Where do massage therapists practice?
A: Massage therapists offer their services in a wide variety of settings, including:
- Private practice clinics and offices;
- Physicians’ offices and wellness facilities;
- Chiropractors’ offices and rehabilitation clinics;
- Salons, spas, resorts and cruise ships;
- Health clubs and fitness centers;
- Nursing homes and hospitals;
- Onsite in the workplace;
- Clients’ homes.
With the fall season in full force in most states, what better way to bring in the weather change affecting your muscles than a massage? Call me to set up an appointment or if you are traveling you can use AMTA’s Find a Massage Therapist® national locator service. It is a great way to locate a qualified AMTA Professional-Active member anywhere in the United States. The locator service will provide you with professionals who are well-trained, adhere to a professionally recognized code of ethics and standards of practice, and are committed to continuing their professional education and development. Search for an AMTA Professional member on the locator service today at the following link: www.amtamassage.org/findamassage/locator.htm, or call the AMTA National Office toll-free at 888-843-2682 [888-THE-AMTA].
When you spend a lot of time in the car, your posture can become slumped, which leads to sore neck and shoulders. A good way to remind yourself to sit up straight is to adjust your rear-view mirror while you are in a comfortable straight posture. When you check your mirror and cannot see out of it, you are slumping, and need to straighten to see out of it.
Anonymous AMTA Member
For a different massage tip each week, visit AMTA’s Massage Room at: www.amtamassage.org/massageroom/massage.html.
LEGAL NOTICE: Articles submitted by individual authors are copyrighted by those authors and reprinted with their permission. Views expressed in these articles are not necessarily the views of the American Massage Therapy Association®, and should in no way be construed as an endorsement. They are for informational purposes only.
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