Benefits of Massage for Depression

When you ask exactly how massage therapy works to benefit people with depression, the most accurate answer is “we don’t yet know.”

But that’s not to say the benefits aren’t real. 

• Massage therapy may work in similar ways as psychotherapy. The size and effect of massage therapy on trait anxiety and depression is virtually the same as that routinely found in the research studies of psychotherapy for those same conditions. Typically, both take place in a private setting and are based on a ‘50-minute hour’ for the length of the session. Repeated sessions on a weekly schedule—or similar—would be a traditional or common pattern when the goal is long-term reduction of anxiety or depression.

• TRUST: The other striking similarity is that both are dependent on an interpersonal relationship founded on trust. Some psychotherapy researchers think that the existence of the trusting relationship—sometimes referred to as the therapeutic bond, or as the working alliance—is the most important component of psychotherapy’s effectiveness. And the same may also be true for massage therapy, though this is something that needs to be researched.

• Remember, too, that depression isn’t just mental health issues—some of the symptoms manifest physically, too. Depression is considered a mental illness, but one feels it in the body as well, a sense of heaviness in the corporeal. The physical experience of massage can change the physical sensation of heaviness to something lighter and can restore the feeling of living in ones body again instead of being lost in one’s head. 

These are the Benefits I see. Depression is a horrible, lonely struggle. Please - I encourage you- please contact me and let's see what we can do to help you win your battle against Depression. 

Nancy