Massage therapy

Massage therapy provides treatment through touch and pressure that relaxes your soft tissues and muscles. Different styles of massage are used depending on the condition being treated. Massage can help reduce your pain and enhance your quality of life.

Your doctor or physical therapist may recommend massage therapy for several reasons, including:

• Muscular tension
• Limited range of motion or flexibility in joints
• Acute or chronic pain
• Circulation problems
• Stress
• Pain related to injuries
• Back problems like spinal stenosis, herniated disc and scoliosis
• Arthritis

In some cases, massage may minimize side effects of cancer and cancer treatments when used in addition to conventional treatments for cancer. Our massage therapists receive comprehensive training to learn to modify massage to meet each cancer patient’s needs.

Massage therapy for cancer patients is subject to the availability of therapists.

Types of massage therapy

At Advocate Health Care, we offer several types of massage therapy, including:

• Swedish massage: Uses long, gliding strokes on the top layers of your muscles to promote relaxation
• Sports massage: Vigorous and provides deep tissue manipulation – ideal for athletes and active adults
• Prenatal massage: Helps relieve pregnancy-related tension, aches and pains in the neck, shoulders, back and legs
• Geriatric massage: Specifically designed to address aging and arthritis-related pain for older adults
• Neuromuscular therapy: Uses finger pressure on specific trigger points (painful, irritated areas) to help stop muscle spasms or pain
• Craniosacral therapy: Uses gentle touch on the skull, face, spine and hips to relieve pain
• Oncology massage: Supports cancer care and may relieve some side effects of conventional cancer treatments
• Myofascial release: Gentle pressure into the myofascial connective tissue restrictions to help eliminate pain and restore motion

Learn more about massage therapy at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital.

Benefits of massage therapy

• Reducing stress
• Increasing circulation
• Improving breathing
• Improving sleep
• Enhancing muscle tone
• Relieving muscle aches and pains
• Enhancing overall health and well-being

Massage therapy at Advocate Health Care

We offer massage therapy to the public as well as for people referred to us by other health care providers. People come to Advocate for massage therapy because we offer:

• Licensed massage therapists: Our expert massage therapists are licensed in the state of Illinois. They’ve taken professional massage training.
• Specialty care: Our massage therapists work with primary care doctors and sports health doctors to coordinate massage therapy with your treatment plan.
• Comprehensive treatment: At Advocate, an entire team of experts works together to monitor your progress and personalize care to your needs. In addition to massage therapy, we offer integrative medicine treatments like acupuncture and combine them with a wide range of orthopedic medicine and orthopedic surgery services.
• Convenient locations: Many of our hospitals and clinics offer massage therapy, making it easy to get relief from pain and tension close to where you live, work or train