Touch is an essential part in the lives of all beings, being the most natural and instinctive means of relieving discomfort and pain.

Massage is the oldest form of healing art, with most ancient cultures practicing some form of healing touch. Massage is professional, structured and therapeutic. It is defined as therapeutic when the main purpose of the application is to provide a structure to promote a healing environment. The manual manipulation of soft tissues of the body with a clear intention, massage therapy is not random, but purposeful.

There are many benefits to massage therapy. It supports homeostasis, helps restore balance in the body, influences fluid and energy flow, provides nurturing contact, reduces tension and congestion, reduces adhesions, strengthens and tones tissues, restores tissue elasticity, stimulates, sedates and reprograms the nervous system, enhances body awareness, and induces relaxation.

Massage has been use as a tool for healing for thousands of years, having strong roots in chinese folk medicine and indian herbal medicine, and it was widely prescribed by greek and roman physicians. The oldest text known, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine dates back to 2700 BC. While massage continued to evolve in the east, continuing to be well established in medicine for thousands of years, the greco-roman traditions disappeared in the west. Massage was maintained by folk culture and became separate from medicine. In the 1600's Ambrose Pare, a french barber/surgeon, was attributed with bringing massage back to the medical profession. In the early 1800's Per Henrik Ling created the Swedish Movement Cure, devising a solid system to practice and teach massage that is used to this name, known as swedish massage.

Since then many modalities have developed, such as Polarity Therapy, Reflexology, Neuromuscular Therapy and Trigger Point Therapy. As well as the ancient modalities that prevailed from the east that have become available in the west such as Shiatsu, Anma, Nuad Borarn (Thai Massage) and Ayurveda.

Massage therapy seems to have become more and more popular in the past decades with its multiple modalities and approaches, becoming more available to people in different settings, from an exotic spa to the medical profession.