Massage therapy is a powerful tool for every day self-care and healing. Its benefits include stress reduction, whole body relaxation, relief for tired and aching muscles, enhanced skin tone, help with chronic pain and recovery from injuries and illness and more restful sleep, just to name a few. It can also be employed to facilitate and expedite recovery from plastic surgery. It is typically used before surgery to help the body relax, de-stress and clear out toxins in preparation for the surgical procedure.
Dr. Zwiebel highly recommends pre and post-operative massage therapy for his patients to accelerate healing and recovery time. For your convenience, we have a Certified Massage Therapist on site at The Zwiebel Center for Plastic Surgery and Skin Care. Learn more by calling 303-470-3400 today.
Types of Massage Therapy
Peri-Operative Therapy is a combination of different specialized therapeutic massage techniques focused specifically on assisting the body with post-surgical recovery. It expedites and enhances the healing process by helping the body relax, recover and do what it needs to do to heal. The techniques included are traditional massage therapy, lymphatic drainage and Reiki.
Lymphatic Drainage is a very gentle manual technique applied before and after surgery to enhance and expedite the healing process. It helps the body’s lymph system eliminate excess fluids and swelling more efficiently and more quickly by using an extremely light and soothing touch to move lymph fluid from the affected areas and clear them from the body. The benefits are reduced recovery time, alleviation of pain, faster elimination of swelling and bruising, and softening of scar tissue. It also helps to calm the nervous system by reducing the ‘fight-or-flight’ response of the sympathetic nervous system and promoting the ‘rest-and-digest’ response of the parasympathetic nervous system. This allows the body to devote more energy to the healing process rather than having to respond to stress.
Reiki is a technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It works by supporting the body’s natural ability to heal itself by improving the flow of energy through the body, reducing stress, while enhancing healing and a sense of well-being. Mr. Hardesty is a skilled practitioner of Reiki, trained to energy, using a sensitive touch which our patients experience as a healing warmth or a pleasant tingling feeling. This technique is ideally employed with both pre- and post-surgical massage sessions.
Additional Therapies
In addition to Peri-Operative Therapy, The Zwiebel Center for Plastic Surgery and Skin Care offers traditional massage therapy for non-surgical clients. Our Certified Massage Therapist is skilled in several different techniques.
We have included brief descriptions of each below:
CranioSacral Therapy involves massaging the bones of the skull, spine and sacrum to loosen or release restrictions or blockages in the dural membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. These restrictions/blockages can contribute to pain, dysfunction and headaches.
Neuromuscular Massage Therapy balances the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord and nerves) with the structure and form of the musculo-skeletal system (skeleton and muscles of the body). It is applied to specific muscles and is often used to increase blood flow, release knots of muscle tension, or release pain/pressure on nerves.
Swedish Massage is a variety of techniques specifically designed to relax muscles by applying pressure to them against deeper muscles and bones, and rubbing in the same direction as the flow of blood returning to the heart.
Deep Tissue Massage focuses on the deeper layers of muscle tissue. It aims to release the chronic patterns of tension in the body through slow strokes and deep finger pressure on the contracted areas, either following or going across the muscle fibers, tendons and fascia.
Sports Massage is typically used before, during, and after athletic events to prepare the athlete for peak performance to help alleviate the stress and tension which builds up in the body’s soft tissues during physical activity. Rather than promoting relaxation, the focus is on stretching and clearing out metabolic waste products that build up in the muscles.
Pre- & Post-Natal Massage is designed to alleviate the pain and discomfort associated with pregnancy and childbirth. We have cushions that allow a pregnant mother-to-be to lie face down without discomfort or danger to the fetus.
Tom Hardesty, Certified Massage Therapist
Tom graduated from the Colorado School of Healing Arts in Lakewood, CO in 2002 with over 1500 hours of classroom and clinical training in various modalities of massage and has advanced certifications in neuromuscular massage and cranio-sacral therapy. Since then he has worked with a chiropractor and a massage clinic as well as maintaining his own practice.
His professional philosophy is to support and assist the body’s natural healing ability by assessing a patient’s condition and employing whichever modality is best suited to do so. In a post-surgical situation, this normally means not only helping the body to remove excess fluids to reduce swelling via lymphatic drainage, but also helping to reduce stress levels and induce a more relaxed state with light massage, Cranio-Sacral therapy or Reiki. By calming the central nervous system, energy and resources that would normally be used to cope with stress are instead devoted to the healing and recovery process
Call 303-470-3400 or contact The Zwiebel Center for Plastic Surgery and Skin Care online today to schedule your personal professional massage consultation, evaluation and treatment to achieve the effects and results best suited uniquely for you.
