Swedish Massage: Relaxation / General Tune-Up / Focused Therapeutic Work
45 Minute Swedish Massage – $75 A 45-minute Swedish Massage efficiently addresses the entire body with gliding, relaxing strokes. Areas of focus typically include the back, legs, feet, hands, arms, neck, face, and scalp. This form of massage provides relaxation and relief from stress. Pressure is light to medium and can be adjusted to your preference. This length of massage provides an effect similar to a ‘power nap.’
60 Minute Swedish Massage – $90 When 45 minutes of Swedish Massage isn’t quite enough! 60 minutes of Swedish Massage addresses the entire body with gentle, relaxing strokes, allowing extra time for a body region of your choice. Areas usually selected for extra attention include the back or the neck. This form of massage provides deeper relaxation and relief from stress than a 45 minute session. Pressure is light to medium and can be adjusted to your preference. This massage leaves you feeling relaxed for the rest of your day.
90 Minute Swedish Massage – $125 90 minutes of Swedish Massage addresses the entire body with gliding, relaxing strokes and extra time usually spent on the back, feet, hands, and neck. This form of massage provides deep relaxation and relief from stress. Pressure is light to medium and can be adjusted to your preference.This massage is perfect for the end of your day or a day off where you have nothing to do but relax.
50 Versus 60 Minutes of Massage Therapy
Massage Timing at Hand and Stone: I’ve been delivering timely 50-minute massages at Hand and Stone for nearly two years. My books are often full, and I’m scheduled back-to-back with clients. The timing on these massages is vital, as parking is at a premium in the area. My advice would be to use the CTA red line to get there. A 50-minute massage at Hand and Stone allows 5 minutes before the session for the consultation and for you to disrobe and get on the table. It leaves 5 minutes at the end of the session for you to get dressed and exit the room so it can be reset for the next client.
To perform each client’s session in full, only the bare minimum of time can be spent with each body part being massaged in a 50-minute session. This works if you’re looking for general relaxation and light pressure. Customization allows for more specificity in goals. We can do Upper Body Only (back and shoulders, arms and hands, neck, face, and scalp) or an Upper Body with Glutes session to fully address Low Back Pain. If you’re suffering from psiatica, have hip problems, or are on your feet all day you might opt for a Lower Body Only session (glutes, legs, and feet). Some clients don’t want a Scalp Massage and others love it. Whenever we do less with one area, we have more time to work a different area. Let me know what you’d like your focus to be, your preferred pressure level, and any additional services you’re interested in.
Massage Timing at The Self Sanctuary: The extra 10 minutes of a 60-minute hands-on session (available at The Self Sanctuary) allows for general overall attention, with special focus on an area or two of choice. The sessions are booked with 30-minute gaps, decreasing the urgency in intake and checkout procedures.
I’m keeping an eye on the clock throughout our session. With much practice, I’ve found the following generalities for timing. If a client is larger, requires more time to reposition on the table, or is taller, these times will increase slightly. Draping the body and repositioning the client overall accounts for between 2 to 5 minutes in a typical session. Generally, the MINIMAL treatment times I can confidently offer for various body parts are: The Back (20 minutes), The Glutes (2 minutes), The Legs (10 minutes), The Feet (2 minutes), Hands & Arms (5 minutes), Neck (5 minutes), Face (1 minutes), Scalp (1 minute)
- The Back: (general myfascial release and hot towel treatment) paraspinals, lats, shoulder complex, traps): Our spine has 3 natural curves that are all connected and begin at sacrum, going all the way up to the skull. First, I loosen up the back’s surface to address the deeper musculature. Areas I generally treat are the spinal extensor muscles, the shoulder’s rotator cuff, rhomboids and lats, traps, and shoulder/neck muscles. This area gets revisted when the client is face-up in a supine position. Loosening up the fascia in the lower back area can help with discomfort there, but most massage relief for low back pain will come from a gluteal massage.
- The Glutes (maximus/medius/minimus, hip rotators): Glute Medius is almost always involved in low back pain. When glute med is tight, it pulls the pelvis into an anterior pelvic tilt. This position requires the low back muscles to work hard counteracting that. For people who spend a large amount of time sitting, the glutes are chronically stretched beyond their ideal length-tension relationship and become weakened. We use the glutes for climbing stairs and extending our legs during walking. The hamstrings and adductors jump in to compensate for these activities, also becoming tight. Below glute medius are the hip rotators. They can cause pain at the front and sides of your hips by pulling on the femur and again causing antagonist corrective action from other muscles. Relaxing the glutes and hip rotators is the best way to relieve low back, glute, and hip pain.
- Legs (hamstrings, calves, quads, IT Band (TFL), peroneals and tibialis muscles): From the glutes, the next areas to address are the hamstrings and calves. After the feet, I turn have clients turn over to a supine, face-up position. From there, the shins (peroneal/fibularis and tibialis muscles), quads, adductors, and IT bands can be worked. Clients with knee issues may benefit from work on the popliteus muscle in the upper calve area. If quad, hamstring, or adductor stretches are included, they can be performed during this part of a massage session.
- Feet (hot towel treatment): The feet offer a valuable insight to gait patterns that might be affecting your ankles, knees, hips, lower back, and further up the kinetic chain. Bunions, plantar fascitis, very high arches and very flat feet can all have their own therapeutic needs. The feet are also a wonderful way for your body to feel overall relaxation. Sugar foot scrubs can be added to offer more relaxation and gentle exfoliation during your massage treatment.
- Arms / Hands: We have some small intrinsic muscles in the hands and fingers, especially around the thumb. Forearm muscle bellies are powering the tendons in our fingers and need attention too. Insertion points for the forearm extensors and flexors can be worked to help with wrist pain. The upper pecs and biceps can be tight and pull your shoulders and chest inwards – massaging them reduces strain on the upper back and shoulders. Adequately addressing this region helps with overall upper body tension.
- Neck / Shoulders: Many of the muscles extending from the back and shoulders into the neck have already been worked. In the face-up prone position, I revisit these areas with the added pressure from gravity and your body weight. Hot towel service is applied under the neck to warm these muscles up while the arms are being worked. Areas contributing to headaches and the smaller neck muscles are addressed here.
- Face: More and more clients are asking for massage that will help with jaw clenching or TMJ syndrome. Our faces carry more tension than we realize. When working the face, I target the jawline, the masseter muscle, the temples and TMJ joint area, along with the forehead and hairline.
- Scalp: Some clients don’t want to get any oil in their hair. Some have things to do after the massage and don’t want their hair messed up. If you choose to include scalp massage in your treatment, you can add an essential oil treatment here. Mint, Lavender, and Eucalyptus are all good choices. Scalp massage increases circulation to the head. This encourages hair growth and helps offer relief from stress and tension headaches. Including the scalp in massage also lets the treatment carry from head to toe, allowing for full body relaxation and vagal nerve activation.
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