You might think of massage as an ultimate luxury to be indulged in once every few years. For $50 of hard-earned money, you get a bit of sheer heaven in which your body is resurrected through the gentle touch of warm hands lightly scented with exotic oils.
And you would be mostly right in your thinking, except for the luxury part.
There are a growing number of people in Lake County and the northwest suburbs who believe massage is more than a birthday present to oneself. Rather, they see massage as a weekly or monthly necessity that allows them to move easier, think more clearly and generally feel a lot better about life.
”People become converted all the time. Once you have a massage, you`re hooked,” said Bernadette Alfering, owner of Massage Escape in Barrington.
”It`s good for people. It`s addictive and it`s good addictive.”
Besides rich folks who can unflinchingly pay the $30- to $60-an-hour fee, massage has snared artists, tired parents, corporate types, runners, recovering accident victims and psychotherapy patients. Massage is also used on dental patients, stressed-out teens, cocaine babies and healthy babies.
”People are becoming more aware of the benefits of it. It`s not just for relaxation anymore,” said Lee Moninger of Ingleside, owner of the Genesis Wellness Center in Palatine.
Mary Parker of Buffalo Grove knows that well. She gets a massage twice a month to relieve the stress from her teaching job. The stress ”seems to get worse and worse, and when you get a massage you can feel where you`re knotted up,” she said. ”If I don`t (get a massage), and I let the stress build up, it`ll take time away from me because I`m stressed out.”
Martin Ryan of Arlington Heights received his first massage five years ago while on vacation in New Mexico. ”I was skeptical of massage.”
He added, however, ”I was astonished in Santa Fe with the relaxation of it.
”When I have a (backache) attack, my muscles spasm and create enormous pain in the back, and I find that through continued work (with a massage therapist), that doesn`t happen,” Ryan explained. ”What she does clearly is make those muscles more fit and less subject to spasm and tensions.”
Massage is all about drawing out that tension and whatever else people hold inside, while at the same time helping people get more in touch with their bodies, said massage therapist Cynthia Oliver of Arlington Heights.
”Massage encompasses the whole body. You can`t isolate it out. It`s emotional and spiritual and physical.”
As the natural, nurturing image of massage rises in America`s increasingly earth-oriented society, so does the number of massage therapists. Moninger estimated that in the last year alone, the number of therapists in the northwest suburbs has tripled.
She is a member of the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), based in Chicago. Membership in the 39-year-old association increased 567 percent-to 14,000 from 2,100 people-between 1984 and this year. The Illinois chapter has 650 members, of which 371 live in Cook County, 33 in Lake County, 15 in McHenry County and 16 in Kane County.
Wes Steffen, first vice president of the chapter, guessed that there are probably another 500 or so therapists in the state who are not members of the association.
Massage really only started coming into its own within the last five to 10 years, said Bob King, co-owner of the Chicago School of Massage Therapy.
Before that, massage languished due to a severe image crisis in 1920s and `30s Prohibition-era America, when massage parlors were fronts for prostitution.
Massage has been able to recover its legitimacy in recent years due to the country`s fitness craze and people`s disillusionment with traditional health care, King said.
Massage is getting particularly popular in suburbs where people have the money, education and desire to maintain the good life, he added.
There are still municipalities, however, that are wary of massage therapists.
Elgin`s ”Massage Establishments and Massage Service” section of its business licensing and regulations ordinance, for example, states that people who want to practice massage therapy in the city must, among other things, undergo yearly testing (at their own expense) for contagious and communicable diseases, including tuberculosis, syphilis and gonorrhea. The permits are granted through the Police Department.
Deputy Police Chief Eric Isom of Elgin pointed out that the procedure is meant to protect people because massage therapists are not yet regulated by state or federal agencies as are doctors and other health professionals.
Pat Hoffman, owner of Massage by Hoffman in Elgin, takes no issue with the tuberculosis testing, because massages are often performed in enclosed spaces. But, she added, ”I object to the gonorrhea and syphilis testing because that is still connected with the image of prostitution.”
Although she believes there are a lot of massage therapists who don`t bother to get business permits, Hoffman said she wanted one so she could both publicly state her objections to the city law and educate the community about what a professional massage therapist is and does.
By way of explanation, Steffen said that Swedish massage, trigger point work, shiatsu and reflexology are some of the 30 to 50 existing massage techniques, all of which are aimed at caring for the body`s soft tissue. ”In that sense, I guess you could call us soft-tissue specialists.”
Some of the professed benefits of massage include better circulation of blood and lymph fluids; greater joint flexibility and range of motion;
increased efficiency of movement; reduced blood pressure; and improved posture.
Massage also is supposed to increase your capacity to think clearly, make it easier to express emotions and satisfy the need for human touch.
Kay Boshardt, a therapist at the Schaumburg Corporate Fitness Center, goes into companies such as the Intercargo Corp. in Schaumburg to perform 20- minute massages on employees during coffee breaks.
”I think the stress of the business world is so high, so if there`s some means for taking a half-hour to get a massage and relax, I believe their minds are better facilitated to perform their tasks,” said Ken Kranig, chairman of the board at Intercargo, which bonds and insures imported and exported products.
”I`m not saying we`re curing everybody, but we`re helping prevent problems,” Boshardt said.
More and more, podiatrists, chiropractors, psychotherapists and other health professionals are referring people to massage therapists. Moninger said she has even worked for a dentist.
Debbie Gulbrandson, president of Gulbrandson Physical Therapy, said that after years of technological advances in her field, massage is gaining in importance. ”Now we`re getting back to the idea that a therapist`s hands are the best tools available.”
Massage also complements chiropractic treatments by helping patients relax, said Randy Horning of Horning Chiropractic Care in Lake Zurich.
Despite believers such as Horning and Gulbrandson, massage still has its share of doubters, Lee and other therapists said.
Dr. Alan M. Roman, president of the Chicago Medical Society, said,
”Massage is not recognized as a disinct medical procedure.” Though he added, ”I will tell you that massage does have a place in such things as stress reduction.”
Gulbrandson conceded, ”Massage is sort of a hard thing to
(statistically) quantify in terms of benefits. . . . It`s not like a blood test you can measure.”
To both persuade skeptics and further legitimize their trade, many of the massage therapists asked said they support mandatory formal training for and the licensing of therapists. Eighteen states, not including Illinois, have licensing laws or registries, Steffen said.
In the future, Oliver said, ”I see massage being accepted as an alternative health service. I see it as having status.”
Moninger agreed, ”I would say massage is definitely moving forward. It`s not just something people do for fun anymore. It`s for healing.”
