Tappan's Handbook of Healing Massage Techniques : Classic, Holistic and Emerging Methods

The 4 th EDITION of Tappanrs"s Handbook of Healing Massage Techniques continues to be an AUTHORitative and comprehensive resource for massage therapy courses. This book lays the theoretical groundwork and provides detailed descriptions of techniques for Western and contemporary massage, Asian bodywork therapy and applications for special populations. Whether you are a licensed massage therapy practitioner, another health-related professional, or simply interested in basic massage therapy techniques, this is the book for you. New to this EDITION: bull; bull;Accompanying CD-ROMprovides instructional video of the most common massage techniques to provide readers with a visual aid to accompany chapter content. bull;Includes the Wellness Massage Pyramid which introduces a new model for the understanding the broad scope of massage therapy based on the wellness perspective. bull;

Tappan's Handbook of Healing Massage Techniqueshas been updated and revised to reflect the changes in massage therapy and its use in the health professions over the past several years. Massage continues to be a mainstay of the spa and salon, health club, and private practice scenes, while being integrated into an increasing number of heath care settings. The number of states in the United States that license massage therapists has grown from 24 in 1998, when the third edition was published, to 31 in 2004. A massage therapy research database sponsored by the AMTA Foundation is now available on the Internet. The Canadian Touch Research Centre is holding its second International Symposium on the Science of Touch in Montreal in May 2004. As the massage universe expands, and massage therapy enjoys increasing recognition within the health professions, the expectations for massage therapy education also grow. Massage therapy training programs must educate their students for the future by giving them a firm foundation to build on. Tappan's Handbook of Healing Massage Techniqueshas been redesigned, with several learning aids to help students and teachers in their studies. These include a detailed Table of Contents formatted as chapter outlines, and a complete list of figures and tables for easy location. Each chapter contains learning outcomes, key terms and concepts, and references including books, videos and Web sites. Chapter study guides include suggestions for studying key terms and concepts, as well as study questions for information recall, and suggested activities for a deeper understanding of important topics. A CD-ROM video that demonstrates basic Western and contemporary massage techniques, as well as applications for special populations, is included with the text. Use of this modern technology helps make up for the limited ability of words and still pictures to depict satisfactorily what is essentially a performance-based art and science. Frances Tappan's original vision for the textbook remains intact. Dr. Tappan wanted students of massage to have descriptions of massage techniques and approaches from all over the globe. The inside front and back covers showing the muscular system from Western anatomy, and energy channels from Traditional Asian Medicine, reflect her interest in the worldwide reach of massage. Part I: Foundations provides the theoretical underpinning and context for later chapters on massage techniques. Chapter 1, Healing Massage-A Wellness Perspective, discusses massage as a natural healing art found all over the world. The relationship between massage and Western medicine in the context of integrative health care is explored. The concept of wellness is discussed at greater length, and a new paradigm called the Wellness Massage Pyramid offers a fresh image of massage in its broad scope. The history of massage as an ancient and modern healing practice is told in Chapter 2. The use of massage for health and healing predates current professions, and its universality for humankind is evident. A section on more recent developments in the health professions brings this history up to date. The science of the effects and benefits of massage is examined in Chapter 3. This chapter has been rearranged to be more compatible with human anatomy texts used in many massage programs. It looks at the effects of massage at the tissue, organ system, and organism levels, as well as its physiological and psychological effects. A holistic view of the effects of massage is also presented. A new chapter called Clinical Applications of Massage has been added as Chapter 4. It reflects the expanding use of massage in health care and in the treatment of different pathologies. It also points to the increasing number of research studies being done on the efficacy of massage, and to sources of information on massage therapy research. The important topic