Massage Therapy
Massage Therapy and Bodywork for Pain Relief
Massage therapy at Flourish Integrative Health in Santa Rosa uses tailored bodywork to improve circulation, reduce inflammation, relieve muscle pain, and support mental and emotional well-being by lowering stress and promoting better sleep for people across Sonoma County seeking holistic, non-pharmaceutical care.
Massage therapy and bodywork have been practiced around the world for thousands of years to support physical, mental, and emotional health. Here, sessions may also incorporate bodywork modalities often paired with acupuncture, including cupping, gua sha, and acupressure, along with specialized services such as lymphatic drainage, craniosacral therapy, perinatal massage, oncology massage, and aromatherapy, so you can find support for chronic pain, stress, hormonal balance, pregnancy care, recovery, and overall wellness in one place.
- For the physical body, massage and bodywork improve blood flow and circulation, reduce inflammation, relax tight muscles, ease muscle pain, and support digestion, moving oxygen and nutrients to tissues and speeding recovery after activity or injury.
- For the mental and emotional body, massage helps reduce stress and anxiety by lowering cortisol levels, calming the nervous system, and promoting better sleep quality, especially when stress contributes to insomnia.
- Massage restores function after injuries and surgery, enhances mobility and flexibility, and is a strong complement to physical therapy and an active lifestyle.
- It is also supportive for many chronic conditions: arthritis, cancer, diabetes, infertility, depression, high blood pressure, low back pain, and headaches, and can support immune function by raising white blood cell levels; research on related therapies such as cupping and acupressure is still limited in places, and more research is needed to confirm efficacy and safety across conditions, though a 2021 study found acupressure more effective than physical therapy for low back pain.
Bodywork as an Alternative Therapy in Your Acupuncture Session:
If you come to Flourish as an acupuncture patient, your practitioner may weave one or more traditional Chinese medicine bodywork modalities, provided by trained healthcare providers as part of your standard care, into your treatment at no additional cost, leaving you more relaxed and balanced than when you walked in.
Cupping: We apply cups to your body with a suction device that draws the skin up into the cup, a bit like a massage in reverse. Cupping therapy uses suction to draw fluid into the treated area and is believed to stimulate healing at a cellular level. It typically uses three to five cups per session. We use both dry cupping and wet cupping to break up scar tissue, reduce inflammation, and ease areas that feel stiff or painful. It may cause temporary skin tightness or red marks that usually fade within 1 to 2 weeks, but shouldn’t be painful.
Gua sha (aka “scraping”): We move a smooth-edged gua sha tool, sometimes a jade roller, rose quartz, or spoon-like instrument, in long strokes with applied pressure to improve blood flow, reduce inflammation, and ease pain. It releases energy blocked by injury, stagnation, or scar tissue, and gentle facial massage versions can relieve jaw and temple tension. Mild bruising as tiny blood vessels release fades quickly.
Acupressure: Instead of needles, we sometimes help by applying pressure to specific points that correspond to other body parts to reduce pain and other symptoms, such as headaches and nausea. Postoperative nausea is one example often associated with stimulation of the P6 point. A systematic review suggests that acupressure may help in some cases, though evidence remains mixed. These techniques are safe, low-risk, and easy to use at home to keep the healing going.
Massage With Rose DeNicola and Other Massage Therapists
This gentle massage stimulates the lymph system, the vessels and lymph nodes that regulate your immune system, calm the nervous system, and move fluid and waste through the body. The modality is slow, gentle, and deeply relaxing to the nervous system.
A subtle practice of deep listening to the body, craniosacral therapy invites the body into balance by releasing tension in the cranial area, spine, and sacrum. It is often experienced as a deep, shared meditation.
Pregnancy and postpartum massage supports and nurtures a mother through this physically and emotionally intense time, easing lower-back strain, swelling, and disrupted sleep. Specialized techniques and pillows keep you comfortable and safe throughout the session.
Chi Nei Tsang is a traditional Chinese abdominal massage that addresses the body from its core, the abdominal area. Sound healing, vocalizing the organs’ sounds, is often integrated to allow expression and harmonizing of the organ system.
Rose offers person-specific sessions for those on the cancer journey, adapting to the unique, changing needs of anyone undergoing or recovering from cancer treatment. Her advanced oncology-massage training equips her to offer a supportive, safe, and nourishing massage that addresses treatment side effects and pain related to chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.
If you prefer, Rose includes essential oils in your session, often as aroma-acupressure. By weaving together acupressure and plant medicine, the points and oils can help relieve pain while enhancing and directing each other’s properties.
Click here to learn more about the care that Rose provides, or to book a session with her.