Deep Tissue Massage for Grief
What is grief? Exactly. And how can deep tissue massage help grief?
Okay, for a start, there is no exact answer here because the one thing you can be certain of when you’re grieving is that it will be a different experience for everyone. That said, there are some common factors that means a deep tissue massage can help you cope with your grief.
Charlie Botha ITEC
Your ITEC qualified massage therapist
deep tissue massage for grief
Questions & Answers
Why do people experience grief in different ways?
There are many reasons why people experience grief in different ways. They can include your personality type. People naturally deal with stresses in different ways, grief is no different. If your health is poor, then you’ll feel less strong than someone who is full of life and energy. Their body will have a different physical response to the emotional pain. This also links to lifestyle. For instance, someone who gyms every day may increase the amount of workouts, v’s someone who meditates may spend more time isolated and with their own thoughts.
Culture and family background as well as life experiences are also other reasons why grief affects and people deal with their bereavement differently.
What is a deep tissue massage for grief?
When you’re grieving your muscles will tighten and then over time these become locked into place without you even realising what’s happening. You’ll just suddenly find you’re more stiff than normal. This can have a detrimental effect on your health and wellbeing.
This tightening up happens because our muscles are sticky, they’re like a ball of wool, each strand of which sticks together. So, as you grieve your posture tightens and your move less. This allows more time for your muscles to become locked into position and very often it’s only possible to relieve these through some deep massage therapy work. This treatment endeavours to relieve these physical symptoms and discomfort allowing your body to become more free.
Why is a massage for grief important?
Mental health professionals diagnose complicated grief, or Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) when normal grief/ bereavement processes become “stuck” in that they persist for six months +.
Having a massage for grief will help you in healing from some of the symptoms associated with PGD, including, but not limited to:
*Fatigue
*Insomnia
*Pain – especially of the neck, head and lower back pain
*Anxiety and/ or gastrointestinal disorders
*Chest pain or breathing difficulties including palpitations
massage for grief
Grief is a normal response to sorrowIt’s often a confusion emotion that stems from losing someone or something important to you. Grief is a typical reaction to death, divorce, losing your job, moving away from family and friends or even the loss of your health, perhaps as a result of being ill. Grief has many manifestations. When people think of grief, they will often focus on an emotional response to the loss, crying and such like. However, grief also has physical, cognitive, behavioural, social and philosophical dimensions.
There is no set time that determines how long grief lasts for. Getting through bereavement is more about learning to live with the loss you have experienced. This will help you to come out of the other side of your grief.
Not all grief is the same
The time you spend grieving depends on your relationship with the person or thing lost, and how prepared you were for the loss. For some, grief lasts several months – while grieving may take years for others.
Immediately following a death or loss, many people experience feelings of emptiness and numbness – similar to shock. Physically, problems such as trembling, nausea, difficulty breathing and a racing heart are common during the early stages of grief, along with muscle weakness, dry mouth, lack of appetite and insomnia. However, prolonged, unresolved grief can have many additional physical manifestations and this is how a massage for grief can help.
Help your mind to heal
Grief massage therapy also helps your mind to heal. When we don’t move around so much, our blood flow becomes restricted to some areas of our body. Our lymphatic system works the same. When you’re grieving you don’t feel like getting up and doing a run, even though everyone says that exercise is a great way to heal.
A massage has this similar effect on the way your system works. The movement allows our body to distribute the ‘nutrients’ such as blood and oxygen, to the parts of our body that needs them in order to function better. When our system is working optimally, our brain (and ultimately our broken heart) can heal faster.
massage romford
What happens during the deep tissue massage for grief?
We’ll begin by warming up your muscles after which we’ll apply pressure to the areas that are tight. This could be one localised area, e.g. back, neck and shoulders, or if you decide to take longer than an hour, then we will extend this to cover more of your body.
Being a deep massage, this may involve firm pressure from our arms or elbows to break down sticky muscle fibres. We’re not going to lie, this can get tender, but it’s a good kind of pain, where you feel the tension floating away as we work. Afterwords, people will often say they feel ‘free’ and ‘light’ like a ‘weight has been lifted.’
This type of massage can be done on any area of your body to release knotted, fibrous muscles into the epitome of suppleness and elasticity.
Wellness Blog
Some posts you may be interested in
Show your loved one you care
When your people show you how special you are to them, why not do the same?
Buy them the gift of health and time.
No end date, fast online purchase and email delivery. What could be easier?
Getting Pregnant with Endometriosis: Your Comprehensive Guide to Natural Conception
Getting Pregnant with Endometriosis: Your Comprehensive Guide to Natural Conception Welcome to Essential Feeling—Your Partner in Natural Fertility Solutions At Essential Feeling, we understand that getting pregnant with endometriosis can be a challenging journey. Our...
Signs of Endometriosis and Understanding the Potential Benefits of Reflexology
Whilst Endometriosis is a chronic and often debilitating gynecological condition affecting an estimated 176 million women worldwide, what are the signs of Endometriosis? Endometriosis is a leading cause of infertility, with many affected individuals seeking fertility...
Booking in
If you would like to book a deep tissue massage for grief, then feel free to book online. Alternatively, if you have questions, then please, text us in the first instance on 07941 668456 and we’ll come back to you as soon as we’re free.
Once you book
We’ll send over everything you need including consultation form and directions.
We have free off street parking directly outside our treatment rooms.
Working with Harley Street & Knightsbridge Clinics
Read about our work