I just put up a video with my friend Willow from Willow’s Massage Therapy here in Sebring. In the video, we touched on the topic of Emotional Release, so I thought I would dive a little deeper into this topic today. If you missed the video, here it is:

Massage Therapists learn in school that painful emotions can “get trapped” in the muscle tissues. We learn that it is common for patients to release these emotions during massage. I will admit that this was a crazy concept to me when I was early in my education, and I didn’t really fully understand it until it happened to me.

I want to share a story with you that is very personal. About halfway through my massage education, I went through a very painful and emotional time with my serious boyfriend (now spouse). We ended up breaking up for a while. I am the type of person who bottles emotions up, and often when I am experiencing pain or loss I try to “power through it”. I think a lot of us are like that! So, I wasn’t really allowing myself the time or space to really deal with the pain and loss surrounding this relationship. I instead put all of my mental energy into massage school. I thought that I was dealing with all of it pretty well, and I don’t think that anyone I went to school with even knew that anything was wrong. I don’t like to put my problems onto other peoples’ shoulders, it’s never been my style.

In massage school, we would both give and receive massage every day. It was WONDERFUL! I was on the massage table one day, and another student was working on me. He and I had become good friends—in fact, everyone in my school became like a little family for the time we were there. He was doing a Deep Tissue Massage, and when he dug into a spot near my left shoulder—out of NOWHERE I started crying. No, this wasn’t really crying—it was bawling. I was face down on the table, but there was no hiding the fact that the tears were flowing. He handled it so well, kneeling down near where my head was face down and asking if he had hurt me. I told him that it wasn’t that—and he immediatley knew what he was dealing with. Without a word, he walked over and grabbed a chair. He placed a small hand towel in the chair and just put the bottom of the chair under where my head was. He leaned down again and just said “Ok, there. You do what you need to do.” He completed the rest of the massage without a word, placing a towel over my face when I turned over so no one else in the large school studio would know that I was crying.

After the massage was over, I took a break outside. He walked out beside me silently until we were out of earshot of any other teachers and students. I was a hot mess. He handed me a wet towel so I could wipe my face and asked me if I felt like talking. In spite of my tendency to bottle things up, I poured my heart out to him. I said things that I didn’t even know I FELT. This is how emotional release works, it often gets straight to the heart of the issue. He simply sat there and LISTENED. He wasn’t there to tell me what to do or how to fix it. He was simply there to listen. I have taken this to heart, knowing what it feels like to have the experience. In my practice now, when a patient has an emotional release—I have learned to simply stay in the moment with them and listen through whatever it is. My only job is to let them know that it is OKAY and NORMAL to have this experience—and to be there to listen. The only other thing I do is to let them know that whatever is said in my office stays there.

The emotional release I had while in school is not the only one I have ever had—but it was definitely the most powerful. I felt so much BETTER after that experience. It was like working on that spot freed something up—both emotionally and physically. I have noticed this with my own patients, seeing the relief in action.

It’s also important to note that not every massage gives someone an emotional release. It’s just something we see every once in a while. It’s also not always crying, pain, or grief related. I have seen patients begin to laugh uncontrollably or even get extremely angry out of nowhere on my massage table. Emotional release can be varied across the whole range of emotions. It’s all completely normal. I just wanted to address it because it is something that may happen. Just like a song or movie—or anything else—can unexpectedly trigger an emotion.

As always, I truly appreciate that you took the time to read this post. If you are in pain (physically OR emotionally) and want to see if massage therapy can help, give me a call.

—Stephanie

Sharing is the kindest thing you can do!