Tools to Help Manage Stress II (Massage & Dry Needling)

FITNESS AND HEALTH, MENTAL HEALTH

How well do you manage stress?

As we mentioned in the previous blog on stress management, this time of year can lead to people suffering from a number of seasonal, stress related ailments. Having covered how acupuncture and facial acupuncture can help previously it’s also worth considering the benefits of massage and dry needling.
It’s interesting to note that 34% of people believe that massage therapy is just a form of pampering, and it certainly should leave you feeling good. A greater percentage do, however, believe that massage is beneficial for soreness, stiffness, injury recovery/rehab, headache/migraine control and to relieve and manage stress. 39% of people indicate that medical benefits are their primary motivation for having a massage.

This is the second in our series of blogs covering a number of treatments available here at Kennington which include; Acupuncture/Facial Acupuncture, Massage Therapy/Dry Needling and Counselling/Psychotherapy.
The symptom picture for stress is generally variable depending on individuals. For example, illness, tiredness and lethargy, short tight muscles, dull skin, lank hair, erratic sleep pattern can all point to the fact that you’re under stress.
Mental stress can result in depression, mood swings, anger, frustration, more on that in our next blog on how best to manage these symptoms.

Therapy 2 – Massage and Dry Needling

Massage has been shown to act as an effective adjuvant to talking therapy when it comes to stress management. Not only that, it improves blood circulation to relieve back ache and headache and flush away waste products of your metabolism, ensuring a healthy immune system.

Massage can induce states of deep relaxation to enhance your body awareness which is challenged by stress, long hours sitting at your desk, sedentary but pressured lifestyles, and lack of physical activity.

Dry needling is a branch of acupuncture used by western practitioners. As well as targeting knotted and congested muscles, it provides some of the benefits that its ancestral discipline provides.
You will therefore benefit from it not only to achieve purely musculoskeletal benefits but also to stimulate a more general neurophysiological metabolic balance.

Dry needling can enhance massage to enable the therapist to reach layers that manual therapy can’t reach.

Next post on stress management – Counselling/Psychotherapy

 

If you’re not sure whether we can help, please give us a call on 020 7735 6813 or email info@kenningtonosteopaths.co.uk