Body of Work

Why Should I Schedule a Follow Up Massage Treatment?

When you have a massage treatment your therapist will often suggest a follow up treatment
within about 10 days of the initial consultation. What is the purpose of a follow up massage and
why should you bother going if your issue seems to have been ‘fixed’ after the 1st treatment?

We want to Know How You’ve Responded

The number one reason your therapist likes to follow up is because we want to know how you’ve
responded to the treatment. We want to be sure that what we’ve done has had the desired
effect and that there is no worsening of symptoms.

A time frame of around 4-10 days lets the
body adjust enough after the treatment to give us an idea of what’s been achieved and where we
need to go next. Sometimes this means more massage, a home exercise program or other
intervention or perhaps referral on to a physiotherapist or exercise physiologist if appropriate.

Change takes Time
It can take more than one treatment for the body to relearn appropriate movement patterns. A
follow-up massage aims to reinforce changes made in the initial treatment. For example, if
someone has become used to sitting with a slouched posture, they might find themselves
sitting straighter in the couple of days following the initial massage but gradually revert to a
slouched position over the next week or so. In this case, the follow-up massage acts as a
reminder to the body that it is still capable of straitening up. It is also a good time for your
therapist to go through some exercises or behaviour modifications to help with this relearning of
movement patterns.

Why Should I Follow Up if I Feel better?
Following up with your therapist when you feel better is a great opportunity to work on other
areas of the body that may have contributed to the initial problem. For example, if someone
presents with neck pain in the initial session and we find at the follow-up that their pain has
subsided, then we might use the follow-up to work on shoulder and back muscles as
restrictions in these areas can lead to overworking of the neck muscles.
A follow-up massage can help ensure you reach your treatment goals sooner