In the United States, massage therapy is a holistic, drug-free healing art which recognizes and incorporates the scientific approach to healing of the West with the energy-based, intuitive, artistic approach of the East.

Essentially, massage therapy is the biomechanical manipulation of soft-tissue for the purpose of restoring or maintaining balance within and among the various systems of the bodymind complex while the body is at rest and the mind is letting go. The latter cannot be over-emphasized, which, btw, is why self-massage or massage during a sports event can never be as effective or as lasting as one administered by an massage therapy professional who is proficient in both the hands-on as well as the letting-go aspect of this bodymind healthwork.

When a physical or emotional traumatic event disrupts balance, without much analysis, knowledge, and good thinking, our 'automatic' or inborne first-aid line of defense is set in motion, keeping us in an immediate but fragile balance for the short-run. MT intervenes with such negative adaptation as it engages our natural capacity for long term healing--that capacity which we so often deny ourselves, when, instead of human "beings," we have turned into human "doings". Drugfree, non-traumatic, and pain-relieving without side-effects, MT is arguably the earliest, the latest, and the safest health technology. And it has been called upon for the prevention as well as for the treatment or management of many health problems for centuries.