Clients commonly request deep tissue massage for its lasting benefits—and it just plain feels good. But it’s important to let your therapist know just how deep you want your massage. Here are some ways to help you communicate with your therapist to increase or decrease the intensity.

Verbal Feedback

Your therapist really wants to know how you feel about your massage. Feedback early on in the session is important.

“One of the best things you can do for yourself when you are under stress is to take a break and get a massage,” says Kristine Kaoverii Weber in Healing Self-Massage. Here are a few self-massage techniques to relieve stress when you are between appointments for professional massage.

When a massage therapist’s hands touch the skin, the effect reaches down to the muscles and ligaments, and then positively influences the circulatory, lymphatic, and nervous systems. Healing touch, a sensitive style of communication, speaks safety and comfort. “The beauty of massage lies in it being such a simple, direct form of human contact,” says Susan Mumford in The New Complete Guide to Massage (Penguin Group, 2006).

Massage therapy is a partnership—a relationship that feels intrinsically personal. What should you expect from your massage therapist and what is expected of you? Here are a few answers.

From our first venture into the school gymnasium as kids, we’ve been taught to stretch. As adults, stretching is as common a morning routine as brushing our teeth or combing our hair.

Mind-body fitness expert Anat Baniel wants us to know how to move and stretch carefully and start our day out right. Baniel, author of Move Into Life: The Nine Essentials for Lifelong Vitality (Harmony Books, 2009), believes excessive stretching is an activity that is contrary to the health and longevity of our muscles.

Between massage therapy sessions, practice self-massage on one of the most sensitive areas of the body—your feet. A brisk foot massage in the morning can stimulate energy for the tasks ahead. In the evening, slow massage on the feet can help soothe the day’s stress. Follow the entire sequence in order, or try each separately.

When your massage therapist sees you for the first time, it is likely that he or she may take a medical history. Over time, as you become more familiar with your massage therapist, there may be issues affecting your body that are not covered by the medical history or cannot be identified until your therapist has worked with your tissues. You may even have completely forgotten about some physical or emotional trauma that occurred long ago.

Even with an ergonomically designed workstation, comfortable chair, and good posture, working at a computer is likely to result in strain, because it requires the body to alternate between repetitive motion and stillness, and that creates stiffness and strain.

Fortunately, the body is forgiving. You can counteract the effects of eight hours a day at a desk with just 15 minutes of movement. Of course, you’ll also need aerobic exercise and strength training to stay healthy in other ways. Here’s one exercise to help keep your shoulders loose.

Receiving a massage is a time to rest and rejuvenate as you experience the deeply nourishing effects of skillful touch. As your muscles relax and your mind unwinds, do you ever wonder how to talk with your massage therapist or bodyworker? Here are some guidelines about what to expect regarding verbal communication before, during, and after a session.

Hydrotherapy treatments can be a relaxing, healing way to extend the benefits of your massage. Treatments you perform at home can help take charge of your own health. Your massage therapist is your partner in healing and can suggest treatments that are well suited to your particular needs. Aches and pains, injuries, muscle tightness, and even joint stiffness can all be soothed with the following treatments.