Membership in the American Massage Therapy Association, the profession's largest organization, has doubled in the past three years to 17,300 members. Earlier yet, the Veda books of wisdom, which describe yoga practices, refer to breathing exercises used for religious and lealing purposes. Egyptian, Persian, and ancient Japanese medical literature is filled with references to therapeutic baths and massage. In the 19th century, Per Henrick Ling founded the Central Royal Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm, Sweden and organized much of this earlier work into a system for physical manipulation which is now called Swedish massage. It is sometimes referred to as Swedish-Esalen, which is an expanded form developed at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
Massage is the maipulation of sift tissue for therapeutic purposes.
Soft tissue is basically every part of the body except the bone structure. Skin, connective tissue, muscles, organs and even eyeballs are all condidered soft tissue. There are many different approaches to working with soft tissue, and massage therapists have developed many different techniques, based both on Western and Eastern understanding of himan anatomy. Massage therapists are also exploring the frontiers of energy or vibrational medicine, primarily on the bio-electric field that surrounds and permeates each body. These techniques include Polarity, Chakra balancing and Psychic massage.