HYDROTHERAPY
RVC Rehab Services is the only rehab centre with its own heated therapeutic pool on site, offering individual or small-group hydrotherapy treatments. Hydrotherapy is one of the oldest health treatments. It involves the use of water for soothing pains and treating diseases. It has been used for centuries all over the world. Indications are theoretically absolute, therefore, they include but are not limited to the following:
•Sub-acute/chronic soft tissue injury
•Muscle contractures
•Scar formation
•Osteoarthritis
•Sub-acute/chronic rheumatoid arthritis
•Patients who are post-fracture
•Open wounds
•Burns with intact thermal sensation
•Pressure ulcers
•Muscle spasm
•Tension
•Anxiety
•Muscle weakness from dis-use
•Muscle weakness from central nervous system or peripheral nervous system pathology
POSTURE AND MOVEMENT TRAINING
More often than not, your programme will address sitting and standing postures & strategies for addressing them, squatting and lifting techniques and any other movement pattern that is either aggravating your pain or is a requirement for your work/recreation needs. You will be made aware of how the strategies you have been using are connected to your pain and dysfunction and given simple cues/clues as to how to correct them before your pain intensifies.
By changing your posture and non-optimal movement behaviours, you can take back control over the events that are delaying your recovery. To this end, we offer ergonomic evaluations with reports recommending the changes necessary to enhance your safety at the work place.
MASSAGE THERAPY
Treating the Body
Therapeutic Massage has been proven to be a beneficial adjunct in providing relief to people of all ages – from infants to seniors and from all walks of life: the weekend or competitive athlete to the home gardener or overstressed,
overworked executive.
Massage therapy addresses a variety of health conditions, the most prevalent being stress-related tension, which, experts believe, accounts for 80%-90% of disease. Massage has been proven beneficial in treating cancer-related fatigue, sleep disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes, low back pain, immunity suppression, spinal cord injury, autism, post-operative surgery, age-related disorders, infertility, eating disorders, smoking cessation, and depression, to name just a few.
Here’s why: Massage offers a drug-free, non-invasive and humanistic approach based on the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Massage has many physiological effects, such as:
•Increasing circulation, allowing the body to pump more oxygen and nutrients into tissues and vital organs.
•Stimulating the lymph system, the body’s natural defense, against toxic invaders. For example, in breast cancer patients, massage has been shown to increase the cells that fight cancer.
•Relaxing and softening injured and overused muscles.
•Reducing spasms and cramping.
•Increasing joint flexibility.
•Reducing recovery time for strenuous workouts and eliminating subsequent pains of the athlete at any level.
•Releasing endorphins, the body’s natural painkiller. For this reason, massage is being incorporated into treatment for chronic illness, injury and recovery from surgery to control and relieve pain.
•Reducing post-surgery adhesions and edema and reducing and realigning scar tissue after healing has occurred.
•Improving range of motion and decreasing discomfort for patients with low back pain.
•Relieving pain for migraine sufferers and decreasing the need for medication.
•Providing exercise and stretching for atrophied muscles and reducing shortening of the muscles for those with restricted range of motion.
•Contributing to shorter labor and reduced tearing for expectant mothers, as well as lessening the need for medication, minimizing depression and anxiety, and shortening hospital stays.
Your practitioner should ask you about your specific health conditions and determine if massage, bodywork or somatic therapies are a good idea. In some cases, the practitioner may need your doctor’s permission before providing services.
Treating the Spirit
Massage also provides another therapeutic component largely absent in today’s world: tactile stimulation or, more simply, touch. In 1986, the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami published groundbreaking research on the effects of massage on premature babies. The preterm babies who received massage therapy showed 47% greater weight gain and six-day shorter hospital stays than the infants who were not receiving massage. But is this study evidence of what loving touch can do spiritually, or rather what massage can do on a physiological level? Regardless, babies are not the only benefactors.
Many adults have reported cathartic experiences on the massage table. As a therapist carefully unwinds a client’s stressed and tired muscles, the therapist may very well be unwinding the taut, pent-up emotions that one doesn’t always have time to process in the middle of the day. And the feeling of being touched in a safe, caring, compassionate manner can be a very powerful experience, reminding the client that she or he is not alone in the world.
As studies continue to reveal the link between kinesiology and physical and emotional health, the effects of massage will be further documented. At RVC Rehab Services you’ll find a qualified Therapeutic Massage Practitioner ready to help you experience a good massage to know it's beneficial to body and soul!
