Massage Goes Mainstream

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Why the new enthusiasm for massage, a practice at least as old as grooming? (Earliest known spa: the Roman bath.) Many therapists attribute it to people's greater awareness of the effect stress has on health, and the wider acceptance of alternative or complementary medicine. Then there's the Pashmina effect, wherein goods and services originally marketed to the very rich become repackaged for the mass market. And some point to the isolation and lack of physical contact in contemporary society, where much communication is done electronically and any touch could be considered inappropriate. "People don't touch that much. They're watching TV or on the computer," says Dr. Paul Schwinghamer, a chiropractor and owner of a massage school in Los Angeles. "It's one of those things you don't really notice that you need. But nine times out of 10, after a massage, you think, 'I should be doing this more often.'"

Part of massage's current appeal has to be its sheer availability. There are now 950 state-licensed massage schools in the U.S., 14% more than there were even two years ago. Last year they turned out an estimated 30,000 new graduates (or "body workers"), all eager to get their hands on someone, whether at spas, on cruise ships, in hospitals and holistic health centers or during bar mitzvah celebrations. What are the attractions of the profession? Oddly, hardly anyone says it's because they can spend much of the day stroking seminaked women. In fact one of the earliest proponents of massage in Minnesota was a Catholic nun, Sister Rosalind Gefre. In 1984, when she first opened her business, she was busted by the police. Since then she has led the way in changing the local legislation covering massage and has opened three clinics and five schools. "Not only is there physical healing in massage, but there is also a spiritual healing," says Sister Roz, as she is known throughout the Twin Cities. "People are skin hungry and God hungry. Before Jesus helped people, he touched them, and that is the work we do."

The rise of spa culture also plays a role in the mainstreaming of massage. Hotels, such as the hip L'Ermitage in Beverly Hills, Calif., that formerly touted their state-of-the-art gyms are ripping them out and replacing them with spas. Radissons are adding spas, as are many health clubs. Choosing from the variety of rubdowns offered at these oases can take the kind of focus and endurance normally expended on choosing a career. There is traditional Swedish massage in which muscles are stroked and kneaded, Shiatsu and other acupressure-based Eastern techniques, reflexology (in which the hands and feet are prodded) and aromatherapy, which uses scented oils to enhance the effects of massage. For those with real backbone, there is the menage a trois of back rubs, the four-handed massage.