While many people think that massage (direct pressure to the tissues) and energy work (working with the nonvisible energy of the body) affect different bodily systems, in fact, in all types of massage, including massage done solely for muscle release, you are working with the energy of the body. Like the blood, energy flows through the body. Examples of nonvisible energy in the body that we are all familiar with are our nerve impulses and the regulation of our heartbeat.

When energy--of whatever kind--gets stuck, there is dysfunction. Sometimes the stress manifests as tight muscles, sometimes as depression or anxiety or an inability to relax, sometimes as a feeling of malaise. Sometimes those tight muscles are the result of simple physical exercise--for example, running or weeding your garden. Other times, they are the result of mental or emotional tension.

You can get at these blocks that manifest as muscular tension by massaging the muscles directly or via craniosacral or energy work. Energy work and craniosacral therapy are done with a very light touch or even off-body, since energy (think of radio waves) doesn't have to be moved in the same way as a tangible object (think of a rock).

Amazingly, energy work can be as effective (sometimes more effective) than massage at releasing tense muscles. I've had many a client come in with a tense back or neck. I would begin to massage them, and after about ten minutes I would notice that the tissue wasn't softening. And while the massage might feel good, they weren't going to get any long-lasting benefit. I began to experiment with gently holding the area with my hand, allowing the fascia (the connective tissue that surrounds the muscles) to be met energetically. After anywhere between two and ten minutes, the tissue would soften up enough that massage therapy would be productive. Inevitably, the client would tell me that they were under a lot of mental or emotional stress, not just physical. They could feel the difference in how there tissue responded to the massage after a little bit of energy work.