The Politics Of Massage: Alternative Treatment Or Mainstream Therapy?

I tend to view massage therapy independently of broader categories of therapy, healing or other restorative practices or systems. I am inclined to do this because I am cautious about allowing massage to be classified as a traditional therapy versus an alternative therapy.
There are many practitioners who cringe when they see massage therapy lumped in with ?alternative? practices such as acupuncture, chiropractic or naturopathic health. To some these smack of quackery, fakery or, in some cases, lunacy. I believe that this aversion to association with alternative medical practices is extreme but I concede that a massage therapy purist could develop such a phobia.
On the other hand, more open-minded massage therapists abhor associating massage exclusively with c View the rest of this article