“Often times people are stressed in our culture. Stress-related disorders make up between 80% - 90% of the ailments that bring people to family-practice physicians. What they require is someone to listen, someone to touch them, someone to care. That does not exist in modern medicine.

One of the complaints heard frequently is that physicians don’t touch their patients anymore. Touch just isn’t there. Years ago, massage was a BIG part of nursing. There was so much care, so much touch, so much goodness conveyed through massage. Now, nurses for the most part, are as busy as physicians. They’re writing chart, dealing with insurance notes, they’re doing procedures, and often there is no room for massage anymore.

I believe massage therapy is absolutely key in the healing process not only in the hospital environment, but because it relieves stress is obviously foundational in the healing process anytime and anywhere.

Joan Borysenko – Massage Journal Interview, Fall 1999