Integrating Massage into Even More Comprehensive Care
*This post is Part 2 of our series on massage therapy and healing touch. If you haven't already, please check out Part 1 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here!
Now, let's pick back up where we left off. In this installment, we'll discuss how healing touch modalities compliment and integrate with the medical and mental health care we offer at The Buddha's Medicine.
Pairing Perfectly with Dr. Matt's Medical Care
Not to be too reductionistic, but functionally, every one of our patients' care and health stands to improve with the support of quality, informed, and intuitive bodywork. Every single one.
The right kind of healing touch promotes health for anyone and everyone. How exactly healing touch is matched to each individual's needs will, of course, be a matter of personal circumstance and situation (and that is the nature of the Ayurvedic method), but the overarching principle is universal.
Quality bodywork regulates nervous system signaling and function; reduces stress; improves the flow of lymphatic fluid and the drainage of inflammatory wastes; unbinds connective tissues; soothes pain and discomfort; and more. In Ayurvedic terms, massage regulates and corrects the movement of vata in both the tangible and subtle sheaths of the body, and that results in improved health across the board.
If you're interested in reviewing solid literature on the benefits of massage for various conditions, examples can be found below. Those are not exhaustive examples; they simply demonstrate some of the documented examples of the known healing value that massage provides.
In my professional experience, interweaving massage with integrative medical care is incredibly powerful, and both augments and accelerates the healing progress my patients experience. I personally began studying healing touch and manual medicine during my medical school career, and have continued practicing forms of manual medicine since that time. And I am such a believer in massage that I seek it out myself on a regular basis.
Supporting Jamie's Mental Health Therapy
Human beings are profoundly social creatures by our nature. From a biological and anthropological perspective, one of the ways that this shows up is in how we make physical contact with each other to co-regulate; to manage our own emotions, and to support others in managing their emotions.
Massage, especially here at The Buddha's Medicine, is a natural extension of this principle. In this way, massage therapy pairs almost magically with Jamie's already magical mental health services.
Massage makes room for more emotional self-management, processing, and release; it compliments Jamie's somatic work; it supports the development of healthier attachment patterns; and it opens doors to even more meaningful Internal Family Systems (IFS) work. And what's more, the body-mind connection is well-established as an essential therapeutic pathway in healing trauma.
Jamie, like me, is a believer in the value of healing touch, and also regularly seeks out massage herself. I often hear from her how regulating a good massage is for her nervous system.
Standalone Healing for the Community
We welcome and encourage our patients (medical and mental health) to take advantage of our massage offerings at The Buddha's Medicine. But our massage services and care are not exclusive to our existing patients! Anyone can come receive the benefits our team's wonderful work offers.
Whether you are in need of supportive therapies and care for an existing condition or for general wellness and prevention, you'll find what you're looking for here.
For Your Perusal
As promised, if you're curious about what specific health conditions massage has been studied for, you can find an impressive (and still very incomplete) list here. Bear in mind, there is much, much more than this that massage has proof of benefit for:
Achilles Tendinopathy (Chimenti et al., 2024; Ko et al., 2023)
Ankle Injuries (Hu et al., 2025; Ruiz-Sánchez et al., 2022, Yang et al., 2025)
Antenatal Anxiety and Depression (Hall et al., 2020; Smith et al., 2019)
Anxiety in Long-Term Care (Atchison et al., 2022)
Arthritis (Nelson et al., 2017)
Cancer-Related Fatigue (Long et al., 2024)
Cancer-Related Pain (Mao et al., 2022)
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Chen et al., 2025; Zhang et al., 2025)
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (Ye & Abdi, 2025)
Chronic Pain (Busse et al., 2017; Dowell et al., 2022)
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (Wiecha et al., 2025)
Dementia (behavioral & psychological symptoms) (Leng et al., 2020; Margenfeld et al., 2019; Watt et al., 2019)
Fibromyalgia (Kundakci et al., 2022)
Groin and Adductor Injuries (de Castro Fernandes et al., 2025)
Headache Disorders (Jung et al., 2024; Reynolds et al., 2025)
Knee Pain (Neal et al., 2024; Zhu et al., 2024)
Lateral Elbow Pain (Lucado et al., 2022)
Low Back Pain (Cashin et al., 2025; Chou et al., 2017; Qaseem et al., 2017)
Lumbar Spinal Stenosis (Bussières et al., 2021)
Motor Difficulties in Neurodivergent Individuals (Short et al., 2025)
Multiple Sclerosis (Heidari et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2022)
Neck Pain (Makin et al., 2024; Reynolds et al., 2025)
Pain and Anxiety in People with Burns (Barnes et al., 2024; Lin et al., 2023)
Pain Management in Labor (Smith et al., 2018)
Palliative Care (Armstrong et al., 2019; Mao et al., 2022)
Parkinson's Disease (motor and non-motor symptoms) (Angelopoulou et al., 2020; Kang et al., 2022; Qureshi et al., 2021)
Plantar Heel Pain (Fraser et al., 2018; Koc et al., 2023)
Postburn Pruritus (Sinha et al., 2024)
Postoperative Pain and Anxiety in Patients with Breast Cancer (Cole et al., 2024)
Postpartum Maternal Sleep (Owais et al., 2018)
Reducing Symptoms of Depression in People with Dementia (Watt et al., 2021)
Rheumatoid Arthritis (England et al., 2023)
Shoulder Pain (Desmeules et al., 2025)
Surgical Pain Population (Dowell et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2022)
Symptom Burden of Critically Ill Adults (Thrane et al., 2019)
Temporomandibular Disorders (Arribas-Pascual et al., 2023; Busse et al., 2023)
We'll continue our discussion in the next installment, in which we'll take a look at massage through the lens of Ayurveda. In the meantime, you can get scheduled now!
If you or someone you love could benefit from skilled, tradition-informed healing touch to support recovery, ease tension, or simply restore a sense of well-being, we're here to help.
Professional disclaimer: please do not initiate any herbal or other medicinal interventions without the guidance of a knowledgeable provider.
Dr. Matt Van Auken, MD, MPH
Dr. Matt is an Ayurveda-trained, triple board-certified physician.
