Therapeutic massage (MT) is increasingly used to reduce the symptoms of stress. Multiple clinical studies have shown that therapeutic massage improves local musculoskeletal symptoms and function, reduces pain perception, enhances immune function, increases sleep and positively affects mood. The multiplicity of symptoms relieved and associated beneficial clinical effects after massage suggests that, in addition to the physiological changes in the body, the positive effects of massage on mood (“bliss”) contributes to increased health and well-being throughout life.

However, the concept of “stress reduction” has been operationally defined in so many ways that saying precisely what “stress reduction” is may be difficult. In addition, in a recent review, the stress-reducing effects of MT were examined by looking at treatment-induced changes in physiological parameters such as cortisol level, heart rate, and blood pressure. Findings were mixed, and the researchers observed that many of the studies generally lacked “the necessary scientific rigor to provide a definitive understanding of the effect massage therapy has on many physiological variables associated with stress.” Based on currently available evidence, it may be pragmatic to consider MT to be a form of emotion-focused coping that works by improving a recipient’s affective state, specifically anxiety, which in turn reduces the perceived effect of stress.