Healing Occurs Automatically

In our modern culture, with modern medicine, healing is often considered something someone or something does to you.  You get sick and you take medicine: It heals you.  You go to a doctor, you get surgery: It fixes the problem.  You have sore muscles and go get a massage: It takes the soreness away.
As a massage practitioner, I am interested in healing.  But I do not make healing happen.  I let healing happen.  I don't fix problems, I let the body fix itself.
If there is tension in a certain part of the body, often by simply placing my hand there, the body becomes aware that that muscle is holding more tension than necessary.  Simply the act of touch helps the body become self aware, gives it the information it needs to return to a state of balance.  It lets the body know it can let go of that tension.
Touch simply gives the body information that allows it to act on its own.  But it was the body, your body that had the intelligence to do the healing.
For someone who has suffered physcological trauma, healing occurs with the experience of trust and safety.  The person experiences new situations that are safe.  Touch, with the intention of care and healing, informs that person and the body that this situation is safe.  Healing can occur.
In every situation, the information needed for healing to take place is different.  In massage, it is my job to find out what information the body needs.  In some cases, when I sense someone has been through an emotionally difficult experience, I pick up that more important than focusing on a specific area, this person needs to feel cared about, and I try to bring that through in my massage.  If someone has limited range of motion because of an old injury, I may manually work to break down scar tissue, letting the body know that this scar tissue is not necessary anymore.
If there is pain between the shoulder blades because of muscles that are too tight, and a buildup of toxins in that area, through touch, letting the muscles know they can relax, allows the toxins to be released.
If muscles are holding a joint improperly, manual range of motion of that joint can inform it to hold correctly.
The body is its own intelligent system that when given the right information, will automatically act to find balance, wholeness and recovery.
As a massage practitioner, it is my job to find out what that information is and if I can give it.
But it is your body that does orchestrates its own healing.