Massage & Sexual Trauma

In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April), I am using this post to address a topic that the majority of Massage Therapist tend to avoid. Massage Therapy and its relation to Sexual Health!

With the fading but still lingering stigma of illicit services offered by shady massage parlors and the safety issues that creates for licensed therapists as well as unfortunate fact that usually massage is only connected with sex in misconduct news reports or human trafficking cases, it makes sense that my profession would seek to distance itself from anything sex related. But, to put it most crudely, Massage Therapists rub lube on naked people. To deny that people have a sexual and sensual element to their humanity, especially in this context, serves no one. I think it is time to evolve and realize, as both practitioners and clients, that massage in its professional, therapeutic, non-sexual form is in a unique position to help men and women resolve dysfunction and pain with sexual or pelvic origins.

Statistics collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2023 and 2025 offer a pretty dismal picture. Nearly half of all women have experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetime. Men fair little better at a rate of 1 in 6. Rates of attempted or completed rape are estimated around 1 of every 5 women and 1 in every 31 men. Most sexual assault takes place before age 25. For men, assault is likely to happen before age 10. Please keep in mind that sexual violence is highly under reported making accurate statistics difficult to obtain; other sources estimate that rates of sexual assault, rape and other forms of sexual violence are much higher for both women and men, advancing technology contributing to these attacks.

Sexual assault has profound effects on a person’s entire being. Psychotherapy helps survivors process their emotions and experiences mentally and is profoundly important. But with our evolving understanding of the mind/body connection, it is imperative to address all facets of a person to heal. That is where massage therapy comes in!

Physical trauma and memories of traumatic events are often stored in our bodies as well as in our minds. Failure to address that aspect in survivors can mean continued flashbacks and diminished sense of safety even after the event has been fully accepted and processed mentally. Receiving massage can also help these clients relearn to experience safety and pleasure in touch. After having choice stripped from physical contact, any contact can seem threatening and the longer that association with holds the more difficult it can be to break. Reacquainting one’s self with good touch in the safe, consentual, therapeutic context of a massage can support rebuilding healthy boundaries. Massage therapy is also an important adjunct to psychotherapy in that it can help to alleviate anxiety and depression as well as be an important tool in healing dissociation (ie reintegrating the self into the body). Traumatic sexual events are nearly ubiquitous in our country. As a Massage Therapist who specializes in pelvic health, it is important to me that more people know about how massage therapy can help them heal. We all deserve to feel confident ownership of our bodies. I want to help those who may have had that right challenged to reclaim it. In summary, massage therapy can help survivors of sexual violence and abuse by

• Releasing traumatic memories stored in body tissues

• Unwinding guarding and compensation patterns created by the event

• Helping to re-establish healthy boundaries

• Mitigating negative responses and behaviors toward touch

• Decreasing depression and anxiety

• Lessening body dissociation, recreating a sense of safety in one’s self

What do you think? Can massage help survivors of sexual violence recover? Share your opinions in the comments below!

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