Although the words massage parlor often bring up distasteful images of rundown buildings filled with untrained women offering cheap, soulless sexual encounters, real massage with therapists trained in therapeutic, Swedish, sensual, erotic or tantric massage techniques is very different.

Massage therapists, no matter what their specialty, are trained to enhance the mental and/or physical health of their clients. They are professionals who choose their profession and take pride in their abilities. Massage parlors usually do not have any requirements of their employees except that they accommodate the wishes of the clients as quickly as possible.

Massage parlors offer massages but are not forthright as to what erotic or sexual services they might also offer. Potential clients have to guess and wonder what might be available. Oh the contrary, professional massage therapists can state clearly what their specialties are.

Clients who patronize massage therapists can be assured that the therapists have the training and experience to help clients with a variety of health or physical problems. The therapists can help with physical injuries caused by work or sports. They can offer massages that help alleviate stress or anxiety. Practitioners of sensual or tantric massage have the skills and knowledge to help customers deal with issues of sexual abuse, premature ejaculation, erectile dysfunction, low libido or prostate malfunction. All these problems are real, but because they are related to sexual matters, they can be embarrassing for the sufferers to deal with.

Massage therapists, especially those specializing in the sexual arts, can be valuable teachers and helpers to people who have fear or past traumas regarding sexual matters. By clearly stating what they can and can't do, the therapists give hope to people who can't find hope in conventional medical or psychiatric channels.

Traditional massage parlors don't offer long term hope or solutions to problems, they only offer a very short term answer to a transitory need. The very way that services are requested in a traditional parlor conveys the quality and efficacy of their service. If a client at a massage parlor wants an erotic or sensual massage or even sexual intercourse, he has to ask for a "happy ending," or "some extras." This lack of clarity and specificity continues the tradition of considering sexual behavior as dirty and distasteful. It does not support the idea of healthy, sacred sexuality as right of all humans.

Therapeutic massage, no matter what type, seeks to relieve problems, release and realign the flow of energy, integrate the body with the mind and improve the health and functioning of the client. Massage using or focusing on sexual techniques is a type of therapy that addresses broad issues of human existence including body image, self-esteem issues, power and dominance issues, questions of self-worth and responsibility to others. This type of therapy can have a profound affect on health. Massage parlor massages don't deal with these kinds of issues. They are a pale shadow of real massage.

For real value and healthy results, avoid massage parlors and use professional massage therapists.