Tempe medical massage shop relieves what ails clients - East Valley Tribune

[massage]

The inside of Physician’s Choice Massage (PCM) in Tempe feels different than other massage spas.

The walls, instead of hosting pictures of serene locations, hold medical posters displaying all of the muscles of different areas most often afflicted by chronic pain.

It’s smaller, more intimate and, also, runs on a different premise. PCM doesn’t align itself with the Massage Envys and other places to get a rubdown; instead, it focuses on pain relief from a medical point of view.

”Medical massage differs in that you’re not going in and getting a massage/whole body treatment; it’s very condition specific,” said Devena Riedl-Spears, PCM’s owner and chief massage therapist. “If somebody comes in with back pain, we don’t try to correct the back pain, we don’t focus on the back, we work to correct the imbalances that cause back pain.”

Riedl-Spears has a background to know exactly how to treat chronic conditions. In addition to massage, she studied sports medicine, giving her insight on how to treat people.

Consultations start as soon as someone walks through the door, going through a series of questions to try and not just treat the pain, but the underlying causes of what is making the area hurt.

“We assess from the moment somebody walks through,” Riedl-Spears said. “We ask you questions. Sometimes your job will tell us or your activities…we look at all of that.”

The other thing that sets PCM apart is the results they are able to achieve and the personal touch that they try to give every client.

“We’re not a mill as far as getting people in from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.,” Riedl-Spears said. “Our goal is to really help people.”

PCM receptionist Brianna Watkins said: “I think the most important thing is seeing the results of people when they come in. Their moods and how they’re walking and seeing how they are after a couple of treatments and seeing how they’ve progressed…the way that they present themselves, it’s really interesting to see how much work we do here and how good it is.”

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