Battle Ground therapeutic massage clinic offers senior-focused treatments

The folks at Waterlily Therapeutic Massage and Sauna in Battle Ground have made it their mission to provide a safe, comfortable place where seniors can come for pain relief, relaxation, and quiet. Owner Jeannie Jensen purchased the business in 2013, roughly 10 years after it was established.  

Waterlily offers many services, but some that specifically benefit aging adults are cranial sacral work, paraffin treatments, cupping, treatment massage, and relaxation massage. 

{{tncms-inline content="<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; evening and weekend appointments are available.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Located at 119 S Parkway Ave., Battle Ground.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">For more information call (360) 666-1300</span></p>" id="d83aa866-1bb8-4082-9aef-9442efa0b93b" style-type="fact" title="If You Go" type="relcontent"}}

Waterlily’s therapists offer a variety of treatment modalities, and it is not necessary to know exactly what one needs before scheduling. 

“We offer a great variety of services,” Jensen said. “We have therapists who are very experienced in both relaxation and treatment work of many different kinds.”

Waterlily also has ADA compliant tables, which are very beneficial for people who have mobility issues. 

“It makes it a lot easier for them (seniors) to get on and off the table,” Jensen said. 

Jensen has been working as a licensed massage therapist for about seven years, perfecting her favorite technique of cranial sacral work. This is the gentle manipulation of bones in the skull, spine, and pelvis to help with the flow of one’s cerebrospinal fluid and normalize the central nervous system. Cranial sacral work can greatly benefit those suffering from migraines and headaches, constipation, disturbed sleep cycles, scoliosis, neck pain, fibromyalgia, anxiety and depression, among other things. 

“I really enjoy cranial sacral work, my normal massage is a combination of relaxation and deep tissue,” she said. “I want to help somebody feel more calm and relaxed while addressing any painful areas they might have on the body.”

She also enjoys the cranial sacral massage technique because it is very gentle for people who might have health conditions that prohibit regular massage, and can be done fully clothed. 

According to Jensen, a wonderful way to help arthritis are Paraffin Treatments for either hands or feet. During a Paraffin Treatment at Waterlily, a client will have their hands or feet washed, then depending on the skin, the therapist will do a salt scrub to exfoliate away any dead skin cells. Then the hands or feet are wrapped in a hot towel to relax, before being dipped into the paraffin wax. The wax then sits on the client’s hands for a while to soften the skin. The heat from it can help with pain issues. The relaxation doesn’t stop there. 

“While that’s sitting we will do a scalp massage or facial massage after we take the wax off we provide a nice relaxing massage on the treated area,” Jensen said. 

For people who would like to reduce cellulite and scaring, cupping can be an excellent thing to incorporate into a massage. Cupping is a form of alternative medicine that goes back as far as 1,550 B.C. The cups are placed on the skin and suction is made, pulling up the skin.

“It’s great for if you have a painful area or if you have a pain going down one side of your spine,” Jensen said. “We might put cups in a line along your spine and let them sit for a little while. They can give a really nice deep muscle release in connective tissue that can release pain.”

There’s also a technique called side cupping where a therapist keeps the cup constantly moving. The client doesn’t quite get as deep of a release with it, but there’s still a lot of the same benefits, and it doesn’t leave marks.

Jensen has also figured out a way she believes can potentially diminish the fine facial lines caused by aging.

“I have a facial cupping technique that I do that can help reduce the look of lines and wrinkles, firm up the skin, help improve complextion and can reduce a lot of the signs of aging,” she said. “It’s kind of minimal for one cupping session, but if you do it over time it can really reduce the appearance of aging.”

Jensen still remembers a time when she gave one of her clients the ability to freely move her neck again.

“I had one client come in, an older woman who had chronic neck pain for years. She had been using massage to reduce the pain level and the tension that she was feeling and she came in for a half hour treatment with me. She came back about a month later and said, ‘I didn’t know massage could fix things.’ Her pain didn’t come back for over a year. That was pretty wonderful; I felt really good about that.”