As previously mentioned, a non-massage control group was not considered feasible for this study given the length of the treatment. Research has found that there are benefits associated with a single massage treatment (Field et al., 1997; Okvat et al., 2002). The findings of this study are based on a single treatment session lasting 90 min. The overall aim of this study was to provide exploratory data on physiological and psychological outcomes involving two different styles of massage. The results indicate that benefits are associated with a single massage. Additional improvements may be found with multiple massages administered over a longer time period or when comparing therapeutic massage to another type of treatment for an equivalent length of time.