My name is Stephen Opper, LMBT#2955, and I have been practicing Therapeutic massage and bodywork since 1998. I am a lifelong student of the body, and continually strive for more effective ways to treat pain and dysfunction. My practice is called Manual Medicine Asheville Massage, and is located in Asheville, North Carolina.

Manual medicine has a long history of treating people with persistent pain conditions. Over 90% of all pain is soft tissue in origin. Whether you are dealing with chronic pain, or recovering from an athletic injury or auto accident, effective soft tissue release can be one of the most important steps in achieving lasting freedom from pain.

There is an inherent wisdom in the body, which reflects every aspect of our being. Our physical, physiological, mental, and emotional selves are interlinked and affect each other continually. Issues in one area inevitably affect and are affected by the whole system.

Effectively treating pain, especially chronic pain, is often not as straight forward as simply rubbing where it hurts. The human nervous system has elaborate mechanisms in place to prevent pain from reaching conscious awareness. This is designed to maximize our survivability. We couldn’t run from the saber-toothed tiger very well if we were consumed with how much our back and knee hurt. In the process of blocking pain signals, we subconsciously adapt by altering our posture and biomechanics to guard the injured area. While in the short term, this allows us to keep living and functioning, it also takes energy, and transfers strain to other areas of the body which must now overcompensate to perform tasks. This process also adds to fatigue, decreases our ability to handle stress, and negatively affects our endocrine and immune systems. All this happens without significant pain!

We adapt and adapt, but eventually we reach the limits of our adaptive capacity and symptoms manifest, usually in a different place than the original problem. Often these symptoms show up as musculoskeletal pain, other times as headaches, or allergies, or digestive distress, or whatever the weakest link in the chain may be. These symptoms compel us to reduce the stress load we place on our bodies, and prevent us from damaging ourselves further. It is important to not just deal with the weak link, but to follow and release the entire chain that it is connected to, otherwise symptoms tend to reoccur. Manual Medicine can have such profound effects because we spend a tremendous amount of life energy dealing with the force of gravity, and the more efficiently we can do so, the more energy we can free up to deal with the rest of life’s challenges and appreciate its blessings. Click here to read client testimonials.

I treat a wide variety of conditions, and specialize in chronic pain and difficult cases. I am fully versed in the treatment of all musculoskeletal conditions, as well as with the cranial and visceral systems, and I have studied a wide variety of modalities in order to increase my effectiveness and understanding of the body.

If you are suffering from chronic pain and injury, Manual Medicine may be able to help you even if you have tried massage therapy without satisfactory results. Click Here for answers to some commonly asked questions about your experience.

While I focus on structurally oriented massage and bodywork because it is such and important and underrepresented part of a complete health care system, it is also only one piece of the puzzle. I believe in a team approach, and enjoy collaborating with other health care professionals in order to bring faster and more efficient results

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