On the day Kate Marshall-Chase gave birth to her first child, she gave him something else.

A massage.

"Right after birthing, they lay down like this . . ." she said, crouching into a fetal position as her son did when she first brought him home.

Marshall-Chase, director of the Center for Well-Being and a massage therapist, sought to ease her child's transition from the womb to the world by the most natural means she knew.

She and her husband laid their son, Alec, on the floor, stretched his arms and legs and applied deep pressure to his body.

"Infant massage is real important for bonding and kinetic sense," Marshall-Chase said. "And it would relax him."

Alec, now 18-months-old, curiously explores everything in the house. But massages still relaxes him, as a pacifier might for other children.

Created in 1979 by a massage therapist, a chiropractor and a psychologist, the Center for Well-Being was designed to promote health in "mind, body and spirit," Marshall-Chase said.

"Most people who are doing massage are involved with the health movement in some way," Marshall-Chase said. "Some of them have a more alternative lifestyle than others, but it's not a prerequisite."

The Center, currently in transition from its former location on College Avenue to a renovated church in Lemont, sells gift certificates which can be redeemed for either a 45-, 60- or 90-minute massage, costing $30, $35 and $45, respectively.

For the massage therapist and others who practice holistic health, massages provide an important ingredient of everyday life. In fact, Marshall-Chase's entire family, including her 13-year-old son, give each other massages.

"It's important for families to be touching," she said. "People assume all touch is sexual, but it's for comfort."

While she was pregnant with Alec, Marshall-Chase would rub her stomach with oils to create a soothing environment inside. And when her older son Eric receives a sports-related sprain or strain, her mothering includes a blend of emotional support and physical relief.

Numerous methods of massage exist. The one most people think of or have seen in movies is Swedish massage, the most basic technique. Swedish massage involves kneading and long, firm body strokes.

Deep-tissue massage is used for pain management. Many athletes receive this therapy to ease chronic pain, said Jane Stemberger, a massage therapist for Cunning's Chiropractic Center at 433 E. Beaver Ave. Massage has been used in training more frequently, Stemberger said, because athletes find their bodies recuperate faster and they can train harder.

Another technique, known as Shiatsu, requires the therapist to use his or her knuckles or elbows in a form of acupressure.

Both formal and informal schools in which people can learn massage techniques exist throughout the country, and some states -- including California, Florida and New York -- have strict licensing rules limiting who can practice massage. Stemberger received training at a 10-month program in San Diego.

In Pennsylvania, however, therapists do not have to be licensed.

"Most massage schools are holistically oriented," Stemberger said. "But as far as clients go, they just come because they know that you can help them." Carol Lindsey, a massage therapist at the Center for Well-Being, has continued her formal massage education hoping the state will some day require licensing to further professionalize the field. Lindsey, who refers to herself as a therapeutic touch practitioner, said much of the skill comes from experience.

"I've done massage pretty much all of my life," she said. "I was one of those people who was always massaging people's necks and shoulders."

Lindsey believes the mind and body are intrinsically tied together, with distress in one affecting the other. Negative mental energy, she said, can result in bodily ailments of which people remain unaware.

"Some people get on the table and don't even realize how sore they were in places," she said. "We aren't really in touch with our bodies. (Massage is) a process of educating ourselves to be more aware of our bodies."

The idea of massage often arouses notions of masseuses, masseurs, and nudity -- uncomfortable images to some. But both Marshall-Chase and Lindsey do not refer to themselves "by those French words," and although clients do take their clothes off, they are always covered.

"The first thought that flashes through peoples' minds is the massage parlor kind of stuff, unfortunately," Lindsey said. "But massage is touching in a safe way. You're allowing someone to care for you for an hour."

She admits the concept of receiving a massage for the first time is scary. "You go into a room with someone you don't know, take your clothes off and be touched."

Stemberger agreed many clients initially feel nervous, adding that "it's a vulnerable position to put yourself in."

But by promoting an open, trusting rapport, the therapist can help the client feel better and begin to take responsibility for their well-being --one goal of holistic health.

Exemplifying the concern for health, therapists almost always use vegetable oils because mineral oils are believed to leech the water-soluble vitamins out of the body.

No one is too young or old for massage, the therapists said. Lindsey said she has worked on an 89-year-old woman who, despite common perception, was anything but fragile.

"I would love to work in some home for the elderly. I think it's enormously wonderful for them," she said. "(Massage is) very nice for older people who have lost spouses and haven't been touched in a long time."