A deep tissue massage is a very specific type of massage. It has its own style or modality. In the west we sometimes think or somebody says I like a deep massage because I like the deep work. They think that means automatically deep tissue but deep tissue itself has its own form of massage where you tend to work more specifically on various muscles whereas like Swedish massage often times will work with more of the whole limb. It's like as if I were to do a Swedish massage, I would be using many long strokes or kneading type strokes. It would be more of the long strokes with lots of oil and just working on the more superficial tissues, the skin and the superficial layers of the muscle whereas in deep tissue you tend to work much heavier using stumps, knuckles, elbows and at times knees. You are working typically a very heavy and very specific tracing, maybe tracing a pressure along the length of the muscle working from the insertion point to the origin point. Tracing very carefully along that muscle and not doing a full body treatment of deep tissue in any one session. It might take anywhere from 5-10 sessions for a deep tissue practitioner to really work the body whereas in the Swedish treatment you could give a full body massage and have addressable body in a session. Deep tissue is going to take more time because you are working at much deeper layers in the muscle tissue.
