Building Trust with Your Therapist
As massage therapists we are educated with extensive training in the human body and how it functions. Massage therapy is more than just a nice relaxing massage with oils, it is body therapy. The training includes anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, pathology, and other in-depth classes pertaining to the human body and condition. Therefore, we are aware of how to help with various health issues and to determine which bodywork methods would be the most beneficial for you.
Often a client will request a certain modality, or a specific part of the body worked on. Pressure is often a personal request as well. However, as educated professional bodyworkers we are trained to know the body and its cues that it gives off to let us know what it needs. Many people that request specific things to be done, they don’t realize that what they are requesting may not be the best option to bring about the results that they are seeking. Massage therapy is considered a medical type of work, not just for spa use!
We at Holistic Bodyworks and many other massage therapy businesses specialize in assisting our clients to become pain free and able to have more range of movement. The media has shown that massage is only a “spa” treatment, while you are on vacation, but in reality, we are trained as health practitioners. A spa massage can be beneficial, but for long lasting results it is important to trust in your therapist to know what is needed for your specific condition. We have found that the clients that have the best results are the ones that let us do what we are trained to do. Let us take care of you!
Honestly presenting your situation on the intake form is vital to giving your therapist the full picture of your mental, emotional, and physical health. The more information you provide, the better able we are to help you. Your information is always held under the HIPPA codes of ethics; therefore, you need not worry about your personal health information being shared in any way. We, as massage therapists, need as much information as we can get to properly assess your personal health to give you the best outcome.
There are massage techniques that can be dangerous for certain conditions. For example, if you have high blood pressure and you request to have deep tissue massage you may not know this type of massage can increase your blood pressure and can increase you risk for a heart attack or stroke. Another example, there are certain types of cancer that can be spread to other parts of the body, which can be life threatening. So, all the more reason to be honest about all your conditions on your intake form as there are modalities that we can use for these certain conditions.
According to Kyle Spain, LMT, from the December 2017 issue of Massage magazine, “I feel a great wave of satisfaction when a client is shocked to discover their pain is gone and their mobility is restored while emphatically saying, “You didn’t even have to hurt me!” We don’t follow the philosophy of, “No pain, no gain.” While during the therapies you may experience a therapeutic pain, which is a healing pain. With our techniques you will not experience damaging pain. Our intension is to help you heal, not cause more damage.
In short, we are highly educated professionals. Our training is geared towards pain relief and joint mobility using non-invasive, hands-on techniques that do not have deleterious side effects. We have found that our clients find better results when they allow us to use our extensive training to help them. That being said, make sure to fill out the intake from completely and honestly, then let us take care of the rest. You will be pleased!
By, Sharry Smith, LMT and Stephanie Fredricksen, LMT
