you know the answer. Similarly, if you have questions about the appropriateness of massage therapy for your client’s condition or concerns about possible contraindications, ask for approval from his physician before you proceed with treatment. Turning a client away if you do not feel confident that providing massage is safe may frustrate the client in the short term, but he may eventually see that you are working with his best interest in mind. Another facet for building strong professional relationships with your clients is how you protect their privacy. Though it is not necessarily spelled out in specific terms as part of your scope of practice, it is definitely a key component of your professionalism and the trust you build with your clients. If you work in a medical setting, HIPAA laws may apply to you, and it is your responsibility to understand and practice patient privacy policies. Do not share any of their medical information, and do not share any of the personal information they may have told you during their massage session with anyone other than their physician Massage therapy is powerful. As discussed in Section 3 of this course, a massage therapy session can trigger the relaxation response in the body. Studies have shown that this can happen with as little as 10 to 15 minutes of hands-on work. When regular massage therapy sessions become a lifestyle choice, your client gets to spend more time, ideally on a consistent basis, in the ahhhhhhhh … state and less time in the state of stress. Being in the ahhhhhhhh … state more often means that there is a greater chance for chronic stress patterns to be broken or, at the very least, interrupted for a time to provide relief. Studies conducted to prove this theory have provided data that should come as no surprise to us as practitioners. Pain management Pain is often what triggers people to seek out massage therapy in the first place. Think about how often you experience pain, and what you do about it when it happens. Do you ignore it? Do you run to your doctor for painkillers? Most of us probably fall somewhere in the middle of those two reactions to pain, and most of us probably take action only after the pain has become a consistent annoyance. By the time our clients get to us for relief, they have likely been experiencing pain for a while. According to the National Institutes of Health, a division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, “Pain affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined” (NIH, 2018). The good news is that current research is starting to examine and support the theory that massage therapy is a safe and effective tool for pain management with broad applications. A study published in 2016 in the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s journal Pain Medicine opened the door for more research into this theory. Though the researchers determined that a more specific definition of massage therapy (included modalities) and more comparative studies are needed, they generally concluded, “There is evidence to suggest that massage therapy may be beneficial for improving various patient-reported functional outcomes for populations experiencing pain” (Crawford et al., 2016). In other words, massage therapy works to treat pain, which we already knew. We just need the scientific evidence to back it up to stake our claim in the medical community. The reduction in pain that clients experience during and after a massage is caused by a few factors, which we will examine from the outside in. First is the effect of manual manipulation on soft tissue. On the muscular level, massage therapy loosens tight, Rest, digest, and recover As discussed in Section 1 of this course, sleep is often the first body function to be affected by both acute and chronic stress. Over time, a constant level of stress can cause a sleep deficit from either not getting enough sleep or not getting any sleep
if necessary. Understand that sometimes your clients just need to say things out loud in a safe place to get it off their chest in a nonconfrontational and supported way. Your job is to be an objective listener and nothing more.
Never gossip about your clients, particularly if you also treat their friends and family members. Even if a dual relationship exists such as your client is also your friend leave the personal relationship outside of the treatment room. Operate from a place of integrity and trust at all times. The only exception to this rule is in the case of suspected or known abuse, especially when a child is involved. In some states, in accordance with your state license, you might be considered a mandated reporter of child abuse or other types of abuse as a licensed practitioner. In the event that you suspect abuse, you must follow procedure to report it. Check with your state licensing board for details about this procedure. SECTION 4: WHAT ARE THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CONSISTENT MASSAGE THERAPY?
In a study on the effect of trigger point therapy, there was a significant decrease in heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure. Measures of oxygen consumption, blood pressure, and salivary cortisol levels were all lower after a 10 to 15 minute chair massage in controlled studies. Changes in psychological states have been measured by physiological responses, the Perceived Stress Scale, the POMS Depression Scale, and the Anxiety State Scale. (AMTA, 2017) When massage therapy is a part of a comprehensive self-care regimen, the benefits can be tremendous. The more research we have to back up what we already know, the more we can advocate for massage therapy to be taken seriously as a health care tool by the medical community. restricted muscles and connective tissue to reduce hypertonicity, and relieves nerve compression that can be caused by muscle tension. Relieving muscle tension can also improve joint function and range of motion because the joint will be able to move with less muscular restriction. On the circulatory level, massage therapy increases blood flow to ischemic tissue and increases lymphatic flow allowing the tissues to dispose of metabolic waste more efficiently. On the neurological level, massage therapy triggers the relaxation response noted above, during which the brain sends messages via the central and peripheral nervous systems to the body to tell it to relax by reducing the number of signals sent to induce muscle contraction. On the chemical level, massage therapy increases the available levels of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins while simultaneously reducing cortisol levels. All of these combined will reduce a client’s experience of pain both immediately following a session and for the long term with consistent care. Although it is widely recognized that chronic stress can cause pain, it is also important to note that the reverse can be true. Chronic pain can cause stress, as we see in the case of clients suffering with long-term generalized pain conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic myofascial pain. Clients who have been dealing with chronic pain for a long time may not be able to recognize any separation between pain and stress anymore; it no longer matters which is the chicken, so to speak, and which is the egg because the two things are deeply intertwined. Even though our treatment approach to both might be the same, it is useful in building good client relationships to understand their experiences of pain so we can better meet their expectations.
at all. Even those who get some sleep may hover in the lighter stages of sleep during the night and may not be reaching the deeper stages of sleep that offer the most restorative benefits. An article on the website for an organization called Tuck
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