Another facet of 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, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (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 you hear during their massage session with anyone other than their physician if necessary. Understand that sometimes your patients just need to say things out loud in a safe place to get it off their chest in a nonconfrontational and supported way, free from the judgement that someone close to them might have. Your job is to be an objective listener and nothing more. Never gossip about your clientele, particularly if you also treat their friends and family members. Even if a dual relationship exists, such as your patient also being your friend, leave the personal relationship outside of the treatment room.
of diagnoses for their various medical conditions seeking more information from us. Though it may be tempting to offer advice, do not step outside of your scope of practice. Remind yourself of the power differential we learn about in our study of professional ethics that exists in the client– therapist relationship and that your clients may see you as an authority figure. Never claim to have more knowledge than what you are legally entitled to have in accordance with your level of training and the licensing laws in your state. Therapy clinicians should avoid giving advice about medical conditions or medications and do not provide psychological counseling. Unless you also hold a medical license in your state, never give your clients medical or psychological advice—because you are not qualified to do so. You can speak about all the wonderful benefits that consistent soft tissue therapy can lead to, and you can listen. Provide them with an opportunity to be heard. Have open discussions about their expectations and goals and explain results you may have seen in other clients with similar issues. If your client has medical questions, always refer them to their physician for answers, even if you know or think you know the answer . Similarly, if you have questions about the appropriateness of your treatment approach for your client’s condition or concerns about possible contraindications, ask for approval from their physician before you proceed with treatment. Turning them away if you don’t feel confident that providing therapeutic massage is safe may frustrate them in the short term, but they may eventually see that you are working with their best interests in mind. Manual therapy is powerful. As discussed in Section 3 of this course, a therapeutic massage session can trigger the relaxation response in the body, and studies show that this can happen with as little as 10 to 15 minutes of hands-on work. When regular manual therapy sessions become a lifestyle choice, your client gets to spend more time, ideally on a consistent basis, in the relaxation state and less time in the state of stress. Being in a relaxed and pain-free 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 period of time to provide client relief. Studies conducted to prove this theory have provided data that should come as no surprise to us as practitioners. “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 Pain management Pain is often what triggers people to seek out manual 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 or has become so severe that it impedes normal functioning. 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 (NIH), a division of the U.S. 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 manual therapy is a safe and effective tool for pain management with broad applications. A study published in
Clinicians should 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 and/or other types of abuse as a licensed practitioner. If you suspect someone is being abused, there is a procedure you must follow to report it. Check with your state licensing board for details about this process. SECTION 4: THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CONSISTENT THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE
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.” (American Massage Therapy Association, 2017) When manual 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 manual therapy to be taken seriously as a healthcare tool by the medical community. According to data compiled by AMTA for 2022, 47% of consumers got a massage for relaxation and stress reduction (see References section for a link to the fact sheet). That’s almost half of all consumers. So how do we get the other half? 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 (i.e., included modalities) and more comparative studies are needed, they generally concluded that “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, manual therapy works to treat pain, which is something we already know. Additionally, it is noted the use of manual therapy as therapy management in patients with systemic diagnoses, such as fibromyalgia, has demonstrated an effect on improving symptoms, mainly on pain and the quality of life. (Schulze et al., 2020). In a perfect world, physicians and mental health professionals would routinely refer their patients for manual therapy. But before we can sell it, let’s
EliteLearning.com/Massage-Therapy
Book Code: MNJ0626
Page 46
Powered by FlippingBook