• Energy work: Quantum Touch and EFT
• No Pain, No Gain?
• Fibromyalgia Massage and Insurance
• Congratulations Garrett College Core VIII Graduates
• Still stretching the old fashioned way?
• American Baby on Infant Massage
• Worker pain costs over $60 billion
• A critical look at Raindrop Therapy
• Multiple Sclerosis benefits from Reflexology
• Geriatric massage research results
• Three National Surveys Show More People are Seeking Massage for Relief and Management of Pain
• Infant Massage
• Therapist advertising techniques that fail
• Americans miss vital connection
• Integrative health teams
• Definition of Massage from Various State Laws
• Massage Membership Plan
• Energy Cysts
• Effects of massage for older adults
• Massage Therapists and HIPAA
• Wellness spas: Seeking better health while being pampered
• Massage Away Lymphedema
• Harm in Massage?
• Become a Massage Therapist e-Book
• Massage for Victims of Torture
• Some people really do feel more pain
• Thumbs
• The Miracle of Massage Therapy
• Massage Helps Fibromyalgia
• Massage History
• Can You Massage Away PMS?
• Myth of Toxin Build-up
• Woo-Woo Therapists
• In Pain Clinic, Fruit, Candy And Relief
• Dr. Weil Tip: The Healing Touch
• Learning to receive
• Pregnancy put me in a wheelchair
• Craniosacral Therapy for the AIDS Patient
• Relaxation (Including Massage) and Exercise Relieves Migraines
• Our Healthy Profession
• Massage for Stress Reduction
• Cancer Treatments (Including Lymph Drainage Massage)
• Use & Acceptance of Massage Therapy Increasing
• An Effective Treatment for Lower Back Pain
• Helping Breast Cancer Survivors Cope Emotionally & Physically
• Easing Pain After Bypass Surgery
• Massage and Overall Immune Function
• Massage as a Relationship
• 91-Year-Old Massage Therapist
• Manual Therapy Eases Neck Pain, Cheaply
• Psychological Support for Back Pain
• Spa Trends
• Establishing the Benefits of a Corporate Therapeutic Massage Program
• Media Coverage of Corporate Massage Programs
• Corporate Massage Tips
• Patients’ memory for medical information.
• The Spirit of Massage

Energy work: Quantum Touch and EFT

Energy flow to me is palpable. Whether chakras, meridians, or directed energy, when I am quiet and still, listening and feeling with open simpleness, energy flow is as real to me as visible light. Most humans have the experience of welling feelings of sadness, love, joy, or power. These are energy flows (even though clearly there are neurological and biochemical movements as well; energy as I refer to it is when we look at the body as bioelectromagnetic energy in its entirety—the quantum physics view of the body rather than the Newtonian.)

If you have had an experience moving energy within your own body, with Qi Gong, Tai Chi, meditation, kundalini yoga, etc., then you know that there are flows of energy that can be directed with the mind. When combined with the breath, these energy flows can be intensified.

Quantum Touch (http://www.quantumtouch.com) gets people in touch with their own energy flow, and uses specific breathing techniques to intensify the energy (just as fire breath in certain yoga practices). Using soft hands, this energy flow is then “intended” to flow through you into the injury/pain site. The receiving body can use the energy to balance and restore, as well as raise an area of lower or discordant energy vibration to a higher, healthier one (as a hand on the shoulder of someone who is quaking with fear will help ground and calm them in many cases).

[Lots more on this subject at http://www.Thrivingnow.com ]

Does it work? Absolutely. It can be a useful practice for a massage therapist to use to raise his or her own awareness of energy and energy flow, to build up the skill to feel it. I find that what I learned in Quantum Touch most often comes into play when I do Stillpoint or Craniosacral work. I will often intuit that an energy flow would be helpful, and “quantum touch” can help provide that. Yet, I don’t really consider myself a quantum touch practitioner. The book and other information I have read on it served to reaffirm what I have been doing for 12 years with energy flow. I don’t “reasonate” myself with the breathing techniques it uses, although you might.

If I had a recommendation for an energy technique, I personally think that EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is quicker and more effective. For example, I was doing a charity chair massage benefit yesterday. I worked with a client and after the session was over, she said she felt a lot better but her heel was in terrible pain. She had a diagnosed “bone growth problem” in the heel. Quantum Touch would have had me with my hands on her heel for several minutes (maybe even 15-30 minutes) directing energy into the area. EFT uses a combination of a statement that gets the person directly connected to the pain “Even though I have this bone-growth heel pain, I deeply and completely accept myself” (my wording choice) along with tapping on key meridian points. Her pain level went from a 6 on a scale of 10 to a 2 to a zero in two rounds of EFT. In two minutes of work, she said “My bad heel feels better than my good one right now!”

It is my intuition, which is not scientific, that Quantum Touch provides energy to an area which if intense enough and sustained enough ends up helping the energy flow in the body. The body starts moving energy and blockages clear. EFT uses tapping, even self-tapping, to do the same thing in a quicker way by “tapping all over the energy system.” Yes, there is an art to it. But like massage, the benefits are apparent really early in the learning.

No Pain, No Gain?

Dentists offices used to consist of a chair, extractor pliers and a bucket full of teeth.  Today would you choose this kind of dentist?  If you had to have a operation would you have it done orthoscopically or do you want them to open you up so that they can get both hands into the incision?

I tell people that I do not want to insult the tissues that I am working on. I work smart rather than with force.  This gives me more precision and I can correct more detail problems.  Besides I find that while occasionally you may feel the work the next day you do not have to recover from trauma that may be worse than the original problem. Today people are learning to work smart.  Unfortunately there are still dinosaurs out there who just don’t know better.  [ via Carl of http://www.ablebodyworks.com ]

No Pain. No Gain…. Oh really?

As Carl points out, we’ve come a long way in certain aspects of medicine when it comes to viewing pain as unncessary and even unhelpful. I remember after my back surgery five years ago that my surgeon was one of these doctors that didn’t want to “over medicate” so the afternoon and night when I had just had my back opened up and stapled shut, I received one Vicodin to ease the pain. I could not move, I could not shift my weight, I could not sleep, I could not take that walk they want you to take without tears.

The morning nurse asked me whether I was in a lot of pain. I was. She arranged to double my dose, and the relief allowed me to move, breath, and even sleep a bit. It made the drive home possible, whereas before the extra dose people would have cleared our path from the shrieking siren screams coming from within.

Did you know some massage therapists take the no pain, no gain approach? Some clients do, too. “If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not going deep enough!” I am here to tell you that such an approach is not optimal. Going to deep too fast insults the tissue. It resists. Injured fibers feel assaulted and must fight back, further damaging tissue that we’re trying to heal.

Imagine you have a hose that is in terrible knots. Do you just yank and pull and aggressively dig in? You can… I just see another way. Why not use softer hands, look at how the hose is changing as you unwind part after part?

Massage therapy can be painful if you work with someone who uses brute force rather than sensitive and listening hands. I had a half hour session on a cruise ship with Helga the Horrible, and I really, really should have gotten off the table. The only relief I got was feeling like I was glad to be alive after it was all over! It need not be that way, and part of the screening you should do with a therapist before making an appointment is to find out how he or she approaches the body. And, if you feel pain, let your therapist know immediately. If the pressure is not adjusted to your satisfaction and benefit, end the session. That is my professional advice.

(Oh, and you might be thinking, “I don’t want to hurt the therapist’s feelings.” That is what we therapists hear most often when clients share their massage horror stories with us. Just say, “I’m sorry, I need to stop this session right now. Please give me a chance to get dressed, and we can discuss it.” Maybe all the rest of this therapist’s clients are masochists. If you are not, it’s okay to make that clear. In professional terms, you are setting good boundaries by speaking up. If the therapist doesn’t understand this, it is the therapist that needs an adjustment.)—Rick

Fibromyalgia Massage and Insurance

“Many patients find that weekly massages greatly help the pain and stiffness, but unfortunately insurance usually does not cover massage therapy.” [from Fibromyalgia FAQ for Patients]

It is unfortunate that we have structured health care in this country so that decisions are made based often on reimbursement rather than effectiveness. If you talk to sufferers with fibromyalgia, many of them will report that their massage therapy sessions (with an appropriately sensitive and trained practitioner) keeps them going, that it helps them to function, not miss work, and be more physically active. From a quality of life standpoint, massage therapy makes a significant difference.

In the absence of insurance reimbursement, if you have fibromyalgia and need regular massage therapy, one option is to look for newly graduated therapists who have been trained in fibromyalgia treatment (our local massage school at the college offers this as an elective). In return for weekly visits, the new therapist may be able to offer a significant discount. Also, many therapists have “off hours” where they have spots left unfilled, or spots when someone cancels and rather than letting the spot go unfilled, it may be preferable to offer a session at a discount.

I’ll add that if you have fibromyalgia and have not had massage before, PLEASE GO SLOWLY. Although some people with fibromyalgia WANT really deep work, to work out the kinks and the trigger points, this type of work may bring on a flare-up. Start with a light Swedish massage with some light myofascial unwinding work in areas that often have trouble but are currently not overly sensitive.

More details along with feedback from those with Fibromyalgia who get massage can be found at: http://www.remedyfind.com/rm-506-Massage.asp

Congratulations Garrett College Core VIII Graduates

Still stretching the old fashioned way?

American Baby on Infant Massage

Worker pain costs over $60 billion