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The Pressures of Being a Massage Therapist
Hello! I am new the the massage professionals forum so hopefully I am doing this correctly! I am looking for some perspective/insight on the topic of what it means to be a massage therapist in terms of the expectations we place on ourselves and our profession as well as those our clients impose on us as professionals. One of the reasons I have joined online is that I live in a smaller rural community where I work with a lot of other massage therapists but rarely seem to be able to engage in a professional discussion about the job. Usually the talk is abruptly ended because no one seems to want to talk about the possibility that they are not giving their clients what they want or admit the uncomfortable feelings that come with learning to provide effective massage work. Its as if everyone has popped out of massage school knowing it all. I feel quite the opposite! I have been doing massage therapy for five years and I feel like there is so much more to know that I haven't even touched upon the amount of information I have yet to learn. I feel like I am the only one who thinks that. I have noticed that there is a label placed on massage therapists to be "miracle workers." Although, I undoubtedly trust the power of touch, I also am aware of the limitations of a year of massage school and a couple introductory CE classes. When I look into professionals who teach in specific areas of bodywork, I see that they have practiced for years and years to get to the point to where they are able to effectively address complicated issues that many clients come to me for relief from. I guess I am feeling a bit overwhelmed as I am moving beyond basic relaxation massage into the more advanced massage that our profession is demanding of us. I can only take continuing education as I can afford it so any insight or perspective to boost my morale at the moment would be great.
Thanks!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sadie Haney on
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That completely make sense to me! I feel as though I am already doing what you describe so I am excited to be on a good back and to learn more. I work with a few therapists who get pleasure out of making their clients hurt. But the clients keep coming back and it confuses me why they feel better if the therapist is hurting them. For example, a therapist I work with today said she asked her client how his pain threshold was and if it wasn't high he should find another therapist because she will make him cry or pee his pants. I was like, WHHHHAAAAATTTT??????
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Permalink Reply by Therese Schwartz on
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Hi Sadie! Gary is so right - you can provide both in every session! I have found my way to being neither a torturous deep tissue therapist nor a by-rote spa massage therapist. I have learned multiple modalities and the combo is fantastic. Here are my thoughts on career longevity:
Learn something new every day.
Do yoga. Really. It's so cliche, I know. But it will change your life. If you need suggestions on DVD's, let me know. They aren't even expensive!
Look into Bamboo Fusion massage.
Look into Val Guin's Forearm Dance massage.
Read Gordon's thread and learn what is possible from TrP work.
Look up Til Lucau on YouTube; his work is amazing and changes people's lives for the better. He also has several webinars available through the ABMP website.
That's all I can think of for now. I'm in the middle of getting ready to go take another Continuing Ed class so I'm swamped! But I wanted to share my ideas.
Oh - part of the secret to my success in the 6 years since I graduated massage school - I forgot almost everything I learned in school and replaced it with something that works.
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Sadie, what you describe is just pure and simple sado-masochism. I don't understand why people go for it, but they do. It's an emotional imbalance on the part of the client and the therapist, IMO. It happens all the time; I graduated with people who work that way still. It's tremendously damaging in many ways, I think.
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Therese,
Thanks for your reply. This is why I joined this forum. I appreciate the support from professionals who are truly interested in helping people and not making themselves look better than they are or whatever they are trying to do. I will look into your suggesions.
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Hi Sadie, you are welcome!
My goal/mission is to help people become who they are meant to be. I had the same goal when I taught horse back riding for a "living".
Let me know if you have any questions; I'll do my best to answer, even if it's "I don't know". I'm not afraid to say that!
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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That Mt's attitude makes absolutely no sense to me. I had a couple like that in school-- females, all-- who I suppose thought they were in a competition to prove that they were stronger, able to go in deeper, better than the males.
Now, some clients do indeed prefer the really deep, painful pressure. Works like a TENS unit; the comparatively milder pain of the elbow digging fills the nerve pathway, temporarily blocking the more painful nociceptive pain from whatever their complaint is. But, mostly, I think it gives them a head-clearing, endorphin runner's high. I enjoy the endorphin kick I get from a brain-freezing Smoothie slurped too fast. But applying so much pressure can damage tissue. A girl in my massage school class actually cracked another student's rib-- that was her brag beforehand, btw, "I warn you, I'll make you pee your pants." Insanity.
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Permalink Reply by Maryshka on
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I worked with a male therapist at a massage franchise for a while. He told me he will bruise people and makes them sign his waiver. He has repeat clients (had a lot of followers) so I don't know why they came back cuz if he's working THAT deeply/harsh, it would seem he should've 'fixed' them... not?
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Ah, some people are so locked up with tension from work or home life or money worries, the pain may help them to feel alive. Why would anyone brag about bruising? why would anyone tolerate it? A bruise is bleeding in the tissue. Imagine a first massage client getting that kind of treatment. MTs like that guy are the reason so many people never get a second massage.
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Right guys! It seems too like its a reciprocal thing with the client and therapist. They both seem to get a rush from inflicting pain. What pisses me off that they call it therapeutic, telling their clients that is what they need and its the only way to fix their "problem." And Maryshka, I ask the same question about the results of that type of work. This brings up another question for me about pressure in general. I am almost not even wanting to address the issue of pressure with my clients because then the massage seems to become about trying to please them not help them. I am looking to reframe the concept for myself so that I can use pressure around my skills not my skills around the pressure I feel I have to give. Any thoughts?
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I am also very concerned about pressure with my clients! Sometimes pressure can feel good - especially if you are using the soft part of your forearm and moving lots of tissue - not deep, just lots of movement. I love Val Guin's view of deep tissue: "It's not about how deep you can go, it's about how much tissue can you move".
Sometimes I work at the bone level to free some stuck fascia, but it VERY rarely ever hurts my clients because of the way I do it - frst warming up the tissue appropriately, and I've found that if you take the pressure sideways rather than straight into the body, not only does it free up more tissue but it's more comfortable for the client. As Gordon says repeatedly, it's hard to explain things in this format! But it's possible to do great things for people even with pressure in a way that does not hurt.
The big thing is the client's breathing; if they can't stay relaxed and comfortable, it's too much pressure - even if it feels light to you.
If you have funds available for classes, you may want to consider Upledger CranioSacral Therapy. I'm getting ready to take my 11th class with them, and my clients will tell you that it's good work (12th if you count Lymph Drainage Therapy!). It's lighter pressure and still tremendously effective.
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I always ask, "Do you prefer more pressure or less pressure?" If u ask a yes or no question, generally you'll get "That's fine." even if they are extremely uncomfortable (they don't want to seem a wimp).
Sadie, don't forge that it's the client's massage session, they have a right to get what they want. Up to a point, that is. I won't scrape bone even if that is their desire. But, after taking out trigger points, either active, passive or latent, if the skin still won't lift from the skin, I'll do a forearm MFR sweep. MFR done correctly is slower than a snail crawl. Best to first wipe off most of the lubricant--MFR grabs, it doesn't glide over the tissue.
Sadie Haney said:Right guys! It seems too like its a reciprocal thing with the client and therapist. They both seem to get a rush from inflicting pain. What pisses me off that they call it therapeutic, telling their clients that is what they need and its the only way to fix their "problem." And Maryshka, I ask the same question about the results of that type of work. This brings up another question for me about pressure in general. I am almost not even wanting to address the issue of pressure with my clients because then the massage seems to become about trying to please them not help them. I am looking to reframe the concept for myself so that I can use pressure around my skills not my skills around the pressure I feel I have to give. Any thoughts?
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Gary makes a point about scraping bone, and I want to clarify that I won't do that either! What I'm talking about is totally different. There was an article about it in M&BW magazine - using no lubricant, grasp the tissue with your hands and gently move it perpendicular to the bone and hold; wait for a release.
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