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Licensure / my opinion

This is more of a comment, then a discussion. Or maybe it's a complaint? I've been a massage therapist here in Alaska for approximately 21 years. Until recently Alaska was an unregulated state, as far as massage goes. Sense this licensing, as of a couple years ago, I have seen literally no advantage or benifit of living in a licensed state.. As a matter of fact, it's just the opposite. I have spent over a thousand dollars in the last year and a half for licensing fees, cpr certification, continuing education and so on...Just to be able to work? Before that it was paying only a $100 every two years to the city of Anchorage. Now I have to get finger printed every two years. And of course pay for that service.... take cpr classes, even though I've been in the US Army getting that training every year- plus I actually saved a guy's life doing cpr a year ago. Then the continuing education? After 30 years? Come on.. I know learning never stops, but I've always studied on my own. I've even developed my own set of soft tissue procedures that are mine and unique. But all that doesn't matter. No one in the history of my massage career has ever asked to see my license expert an employer. And my license has not made my insurance credentialing any better or efficient. Oh, to go back to the finger prints. My finger prints don't change. Why don't thy keep them on file. They can look them up any time they want? Why have me take time off of work, pay money for the finger prints, then mail the finger prints off with a processing fee of $60? The cpr class takes half a day and $70.
I understand, kind of, the reason for licensing. But, it has not helped me one bit. All I can say I was free of all that for the vast majority of my career. Being none licensed all that time has allowed me the freedom to study whatever I want, on my own, to be free and creative. Licensure , as far as I can see, is very limiting, and actually surpresses the maximum potential of our profession. Ya can't get much beyond Myofascial Release. And our license has way more poteythen that.

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on January 18, 2018 at 1:42pm

I’m at work now.   I will probably respond later after work.  I wanna qualify myself.   Just to be clear.    Not all pain is trigger point pain.   But a significant portion is.   Enough so, that there needs to be education on the subject.  I know  this as well.  If someone is hurting, and there is a trigger point involved.  Regardless of the type of therapy you are doing.  If that trigger point remains.  The pain remains.  

And as far as my Holographic Acupressure goes.   No one is going to believe me anyway.  Except the patients I work on and the doctors I work with.    As far as how my Holographic Acupressure works.   I’m just giving a theory as to how it works.  So the theory maybe wrong?  But what I do know.   Is that it does work.  And it works really good.  

Pueppi, I’m sorry if I offended you.  I have no doubt  that what you do helps a lot of people.  Obviously.  And you may not be doing specific trigger point therapy.  But I guarantee, you must be making them(trigger points)go away.  

Permalink Reply by Mintaka Gazer on January 18, 2018 at 4:04pm

I appreciate licensing, but I think it should be quite a simple, straight forward and inexpensive process. I'm in Louisiana and I know that I pay more to maintain my license than nurses who've gotten four year degrees at universities. Maybe I shoud look into how to make a complaint about that. The Massage Board seems to literally do nothing more than maintain a website and collect checks. 

Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on January 18, 2018 at 5:27pm

Mintaka,  that’s exactly how I feel.  State licensing doesn’t mean very much.   It’s just a money thing as far as I can tell? In the attachment below is a portion of an email I received today from the ceo of the company I work for.   If people want to have their massage therapy covered by insurance, they better get their myofascial release from their local occupational therapist.   
Unbelievable.   Check the attachment. 
Mintaka Gazer said:

I appreciate licensing, but I think it should be quite a simple, straight forward and inexpensive process. I'm in Louisiana and I know that I pay more to maintain my license than nurses who've gotten four year degrees at universities. Maybe I shoud look into how to make a complaint about that. The Massage Board seems to literally do nothing more than maintain a website and collect checks. 

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on January 20, 2018 at 5:13pm

Yesterday I was in my room doing some paperwork when one of the PAs stuck his head in the room and said. “Gordon, I think I got one for you?  Maybe you can help her, otherwise we will have to do some injections and medication.  And we don’t want to do that if we don’t have to.  She is a migrainer, and gets headaches.  I think this one is myofascial?”

I went in the room and saw a women in her early thirties sitting in a chair looking down at the floor.  She looked up and told me she has had this headache for three days.  Usually they only last a day, but this one is really bad and she can’t shake it. I asked her where she felt her headache.  She said it’s all on the left side.  From the back of her neck to deep in her eye. There was a really nice table in the treatment room.  I had her lay on her back and began palpating for trigger points.  Two minutes later her three day headache was gone.  

I walked out of the room told the PA that her headache was completely gone. I said it was three trigger points.  

Suboccipital, Temporalis, Orbicularis Oculi.  The PA high fives me.  The scribe noted everything.  The PA went back into the room with a now very happy patient.   

So there is no way I can ever say that trigger points don’t exist or that they are somehow not important.  There is no way her headache would have ever gone away without making those three trigger points go away, either on purpose, or accidentally. No freakin way!  

And a lot of Therapists and other professionals are ripping people off.    That’s why I stared writing in here. It’s everything I’ve been writing about.  Here is a testimonial from a client.  Listen to what she says.  She went to physical therapy and a chiropractor or over a year, with no clinical improvement what so ever.  None.  She could not lift her arm over 45 degrees. She was in a lot of pain.  The professionals treating her obviously knew nothing about trigger points.  Because she was covered with them.  I think she got ripped off?  What do you guys think?  

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwcnYOcDp3U&sns=em

in the attachments are the three trigger pointed muscles that caused her three day headache. 
Gordon J. Wa

I’m at work now.   I will probably respond later after work.  I wanna qualify myself.   Just to be clear.    Not all pain is trigger point pain.   But a significant portion is.   Enough so, that there needs to be education on the subject.  I know  this as well.  If someone is hurting, and there is a trigger point involved.  Regardless of the type of therapy you are doing.  If that trigger point remains.  The pain remains.  

And as far as my Holographic Acupressure goes.   No one is going to believe me anyway.  Except the patients I work on and the doctors I work with.    As far as how my Holographic Acupressure works.   I’m just giving a theory as to how it works.  So the theory maybe wrong?  But what I do know.   Is that it does work.  And it works really good.  

Pueppi, I’m sorry if I offended you.  I have no doubt  that what you do helps a lot of people.  Obviously.  And you may not be doing specific trigger point therapy.  But I guarantee, you must be making them(trigger points)go away.  

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on February 1, 2018 at 1:09pm

I will have more to say about licensure and so on.  But my main topic in here, in all my threads, is trigger points.  Most health care professionals discount them, or don’t even know about them.  Including massage therapists.  I’ve even read articles that say trigger points don’t exist.  And they are written by supposedly smart people.  I just don’t get it?  Every day I run into trigger points, and people that have been suffering pain needlessly simply because whoever they were seeing for their pain, did not know or bother to check for trigger points.  

Here is an example that happened the other day.  I was in my room doing some paperwork when I got a text from the doctor that said “ room 2 abdominal cramping “.  I went into room 2 where I found a woman laying on the table clutching her lower left abdomen.  I did a release for that area and the cramping stopped immediately.  The patient said, “ wow that’s amazing! I wonder if you can help my shoulder?”  She had just finished 6 weeks of physical therapy that didn’t help at all.  I checked her shoulder.  Trigger points in all the right places.  A couple in the deltoid , upper trapezius, infraspinatus , and somewhere else.  In two minutes she had complete pain free range of motion.  She was shocked.  I wasn’t.  I’ve seen it over and over and over again.  For year after year.   As sure as the sun comes up.  I just don’t get it?   The attachment explains what the physical therapists were doing.  I’m pretty sure that clinic is not very successful.  Because they don’t know what a trigger point is. 

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on February 1, 2018 at 7:17pm

Everybody wants me to teach them for free?   I’ve posted lots video examples of my work.  I’m making trigger points go away.   And when I do that.  The results are often dramatic.  

Pueppi, I wish I could send you a patient that was hurting and had trigger points.  I bet you ,that if you worked on them using your methods.  And you got them out of pain.  I would not be able to find any trigger points on them.  

Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on February 1, 2018 at 11:11pm

What I do is mechanical.  Repeatable.  Not intuitive at all.  And it’s fairly simple.  It only works for myofascial pain.  

http://myopainseminars.com/mtt-registration-original/  

 The people in the above link teach trigger point work.  Look what they charge.  And what they are doing, is basically what I did 20 years ago.  What I’m doing now is really mind blowing.  I freak myself out every day.  It’s immediate pain relief.    

If someone comes to see me, and they are hurting.  If I can’t find any trigger points, then their pain is not myofascial, and they need to see somebody else.  Or if I release trigger  points, and they feel great after the session.  But by the time they get to their car, their Pain is back.  Then the trigger points are most likely symptomatic of some deeper underlying condition or pathology.   And they need to see someone else.  If their pain stays away for half a day.  Then there is a pretty good chance that their pain is primarily myofascial.  And that after few sessions, say two to seven sessions, they will feel dramatically better if not totally pain free.   My sessions are 15 minuet to 30 minute sessions.  

Let’s say someone comes to me that’s been diagnosed with sciatica.  And they have gone through the gauntlet of other types of providers with little to no help.  They have been told it’s a pinched nerve, and treated as such.  But I determine that there are lots of trigger points in the various glute and leg muscles.  Let’s say I find ten trigger points total.  I release the ten trigger points. I tell the patient to stop doing the exercises that they were told to do.  The next session, two or three days later, they have eight trigger points.   The third session, two or three days later, they have five trigger points.  The fourth session, two or three days later, they have three trigger points.  The fifth session, two or three days later, they have no trigger points.  If I see someone that I think I can help, for say four or five short sessions .   But each time the same trigger points are there.  Then there is probably some deeper underlying condition causing the trigger points.  If I fail I fail fast.  Then they better see a good medical doc.  

In the Attachments are two statements from other people, not me, that I find to be absolutely true.  The third attachment is a treatment note on a patient that I could not help.  He was a private pay.  I had helped him in the past with a Myofascial problem.  I saw the patient one time.  I told the patient he needs to see a medical doctor.  His pain is not Myofascial.   He did.  I need to find out how he is doing.        

To the extent that trigger points are causing pain....that’s the extent of my help.  

In the Holographic Acupressure thread, I did teach one technique that is part of the whole system.   I use that technique almost every day.  I used it today. It’s an amazing mind blowing technique.  I call it like treats like.  There is a video of me using that technique.  And another video of a chiropractor using the same neurology in a different way.  It’s a good technique, very easy, and it works often.  

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on February 2, 2018 at 9:40am

Pueppi, if someone comes to you in pain, hurting somewhere.  And it’s not trigger point pain.  What kind of pain is it?  What are their symptoms?  And you heal them?  

Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on February 2, 2018 at 2:22pm

When you get a chance, try the like treats like technique. You will see it on the Holographic Acupressure thread.  You can also view this chiropractors version of it.  It’s simple and really cool.  I’m at work now, if anyone has questions about it, I can answer later.   You basically go to the opposite side of the body, to the exact anatomical location as the trigger point on the other side and twist the tissue.  The finger touching the trigger point is basically monitoring the trigger point with just enough pressure for the patient to feel the trigger point, and to notice when it disappears. It’s not digging on the point.  The hand that’s doing the release is on the opposite side of the body.  If the trigger vanishes. You simply hold the release and monitor hand in place for 20 seconds.  The hand on the opposite side is a firm, but not painful pressure and twist.   Find the video on the Holographic Acupressure thread.  I used it yesterday for lateral rib pain.  Arms, legs, trunk, it works good.  

PS- one reason my Holographic Acupressure works so well is because I’m not digging on damaged tissue.  There is no collateral damage.  They are neurological releases.  And its instant.  

Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on February 17, 2018 at 6:27pm

I used it successfully yesterday, twice.   It won’t work all the time.  About 60% of the time.  I have about 20 different possible release points for any given tender point or sore area.  Some are more reliable then others.  I often try that particular technique first, because it’s easy.   

Keep trying it when it comes up on the arms and legs or lateral ribs.   

Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on February 25, 2018 at 3:43pm

The state of Alaska Massage license, appears to be a very weak license.  At least when you compare it to other professional licenses like Physical Therapists, Chiropractic, Medical Doctor, Osteopaths, and Ocupational Therapists.  

About half the patients that can use my help, can’t get it.   Because the various insurance companies won’t cover what I do. Here are some of the reasons.   The massage has to be done on the same day as a chiropractic adjustment.  The massage will only be paid if it’s done in a chiropractic or physical therapy setting.  Massage will only be paid for if it’s preformed by a medical doctor, Osteopathic physician, physical therapist, or an occasional therapist.  

When I complain about it to government people, various massage organizations.  I get two answers, or no answer.  We can’t dictate insurance company policies.  Or the other answer is.  They( insurance companies) can’t do that.  Anyway, the reality is.   Massage therapy.   Didpite what anybody says, is officially not taken seriously or on equal footing, as other provider licenses are.  It just isn’t.  

My vary last entry on my Holographic Acupressure thread.  The lady that could not lift her arm for over a year.  You know how much that cost her, to have that problem taken care of?  ZERO dollars.   I wonder what it would have cost if she went to an occupational therapist?  And would it have helped?   

All the people and organizations pushing for state licensing, saying that it leads to the credibility of our profession, and helps stop prostitution and all that stuff.   Dead freakin wrong.   Give me a break!

Now im getting all this continuing education seminar material in the mail.   Deep tissue this, myofascial that.  $500.00 weekend.  I looked them all up online, and on YouTube.  Uhm, basically variations of what I’ve done before.  Or simply styles of bodywork I’m not interested in, or believe in.  I don’t know?  Maybe it’s because I’ve been in the field for over thirty years? 

But all this continuing education stuff, licensing exams and fees ,does not legitimize our profession , and won’t mean anything more then a money drain to me, if insurance companies won’t pay for massage therapy because I’m a licensed massage therapist. 

We hear the words fake news all the time.  Well, here is a new one.  Fake license!

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 29, 2018 at 9:35pm

I’m still agrivated by this near worthless Alaska state massage license.  It is not really a professional license, even though the state says it is.  The insurance companies certainly don’t recognize it as a full professional license( it’s very clear and obvious).  Check out the attachment below.  Blue cross federal certainly doesn’t recognize it as they do physical therapy, chiropractic, and all the other professional licenses.  What gets me the most.  I’m working with an anesthesiologist, and an Osteopathic physician.  And that still doesn’t count because this license is so weak.  Those doctors want that patient to see me.  

 If it didn’t cost anything and drain my bank account every two years, it might not be quite so irritating.  But still.  Just check the attachment out.  Is that insane or what?  The patient that this particular attachment is talking about I can help.  I checked her out before hand.  But she doesn’t want to go to a chiropractor.   She is now in our clinic seeing an anesthesiologist, and the Osteopathic physician.    I’ve complained to the state massage Board, and they said that they have nothing to do with insurance company policy.   It just makes no sense to me that this women can’t get my help.  Check the attachment, it’s just mind blowing.  PS- The five massages that she received in the past were done in a chiropractic office. 

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