Posts Tagged: therapeutic massage

No Band-Aid Approach to Massage

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I recently read a fantastic blog post by Sally Fraser Wellness where she questions the “Band-Aid Approach” that is often practiced in the American healthcare system. Her post was spurred by the recent removal of a common heartburn medication from pharmacy shelves. The main point of her post is to question why, as a society,… Read more »

Massage Therapy and the Opioid Crisis

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Massage Therapy Research Influencing Policy Recently, the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) released guidelines for the education of health care providers on many non-drug options for treating pain. The guidelines were developed with input from representatives from the Complementary and Integrative Health community (including the American Massage Therapy Association AMTA) This is a big step in the right… Read more »

Don’t FALL for massage.

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Last month I attended a massage seminar on Balance and Postural Stability.  The presenter was co-author of a research study that looked at the effects of massage on ankle flexibility and balance.  He began his presentation by giving some statistics about falls. Falls are a big problem for our healthcare system  The annual cost of falls- According… Read more »

Insurance Should Pay For Massage!

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I hear that statement quite frequently, usually as a client is paying for a session. But honestly, if health insurers decided to cover massage services tomorrow, I would not accept insurance payment.  You may be asking, “Why not?”  The reason is not because I think that health insurance shouldn’t cover massage services. It’s because I wouldn’t… Read more »

Get the Massage You Want

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We’ve all heard the phrase, “Ask and you shall receive.” While there are no guarantees, asking for what you want greatly improves the odds that you will get it. This is certainly the case when it comes to your massage. My husband and I recently took advantage of a spa package that included a couple’s… Read more »

Massage Nutrition

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March is National Nutrition Month, so to celebrate I dedicate this post to “Massage Nutrition”.  Let me start by saying that I am NOT a nutritionist or a dietician. And as far as I know, there is not a specific field of study on nutrition as it relates to massage.  So what do I mean by “Massage Nutrition?” … Read more »

Surrounding The Pain Dragon

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In massage school, I took a class called Commonly Encountered Conditions. As the name suggests, we learned about common issues that we would likely come across in our massage practices. We then learned strategies for dealing with the conditions. The instructor would frequently use the phrase, “Surround the Dragon” to describe his approach to pain… Read more »

Massage: When Less Is More

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I am a big fan of long, luxurious massages. I love to give them, and I certainly love to receive them. But sometimes with massage, less is more effective. Often a client has booked a 90 or even 120 minute massage and said, “I only want you to work on my upper back and shoulders. I have… Read more »

Freedom to Fail

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Every year as I prepare to write my July post, I am naturally drawn to the topic of “Freedom.” This year I decided to write about a type of Freedom that I have had to learn to allow myself to enjoy, the Freedom to Fail. While it seems counterintuitive, without the freedom to fail one can… Read more »