Lower back pain is reduced and range of motion increased after massage therapy. Hernandez-Reif M, Field T, Krasnegor J, Theakston H.

A randomized controlled trial of aromatherapy massage in a hospice setting. Soden K, Vincent K, Craske S, Lucas C, Ashley S.

Effects of massage therapy on sleep quality after coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Parkinson’s disease symptoms are differentially affected by massage therapy vs. progressive muscle relaxation: a pilot study

Randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of using foot reflexology to improve quality of sleep amongst Taiwanese postpartum women.

See more on massage and sleep disorders

Related posts:

1. Benefits of Massage Therapy
2. MTCIM May 2010 Seattle

Research is an important part of the next steps for the massage profession.  The biggest reason is that it can help the massage profession and your massage business gain the respect that is needed by the general public and also the medical profession.  It will also help get massage covered by insurance.  One of the things that Debra Senn (a past insurance commissioner in WA State who made it possible for WA State MT to become contracted providers with insurance) said one of the most interesting things about the process.  She said when insurance companies first heard they were going to have to pay for massage, they complained thinking that it would cost them more money.  They thought they would have to pay $10,000 for the carpal tunnel surgery (or whatever type of surgery and that amount is just for example- how much does a carpal tunnel surgery really cost?)  and then pay a few extra thousand to cover the massage.  They did not understand that massage could eliminate the need for massage.  I still don’t think they really get it as what I see in the way of referrals from most doctors is generally for back and neck pain.  The doctors don’t really understand how massage can be used for various things like musculo-skeletal injuries such as plantar fasciaitis, tennis elbow, sprained ankles, and things like that.  Doctors will relate more to evidence and research that shows how massage can help.  They will also start getting it when more people provide start using massage for just those kind of issues and start giving feedback to the doctors.

One of the other things about research is that it is important to have research that shows what massage does.  Many of the things that are currently being taught in massage school are inaccurate and have just been handed down through classes because that is what they are taught.  There are still many schools saying that massage should not be used on people with cancer which was debunked many years ago. (See massage and cancer)   The other big myth is that of toxins being removed (See Massage and toxins) from the body through massage and also the myth that massage removes lactic acid. (See Lactating Mythers – Massage and the Lactic Acid Myth)   Right now there are many massage therapists that continue to say those things and don’t have the latest research that shows otherwise and having so much misinformation makes massage confusing to the general public.

But having more research is not really enough since most massage therapists are not research literate- that is the don’t understand how to evaluate a research study.  Just because a study was done and shows positive outcomes does not mean that it shows anything unless you can understand it.  Research literacy is needed and it begins with having to read and learn about things that most have no interest in.  Most massage therapists are just happy to be doing massage or are struggling to get clients or find a high paying job.  Who has time for research or learning any more when of course we already know that massage works?

Research Literacy according to Ravensara Traviallian from her article in Massage and Bodywork Magazine in the Research Perspectives column is :

the ability to read, understand, and
apply information from published
research—

Once you are research literate, then you have the opportunity to start influencing research and even creating research studies.

In your massage practice, you will be able to look up research to help you address the needs of your clients when they come in with more difficult diseases and conditions and when you want to know if massage can help them.  When clients ask you how massage works, you will be able to give a knowledgeable answer.  When clients understand more how their bodies work, they have the power to take care of it better.  They also may pass this information on to their doctors- and so it goes.

So please share your comments or insights as to why we do need research and need to also be able to understand research.

Related posts:

1. Massage Therapy Research
2. Massage Research
3. Massage Research Resources

It has felt like basically my life’s work to complete this book.  It is everything that I wish someone had told me about becoming a massage therapist. 

No one ever told me it was going to be this hard!

No one ever told me that it was about building a business!

No one told me that I would get burned out helping and that helping was a sign of something that is going wrong!

What I did want was a more rewarding career- one where I could be making more of a difference and one where I had more freedom.  I got all that but I never thought having freedom would also mean having no money! I of course lived simply (and still do – living in a mother-in-law house on a 5 acre ‘mini’ farm with horses, chickens that I take care of when my landlords are away where I also have a very large garden.)  I could set my own schedule, sleep in, take long lunches which in the early days included a ferry ride to a neighboring island for lunch and I could just get by without many cares.

Then my 40′s hit and the realization that retirement would be impossible at the rate I was going.  I also had some major health issues starting in 1998 which is one of the reasons why I did start this website. (I had severe, debilitating vertigo for about 10 years – gone now -knock, knock, knock.)  Back then it was just more something to do when I was stuck at home feeling sick.  I started writing and putting notes together on everything I wished I had more help with or had known about becoming a massage therapist.  It turned into this website that is basically my massage school notes.

Today it seems even more competitive with the increasing number of massage schools up until about 2007 when the number of schools started leveling out due to the economy.  There are many news sources like US News and World Report saying things like massage is an upcoming career for 2011.  The problem is that most statistics are really inaccurate because of things like most massage therapists are self employed so income and other stats do not count those massage therapists.  Schools take news reports like that and run with it continuing to tell potential massage students that they can make tons of money while having their own schedule and flexible hours.  Well you can get some of that but you won’t have enough money to retire on.

There are so many other things that massage schools are telling potential students that is just inaccurate so that they can make a career in massage sound more appealing:

• You can make $60 an hour
• Health insurance is covering massage
• You will find a high paying job really easily
• You can work on a cruise ship and travel the world having fun
• You will be working in this soothing, relaxing environment like all the nice pictures they show at spas and health resorts
• People love massage and will soon be flocking to your door if you just set up shop
• You will be helping people

What they don’t tell you is that you will have to touch people! Imagine that!  Yes some massage students don’t realize that.  Touching has a much deeper meaning than most can imagine.  You can find out more in my book of course!

Related posts:

1. Massage Schools
2. Why become a massage therapist?
3. Starting a Massage Career in this economy

Here is what I am referring too -(These are all from discussions on Facebook or linkedin.com or from newsfeeds.)

• ME was mentioned in a thread saying that the massage therapists at one location were doing ‘Happy Endings” and the owner was notified and didn’t want to do anything about it.
• One of the most searched for keywords on my site www.massage-career-guides.com is ‘massage envy sex’.
• In one area, ME is connected to many companies who offer their employees health incentives or challenges.
• Many massage therapists feel threatened by ME and feel that they have to reduce their rates to compete with ME and that ME are putting them out of business or at least making them work harder to get clients.  ME is said to be the Walmart of the massage profession.
• ME is also a good way for massage therapists to get experience.  One long time employee is now going out on her own!

What interests me most about ME is the fear reactions that it brings up in many including myself at times.  Hearing that ME was offering massage to companies too left me wondering what is next – where will they go next?  Will there be only ME around the country offering low cost massage (good for the general public- not so good for employees paid low wages but they get experience.)

So if the general public is also moving towards preferring low cost massage what can the massage profession learn from this and what can be done about it?

The thing is that we don’t have any actual statistics to see what is really going on and how ME (or low cost massage franchises) are affecting the massage profession.  I am not sure if there is even a way to measure that or track that as there are so many other things going on in the profession right now- the Alliance for Massage Schools, the FSTMB, the NCBTMB, more research and teaching MT and medical professionals about research, more advanced training to learn new methods to help clients more, more acceptance by the medical profession and insurance is happening a little each day, moving into hospitals and hospice settings – many things are always changing and happening in the profession.

You can look at the few instances from your own practice and think that Yes ME is having an impact on your business.  Also looking at the list that I started with, it seems like ME is everywhere and into everything.  Will they start doing insurance billing?  ( I did hear that about a year ago but not sure if it happened or not).

Sometimes I also think that the best advice for a person considering massage school is to go to take business classes in college and buy a Massage Envy!  It is half being sarcastic and half truly what I think!

What do you think of ME?  How do you think it affects your practice and what you are doing?  If you work at a ME – what do you think? (There are always such a wide range of answers to that- many love it or many don’t like it.)

Related posts:

1. Massage Envy
2. Massage Envy – Love them or leave them
3. Four Hour Work week for massage therapists

Franchises have set low rates to try to get more clients over everyone else.  Many think that these low rates are hurting the massage profession.  Massage therapists who are located near these places feel that they can’t compete with such low prices or they lower their rate to match or undercut the franchises. On the other hand, many of these franchises actually have extensive advertising budgets and have commercials on TV and in major magazines such as Oprah.  Not everyone signs up for their memberships so in a way it is advertising for the massage profession.

On the other hand are the MT who charge way more than the going rate.  I have heard people who charge double and triple the going rate in an area.  It is illegal to do that when an insurance company is paying as far as I know. What are they doing for the profession? They of course also have to target people who have more money.  Why should people with more money have to pay more? Are they really worth that much more? When you charge more, you need to have more value or provide a specialized service.

Massage therapists who are just starting out will often feel like their work is not worth charging more.  They have less experience and are not as skilled as someone who may have been in the business for 5 or 10 years.  I have also seen many MT who have been in the business for 10 year or more who have never raised their rates and started out low to begin with.  How can someone charge so much for something so wonderful?

When I first started out in massage, I opened my practice in a health club renting a treatment room.  A friend of mine from massage school had just started there and had taken the practice over from a guy who was charging really low rates even for that time.  I can’t remember exactly what he was charging but I know we raised them a little to be more of the going rate for the area.  A year or so later, I was talking to a client who was also an accountant about raising rates and he said flat out not to raise my rates because I will lose too many clients.  I didn’t listen to him and went ahead and raised my rates.  I might have lost a few but I also gained many.  It was really scary to raise them thinking that I would lose too many clients.  What I found though that there were people willing to pay more for my massage services. My schedule was filled with people who were doing just that.  Yahoo!!!  Making more money!

Every few years I raise my rates.  I do give regular clients discounts when they buy packages of massage up front.  I have had all sorts of experiences when raising rates.  I had one client who was really wealthy and never minded me raising my rates every so often until one year he started complaining saying that he came so often that I should give him a discount.  He was also my most difficult and physically demanding client to work on.  I did raise his rates despite his complaints and he was unhappy and looking for another MT but was also moving out of town soon so didn’t bother to change.  I had another client once tell me – “You never have to explain why you are raising your rates and I would think less of you if you didn’t raise your rates each year.  It is just business.”

That brought me out of the fear of charging more and raising my rates each year. That’s what it is all really about I think – the fears.   If I don’t charge lower rates than everyone else I won’t get any clients.  If I charge too much, I won’t get any clients.  Either way it is just fear.  It takes time to work through those fears or you can take the leap and charge what you need to to make a decent living right from the beginning.  You have to be worth it -in skill and in self confidence.  The process can move faster when you have a mentor or group for support.

What is a massage worth?  What is your time worth?  That is what you are really being paid for – your time away from your family and friends.  How many people on their death beds have said “I wish I had worked more”?

My goal is to work less and make more.  Yes many will probably think that is being greedy.  I see it as one of the highest forms of self care.

A few years ago, I decided to stop taking clients who had a certain insurance plan that paid the lowest out of any insurance company.  At first, it hurt my business for a few months but I stuck to it and all of a sudden my schedule was filled with clients who had the insurance that paid the most.  I had never had many of those clients previously.  I just thought it was because no companies in my area carried that insurance or something. It wasn’t true.

Recently, I have had to make big changes in my massage business. One of the insurance companies who paid the most out of all of the insurance companies, cut their allowable fee almost in half.  Half of my massage business last year was working on those clients.  This year I have had to focus on getting more cash clients to make up the difference.

It takes time to adjust to price changes usually, but it is well worth it in the long run. Working for less than you need to make can be draining and make you feel resentful. (Yes, massage therapists may have bad feelings toward people who pay less. We are human!)

People are willing to pay more for a massage (or anything for that matter) when you offer something with more value.  Value determines price.  The thing though is in defining value.  It is basically what your client wants or needs.  If your massage business looks like and feels like everyone other massage business, then your potential clients can not easily decide on who to go to so they will choose the massage therapist with the lower price.  (As I just wrote that, it made me think of the many massage franchises out there.  Are they able to have lower rates and be successful because most massage therapists don’t know how to separate themselves from everyone else? Hmm..just a thought.)

Separating your massage business from everyone else can be a challenge for many MT. I separate myself from others simply by writing about massage and what it does extensively on my office website.  I don’t do any other marketing or advertising.  I provide the information that shows that I am different than a franchise or local chain that has lower prices. My massage is unique.  I do deep tissue work but use a lot of triggerpoint work combining the two.  It just works for me.

When it comes down to competing on price alone, no one wins.  Someone will always be out there offering a lower rate.  Someone is always going to charge more.

What is right for you depends on how much you need to make, how many hours a week you are able to work and the rate that you charge.  You need to be able to stay in business.  You will need to take a salary and pay your bills, stay or get out of debt, take nice vacations, get a massage once a week and save for retirement.  Just set your fees according to what you need to make!  It is also about what you feel comfortable charging and working towards developing your skills and confidence to be able to charge more.  What is your time worth?  What is it worth to be able to give someone their life back who has been living in pain for the past few years?  What is it worth to provide regular massage to a world class athlete to allow them to be the best in their field?  What is is worth to give a massage to someone who just lost their spouse or are in the end stages of life? What is it worth to give a massage to a homeless person who is in pain from living on the streets?  What is it worth to give a celebrity a massage or CEO of Microsoft?  What is it worth to give a massage to the local grocery clerk or factory worker?

Related posts:

1. Raising your rates
2. Being able to Bill Insurance Companies – is it worth it?
3. How to set your massage rates.

I have written about the many different ways to get clients – there is the big list of marketing ideas, how to make websites, how to get clients through building a referral network and yes I have done many of them with my focus on my website.  Since the creation of websites, it has been such a big relief for me because frankly I just hate marketing and networking – yup it’s true. Websites for me are ideal being an introvert and shy – yup that’s true too.  For the most part my website is the only thing I use to get new clients.  When people are looking for massage online they are already want a massage.  Those are the clients I want mainly because I don’t have to do much to turn them into a regular client.  They already know what massage does and that they get relief from it or if they are a first time or fairly new to massage -they are at least open to massage. After all they are searching for massage.

So yes sometimes even with that my massage business is slower than I would like it to be but there is a whole other side to that.  My business is slow usually when I have something else on my mind or on those days when my heart just isn’t into doing massage.  Since the beginning of the year after having my best year ever last year massage wise I found that the main insurance company that I had been working with that also happened to pay the most out of any insurance company was reducing my allowable fees – well not just reducing but cutting them almost in half.  That meant I would have to do twice as many massages to make the same amount as last year.

In Feb, I received some distressing health news that further complicated the issues and frankly I just didn’t feel like working much doing massage.  I was exhausted from dealing with everything.  I didn’t like taking the insurance clients that I was – not because I didn’t like the people but it was just so discouraging not to get paid the same.  I couldn’t work more than I did last year with this new health issue- Don’t worry I am OK – just a hereditary high cholesterol issue that was also creating plaque in my arteries.  I have lost 15 pounds, stopped eating sugar and gluten and high fat foods, started walking more and am on my way to being healthier than ever. I reduced my cholesterol by over 50 points in about 3 months!

So back to using magic to get massage clients.  So there I was feeling like I didn’t want to do any massage, feeling frustrated with the insurance companies and thinking that I too would do an Oprah moment and think about ending my massage career at 25 years which would be at the end of this 2011.  One day last week I also tweaked my knee running to the bus and couldn’t work much that week so one afternoon I just laid down on the table and stretched and asked – What is all this telling me? What am I supposed to be doing?  What am I missing?  What do I need to change?  It became clear that with the physical challenges I just need to get even clearer about who I want to work with as a client.  My time is limited so I need to make the most out of every hour that I work. I spent about an hour and just came to know that my next steps would be to just stop taking insurance clients.  I thought also about how a few years ago I had to put my foot down and stop taking one of the insurance plans that paid the least out of them all.  That was a big decision since it seemed those people called the most.  I didn’t have any of the higher paying insurance clients calling.  It was a scary move to make.  I just finally one day said no more.  I had about a month of not being as booked as I like to be. (I usually like to do 12 sessions a week.) But soon the situation changed and I had moved all of the clients with the lower paying insurance out and all of a sudden the one’s with the higher paying insurance started arriving.  It is sort of like I had to make room for them to start calling.  I had to have faith that it was the right thing for me.  I was a little worried but I never went back on my boundary – no clients with the low paying insurance any more for me.  I did have a few moments when I thought I would have to break that but I didn’t.

So now the day I made the decision to stop taking insurance clients – before the decision my day was just one of those days right from the start.  I missed the bus running for the bus and tweaked my knee to boot.  After I got really clear about my goals and what boundaries I needed to set for myself the phone started ringing and my email box was lit up with the little red star telling me I had new mail.

Everytime in my career that I have set such boundaries, the more successful I have become.  I felt better the minute I made the decision.  I hadn’t been doing much to market myself because of my health challenges yet still the phone started ringing – OK I do have a website that is at the top of the SE for my keywords but it’s like magic – it knows when I am feeling like I can’t work so it doesn’t get me new clients.

Boundaries are so important. They are what support you in the process of building a business and throughout your personal life.  Getting clear is the process of getting to know yourself better each time.  You often don’t know how decisions will work out but you can learn first hand when you see the contrast between your choices – how does each one feel? Your feelings are what tell you when you are on track.  Keep making decisions that help you feel relief – just the slightest bit of relief will do! It doesn’t have to be a major life change.  Your boundaries are there to guide you and keep you on track for your goals and for your purpose or mission.  They will help you make difficult decisions – the one you have to make to stop seeing clients that don’t pay enough.  You might see that as being greedy or materialistic – I used to also think that.  The more I go through this though the more I see that it is just good self care.  What can you do right now to practice good self care right this minute?  What boundary do you need to set that supports the belief that you are valuable and are worth it to have as many clients as you need?

Related posts:

1. Boundaries
2. Screening Massage Insurance Clients
3. More massage therapists violate boundaries

One of my earlier incidences was someone who ended up calling me at my home and yelling every profanity in the book and many I have never even heard.  It all came out of me asking about his website service and how it could help MT. He answered rudely and I just asked more questions.  I also just posted what I had found out about his services which was not very much made a comment about how rude he was which lead to the phone calls.  That was before privacy domains and now my home phone is unlisted.  I have many people in my own Yahoo! discussion group become bullys and verbally abuse me and the group.  I would always try to reason with people to help them understand but quickly found out there was no reasoning and it only got me deeper in trouble with them.  I now just used the delete and ban member option.

So what makes online communication so interesting, challenging and difficult?  Part of the problem is that people of course are just reading what I am writing and don’t hear your voice with the inflections of emotions or tones so they read their own tone into things.  People also have a tendency to say different things online then they would if people were standing directly in front of them.  They feel less inhibited because there is no one standing right in front of them. It is called the The Online Disinhibition Effect. You most likely have never met in person. You don’t really know the real person you are communicating with.  You just know their online presence and don’t know much about them.    Many of the forums you can also just create a username that is not your real name or post under multiple identities which has happened on a major forum. Often you don’t even know if anyone is reading which has been one issue for me personally. There are also many who read but never post – the lurkers.  They actually probably learn more than anyone else in some ways!

It is the way of online communications.  I know I can be guilty of many of these things this being an introvert and shy but writing online has given me a way to have a voice and communicate more than I would if I were in a room of MT.  I would be the person sitting in the corner talking to no one the whole night. I’d be guarding the veggie dip bowl so I’d have something to talk about if someone came up next to me.  I’d leave early or just drop in and make an appearance and leave. So writing online has been very therapeutic for me and also part of my growth process.

Here is more of what I have been learning about communicating online.

Nothing is personal online.  If someone does not respond to something you post don’t take it personally.  It doesn’t mean anything.  People are busy.  There is a time lapse in communications so it does leave people time to think but often people just react and start typing.  When you are reading something, the feelings that you are having are your own!  Many may refrain from interacting thinking that they don’t want to be attacked.  Many discussions can seem like an attack but are not unless the person specifically says : You so and so are a bad massage therapist or whatever.  The feelings of being attacked can be from some other area in your life -either the past or present.  It can be a good opportunity to explore these issues with a supervisor or counselor. This is transference showing up again.  It is in all aspects of relationships not just the client/therapist relationship.  One of the effects of online disinhibition may be the enhancement of transference reactions meaning that when you can’t hear someone talking and don’t have face to face interactions with people the level of transference can be escalated. (More on Transference).  That means that there is just a much greater chance of being misunderstood online and that most things are not personal!

The goal is to stay safe online and to learn from others and share but not have to worry about being threatened or attacked.  Is it safer to not speak up or to speak up and risk people mis-interpreting your written words online? It is again a matter of boundaries and setting clear lines for yourself.

The best way to help increase the effectiveness of communicating online is to start meeting people offline.  How about on big Facebook MT party!

My goal for the rest of the year is to also start talking to more people in person or at least through video chat or one of the new in person video communication systems.  I also am planning on attending and organizing more local meet ups at www.meetup.com and going to a convention or two!

No related posts.

In some ways I can’t understand why people want to take jobs when they pay so low but I know some people just want to go in and do a massage and leave but is any place really like that?  You still have to go in and do your best massage and provide customer service and educate clients so they will come back.  In some of the places you have to sell membership or retail items to clients.  If you don’t have any clients you don’t get paid for the most part in many places.  So there you are cleaning the bathrooms and doing laundry for free or minimum wage.  If you do take the initiative you can work to get new clients and get more repeat clients.  I go to a few mid range spas here in the area for my massage and I can say that they are not doing much to get the MT and other skin and nail care people busy.  I would say that a job in a busy clinic where you have a full schedule and are paid $35 an hour or more are rare.  But why do people take low paying jobs?  Do you have to?  Do you think there are not any other options? Is it that hard to start a business?

Starting a massage business isn’t easy but you are really left doing many of the same things to get and keep clients.  There are so many resources out there to help you start a massage business that most anyone can do it.  When I hear the many horror stories online about how people are being treated at massage jobs I just have to wonder what is going on.  It is like the many massage business owners many of who are not massage therapists figured out that massage was a lucrative business model so they are out there hiring the many massage school grads who were told that they could get $100k a year massage jobs.  Now I am not talking about those places who do hire MT and pay them well and also take the MT under their wing to teach them the ropes of running a business and being successful (See Laura Allens Therra-sage).

Why can’t MT stand up and ask for more for themselves and demand higher pay or go out there and create your own job?  I never have been a fan of jobs and the mentality that goes along with it.  People seek jobs out of what it can do for them rather than what they can do for the company or so it sometimes seems.  Find a health care provider that you respect and would go to yourself and talk to them until they create a job for you. No it isn’t easy and it might take a year or even a few and no most probably can’t afford to wait that long so I guess you have to take a low paying job.  Well there is nothing wrong with that at all.

How is it that massage employers have gotten to the point that they take so much advantage of MT? I only think of Dr. Phil’s comment about “You teach people how to treat you”.

I want to be clear hear that I am not bashing people who take jobs in massage and take low paying jobs, but I just wish more for you.  You should be making what you are worth and making a good enough living to pay the bills, save for retirement, take nice vacations, drive a reliable car, not be in debt and be happy.

I wrote the Massage Job Guide to hopefully inspire you and help you to do just that.  It requires that you make a stand for yourself – set your boundaries around the jobs you take and keep working until you get or create your Ideal Massage Job.  You are worth it!

Of course this is all just my ramblings on about massage jobs – my own opinions but I do value yours.  What are you seeing out there in the world of massage jobs?  Is there such a thing as an ideal job? What does that look like or what would it look like?

Related posts:

1. Massage Therapy Jobs
2. The Ideal Massage Therapy Job
3. Massage Therapy Jobs

My focus right now is on getting a few books together to self publish.  I have been working on my Massage Career guide which is for people who are looking to get into a career in massage. It is for sale as an Ebook but I want to get it on amazon.com and out to more people. It has sort have been my ongoing project.  I originally wrote it in I think it was 2003 when I started my first Site Build it! website – www.massagetherapycareers.com – which I sold in 2009.  I replaced that site with www.massage-career-guides.com and it took longer than I thought to get the same traffic and keyword results back to the level of that old site but it is getting there.  I made a few mistakes when rebuilding that I have course chalked up to learning.  I have thought of just moving the whole site over to that site too but not sure.  I would also like to focus more on the massage school directory with such exciting and controversial things happening in education currently in the massage profession with the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education moving forward on creating standards for massage schools.

I have also been plagued with health issues since the beginning of the year having found out that I have a type of cholesterol that likes to stick to arteries but I have been working to stay healthy and it is working.  My massage business this year has been a challenge to maintain because of this and also I am very discouraged about what is happening in the insurance billing world in WA State.  I had the best year I have ever had in my 24 years of doing massage last year mainly do to insurance billing. This year they cut their allowable fees in half meaning that to make the same amount I have to do 2x the amount of massages and at this point in my career, my body just can’t do that.  I still see my 12 clients a week or so but am making way less.  I don’t see anyone doing anything about it or not sure what we can even do about it.

So I just keep writing about it all including reviving my Insurance Billing for Massage Therapists Manual which I hope to get on amazon.com this summer.  Billing insurance has allowed me to stay in this career for this long and it has also been the biggest thorn in my side.  I do feel that it is important for every MT to learn to bill and to see what the issues are so that we can begin to join forces to be able to have a say in what goes on.  Right now the massage profession is so all over the place and divided from what I see but I might be jaded from only being on Facebook and not seeing what is really going on by going to conventions and such.  I do hope to start getting out to some to see more of what is going on.  I am also going to be doing more get togethers through Meetup.com and seeing first hand the issues people are having.  What I have already seen is that MT are struggling with physical issues as well as financial issues.  Yes it is hard to keep financially sound when dealing with physical issues – I know that first hand.  My health was one of the reasons I started this website and all of the others along with finding out I like to write!

My passion is writing and creating websites.  It is such an amazing process.  I didn’t know anything about writing and frankly I am not even really good at it.  There are many better writers than me out there in the massage profession. It is really a personal growth process and spiritual process for me – sharing my thoughts and insights.  It was and is a process to find my voice and keep clear of things that get in the way like viscous verbal assaults that often happen online because of not being able to hear people’s voices.   I get caught up in it every once in awhile still because I feel protective of the massage profession.

I also wonder about things like where is this all going – the massage profession itself.  There is so much going on right now with like creating standards, doing more research and becoming more evidence based but sometimes it seems like the fight between the Evidence people and the energy workers is separating the profession which I guess isn’t good or bad but just sad to see really for me. It is the egos vs the crystals – which one will win?  and why does someone need to win?

I always think about the late Robert Calvert and some of the discussions I had with him about licensing and legislation.  After reading his book on the History of Massage and taking some classes from him – what has happened to touch and massage in our society and world? What has happened to touch being a part of families like passing massage onto sons so they can massage their pregnant wives or people massaging each other? I sometimes think that every MT could be teaching massage to the general public and that would do more good than anything else we do.  Teach friends how to massage friends, couples how to massage each other, parents how to massage their children and teach the children to massage each other.  I used to think there could be world peace if everyone just got a massage every day.  We are getting so far away from that in some ways in the massage profession.

Ok so I have gotten way off track but that’s OK.  I just needed to start writing again to get this blog and site going while I wait and see if I should move this site over to the new Block builder system at SBI which should be coming out soon I hope!

Related posts:

1. More on Site Build It!
2. Site Build It! results…
3. Changes to Blog

Deep Tendon Reflex – knee jerk reflex that occurs as a result of a strike by a rubber mallet to a tendon

Desquamation – The shedding of epithehial elements mainly the skin, in scales or small sheets: exfoliation

Direct Compression – Sustained pressure on a muscle cramp or tight muscle often using the hand, fist, forearm or knee

Dislocation – Displacement of a bony part within a joint leading to soft tissue damage, inflammation, pain and muscle spasm

Distraction – A pulling apart or separation of joint surfaces

Dysfunction – Adapative shortening of soft tissues resulting in loss of mobility

Eccentric Muscle Contraction – Lengthening of the muscle while it is contracting or resisting a work load

Efficiency – the Ratio of work output to work input.  Output divided by input and multiplied by 100 equals 100% efficiency

Electrolytes – Ionized salts in the blood, tissue fluids and cells

Empty Calories – calories obtained from food such as sugar, which are devoid of any dietary essentials like amino acids, vitamins and minerals

End-feel – the quality of feel the massage therapist experiences when passively applying pressure at the end point of the available range of motion

Endurance – The ability of a muscle to perform repeated contractions over a prolonged period of time before fatigue failure begins

Energy- The capacity for doing work

Engaging Tissue – When a sufficient amount of pressure is applied during palpation or treatment in order to move or compress the structure, then the tissue is engaged and assessment or treatment will be efficacious.

Enzymes- Complex proteins that are capable of speeding up chemical changes in other substances without being changed themselves.  Enzymes are found in digestive juices where they break down food into simpler compounds

Ergogenic Aids – Stimulants and other substance that when taken orally or by injection, increase the potential for exercise performance.  Most are illegal substances

Ergometer- A stationary bicycle used for training or for lab tests to measure work performed

Excursion- In friction, it refers to the distance of movement or glide available from the starting point in a pattern of oscillation or alternating movements with a return to the starting point.

Related posts:

1. Is the pressure ok?
2. Defining Massage Therapy
3. The depth in deep tissue massage