One of the challenges the massage profession has is a major obstacle in educating the public as to what massage is or is not. Since we do not have a clear definition of it for ourselves - how can we educate people as to what it is?

The definitions created by states with licensing are quite varied. I am collecting them at my website www.massagetherapycareers.com and in doing so have been able to see why it is so difficult to be accepted by the public and to not be confused with prostitutes.

What is massage? What is bodywork? Is massage bodywork? Is bodywork massage? Is Reiki, structural integration, polarity therapy, reflexology, Bowen therapy, Trager, Rosen method, Rubenfield synergy, Shiatsu, Hakomi considered massage? Is it bodywork? Do you need to know Swedish Massage for those types of therapies (and go to massage school and be licensed as a massage therapist to do those types of massage techniques?)

Then there is the whole problem of defining ‘Medical Massage” - is medical massage a technique or just the ability to bill insurance companies for massage therapy services. If it is a technique - what technique or techniques are included and not included? Some are claiming that relaxation massage is not medical massage but if stress is the number one cause of most diseases and conditions and relaxation massage is the best modality for treating stress will we be cutting our own throats by not allowing relaxation massage therapists (who usually have less than 500 hours of massage training) to do medical massage? The problem now is that because it is not defined by the massage profession - the insurance companies are defining it.

The definitions of each different type of massage/bodywork or whatever you want to call it can be further defined for clarification. What is deep tissue bodywork? What is myofacial release? What is triggerpoint therapy? What is sports massage? What is swedish massage?
What type of training and experience is needed for doing each and every type of massage/bodywork?

The reason why we need to start clearly defining these words and techniques is so that we can then show these to state boards when they try to limit what we do or define what we do in other ways. It is also important in educating the public and promoting our profession as a whole and it really affects each massage therapist’s ability to work successfully with each client. This is seen when you go into a spa like I did a few months ago asking for a relaxing massage but not deep tissue as I have a lot of experience in getting Rolfed and doing structural integration. Deep tissue to me means challenging the deeper muscles of the body which usually has a degree of discomfort to it. I said that I wanted very firm relaxation massage and then when I got there I could hardly feel the persons hands on me. Now the clients experience is also so varied, but in this case the massage practitioner had no means of connecting to my needs. She never asked questions to find out how much pressure that meant to me or tried to figure it out in any way. I tried to keep telling her but I got no response and gave up (which is a whole other story - how many people getting a massage do not get their needs met because they don’t say anything?) Needless to say, I got a free deep tissue massage out of it later after speaking to the management. How we define and teach people to use such techniques really has a global effect of creating an image for the massage profession. How can we start defining ourselves to create a more professional and cohesive image? How can we start defining what we do so as to have a common language that ALL can understand?

Massage Definitions by State -www.thebodyworker.com

This research study attempts to help define massage -”Development of a taxonomy to describe massage treatments for musculoskeletal pain”

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 9:21 am and is filed under Ethics, Massage Schools/Students. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.