Forget frozen shoulder. Skip plantar fasciitis. Don’t even think about thoracic outlet syndrome. The trickiest obstacle a massage therapist faces is the client who wants you to focus on their shoulder dysfunction, foot pain, neck limitations, and chronic forearm inflammation—plus do a full-body session—and all in one hour. And it can be even more challenging if you work at a massage chain where you have 50 minutes to work and 10 minutes to prep for your next client. This is not a time management issue. It’s a magic act.
Clearly, this is not a reasonable request. But if you’re fresh out of school and a client requests the impossible, it’s easy to get hit with impostor syndrome. Can other massage therapists handle this? How is this even manageable? It’s a blow to your confidence, and a downward spiral of self-doubt can ensue.
This is a technique article, though, so I have a technique for you that will help solve these problems. (Well, maybe not all of them . . .)
As massage therapists, we spend a lot of time learning about the human body. But it’s impossible to absorb all the information we need in the blip of time that is massage school. We graduate and immediately start looking for all the answers to the slew of questions we didn’t know we had. Maybe we’ll find them in a cool CE course or on an interesting podcast. Or maybe they’ll be found in an insightful article in Massage & Bodywork magazine! (I see you.)
Little do you know, my massage newbie, that this is the beginning of a very cool journey. The quest we embark upon to understand how muscles work and what pain really is can spark a new growth of anatomy passion. What even is this body we live in? How have we never connected these dots before? The quest poses so many questions and ignites endless fascinations, and suddenly, we find ourselves respecting biology on levels we never imagined.
Falling in love with learning about our anatomy is like when you see a movie and the actor in the supporting role catches your eye because he’s really funny, and you now want to see everything he’s been in. The more we learn, the more we know we want to learn. And the more we want to learn, the more we realize we are slightly obsessed. It’s a fun road to be on because falling in love with this profession is like that—it sweeps you off your feet, and you start feeling things you never knew you could feel.
When we learn to love anatomy, we have to, in turn, love the process of learning—because it becomes something we want to do as opposed to something we are forced into. This is what we can teach our clients. It might not be as straightforward as giving them a stretch to do three times a day until they see you next week, but the payoff is off the charts. Getting a client to love their muscles and respect what their body or pain is communicating could be the key to unlocking your confidence as a bodyworker.
Teaching someone how to love themselves is not easy. So, here is the best way to make that happen: Love yourself first. OK, yes, I’m a hippie. But this is bigger than that. And you’re already halfway there (if you’re not fully there already). Anatomy is amazing. Let some of that fascination out when you’re working with your clients. Talk to them about what you are palpating. Find patterns in their tension. Connect their somatic body to their thinking selves.
For example, if a client comes in with chronic tension headaches, but they also want you to focus on their low-back pain, their IT band syndrome, and their tennis elbow, it might trigger an internal eye roll for you. But this just means that they’re most likely angry at their body for being in pain. It definitely means they haven’t fallen in love with their own anatomy yet. And curiosity is a much stronger learning tool than anger.
Begin your work into the neck and the surrounding tense tissues contributing to their chronic headaches. Then explain how slowing down the work and focusing on a more detailed approach increases the parasympathetic response in the muscles. Describe how muscle fibers contract and how adjacent connective tissues react to chronic contractions. And, of course, invite them to breathe.
Exploring pain and tension with genuine curiosity and care is the best technique you can learn. Translate without teaching. Clarify without condescension. Encourage wonder. The minute your clients begin to see their own anatomy through your eyes is the moment they begin to love and respect the entire process. They will want to come back, and you will feel a boost in confidence.
A treatment plan is what elevates massage therapy from a service to a therapeutic profession. It is the tangible output of our clinical reasoning.
Deep gluteal syndrome can be triggered by multiple causes. Sorting through those causes can be tricky, but doing so will also help your clients.
Context is powerful: Even light, mindful touch can significantly shift pain and proprioception, reminding us that how we work matters as much as what we do.
Considering the situation that led to your client’s pain can prove as valuable as understanding where the pain exists.
