Archive for July, 2009
National Massage Therapy Week
29 July 2009July brings an increased awareness to the massage industry. Therapists across the nation giving free, discounted or donation massages to promote the benefits of massage. This is one of many tools to educate the masses derived by good marketing tools.
Plan right now to utilize this week next July to promote community awareness. Come up with ideas that fit your needs and personality. Check out this MassageMag article to stimulate your idea factory.
Massage Publication Resource
22 July 2009In my readings I found this site that has a list of Free Massage Therapy Publications. The list of resources are from the US as well as Canada and Australia. Might as well sign up for them, their is bound to be an article or two that will catch your eye and make you wise.
Resources on the web are truly limitless, and if you don’t find what you are looking for, how hard is it to add it yourself from the research you do anyway? Let us all lift one another in our efforts to becoming better practitioners.
Palpation A Primary Tool for Massage
15 July 2009When assessing a clients tissue for treatment, palpation is an essential tool a therapist uses. This skill is refined and improved upon as a therapist performs a greater number of treatments. The variety of clients and variations of the tissue quality adds to the refinement.
Displaced nerves is a common condition that is misdiagnosed by many physicians and specialists. This condition is caused by imbalances of muscle tissue and can sometimes stretch the nerve out of its normal notch or groove causing pain. I am fortunate to have a sister who is also a MT with many years experience. She is my dictionary for treatments and symptoms. In one of her CE classes she was taught how to put nerves back into their place. She explained to me how it was done and I have done this for two of my clients with success. One client only needed once, and some couching on how to strip his forearm muscles and stretch his pecs. The other client has had this issue for quite some time, he has relief for a day or two when his ulnar nerve is massaged into place but must come back.
I have done some testing and believe it is a posture issue, kyphosis, hypertonic pecs and forearm muscles. He strips his forearm muscles regularly and is working on rolling his shoulders into proper position, but other then that his doctors wants to operate. This would have his ulnar nerve permanently on the anterior side of the medial epicondyle. He would love to avoid it. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what he can do to keep from having surgery, aside from what I have suggested?
Changes Afoot for The Massage Industry
1 July 2009For a fight to keep in the game, the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (NCBTMB) has proposed a new faction of their tentacles. An Association.
The USA Massage Resource Association (USAMRA) an insurance package, regulated by the NCBTMB sounds like a good idea, IF they pull their heads out their butts and clear the grime off their eyes. It is my opinion that because they have monopolized the market of CE certification and accreditation for schooling they can try to drowned everyone out of the examination and insurance facets as well.
A major portion of providing these types of services is the personal factor. They don’t try and relate with whom they are “servicing”. It appears that money in and money in is the philosophy at NCBTMB. If anyone has had the opportunity to subject themselves to NCBTMB’s “customer service” they know what I am talking about.
It would be great to have a one stop shopping center for Insurance, CE’s, Great resources and examination certification, IF they revamped how they handle working and communicating with those who put their trust in them.
Those who go for convenance are going to find out real quick that its not so convenant when they call and have someone flat out say “Nope, we cant help you, (click)”. True story and not just mine. Money taking and ignoring works well when you are the only certification available. Now we see how they are dealing with competitors. Please with these efforts you are undertaking within your corporation, take time to hire helpful, knowledgeable, experienced employees who have the best interest at heart to help where ever possible. Not when or if they feel like it.