Miseducation of a Massage Therapist

How much do I actually know?

Eight years into practicing bodywork and I’m just now starting to see how big the conversation really is. That is to say, I’m past the stage of thinking I know what the hell is really going on. Possibly now I have a sense of what it is I don’t know! Possibly now I can forgo the ridiculous hope of providing formulaic answers to problems affecting complex systems. This wildly insecure place of “not knowing” can strangely be considered progress.

You graduate massage school with what amounts to a single semester's worth of basic human anatomy / physiology / kinesiology and off you go into the world of ACL tears, hip replacements, Parkinson’s, Diabetes, colostomy bags, pelvic floor dysfunction and everything else along the biopsychosocial spectrum. This list represents my last two weeks on the job and is a sobering reminder of what it is we massage therapists are really signing up for. You (and I) are guaranteed to be ill equipped and under prepared.

So what do you do? 

You start taking continuing education like a demon of course! Spending many thousands of dollars on a choose-your-own-adventure of misinformation and quackery. Your bullshit meter eventually (hopefully) gets fine tuned and slowly but surely threads of truth start to appear. A path emerges as you begin to notice consistencies. Principles and systems start to become more interesting and useful than individual techniques. The “why” becomes more important than the “what”. 

Then the true realizations start to roll in...We aren’t supposed to actually “fix” anyone...There is no magic technique...The basics done well actually work! 

At the end of the day the proper environment for innate healing to occur must be fostered. It is a process. We must provide safety to disarm the vigilant nervous system. Provide options for movement and enliven the sensory feedback mechanisms that make movement possible. Then we must accurately place the burden of healing on the person in pain. Empowerment is the true key to success.

The path is non-linear, fascinating, expensive, exciting and filled with the hope of truly providing great care for our clients. I’m into it.