Approach to massaging clients.
Massage therapy is very much an art to problem solving much like Sherlock Holmes in the TV show, Elementary.
How’s that you ask?
When I see a client and ask why they are here, they may tell me that they have a backache, and have no idea why that is and can I fix it?
I then become a super detective and work my powers of deduction much like Sherlock Holmes and gently start to interrogate the client along with powers of observation. I ask a number of questions so I can get an overall picture of what might be happening for this situation. Questions like:
When did this pain occur?
Have you had it before?
What were you doing when it started?
Can you still work/ do your sport/exercise?
Is it worse at the start or end of the day?
A few of the other strategies that seem to be common to Sherlock Holmes and massage therapy are:
Work to overcome your biases, as these are formed over a lifetime we need to consistently become more objective in our thinking.
Be more engaged, those that are more motivated by their personal engagement in a situation are more likely to overwrite their initial judgments.
Continue educating yourself, this happens both by doing extra workshops and also by experience of treating many different people.
Keeping a diary, write everything down and then start looking at the information subjective without jumping to conclusions.
After finding out this information I can start to put together a picture of what is possibly happening for this client. Along with experience of having had my own injuries and having treated numerous clients I’ll work out what is the best plan of action and then proceed to treat them as required.
It’s not quite this simple but from the answers to these questions and more I start to piece together the puzzle of their pain.
It’s Elementary, my dear Watson.