Neuroscience

 If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

There are many modalities in the field of manual therapy. All of them sometimes work yet many of their explanations contradict each other. 

A massage therapist recently asked the question, "Who was your mentor and what did you learn from them?" Immediately, a particular individual came to mind and I began to think of how I would answer that question. Then I thought of the first massage therapist I considered to be a mentor. And then the second one.

The SomaSimple forums are one of the best resources available for any manual therapist working with clients with chronic pain. However, massage therapists who find their way to the SomaSimple site are often overwhelmed at first by the enormity of the material, intimidated by the level of discussion, and confused about where to start.

On Monday, May 6, Kathryn Merrow interviewed me for 30 minutes for Massage Talk Radio. We had a lot of fun. She asked about how I got into massage, about my training and experience, and how I've evolved to incorporate the various things I've learned over the years into my practice.

If I could make only one recommendation to people with chronic pain, it would be to read the book Explain Pain by David Butler and Lorimer Moseley.

One of the things I particularly enjoy about having my own independent practice is that I'm able to take time with my clients. Most of the time I have to stay within the bounds of a schedule or my day would be unmanageable. However, I'm able to control my schedule so that I don't have to feel rushed.

Graded exposure can be a useful technique for persons living with chronic pain. Graded exposure is a method of finding movement that is pain-free and building on that. The idea is to break the brain's association between a particular movement and pain.

When Ida Rolf began putting her hands and elbows on people’s skin and applying pressure, creating a slow, sustained stretch, she imagined that she was stretching fascial sheets.

 

In July of 2011, Will Stewart of 3-D Optimal Performance interviewed Dr. Timothy Noakes, a South African exercise physiologist and author of Lore of Running. Noakes recently published Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports , a book which addresses the little known hazards of drinking too much water, especially for women in endurance sports. The primary subject of this interview is the Central Governor model proposed by Noakes to explain the role of the brain in our experience of fatigue during physical exertion.

This page was written as a reference for those who attended the Skeptical Society of St. Louis Skepticamp, Saturday, August 18, 2012. It includes websites mentioned during a presentation on the field of massage therapy from the point of view of a science-based massage therapist. The title of the presentation was "Woo, Sloppy Thinking, and Language."

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