Massage therapy is a universe of multitudes of colors . They are as many colors as there are therapists. Even if they sometimes use the same techniques, the massos color the maneuvers by their size, their strength, their presence, their experiences and their philosophy of life.
It was in existential crisis mode ( by becoming an athlete ) that the desire to do massage therapy came to me. Quite honestly, I wanted to become either an osteopath or a physiotherapist. But my loving wife wasn't keen on the idea of seeing me do 6-7 years of study at 40 before even being able to practice... that's understandable. Salute to her soul, in the end it was her who referred me to a "massokinesithérapeute" and… Epiphany! I loved it, I found it super effective, and very precise in terms of knowledge. In massage therapy, we move away from “relaxation at the spa” and towards something more therapeutic. It spoke to me a lot.
Massage therapy training is incremental and practice-based. We start with basic training and add training in stages, little by little. With each additional training, we integrate new knowledge and put it into practice immediately. We thus ensure that what we learn has added value. We keep some and we abandon them according to our personal interests and our aptitudes. The training can be endless , as can the colors of massage therapy.
In short, my plan was to start my massage training with the basic course, and immediately specialize in therapeutic approach and I'll get there... But, oh surprise! I was impressed by the benefits that a relaxation massage brings. A more global massage of the body. A massage that unifies bodily sensations. I hadn't had much massage before starting my massage therapy course... which is curious and amusing in itself.
I was now studying “spa relaxation” techniques and it was quite eye-opening. I was prejudiced... the surprise was to discover that it was exactly what I needed.
In my own story, for too long I only focused on my ailments. I venture to call it that. This specific attention to pain disrupted the sensory map of my body, only feeling the points of tension, and thus losing sight of the good sensations between these pain points. We cannot live just from pain, it is not a viable body architecture.
When we are in pain, the reflex is to address the area of pain directly. But in Swedish massage (which is generally the basic massage training) we were taught to work the area opposite the pain first. For example: for pain in the right shoulder, we work the left shoulder first.
For what?
Psychological safety
A comparison in tone and tension
A reciprocal inhibition, that is to say a relaxation reflex by massaging the antagonists (and even the limb opposite to the pain).
Avoid compensation, overuse of the healthy side.
And when I work on a specific tension, for example tension in the forearm due to prolonged poor posture at the computer, I work on the contractures and adhesions in this area. But once the targeted muscles are relaxed, we are taught to reintegrate the limb segment as a whole using large movements from the forearm to the shoulder.
In massage therapy, there is a concern to regulate sensory receptors .
These massage principles create a wholeness.
When we only focus on what hurts, it creates a cycle that can potentially fuel this pain. Imagine having a needle in your foot and walking on it, with every step. You will develop apprehension and tense this area in anticipation of pain. Walk like this for a few weeks and, even if the needle is removed, it is a safe bet that you will continue to walk with the same apprehension, this same contracture, even if it is no longer necessary. Massage therapy can help the sensory sensors get rid of the remnants and imprints left by gone pain.
This concern for the globality of sensory receptors, I think is really specific to massage therapy . I am not aware of this being used in other forms of manual therapy. Either because the therapist does not have the tools, or because he is not interested in taking the time to do it since he is focused on something else, because his/her expertise is specialized. Each has its own function and effectiveness. It is up to you, in your journey, to take and leave, explore and educate yourself about your own body.
Moreover, it was with the help of various therapists and by becoming sporty that I got out of my big cycle of sores that I thought I was condemned to have for the rest of my life. However, I still had some work to do. It was really by taking the massage therapy course and having a lot of massages that I was able to largely reunify the map of my body.
So you will have understood that these days, another color comes to color my approach as a massage therapist: To recirculate the good . Accept the pain points, but welcome what is going well too. Because it unifies the body. The good is there, and sometimes you have to remember it.
In art, there is a drawing technique called negative space. In this technique, for example when wanting to draw a woman and a tree, instead of drawing the tree and then the woman, we draw the space between the tree, the woman and the rest of the frame. A super interesting process, where in general the lines are less precise, but the proportions in space are better. We would benefit from knowing how to draw a sensory map of our body based also on what is going well, not just what is going wrong .
By writing it I realize how important it is and I promise myself to apply myself even more to it.
Go get a massage to release tension, but also to spread the good… and if you’re in my area, come see me.
Guillaume
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