RST's blog

New research findings on the impact of the Iraq War.

Click here to join the discussion.

Where did the idea that massage promotes metastasis, and therefore, we shouldn't offer massage to patients living with cancer, come from?

What is the current best practices recommendation for massaging someone with a history of cancer, and on what basis is that best practices recommendation formed?

Why is the idea that we shouldn't massage someone with a history of cancer, because it might promote metastasis, so persistent in the face of what we actually know?

Click here to join the discussion.

You can use Loca as a mnemonic (a memory aid) to remember the functions of the cerebrum compared to those of the cerebellum--watch her movement, coordination, balance, and motor control as she tries to run, and you'll see what happens to those functions when the cerebellum doesn't work quite right.

Yet, as far as we can see from the video, there is no indication of any disorder of the cerebrum--she decides to run at appropriate times, when other dogs are running and playing.

The decision to run--made in Loca's cerebrum--seems perfectly normal, at least, as far as we can tell from a short movie.

It's the non-voluntary parts of the running, such as her balance and her coordination, where the difficulty lies. And those non-voluntary aspects of movement go back to her cerebellum.

Click here to join the discussion.

In response to Laura Allen's Facebook note regarding my image of the Doomsday Clock, Lisa Marie Gutowski has written an article, "Secession in Massage World". The issues she raises deserve thoughtful consideration, so I have responded to it point-by-point here.

Click here to join the discussion.

This means that they have presented me with a most stark choice.

Click here to join the discussion.

No problem--as a scientist, I am used to civil and professional, if passionate and intense, discussion of ideas.

That's the way we learn from each other.

Click here to join the discussion.

That's an excellent question.

Click here to join the discussion.

You can consider this the official birth announcement of a new lineage of massage.

Biopsychosocial massage (BPSM) is massage understood and practiced in a biopsychosocial model. It understands massage, health, wellness, and illness, and the knowledge bases underpinning those concepts in an evidence-based, natural (meaning, not supernatural), organic way that draws on what we know about biology and other natural sciences, psychology, sociocultural aspects of being human, and the emergent effects that arise from interactions among these various factors.

Over time, here at POEM, we will be following that evidence where it leads, and courageously engaging with the meanings that it shows for the practice of massage therapy. I expect intense, passionate, and fruitful discussions here over the next few years.

Click here to join the discussion.

cheers, to Gil and Alice for advancing professionalism in massage!

Click here to join the discussion.

Depending on the licensing jurisdiction (state, province, other region) you live in, as an MT, you may or may not be considered a healthcare provider, and you may or may not be a mandated reporter, which means you have to report cases of abuse, or your suspicions that abuse may be taking place. Patient confidentiality and privacy is always important, and even required, but there are times when for the safety of yourself or another, patient confidentiality may have to be broken in order to fulfill the mandated reporter requirement. I really can't give you a one-size-fits-all answer here, except to say that you should be aware of the laws that apply to you, and what your responsibilities for protecting your clients under those laws are.

Not everyone encounters domestic violence, but many of us will have a client, a friend, or a relative who faces it. Some of us may experience it ourselves. We may never need this information, but if we ever do need it, it is better to have it in advance, rather than try in the middle of an emergency to find it from scratch.

In general, massage schools don't prepare us for what to do if, in the clinic, a client tells us they are being abused, or if we suspect that a client is being abused.

Click here to join the discussion.

I recommend that, if we want a seat at the table as healthcare providers as the PPACA evolves over the next few years, that we begin immediately to consider, discuss, and implement policy in the following areas:...

Click here to join the discussion.

In one way, this article addresses an audience of students that is very different from our MT students--the example they cite, Advanced Trauma Life Support, is a much more urgent and technologically complicated set of skills, aimed at an audience of physicians-in-training.

However, the basic challenge is the same--to teach students to, in a client-centered way, reliably perform domain-relevant psychomotor skills independently in a clinical situation.

So let's examine George and Doto's proposed teaching methodology to see whether it has value to offer us in teaching MT students how to perform strokes, sequences, and other techniques.

Click here to join the discussion.

We have to decide one way or the other on the following question--because of the law of non-contradiction, we can't just say "both", and hand-wave our way out of the profound philosophical and scientific questions it raises.

As a first principle, do we accept or reject the reality of the material physical universe?

We have the freedom to choose either answer, but--no matter how much we may want it--we can't have it both ways.

The answer we choose to that question will determine what we have to offer to clients, as well as how we relate to one another.

This, in turn, will set in motion what history will tell about how our future of massage turned out.

Click here to join the discussion.

Christopher Moyer writes:

Many students in introductory psychology classes struggle to master neuroanatomical content...I have begun to teach neuroanatomy by means of limericks that I created. Students are provided with a handout containing the limericks in combination with other neuroanatomical content from the text and can use this outside of class to reinforce their knowledge of this specific material.

At POEM, we very much appreciate his making available mnemonic limericks for MT stakesholders' learning on:

• Amygdala (limbic system structure)
• Cerebellum
• Hippocampus (limbic system structure)
• Hypothalamus (limbic system structure)
• Limbic system
• Locus coeruleus
• Medulla
• Substantia nigra and striatum
• Suprachiasmatic nuclei
• Thalamus

Click here to join the discussion.

What all this means is that--contrary to what you may have heard--evidence-based practice does not mean that you have to give up traditional practices just because they are traditional, and adopt modern practices just because they are modern. This example was a perfect demonstration of how sometimes evidence supports the traditional practice as objectively better, as measured on the basis of outcomes (number of cases of botulism), than the modern practice.

Click here to join the discussion.

Denying reality is not a sustainable choice anymore, and the only real question is whether we'll make the change in time to make use of these new opportunities, or whether our process will make us too late to accept the invitation, and we'll totally miss out.

Godin provides an aspirational ideal to assist in that process:

Transformational leaders don't start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they'd like to create instead.

We can't change the larger universal material physical reality that confronts us. What we can change is how we react to it, and that reaction--what we commit to--will sow the seeds for the future we want to create.

Similarly, evidence-based and science-based practice are nothing more and nothing less than approaches to connect ideas, concepts, and words with material physical referents in the universe around us in a systematic and rigorous way in which we can have a high level of confidence. That is the single criterion that distinguishes science from art, philosophy, theology, literature, or any other way of exploring experience that does not require that tangible, empirical, material physical referent.

cheers, to Rania Ismail!

For periodically inviting Facebook readers to ask her anything at all that they want to know about her experience of being a blind person--her patience and willingness to reach out to meet people more than halfway makes her a true teacher.

Click here to join the discussion.

If you get the chance to, go and check out the especially striking view of the moon tonight. Tomorrow, we'll talk here about the science behind what you saw.

Click here to join the discussion.

If we're going to actually address the problems we're facing in massage education, I suggest the following first principles to ground the discussion in:

1. We need to understand how we got to the present situation, so that we don't fall into the same problems in the future, but right now our highest priority needs to be recognizing and addressing the immediate problems, for the sake of clients and students who don't have the time to wait. We have serious structural problems that we need to commit to fixing.
2. We recognize that no one individual or single group of MT stakeholders is to blame for the current situation--that it's the result of historical and structural forces in a period of massive disruption--and although we need to speak frankly about the problems to find a solution, we are not going to indulge in blaming and shaming of anyone. It hinders our efforts to find solutions. We start from the principle that--unless someone actively demonstrates a very, very good reason to modify that assumption--that everyone is coming to the table in good faith and with the best of intentions, and deserves the benefit of the doubt.
3. We acknowledge that there are critical problems that need fixing, and we recognize as well that fixing these problems is going to cause further disruptions that MT stakeholders will have to bear the brunt of. We start from the principle that we are all in this together, and that we are operating from a client-centered perspective, and that any change that causes disruption needs to occur for a good reason that supports this client-centered mission.

Click here to join the discussion.

Here's the particular slice of reality that I intensely hate right at this moment.

Click here to join the discussion.

Hmmm--that title sounds like I'm accusing Ralph Stephens of committing seven deadly sins. :)

But the more precise and accurate title, "The Seven Deadly Sins of Massage Education In The Way It Is Currently Practiced, As Described By Ralph Stephens", doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it?

There are many things that Stephens and I disagree on, often to the point of having diametrically opposite assessments of a situation, and recommendations about how to proceed.

However, it is a positive joy to engage with someone who remains professional and civil, even in strong and passionate disagreement on the issues, and I thank him for the high level of good-faith discourse that he brings to collegial discussions about shaping the future of massage.

And in this post, we don't even have to be concerned with how we handle disagreement, because I am going to argue that he is dead-on with his assessment of the problems in massage education.

Click here to join the discussion.

It's scary to think that life or death can turn on a vein or an artery--and yet, that's exactly what happened.

Click here to join the discussion.

A practitioner who is familiar with how anatomy and physiology work, on the other hand, will understand that a great deal of what feels to us as though it is happening in the eyes, or ears, or skin, or somewhere else, is really happening in the brain. And that the brain, by projecting the organized and processed signals back to where the original signals came from, makes us feel as though that process is happening there on the spot.

Click here to join the discussion.

If we want to become the healthcare professionals that we say we want to become, then we need to know what is actually happening around us in the way the body really works.

If we can't distinguish what is really happening from what feels like is happening, then that leads to naïve explanations of the material physical universe around us.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with being naïve on certain subjects--we're all born that way. And naïve styles in art can be profoundly meaningful, moving, humorous, and insightful.

Naïve style is awesome in the domains of art and other self-expression.

As healthcare professionals, however, we are held to the standards of realism, evidence, and correctness, and it is our job to make sure that we can meet those standards.

Click here to join the discussion.

Sometimes, to do the right and professional thing means to say "Hang on; we've got a problem here with the way we've done things up till now.". And you know what they say about what the first step to solving a problem is.

So we can't and won't expect people to always be nice here--if by nice, we mean always agreeing, and remaining silent when someone else says something that's not correct.

We will disagree, discuss, and debate.

But in disagreeing, discussing, and debating, here at POEM we will remain civil, and we will conduct ourselves as the healthcare professionals that we say we want to become.

Click here to join the discussion.