My family owns a massage therapy franchise as well as a massage therapy school. I am very protective of the massage therapists that work for us. This includes injury prevention.
Had a client last week insist on a 90 min. session with the massage therapist only using hands and thumbs. We teach that excessive use of the hands is to be avoided and the thumbs should rarely be used.
I called the client and told them that their request has the potential to harm the massage therapist and they said that that is what they want as well as deep pressure so I told them we would not book them for a session. TADA!
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
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Sandy Fritz a well renowned massage therapist with more than 35 years of experience. She dedicates her time to writing massage texts for Mosby Publishing (Elsevier), educating, consulting, teaching, and providing massage to a mixed clientele. You can view or purchase Sandy's textbooks at: https://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?filter_multi_product_type=&q=sandy+fritz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of CE Institute LLC.
Collaboration in the massage therapy practice crosses many settings from wellness care found in the spa and wellness centers, to acute care in medical settings.
As health care practitioners, providing manual therapy in the form of therapeutic massage, we function within a continuum.
Definition of continuum:
a coherent whole characterized as a collection, sequence, or progression of values or elements varying by minute degrees
a range or series of things that are slightly different from each other and that exist between two different possibilities
A continuum is NOT the extremes:
hot/cold
self-employed/employee
wellness/medical
light/deep
acute/chronic
happy/sad
A continuum is the space between possible extremes. As a massage therapy community we lack collaboration, unity and professional identity because we are polarized at the extremes.
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
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Sandy Fritz a well renowned massage therapist with more than 35 years of experience. She dedicates her time to writing massage texts for Mosby Publishing (Elsevier), educating, consulting, teaching, and providing massage to a mixed clientele. You can view or purchase Sandy's textbooks at: https://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?filter_multi_product_type=&q=sandy+fritz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of CE Institute LLC.
General full body massage is primarily palpation and joint movement assessment. Uniquely, massage performed this way is also an approach to support achieving the outcomes of relaxation and wellbeing and stands alone as a health and wellness care service.
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During the general massage the various tissues are palpated for temperature, tissue texture, pliability, resilience, sliding to identify normal functional capacity as well as determining tissue changes that may be contributing to sensations bothering the client.
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Joint movement, both active and passive, also identifies functional capacity and can identify disruption in mobility and stability.
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When assessment identifies altered function, then critical thinking is used to determine need for referral, or capacity for adaptation responsive to massage related interventions. If an intervention is indicated, then the massage methods becomes more focused and modified in an attempt to stimulate a response to achieve the outcome goals of a massage session.
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This process is part of the larger therapeutic experience involving a therapeutic alliance based on a client centered approach and compassionate care.
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
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Sandy Fritz a well renowned massage therapist with more than 35 years of experience. She dedicates her time to writing massage texts for Mosby Publishing (Elsevier), educating, consulting, teaching, and providing massage to a mixed clientele. You can view or purchase Sandy's textbooks at: https://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?filter_multi_product_type=&q=sandy+fritz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of CE Institute LLC.
Understanding the client's history, medical conditions, past and present injuries and so forth are most relevant for understanding what NOT to do instead of what to "fix".
Also remember that many clients have goals for massage that have very little to do with their "conditions".
Remember to ask, " What is the outcome for you today?"
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
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Sandy Fritz a well renowned massage therapist with more than 35 years of experience. She dedicates her time to writing massage texts for Mosby Publishing (Elsevier), educating, consulting, teaching, and providing massage to a mixed clientele. You can view or purchase Sandy's textbooks at: https://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?filter_multi_product_type=&q=sandy+fritz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of CE Institute LLC.
Continuing education, as part of professional development, is recommended BUT be wise and informed. Except in a couple of states the only mandatory credential for practice is licensing.
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There are NO mandatory credentialling requirements for specific approaches such as myofascial release, trigger points, neuromuscular, pre and postnatal, oncology, trauma, sports, orthopedic, medical, cupping, kinesiology taping, scraping with tools, infant, and so forth.
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Ethically we need to practice within our legislative scope of practice and within our individual knowledge and experience. Classes and mentoring from those who are experienced in a focused method or population is desirable BUT beware—EDUCATORS CANNOT PROVIDE CERTIFICATION…only certificates. This is an important distinction in professional development.
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Certification is a specific process by an organization independent of the educators.
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ALSO REMEMBER – Your best ongoing education is what you learn from experience and interaction with other wellness, sport, health and medical professionals. We need to be our own best teacher to truly commit to lifelong professional development.
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
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Sandy Fritz a well renowned massage therapist with more than 35 years of experience. She dedicates her time to writing massage texts for Mosby Publishing (Elsevier), educating, consulting, teaching, and providing massage to a mixed clientele. You can view or purchase Sandy's textbooks at: https://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?filter_multi_product_type=&q=sandy+fritz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of CE Institute LLC.
I have been involved in the massage therapy community for a LONG TIME. This provides a perspective of how massage therapy has evolved over time as well as a platform for the future.
It is important that the massage community does not ignore the impact of this interdisciplinary global collaboration among those who use manual therapy in professional practice.
Who founded the International Consortium of Manual Therapies? Brian Degenhardt, DO, Paul Standley, PhD, and Francesco Cerritelli, PhD, DO(Europe) founded the ICMT after collaborating at several osteopathic manipulative medicine conferences. They surmised that to truly advance the manual therapy field both scientifically and clinically, the 20th-century silos between professions needed to be removed and communication and collaboration needed to be established.
To begin this process, they decided that fundamental yet critical issues needed to be overcome, such as variation in nomenclature systems within and across professions, and to build a platform to improve communication between clinicians and basic scientists. It is from this perspective that ICMT’s first conference program was developed.
Practitioners who provide manual therapy are encouraged to attend:
Athletic trainers
Chiropractors
Doctors of Chiropractic
Doctors of Oriental medicine
Doctors of physical therapy
Manual medicine physicians
Massage therapists
Occupational therapists
Osteopaths
Osteopathic physicians
Physiatrists
Physical therapists
Structural Integration practitioners
Importantly, the scientific community will be involved supporting evidence informed practice and identifying gaps for future research design.
What makes this conference different? / Why should I attend? The ICMT is interactive; in most conferences, participants just watch and listen to lectures but at ICMT, participants actively engage in the entire program. You will be working with respected colleagues and peers from across the many manual therapy disciplines to collaboratively discuss the latest insights into manual therapies and to help shape future collaboration and research.
Committed to delivering a groundbreaking conference to members of the manual therapy community, we have identified a new “virtual venue” for the ICMT Inaugural Conference. We are enthusiastic that under these circumstances, we will be able to better engage the manual therapy community in May 2022 and achieve the conference’s goals using this format.
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
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Sandy Fritz a well renowned massage therapist with more than 35 years of experience. She dedicates her time to writing massage texts for Mosby Publishing (Elsevier), educating, consulting, teaching, and providing massage to a mixed clientele. You can view or purchase Sandy's textbooks at: https://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?filter_multi_product_type=&q=sandy+fritz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of CE Institute LLC.
A person was asked why they folded their linens a certain way. The response was --That is the way I was taught but they didn't know why. When asking their parent why they taught them to fold the linens a certain way they were told that that is the way they were taught by their parents. When the person asked the grandparents why they fold the linens a certain way the answer was--That is the only way I could fit them in the linen closet.
There is a lesson here for sure. The reason why may be outdated but legacy persists.
Just because something has been done in a certain way for years does not mean it is the best way anymore. While it is important to respect some aspects of legacy, being bound to the past also creates limits. It is a different world requiring new ways of functioning. Technology is a game changer and will continue to influence our future. I love hugging my grandkids. Nothing can replace this connection BUT I can also interact with them easily and frequently using technology --face to face.
My oldest grandson can carry the tablet around as he plays setting grandma up so we can see each other and chat. I had to learn how to do this but for him at 4 years old it is part of his world. Change requires a learning curve and often the older we get the more challenging it is to learn new and often improved ways of being.
Resisting takes a lot of energy that could be used for learning.
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
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Sandy Fritz a well renowned massage therapist with more than 35 years of experience. She dedicates her time to writing massage texts for Mosby Publishing (Elsevier), educating, consulting, teaching, and providing massage to a mixed clientele. You can view or purchase Sandy's textbooks at: https://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?filter_multi_product_type=&q=sandy+fritz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of CE Institute LLC.
I know there is a lot of talk about how employers mistreat employees. Well employees ALSO mistreat employers.
I have been an employer of administration staff and teachers for my school for 35 years and massage therapy, esthetician and for the past 6 years support staff at my family's franchise business. I am sharing my experiences which are common experiences.
I also want to note that our staff at Massage Green Spa are excellent and I appreciate them every day. All massage therapists are graduates from my school.
If I experience issues as an employer with this team just imagine how difficult it can be for others. Also there are employers who are not team players and do a poor job managing their business. If you are an excellent employee DO NOT work for a bad employer. And great employers should not hire difficult employees and dismiss those who cause trouble or do not support the business.
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The employer/employee relationship should be a team approach.
Over the years that has been my experience about 3/4 of the time. The rest of the time it has been a nightmare.
Teamwork only works when all take care of responsibilities. One of my pet peeves is entitlement. I really get ruffled when I hear " not my job".
Listen, If I can clean the bathroom so can everyone else. Another is " Suzy didn't do it so I won't either." Errrrr-----.
The other is NOT showing up on time when scheduled. Also hiding during work time to avoid tasks. I really snarf when that happens.
I also just about sold the school years ago because I could not stand the constant bickering between administration staff and instructing staff. Same at the spa. It also rattles my chain when people gossip and constantly are in some sort of drama. When you are at work you are at work dog gone it.
There have been months that I have gone without a paycheck from the school and the spa has yet to pay us owners, but always made sure the employees were paid.
Business owners in a new business often do not make enough profit for 5 years to take any income from the business. That is one of the risks of business ownership. When listening to how an employee feels like they are taken advantage of makes me bristle. I have been embezzled, stolen from and had to replace equipment over and over from careless use.
I still have the massage therapy school and I still have employees but these days when they are high maintenance and a pain in my glutes they are dismissed.
Employees: seek to understand business operations and commit to being an excellent team player. Before complaining about wages make sure you are being realistic and if you feel unfairly treated become self-employed.
Employers: you are obligated to be an excellent employer and it is helpful to be transparent with your staff. The excellent staff deserve wages that reflect their skills and commitment to the business, your attention, excellent business management, appreciation and support. It is also your responsibility to dismiss problem staff and maintain a cooperative work environment.
Employers deserve to have at least the same income as the staff and it is reasonable for the employer to eventually have an income increase reflecting the time involved and the risks taken to maintain the business.
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
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Sandy Fritz a well renowned massage therapist with more than 35 years of experience. She dedicates her time to writing massage texts for Mosby Publishing (Elsevier), educating, consulting, teaching, and providing massage to a mixed clientele. You can view or purchase Sandy's textbooks at: https://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?filter_multi_product_type=&q=sandy+fritz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of CE Institute LLC.
Massage is one form of manual therapy. Massage Therapy can be considered a manual therapy specialization.
In the health and wellness sector, massage therapy can be a stand-alone approach to support wellbeing and self-care prevention and management of stress and stress related issues massage can be an autonomous practice. When dysfunction and pathology is present, massage therapy, within the broader manual therapy spectrum, is indicated within interdisciplinary medical care.
Scope of practice respect and violation needs consideration. In an interdisciplinary team, the professional with the broadest scope of practice and the most education required for entry level practice would be responsible for the plan of care and delegation of portions of the treatment plan to the specialists within the team. Remember, massage is the massage therapist's specialization.
The various occupations using similar manual therapy methods need to determine who is best to perform the assessment and specific intervention and refer if another professional is more specifically trained and experienced. For example, in a health and wellness setting a massage therapist may incorporate aspects of fluid movement (example: lymphatic focus), BUT this same method would be out of scope for a massage therapist if pathology exists unless part of an interdisciplinary team and delegated to perform the method.
Another example: In a general massage session a massage therapist can incorporate safe stretching methods BUT in a sport and fitness setting the athletic trainer is better trained and should be professional providing stretching as an intervention.
It is ok to learn and augment massage therapy with other manual therapy approaches so long as scope of practice is respected. And the manual therapy methods other than massage SHOULD NOT replace massage as the primary approach used by massage therapists.
If you want to call yourself a "manual therapist" and you are working under a massage therapy license and scope of practice, I would suggest that there is an ethical concern.
If you want to practice autonomously as a manual therapist, but do not want to practice massage therapy, then maybe actually committing to the academic training to become a physical therapist, chiropractor, or osteopathic physician is the ethical thing to do or practice massage therapy as part of an interdisciplinary team.
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
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Sandy Fritz a well renowned massage therapist with more than 35 years of experience. She dedicates her time to writing massage texts for Mosby Publishing (Elsevier), educating, consulting, teaching, and providing massage to a mixed clientele. You can view or purchase Sandy's textbooks at: https://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?filter_multi_product_type=&q=sandy+fritz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views or opinions of CE Institute LLC.
by Selena Belisle, Founder/Instructor, CE Institute LLC
One of my favorite goats named Creamy has developed caprine arthritis encephalitis which is also known as CAE. Creamy was delivered to us with an original herd of approximately 100 goats. She is of unknown age but is likely over five years old, and she has a lovely cream colored coat which contributed to her name.
We were told that CAE did not exist within the herd when it was acquired, despite there appearing to be visual scars on the animals that indicated otherwise. CAE is a devastating disease which usually results in culling the herd, and termination of infected animals.
Creamy has been with us for a couple years without any signs of CAE. Then, during her last pregnancy and delivery, things went awry. She was pregnant with two calves which is fairly normal for a goat. She delivered one calf, and then didn't deliver the second calf until five days later.
CAE Symptoms Develop
Immediately after delivery, Creamy started showing significant symptoms of CAE. They were gradual and became worse with each day, until she was walking on three legs only within about 2-weeks. She was separated from the herd, kept dry with a sawdust bed, provided anti-inflammatories and other medicine to no avail.
Her right front knee was excessively swollen, and I thought I may be able to manually manipulate the fluid away from the knee joint, but despite Creamy being an incredibly patient and mild mannered goat, she wouldn't allow me to touch her knee for very light manual lymphatic drainage techniques. At one point, during her medical care, her knee was shaved which provided better access to directly manipulate the skin with MLD, but unfortunately she was not having it, and I did not press the matter to avoid distressing the animal.
Creamy's Weight Loss
It took about 2-weeks of non weight-bearing on Creamy's right front leg before her right shoulder atrophied. The atrophy was slight but clear between her right and left shoulder. Creamy also lost weight which is normal for goats after delivering their calves, so it's unknown if Creamy's weight loss was from her delivery or CAE or likely both.
Goat with CAE Gets Even Dirtier
Like all farm animals, goats can be fairly dirty and Creamy was no exception. Unfortunately this situation worsened when another animal peed on her which was weird given she was fairly isolated. I found half her head and a rear back quarter soaked in urine. It might have been possible that she hobbled to one of the horse stalls and laid down in the urine too. Unfortunately we'll never know how it happened, but it was important for me to remove it and get her clean.
Making the Decision to Provide a Caprine Spa Session to an Ill Goat
I asked Creamy's more experienced care givers if it would be acceptable to wash Creamy and we were all at a loss. This was a no win situation where the animal's coat would have either remained soaked in urine for a good amount of time, or risked health issues from being wet in the cold.
We ultimately agreed that I if I worked quickly to clean Creamy and dry her, it could be successful. Luckily, I was able to clean Creamy in local spots only with multiple, inexpensive disposable washcloths within about 30-minutes, then quickly dry her within another half hour, so her health was not compromised with her quick and efficient, one-hour caprine spa session.
Goat Spa Session
Our barn is in northern Vermont where it is very cold in the Winter, so washing an ill animal during sub-zero temperatures (end of February) in a moderately heated barn was undesirable. Nevertheless, I wanted this goat to feel clean while ill, so I did it. I purchased:
From Dollar Tree at $1.25 each:
Disposable washcloths
Extra large puppy pads
Animal brush
From Walmart:
Heated radiator ($50)
Hair dryer ($10)
Set of towels ($10)
Oatmeal gentle dog wash ($5)
Creamy received similar to what most ICU patients would receive as a sponge bath with the following steps:
I collect a clean pail of tepid water
I dunked an individual disposable washcloth into the tepid water
I rinsed Creamy with the disposable washcloth
I repeated this process over and over with clean cloths, until all urine was removed from her coat
I did not use the oatmeal cleanser on Creamy. The disposable washcloths seemed to have some type of gentle cleanser on them which satisfied the cleansing and rinsing process with individual cloths.
Once Creamy was clean in the two areas that were soiled of urine, I then used a hair dryer to dry the areas that were cleaned. It was important to get Creamy as dry as possible to prevent pneumonia or other illness in the dead of Winter with this severely compromised goat.
Spa Session Tired Goat with CAE
Creamy was fairly tired when I finished her mini-spa session. She was standing on three legs the entire time, leaning into me. I also believe the hair dryer noise was likely unnerving to her, but she accepted it without much issue. It's almost like she was aware that it was necessary, and the warm heat of the hair dryer might have even felt good to her. It's hard to say given the goats cannot speak and you have to take their physical cues as communication.
A Satisfied Clean Goat
Creamy jumped up onto her three legs to greet me the next time I entered the barn after her spa session. It's like she wanted to show me that she was doing much better. Please keep in mind that Creamy has been receiving round-the-clock medical care from her care givers, so I will never know if her improvement was from her spa session or medical care or both. But there was no mistaking that she was happy to see me again, and excited to get another rub down.
Eating During Massage
Creamy is a hearty goat and she continued to eat despite being ill. Sometimes when I went to the barn to massage Creamy, she would eat the hay that was left for her. Prior to her spa session, she would be lying down and she would not get up when I entered which was sad to see, given during previous visits without CAE, Creamy would patiently follow me around with the rest of the herd until it was her turn for attention. Some of the goats demanded immediate and nonstop attention, but Creamy was patient and different. Very loveable. I also do not know if Creamy was eating before I arrived for her rub down, or if she started eating while I massage her, but she did eat during her massage and she seemed to enjoy it.
Creamy's Rub Down
Massaging Creamy was simple bodywork, and similar to what she's been receiving from me for two years now. I applied a circular effleurage/friction technique. The goat herd seems to favor this style of massage over anything else such as traditional straight effleurage or petrissage.
I usually wear either vinyl or nitrile gloves when physically working with the goat herd. This herd has the common orf virus which can be transmissible to humans; however, the herd did not have any active outbreaks during this Winter 2022 visit.
The goats favorite circular therapy technique is bilateral alternating massage with both hands on their lower mandible or hips. The more mild manner goats enjoy their mandible massaged, and all of the goats enjoy the alternating bilateral circulatory massage of their hips. They'll either stay in place until you stop, or start leaning into you for more pressure. Then when you do stop, they'll usually follow you around for more.
Important Disclosure
It is important to note that I am NOT an expert in animal care nor caprine livestock, despite being a born and raised Vermonter. I have bottle fed over 100 calves from this goat herd, and massaged them all. But, my real health care experience is massage therapy practice for over three decades, and I have provided spa services for the past 27 years - for humans (although some humans have equally behaved like animals if not worse). Today, I teach CE hours for the massage, nursing and cosmetology fields as an expert instructor of multiple modalities for human health and cosmetology care.
I am often asked about bodywork techniques including MLD for animals, especially given equestrian massage has been a nonstop growing industry for years. While I have multiple horses available to work with including beautiful Clydesdales, I prefer to work most with the goat herd and their kids. These goats are the most affectionate, loving animals and a true pleasure to work on.
To learn more, please register for quality, affordable, professional training at: https://ceinstitute.com/
