My Massage And Anatomy

Sardinian beach, my feet and books.

Many of my clients have had a common grumble - I've been away a lot lately.

In June David and I went to Italy for a month of sun with revision and last week I got back after a trip to bonny Scotland at St Andrew's for Gil Hedley's Six Day Intensive Human Anatomy course.

At the weekend I was asked by a client "What is the point of going away to learn more anatomy?". It was a fair question, especially after they have put up with me going off on training courses for the past six years!

I think a lot of people still believe that massage is just a case of rubbing skin with oil or treating muscle tissue with a hit-or-miss effect. In truth the basic massage training is rudimentary when it comes to the atlas of the human body. There is part of me that would argue that a lot of the anatomy that is taught is following principles that have been unchanged for the past 400 years, even though science has shown us that the maps that we rely on need to be revisited and redrawn.

My passion for looking into new parts of our  'inner space' is something that drives me to further my knowledge so that I can bring new delicacies to the treatment room for you. However I am not an Academic, (something that became very clear to me as I was going through my B-Tec Level 6), I am a clinician. On my Twitter Feed last month there was a conversation about the one thing that made a difference to the treatments that therapists offer. My answer was anatomy and there were a few people who said that I was wrong saying, among other things, that it's the therapist's hands, a bit of luck, good teaching and excellent professionalism are the marks of a good therapists. All their answers were correct as well and I would strive to attain them in almost equal measure.

For me, the continued search and application of living anatomy makes me tick and is the thing that I see change my treatment approach time and again. The more I see, the more I realize that I don't know, the more I try to answer the questions that confront me, the more I search. It is an unending relationship that I have between my love for the mystifyingly beautiful, alive and heart led people that I treat on a daily basis and the anatomy of the human form.

Without the Academics and Scientist's passion for research we would still be stumbling around in the dark suffering deaths from Small Pox. Instead we are able to live through so much illness thanks to to the forward march of medicinal information and come out the other side of sickness ready to enjoy and embrace new days, fresh with the feeling that we can go forth and change.

I don't think research should stop with the search to find new medication and I am continually thankful to the research grants and funding that is given to the people who are searching to answer questions about how we are formed.

Massage has always been shrouded in mystery with many people asking 'Does it work?'. The simple answer is 'Let's find out!'.

As for studying Anatomy, I think you should expect nothing less than your massage therapist to know
how to navigate around your body! I will continually seek to develop my understanding of it in all manner of ways, purely because I think the text books can give us a basic layout, but you can't beat learning from the true form.

'Each drawing in an anatomy book is based on an average version of the structure. The sum of these images is a "totally averaged"collection of parts representing no one, no body. Release the need to be, or make someone, that 'no body'. The someone that you are is far beyond average - totally unique. Revel in that! 
The average in principle is unattainable, but you can definitely accomplish being you.'
Gil Hedley