Hello! It's great to know that you are reading this blog and I hope that you find it helpful. If you have just joined me, I am writing a series during the summer about how Advanced Clinical Massage Therapy may help when people suffer from muscular based head and neck pain including headaches, tinnitus, jaw pain, shoulder discomfort and radiating pain patterns.
If you haven't clicked on to it already, I would really advise that you read the blog entitled 'Pain Patterns Explained', which was posted on July 6th. It will give you a very clear out line of where these thoughts, ideas and techniques come from.
As the last post explained I am now writing about how I approach carrying out treatments for people who present pain in three typical ways. No one will fall in to the three categories completely as you are all uniquely you! However I feel that they will give you a good introduction to who I work.
The first group I would like to look at today are those who are cautious of receiving massage therapy for pain.
Pain is personal. There is no other way to look at it. Everyone is in pain through events that have happened in their lives and as no one else has lived these events like you have, they are thus totally one offs. True, many people have fallen off a bike, however only I have fallen off my bike in the way I did after the day that I had and in the circumstance that I was in. Therefore the neck pain I get from where and how (both emotionally and physically) I hit my head on the pavement is unique to me. This is why I believe everyone has to be treated solely on their own terms.
The main problem I see is that people are cautious of receiving massage therapy for pain because their own personal history has never been considered. They have been treated for a bike accident, but never for their bike accident. They are naturally cautious of their pain being belittled and seen as 'only a bit of minor soft tissue bruising', which is a phrase I sadly hear all too often. I always keep in mind that the people I see are their own enteritis, which is why I very rarely treat partners on the same day as I believe that you all need personal space to ease into the treatments that you have received.
(If David and I had therapy on the same day and both wanted to talk about it over dinner in the evening, we would both feel miffed that the other was just itching to talk about theirs and not listening properly to the other one!!)
The other reason why some people feel cautious about receiving massage for pain in England is that as a therapy it has only ever been seen as a relaxation aid, or it is seen as 'Sports Therapy' and most people equate this technique with causing pain.
When you are in pain all you want is for it to go away. You don't want to feel relaxed and you certainly don't want to feel more pain. So why has massage only offered the two things that you don't want?!
The training in England is getting a lot better and the research behind how massage works is now at a very high scientific level so we are now able to re-train in Advanced Clinical Massage Therapy (ACMT). ACMT is a mixture of Myo-Fascial Release, Massage, Trigger Point Work, Stretching, the use of hot and cool modulates as well as teaching you how to help yourself at home, and a lot more besides!
Although I use a lot more than the above, they form the back bone of all the treatments that I carry out. I believe that this fully holistic approach offers you a way of relaxing the muscles that are often short, tight and full of trigger points that cause your head and neck pain. The also strengthen the muscles that are long and weak and can't hold your posture in a correct manner. My aim is to see you walking out of my treatment room with less pain than when you walked in with, but I don't have to cause more pain for that to happen.
I treat heads and necks a lot whilst you are lying on your side, which for many clients is a new experience. The reason why I do this is so I can treat the Sternoclydomasoid (SCM), Scalene group, and Traepzius muscles in deep and effective way. I can also get to the base of your head (the sub-occipital muscles), with out having to turn your head to the side. As all your head muscles turn, flex and extend your head, if I can treat them in a neutral state, the massage becomes more effective.
I also include neck stretches into the treatments. Some people are worried about stretching and moving a neck when they hurt and when the muscles are tight. However I feel it is the best time to get them to elongate and release. I only ever work with you and only take you to the point where you feel the stretch begin to kick in, never beyond that point. I tend to use an active stretch where I stretch your muscles for you, as well as a resisted stretch, which is when you resist the stretch with about 10-20% of your natural resistance. These work quickly and effectively and I like to work with the Sub-Occipitals, Levator Scapluar, Trapezius, SCM and Scalene group during these stretches as these are the main culprits for head and neck pain. Many people who are worried about receiving massage for head and neck pain get stuck in their movements and over the years I have come to call this state as 'Lock Down'. You will go home with homework from Cornerstone Therapies and 9 times out of 10 it will to beat the 'Lock Down' that you find yourself in. We need to get you moving, so we do this slowly, consistently and with out loosing the personalized focus for your particular pain history.
The next post will be looking at problems that may arise when people have seen many different therapists before they come to see me for their pain problems and not had any results.
I hope you found today's post helpful and if you have any problems/questions/comments or thoughts, do let me know and I'll do my best to respond!
What I'm loving out of the Treatment Room today!:
Green and Black's Milk Chocolate with Almonds.... the main reason for my headache today, but oh so yummy!
Music of the day:
I'm seeing my best friend tonight and we are seeing 'Super 8' at the flicks, but when ever I see her I am reminded of Laura Marling.
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