Quick fix for Neck Pain

Ok, here’s the latest quick self-fix i’ve discovered for sore and aching erector spinae muscles(not to rival self trigger point work with the Thera- cane…):  Take two tennis balls, tape them together but leave some of the crease between (duct tape works really well).
 
You now have a little wall massager.  Place it against a wall, [...]

What’s Your Scope: What Massage Therapists Offer

Respect What We Offer:
-Massage therapists are and will be increasingly necessary in the health care field:
-We manually manipulate soft tissue in trained ways to increase circulation
-We stimulate metabolism and the production of endorphins in response to “good pain”
-We can help prepare athletes for competition
-We move and direct Lymph
-We can manipulate deeper level connective tissue
-We [...]

What’s Your Scope 5: Refer to Other Professionals

Refer immediately to the local PT, OT, or ATC any signals from your patient that are caution flags.   If operating independently, be confident with and know the health care provider you will refer this patient to.  Sometimes because we get such positive feedback from those with whom we’ve worked, we can have an “exaggerated idea [...]

What’s Your Scope?:Don’t Interfere w/ or Contradict a Physician’s Recommendations or Prescriptions, and Don’t Support a Client (Patient) Who Wishes to Do So

I have had patients try to get me to badmouth doctors, or other physical therapists.  NOT GOOD.  Good medicine and effective therapy  is self evident.  So even if I might have inclinations towards different folks, or prescriptions, not only is it my job to point to them, but it is good practice to be silent [...]

What’s Your Scope?: Avoid Presenting Yourself As Having Expertise That You Don’t

-In working sports massage with the Boise Burn, I am fascinated how a team can work together to achieve a goal, each team member having just the right job.  In just the opposite way it would be catastrophic if I jumped out and tried to play referee for the game (although some of you fans [...]

What’s Your Scope?: Tip 2

Massage therapists don’t diagnose, and officially, we don’t do “evaluations.”  But Massage Therapists MUST be able to assess and critically think through the relative condition of each patient/client that they see.  We make observations that facilitate our treatments, and sometimes these observations help illuminate the overall condition.  Communicate with the health care provider who referred [...]

What’s Your Scope?

Recently I grazed across an article in Massage and Bodywork concerning how to best define what a body worker’s scope of practice is.  As a Massage Therapy provider with a relatively new role in the Health Care Field, it is crucial that I understand and effectively define what my scope of practice is.  After One [...]