What are the emotional tools used by Massage Therapists in Denver?

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There are many aspects to Massage Therapy as a profession, we’ve discussed the code of ethics for massage therapists; obviously there are physiological aspects to massage therapy, which reduce pain and reduce inflammation and increase circulation. There are also mental and intellectual tools that generate strategies for dealing with people who have varying stages of dementia. There are also emotional tools used by massage therapists, the first being sympathy. Sympathy states "I’m sorry that you’re in pain." One could look at it as a form of pity. That’s not very useful until we take it up to the next level. The next level up from sympathy is "compassion." Compassion states "I’m sorry that you’re in pain, but I know that you’re going to get better." Ideally, the therapist involved is competent enough to say "I’m sorry in pain, I know you’re going to get better, and I have tools that will help you with that." The problem with compassion is that practicing it over and over again is going to lead to compassion fatigue, and this has it’s own challenges that have to be managed to keep the therapist from burning out. Another emotional tool used by massage therapists is empathy. Empathy is more like the practice of putting yourself in the client’s shoes. What would it be like to be in their situation? Empathy is actually very easy if the client has a problem that the therapist has experienced. For example, I know just how to work with thoracic outlet syndrome because I’ve had it myself. I know just how to work with intervertebral disc injuries because I’ve had one myself. But empathy can also be exhausting, like compassion. So the therapist has to be careful to take care of him or herself in this situation. Self care is critical. Physical self care is important, but so is emotional self care. And also, it’s important to have good psychic boundaries. It’s great to care about somebody, but where do you draw the line? This is where the meditation practice comes in, as well as other practices that manage self care. We’ll talk about that more later. I’m Mark with Vital Touch Massage.

Video length: 3:37
Category: Education
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