A short lesson in Modalities. The AMTC Short List

[Hardhat]

One of the first things I do with students is something I have been calling "The Short List". I ask the class "What does massage do to the body physiologically"?
I always get answers like "relax the body" to which I respond "yes, but that's a result". What do we "do"? How does the relaxation happen?
Then I get answers like we do effleurage or tapotement. I respond "that’s the tool we use to get physiological change…. what is the change?"

Eventually they get a little frustrated. Finally I let them off the hook and give them a hint. What did your teacher have you remember about contra-indications and indications? They go "Oh… it increases circulation and the like". That’s what I was looking for.

So….again what does a massage therapist do to a muscle or fascia?

We create these responses:

1. Flush
2. Spread/Separate
3. Heat/Cool
4. Stretch
5. Strengthen
6. Chemical responses
7. Emotional responses

That's it? Pretty short list huh?

The next step is "Name me a stroke".

Student says Effleurage. I ask back….what on this list does Effleurage. do?

Does it flush…..yes
Does it spread, separate…..yes
Does it heat…..yes
Does it stretch…..pause well kinda…..yes
Does it strengthen….well kinda








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Topic review - A short lesson in Modalities. The AMTC Short List






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healingtime






 
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Thanks nolalmt!

This looks like a great approach to learning about massage and how we can learn to create with it! I'm just starting out in this profession and in school and am so immensely excited about it all. You sound like (and are even here on the boards) a great teacher. Your students are lucky to have you!

This approach will give me a whole different perspective about how to look at what I'm doing now and in the future. Very cool, and simple too! It's so often the "simple" stuff that is so profound (and too often missed!)

Thanks nolalmt!

This looks like a great approach to learning about massage and how we can learn to create with it! I'm just starting out in this profession and in school and am so immensely excited about it all. You sound like (and are even here on the boards) a great teacher. Your students are lucky to have you!

This approach will give me a whole different perspective about how to look at what I'm doing now and in the future. Very cool, and simple too! It's so often the "simple" stuff that is so profound (and too often missed!)











Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:55 pm














nolalmt






 
Post subject: 
A short lesson in Modalities. The AMTC Short List
 













One of the first things I do with students is something I have been calling "The Short List". I ask the class "What does massage do to the body physiologically"?
I always get answers like "relax the body" to which I respond "yes, but that's a result". What do we "do"? How does the relaxation happen?
Then I get answers like we do effleurage or tapotement. I respond "that’s the tool we use to get physiological change…. what is the change?"

Eventually they get a little frustrated. Finally I let them off the hook and give them a hint. What did your teacher have you remember about contra-indications and indications? They go "Oh… it increases circulation and the like". That’s what I was looking for.

So….again what does a massage therapist do to a muscle or fascia?

We create these responses:

1. Flush
2. Spread/Separate
3. Heat/Cool
4. Stretch
5. Strengthen
6. Chemical responses
7. Emotional responses

That's it? Pretty short list huh?

The next step is "Name me a stroke".

Student says Effleurage. I ask back….what on this list does Effleurage. do?

Does it flush…..yes
Does it spread, separate…..yes
Does it heat…..yes
Does it stretch…..pause well kinda…..yes
Does it strengthen….well kinda
Does it have a chemical effect….yes
Does it have an emotional effect…..yes

Here the BIG TICKET Item….. what on the short list does it do best? The whole class says "FLUSH"!

So you would not use Effleurage to heat because there are more efficient ways….right? Right? Moist hot pad for example. Hot rocks. Move to Florida. Ultra sound. Workout, exercise. Heat is heat after all.


Gimme another stroke. Class says "Cross fiber friction".

Does it …ect ect.
What's it do best? Heat, separate ….but it's important to realize it does all the above….just some better than others.

Tapotement? Hmmmmm.

Flush…..sorta
Heat….sorta
Separate…..sorta
Strengthen…..sorta
Chemical…..sorta ,
Emotional…..YES….try a good rhythm VS. a choppy rhythm? One will sedate a client and the other will drive them crazy. A rocking chair comes to mind….rock smoothly and you regress back into you mothers arms. Rock violently and you are in an earthquake.

What about Shiatsu/Pressure points?

Do they flush…..sorta
Heat……sorta
spread…..at a fiber level yes
Stretch…at a localized level yes
Strengthen….open a meridian makes for better function….yes
Does it have a chemical effect…..Yes
Does it have an emotional effect…..most definitely


What does it do best? Chemical/Reflex and emotional mainly.


Then we look at the efficiency off the stroke… Tapotement and Petrisage are horribly inefficient. They use a ton of your energy and give back limited results. If you use a petrisage to flush/spread you are standing facing one direction but stroking in another. Facing forward and stroking side to side. Dumb in my book when an Effleurage. is facing the direction of the stroke and you can use your lower body muscles instead of upper body more efficiently. Pick the right stroke for physiology as well as mechanics of the body.

So the up shot of the class?
I can place or categorize almost any massage modality into this basic classification.
Don't use a pressure point to flush tissue, use Effleurage, heck use Yo Mamas rolling pin.....great flushing tool there, try it!. Don't use friction to open a meridian….use a pressure point or deep tissue strips (after all, who said a meridian has to have a static pressure point to work, don't we stimulate all pressure points is we strip the entire area?). Don't use deep tissue/NMT to free emotional-somatic trapping….use MFR or Cranial Sacral.

Bottom line..... there are only so many things (7) we as LMTs can do to a body physiologically….it comes down to picking the most efficient and appropriate modality.
It is a huge mistake to assume one modality can do it all. It is also a mistake to only perform massage in the "routines" your school taught. Routines are about the ease of teaching methods, not the ease of doing bodywork. It's simply easier to teach a routine than teach you to process cognitive learning. Learn how to assess the need from the short list and pick you stroke accordingly. ~peter











Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:11 pm


















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[xxabbyxxjoexx]

Thanks nolalmt!

This looks like a great approach to learning about massage and how we can learn to create with it! I'm just starting out in this profession and in school and am so immensely excited about it all. You sound like (and are even here on the boards) a great teacher. Your students are lucky to have you!

This approach will give me a whole different perspective about how to look at what I'm doing now and in the future. Very cool, and simple too! It's so often the "simple" stuff that is so profound (and too often missed!)