Chair Massage at Yellow Gazebo
Although acupuncture is my specialty and not massage, I've been lucky enough to have had some great training in massage, and I've worked with massage therapists for several years. I'd like this blog to talk about what I think a good massage should be, according to what I've learned in school and in practice.
Just to give you some background, I am an acupuncturist trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and I have had my formal training in Tui Na, which is Chinese massage based on TCM principles of healing. In China one will usually have basic training in TCM and then go on to specialize in either herbs, acupuncture, or Tui Na. My program here in Toronto focused on acupuncture, but as a four-year course was still able to give us good training in herbs and massage as well.
So although I do not do Swedish Massage, which is the form taught to registered massage therapists in Ontario, I nonetheless have extensive experience massaging people and have had the opportunity to learn from RMT's and to hone my skills to become what they are today - likely quite different from what I was taught nine years ago in school.
What I've learned is that massage is very different from person to person. One therapist may be loved by one patient, yet has another patient who does not enjoy their work. Luckily for me, massage is only a small part of what I do, and my work focuses on healing a specific ailment. If those symptoms decrease, and my patient feels better, then (more often than not) I have succeeded. RMT's, on the other hand, sometimes have a much more difficult time going about their work. A patient may describe a set of symptoms, yet be expecting a relaxation massage and not want 'real work' done. Thus relief of their symptoms becomes secondary to their perception of what they had expected. And so the communication between RMT and patient in terms of expectations becomes very important.
My experience in dealing with people has also taught me something that I now apply to my practice, and indeed my life as much as possible: you can say or do pretty much anything to anyone as long as it's done the right way. Easily said, not easily put into play in life! But it holds true, and the more I believe this and apply it, the more this comes back to me with verification of my beliefs. How do I apply this to massage? Simply that - call it 'confidence' - applied during massage. No one wants to be touched in a timid, non-confident way, and most of us who are expecting to be touched by another will enjoy it that much more if it comes with a measure of confidence. In fact, the more confident and positive the touch, the better we will feel!
So it comes that my massage is indeed the same in principal as the RMTs' massages with whom I practice. In order to give a good massage, we must all do it with a certain type of energy: one that is confident and positive in nature. Done in this way, we will surely have more patients like us or not, regardless of how much we heal them. Or perhaps that positive energy is indeed healing them more than a repaired muscle healed with timid, negative energy would.
By Richard Lobbenberg, Acupuncturist and TCM Practitioner
