Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1299745
A s a manual therapist and educator, I have long been an advocate of guidelines and standards for massage therapy. I feel that creating core curriculum and continuing education requirements for massage has helped advance the field of massage therapy, but I have also come to realize that the parameters—defining who we are and what we can do—also exclude and divide what might otherwise be thought of as the larger world of manual and movement therapy. The Larger Field The realization that parameters can define as well as divide first came to me approximately 10 years ago while teaching my first Clinical Orthopedic Manual Therapy (COMT) workshops in Singapore. In the United States, I was accustomed to teaching to groups of massage and other manual therapists, with the occasional movement professional (fitness trainer, Pilates, or yoga instructor) attending. In Singapore, however, I was teaching primarily fitness trainers and Pilates and yoga instructors, with only a few massage therapists attending. In all fairness, one reason for this demographic shift was that the workshop organizer was in the world of fitness training, but I was still struck by teaching to a group composed primarily of movement professionals. When the occasional movement professional attended my workshops in the US, I viewed the sharing of manual therapy skills as being valuable for them for three reasons: (1) there is a shared underlying foundation of musculoskeletal anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics that I would discuss; (2) stretching techniques are shared in both their movement world and our manual therapy world; and (3) the hands-on manual therapy skills, such as palpation and massage, would help inform their touch when working to cue and guide the movements of their clients. But now, in Singapore, I had movement professionals who were in my workshops to actually learn hands-on palpation and massage techniques. Many of the workshop participants were employed as fitness trainers in the gym where I taught the workshop, and I saw that the gym had all the usual weight-training equipment in the center of the room. At the periphery of the room, though, there were massage tables that the trainers would use to palpate, massage, and stretch their clients during the workout session as they deemed appropriate. C h e c k o u t A B M P P o c k e t P a t h o l o g y a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / a b m p - p o c k e t - p a t h o l o g y - a p p . 57 By Dr. Joe Muscolino