Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/135515
somatic research "We will continue to have these experiences that will remain beyond our capacity to explain. But we must continue to refine our research methods and hypotheses and attempt to study what is important." Keynote speaker Leslie Korn 56 massage & bodywork lead most directly to the integration of massage therapy into health-care teams. However, the case for understanding the basic science of massage therapy was equally compelling. Whereas outcomes bolster our ability to practice in more settings, basic science allows us to rethink how we actually practice and what we think we're working on." Other highlights included: • Leon Chaitow, DO, ND, summarized decades of fascia research and reminded us that compressing or stretching any part of the body has widely distributed results. Understanding how load is transmitted often leads to understanding restrictions— not always in obvious places. • Bove spoke about his experiments showing the potential for massage to treat postsurgical ileus and thus dramatically reduce hospital stays. • Kimberly Stevenson, MS, LMT, demonstrated that massage effects on posture, anxiety, and sympathetic tone can be statistically correlated. • Glenn Hymel, EdD, and Grant Rich, PhD, NCB, provided a conceptual model of massage therapy as part of health psychology, and discussed implications, including the need for education that promotes an awareness of and sensitivity to areas of mutual concern amongst health psychologists and massage therapists. Friday—The Intangible Nature of Massage Leslie Korn, LMHC, MPH, PhD, NCB, RPE, used storytelling for her keynote "Somatic Empathy: Restoring Public Health with Massage." Korn captivated attendees with stories of her work collaborating with tribal communities in Mexico and the United States to restore touch therapies and july/august 2013 nutrition from traditional foods, traditions that had dropped off in response to complex and historical trauma. "Their bodies told stories their minds longed to keep quiet," she said. Without breaking from her storytelling style, she fed the audience data from many studies, shared techniques for healing that were evidencedriven, and made recommendations for future studies. It was a rare treat that set the mood for the day, acknowledging the intangible nature of massage alongside the evidence. Korn offered several recommendations for future studies, including: • Self-massage in schools to decondition no-touch regulations. • Massage and self-care behaviors for those with diabetes, along with massage to decrease blood sugar, inflammation, and neuropathies in diabetics. • Massage to decrease violence in prisons. Jerrilyn Cambron, DC, PhD, LMT, moderated the panel "Massage in the Community: Informing Public Health," which reminded the attendees that public health isn't about the public, it's about individuals. She began with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "To know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." There was not a dry eye in the house after hearing about the impact of massage on torture survivors, the severely burned, differently abled children, and obese children. Shay Beider, MPH, LMT, spoke of the importance of treating whole bodies, whole families, and whole communities; families are ecosystems. She said that kids are more likely to survive cancer than not (more than 70 percent of children diagnosed with cancer survive), but that families are less likely to stay together following treatment (more than 80 percent split in divorce).