Massage & Bodywork

MAY | JUNE 2021

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or other health-care provider, a boss, a clinic manager, a teacher, an author, you get the idea. And they follow that direction, regardless of whether it's in the best interest for the client. This can be a recipe for disaster. It is not a doctor's job to know what your massage therapy looks like. Your teacher cannot predict all the variables your clients may present. Your boss may not understand massage therapy carries substantial risks for some clients. You have the capacity to assess risks related to massage therapy in a way no one else can do. Conversely, you also have the ability to foresee possible benefits for massage therapy others might not consider. This tension points to our need to be able to communicate effectively with other health-care practitioners, which is a connected-but-different can of worms. So, when a prescribing physician recommends deep-tissue massage for a person with unilateral calf pain (this is based on a true story), a massage therapist with good critical-thinking skills needs to explain why that might not be a good idea. Likewise, when a surgeon flat-out prohibits a massage therapist from working with a recent shoulder surgery patient (also based on a true story), a critically thinking practitioner can initiate a conversation to see why the doctor thinks massage is not appropriate and explain how massage therapy can be provided safely in this circumstance. The sort of storied closed-mindedness of the medical system is not what I've encountered. Every doctor I've talked to has said, "Oh! Well, when I think about it that way . . ." I really urge people to engage with the medical profession, not to pretend that you know more than you know, but you do know what you do know, and dialogue with the rest of the profession is so valuable for us, for your own practice, and for the profession in general. —Tom Myers It's harder when the authority figure is a boss or manager or someone who doesn't trust the massage therapist to make the right choices, or whose priority is not client safety. In these cases, the massage therapist may have to solve the puzzle of how to work in a setting that doesn't support client safety by analyzing their options, trying a strategy of good communication, and possibly choosing to work elsewhere. The challenges to critical thinking I have offered here are based on my own observations, seen through my own filters. They have been informed by my experiences, and by my conversations with others in the profession. For the sake of space and sanity I left many out, including the dangers of complacency, the challenges of assessing critical-thinking skills in learners, our lack of a widely accepted educational standard, and many others. You may identify completely different challenges than I have, but I hope you will be able to recognize them, analyze them, and consider how you might overcome them to expand your critical-thinking powers. WHAT ACTION DOES THIS INSPIRE? I hope we can agree critical thinking is critical to our profession, as we make decisions that impact our business success, our own wellness, and the outcomes our clients hope to enjoy. I expect we can also agree the obstacles that stand in our way are substantial—from the lack of consensus on what the term critical thinking means to the tensions that occur when we try to promote this set of skills for practitioners and students. I believe most massage therapists probably go through some of the critical thinking steps I've outlined here with most clients, although we don't always do it consciously or thoroughly. But don't our clients deserve this level of care? The gathering of relevant, accurate, and complete information allows us to craft careful session plans based on our client priorities, our expertise, and the research. This should be a baseline skill for our profession. But a high-level critical-thinking process takes us a step further: It calls on us to reflect on our choices and evaluate our effectiveness, so our future interactions will be even more satisfying. Contributors (with a small sampling of their many credentials) I am grateful to: Robin Anderson, M.Ed, LMT, BCTMB, CEAS, Community Colleges of Baltimore County Cal Cates, LMT, executive director of Healwell.org Pam Fitch, M. Ad. Ed., RMT, Algonquin College, author of Talking Bodies, Listening Hands Sandy Fritz, MS, BS, BCTMB, owner, director of the Health Enrichment Center, author of too many books to list here Allissa Haines, LMT, co-director of Massage Business Blueprint Brent Jackson, M.Ed., BS, LMT, Central Carolina Technical College Annie LaCroix, MS, BA, LMT, owner of the Columbia River Institute of Massage Therapy Til Luchau, director of AdvancedTrainings.com Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains Doug Nelson, LMT, BCTMB, president of the Massage Therapy Foundation Diana Thompson, LMT, author of Hands Heal, founder of Hands Heal EHR Michele Renee, DC, MAc, president of the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education Susan Salvo, D.Ed, LMT, BCTMB, Louisiana Institute of Massage Therapy, author of Mosby's Pathology for Massage Therapists and Massage Therapy: Principles and Practice Tracy Walton, BA, MA, LMT, author of Medical Conditions and Massage Therapy: A Decision Tree Approach NOTES 1. Michael Scriven and Richard Paul,¤speech excerpt from the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform (1987). 2. Critical Thinking Web, "What is Critical Thinking?," accessed April 2021, https:// philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php. 62 m a s s a g e & b o d y wo r k m ay/ j u n e 2 0 2 1

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