Massage & Bodywork

January | February 2014

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by Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals, 66 percent of people who had a massage in 2012 did so for pain relief or muscle soreness, 76 percent of massage clients agreed that massage is effective for relieving acute pain, and 80.3 percent said it is effective in managing chronic pain.2 The question isn't if clients desire or typically receive more comfort; it's how to best serve the myriad of individuals who might each have a different reason for their pain. PERSISTENT PAIN Pain can result from illness, injury, pregnancy, surgery, tension, trauma, and even treatment for disease. What truly cripples people is chronic pain— pain that lasts more than six months. Currently, more than 100 million Americans have chronic pain,3 often as a result of arthritis, autoimmune disorders, headaches, injury, nerve damage, or shingles. Back problems are also a major source of pain, affecting more than 80 percent of all adults.4 Neither can we ignore depression. Studies show that the emotions surrounding depression, including sadness and anger, can create or increase chronic pain. Coincidentally, one side effect of pain can be depression. Despite decades of research, chronic pain remains notoriously hard to control. All traditional treatments, including prescription drugs, only help about 60 percent of individuals with pain, and then only temporarily. As a body therapist, you are on the front line to meet people's pain-relief needs. That's a big job. A NEW FRONTIER The subtle delivery of light can become one of your key pain-relief methods. It meets all the requirements for a "mini-miracle" technique. Light is free. It is always available. And in the form of various colors, each of which yields specific effects, light can be delivered subtly. Light therapy, sometimes called color therapy, chromotherapy, or colorology, has been used around the world and across time for healing purposes. Color healing was a well-accepted practice in ancient China, Egypt, Greece, and India. Today, there are several hundred articles published in reputable journals on the beneficial applications of light to improve biological health. Light can be used to dislodge stuck memories, improve the immune system, assist with wound healing, and more. Light is also a complex medicine. For instance, research showed that the color of a pill can alter its effects, but the shift can be dependent on culture and gender. An Italian study showed that blue placebos for insomnia sufferers helped women but had the opposite effect on men.5 And for our purposes, color can stimulate pain or help relieve it.6 Rather than work with direct or visible light, a subtle energy practitioner employs subtle energy, which is also called intuitive, psychic, or spiritual energy, directed through intention. The premise is that by shifting subtle energy, you can alter physical matter quicker and more powerfully than by using physical implements alone. As a body therapist, your subtle tools are your hands, mind, and spirit. Your goal is to eliminate or reduce the colors or vibrations that are causing a deviation from the body's natural harmonic, and incorporate hues or vibrations that will restore this harmonic. THE POWER OF COLOR What colors accomplish what goals? Researchers have found that warm colors, such as red and orange, are arousing. They increase blood pressure, decrease depressive moods, increase respiration rate, and create inflammation. Cool colors decrease hypertension, alleviate muscle spasms, relieve insomnia, and can be as effective as a tranquilizer in decreasing tension. Bright, white, full-spectrum light is used in treatments for addiction, anorexia, bulimia, cancer, insomnia, jet lag, seasonal affective disorder, and the effects of shift work, as well as to reduce It pays to be ABMP Certified: www.abmp.com/go/certifiedcentral 111

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