36 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k j a n u a r y / f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 5
education
Reflections on Mirror Therapy
By Ruth Werner
Let's say you're watching an action movie. In one scene, the main character
comes around the corner and all of a sudden the villain jumps out and attacks him. Do
you flinch? What just happened?
During massage, have you ever worked with someone exactly where and how you wish someone
would work on you? As you poured your intention and breath into addressing your client's pain or
tension, did you feel your own pain or tension relax and release just a little?
These phenomena reveal some fascinating things about the brain that may eventually lead
to noninvasive but successful strategies for pain management. We saw a hint of this in the last
Pathology Perspectives column ("Amputation Adaptations," Massage & Bodywork, November/
December 2014, page 40), where one massage therapist described working with her client, an
amputee, in this way:
I found it very helpful to work on his arm as if it was intact. Using
pillows, I made an "arm" and continued my long strokes as if the arm was
there, while he watched. That helped dramatically with the phantom pain.
What might have been happening in this session was something neurologists call mirror therapy,
and this protocol, while not effective in every case, has great potential among people with chronic
limb pain.
PATHOLOGY PERSPECTIVES
