L i s te n to T h e A B M P Po d c a s t a t a b m p.co m /p o d c a s t s o r w h e reve r yo u a cce s s yo u r favo r i te p o d c a s t s 45
You Can't Fix Your Clients
How to Work with
Pain, Not Against It
Massage therapists are helpers. We want to make the lives of
each client better. We want to do whatever we can to be of
service. But our good intentions, as I have explored in various
articles in Massage & Bodywork magazine over the last decade,
can have unintended consequences.
1
Your eagerness to help
does not always help—and sometimes might even harm—
your clients. That is especially true when it comes to pain.
KEY POINTS
• New research in
pain science shows
chronic pain is
not always caused by
injured tissue, but because
the brain becomes
overly sensitized to pain,
and anticipates and
perpetuates the feeling
of pain as a result.
• The best way to deal with
pain is to continue to be
active, in whatever ways
are feasible, and to avoid
the trap of immobility.
• Approaching your sessions
with a shift in your mindset
around pain, including in
the language you use, can
help your clients embrace
all aspects of themselves,
even the painful ones,
so they can inhabit their
bodies more fully.
BY DAVID M. LOBENSTINE
