Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/465652
CL ASSROOM TO CLIENT In massage sessions, clients may express denial in many subtle ways. They might deny that a technique is painful, even though the therapist can see them tense muscles and grimace. They might insist that everything is fine, even when the therapist can see that they are struggling to maintain emotional composure. They might reject the idea that their job is causing or contributing to their repetitive stress injury. It is important that you maintain the therapeutic relationship and provide a safe environment for the client without directly challenging him. Focus on areas of tension and keep in mind that the physical softening the client experiences is likely to facilitate a psychological softening, and that, over time, the client may be able to accept or allow more awareness. Projection Projection is the unconscious transfer of impulses, feelings, or thoughts to someone else. Projection allows a person to disown or place outside of himself what he cannot accept about himself, whether positive or negative. For example, a woman who is unaware of her own negative attitude believes that the people she works with are negative. In massage sessions, clients project their unrealistic expectations (e.g., massage will change everything about my life), fears (e.g., this will just be one more therapy that doesn't work), unwanted weaknesses (e.g., I don't want to cry), and abandoned strengths (e.g., I can't heal) onto the treatment or onto the massage therapist. The massage therapist may also be projecting onto the client. This is normal but may have negative effects on the session if the therapist is unaware of it and feeds the client's projections. One way to minimize projection is to center the sessions in reality. Ask the client questions like "What are the results you expect from the next six sessions?" "Was last week's session what you expected?" "How was last week's session different from what you expected?" You can also be attentive to the verbal and nonverbal F r e e m u s i c d o w n l o a d s f o r C e r t i f i e d m e m b e r s : w w w. a b m p . c o m / g o / c e r t i f i e d c e n t r a l 33 Defenses: suppression denial projection deflection resistance armoring