Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68012
gift: the trust that we will meet them with love and compassion where they are, as they are. Let us accept that gift and return it with all the reverence that our clients deserve. teaches several courses at the Myotherapy College of Utah and is approved by the NCBTMB as a provider of continuing education. She wrote A Massage Therapist's Guide to Pathology (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009), now in its fourth edition, which is used in massage schools worldwide. Werner is available at www.ruthwerner.com or wernerworkshops@ruthwerner.com. Ruth Werner is a writer and educator who that does not support them—both habits that strongly contribute to our country's rate of obesity. From the perspective of a bodywork practitioner, it would be interesting to examine the relationships between touch deprivation and eating habits. The United States is a relatively low-touch culture, and we place a high premium on the desirability of slenderness. If we consider that touch is a primal human need, and if we look at the lining of the gastrointestinal tract (running in a continuous tube from mouth to anus) as simply an internal version of our external skin, it is easy to see the act of overeating as the delivery of a snug, fulfilling, inside-out hug in a setting where positive human skin contact may be rare. Further, as found in the Touch Research Institute study of massage and anorexia, many patients with anorexia express a sense of touch deprivation, and experience a very positive reaction to the nurturance they receive with massage.6 Risks of massage for clients with eating disorders depend mainly on what kind of complications they have developed. It seems odd to think of osteoporosis as a challenge for young women, but this may be in the picture for extreme anorexia. A person who has difficulty regulating electrolytes because of frequent purging may have problems with irregularity of her heart beat. These and other complications are issues that need to be discussed with clients' primary healthcare providers. Given the prevalence of dysfunctional eating patterns in the United States, it is safe to predict that most massage therapists have clients who live with eating disorders. It is also safe to suggest that hundreds of thousands—maybe millions—of people would love to receive massage, but avoid it out of a sense that because of their size they don't deserve it, or they fear being judged, as seen in this blog entry: "I would love a massage. I've never actually had one, but I hear they're great. I would just never have my shirt off in front of anyone, in any context. Keeps me out of doctors' offices, massage studios, and off beaches."7 As massage therapists, we have a wonderful opportunity to introduce positive, educated, nonjudgmental touch into the lives of people—fat, thin, and in-between—who don't experience their bodies as a good place to be. When our clients keep an appointment, they give us a delicate and precious visit massageandbodywork.com to access your digital magazine 115 NOTES 1. "Eating Disorders: Facts About Eating Disorders and the Search for Solutions," National Institute of Mental Health, NIH Publication No. 01- 4901. Available at www.nimh.nih.gov/Publicat/ eatingdisorders.cfm (accessed winter 2009). 2. Obesity Statistics, NAASO, The Obesity Society, 2006, www.naaso.org/statistics/ obesity_trends.asp (accessed Winter 2009). 3. Ruth Werner, A Massage Therapist's Guide to Pathology, fourth edition (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009), 277–82. 4. "Eating Disorders: Facts About Eating Disorders and the Search for Solutions." Ibid. 5. K. Spicer, "My Six-Week Journey to the Land of Thin," Times Newspapers Ltd., 2008. Available at http://women.timesonline.co.uk/ tol/life_and_style/women/diet_and_fitness/ article1625715.ece (accessed winter 2009). 6. T. Field, Touch Therapy (Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone, 2000), 155–61. 7. Fatty McBlog, May 2006. Available at http:// fattymcblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/harder-harder- yes-yes-yes-right-there.html (accessed winter 2009).