Examining the evidence behind treatments for depression and pain and massage therapists’ scope of practice when working with patients with such symptoms. During the Christmas season of 2014, Andrew Jones, who is a registered massage therapist (RMT) working at Massage Now in London, Ontario, Canada, was waiting for his mother

We massage therapists have a lot to offer to people in distress from pain, depression, anxiety, and other conditions, and the numbers show that we are desperately needed. So why aren’t we already working as healthcare providers? The need is certainly there. American physician David Eisenberg’s 1993 article on patterns

Massage therapy can help alleviate anxiety and depression symptoms among veterans and refugees, but is the profession ready to care for this population? “Ever since my wife died, I can’t sleep—the back pain keeps me awake all night,” said the patient who was a Vietnamese refugee who had served in

“Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.” ~ Francis Bacon (1605) If a patient feels better, then where is the harm? This question often

Compared to most healthcare professionals, massage therapists are among the few who spend the most time with patients. They touch them during the entire session, which is typically 30 to 60 minutes long. The nature of the work and environment allows massage therapists and patients to be more engaged with

Clinicians are likely to trust peer-reviewed studies, but the peer-review process is often a mysterious one and riddled with errors. Why do we have peer review? What does it do well and where it sometimes falls short? What are the current challenges in the peer-review system, and what actions the

Daddy, I got owie! My toddler says this often and usually goes out of his way to announce it.  I usually give the spot a kiss or two, and then he goes back to what he’s doing.   Problem solved, presumably because daddy’s kisses are magical. At other times when he

The Myths and Facts of Massage Therapy for Pregnant Women There are many misconceptions about prenatal massage in the massage therapy community. Some of these ideas may deny the benefits of massage to pregnant women who seek it, and some of this misinformation could actually do harm by causing serious

Avoid common mistakes in massage employment that invite government scrutiny and penalties   “Our therapists are 1099 employees.” “I’m an independent contractor, but without the independence.” “My independent contractors have all signed a non-compete agreement.” “They’re not employees because they choose their own hours.” These statements misconstrue the distinction between

This morning, I had a barrage of various blogs, infographics, and PubMed articles on my Facebook feed on various myths and outdated ideas about pain from Jarod Hall, Lars Avemarie, and Andres Cepeda. There was even a rant from Bodhi Haroldsson who asked why dogma in massage therapy education and culture still exist, (even among

Recently, I had a client who told me that not only his right shoulder felt “tight” and sometimes painful when he retracts it, he also “could not retract” as much as his left side could. Although I could not find any significant differences between both sides (he could almost pinch a

Could a simple foot massage make your brain produce its own supply of oxytocin to help reduce the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? Some researchers think so. A recent study from The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute in Chengu, China, explored non-invasive and non-pharmacological ways to increase