Resistance by Therapists to Self Massage

Deep tissue massage and pressure-point work are gaining increasing recognition as powerful healing modalities. At the same time, the current focus on containing health care costs has combined with the rise of holistic awareness to create a growing movement toward patient education and self care.

Given these facts, one might expect that health professionals would be eagerly exploring the possibilities of patient self-massage. Most practitioners of soft tissue work, in particular, probably feel that many of their patients really need more than they can possibly give them in once or even twice a week sessions.

There is significant resistance or just benign neglect by the body work professionals and health care practitioners to self administered deep tissue massage. One reason for this, is a lingering feeling that deep tissue massage and the various forms of pressure-point work, such as trigger-point, acupressure, and shiatsu, are too technical for most patients to grasp and too difficult or bothersome to employ on a regular basis outside the professional’s office. For many people this is true. They are very unaware of their bodies, and many may be disinclined to make much effort to help themselves at home.

But these obstacles indicate a need for more education not a lack of engagement. How different would our health system look if there was not the educational efforts, educating their patients and encouraging them to make changes in areas such as diet, exercise, and stress reduction. It may take time and some extra attention, but most people will make some headway and some will make significant improvements in their lives.