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Everything You Need to Know to Get Awesome Referrals From Personal Trainers

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Marketing is no fun.

For years the word “marketing” conjured up thoughts of sleazy pitchmen and ads full of unsubstantiated claims. It didn’t seem like much fun. In fact, it seemed like something I didn’t want to be involved in at all.

“Marketing sucks,” I thought. But so did my client roster.

With a young child and a single income just surviving wasn’t good enough.

Given I lacked the money for fancy advertising I set out on a journey to find a way of getting the word out about my services to potential clients. There were many options out there but they all had price tags attached and made some rather outlandish promises.

I needed something that wouldn’t break the bank.

Something I could live with. Something that didn’t spread half-truths or make empty promises. Something that worked.

What I soon learned is that my initial impressions of marketing couldn’t have been more wrong. Marketing doesn’t have to suck. You are the one in control. You can market your services ethically and have fun if you put in the work. The work, in this case, consists of building relationships and a referral network which can keep you busy without risky ad campaigns or flashy “click funnels”.

Sustainable marketing efforts all come back to building value for both those in your network and your clients.

The following process is the same process I used as a fitness coach. This process has been refined to help Massage Therapists pull great coaches/personal trainers into their referral networks with the help of my co-author (a former personal trainer and current RMT) Keenan Hollingsworth.

The Benefits of Trainer Referrals

Before we dig into the process of building a referral network let’s first talk a bit about what makes personal trainers a great source of patient referrals for Massage Therapists.

A personal trainer is someone your patient sees very regularly, often multiple times per week, every week, for months or even years on end. One of the biggest reasons people stay with their trainer long-term is the strong relationship they develop; there is trust, camaraderie, and mutual respect. This rapport goes a long way when it comes to referrals. People trust their trainer, and having the trainer’s stamp of approval is going to make it much easier for you to get the patient in the door, and have them buy into the treatment plan.

Personal trainers are told by their clients about all the client’s little aches and pains, old injuries which they felt hadn’t healed properly, or certain exercises they couldn’t perform because their “ _____ is falling apart”.

Unfortunately, the truth is that these complaints often go unaddressed because the trainer hearing them doesn’t have a trusted source they can refer to. Building a strong connection with a personal trainer can lead those “my knee has been killing me lately, I can’t-do squats” comments into new patients for you, and hopefully, in turn, better feeling knees for the client!

A huge benefit of working with a personal trainer is home-care.

We all know patients can struggle with completing their home-care. Whether it’s due to lack of motivation, feeling like they don’t have time, being uncomfortable performing the exercises unsupervised, or any other of a million reasons, “compliance” can be a difficult hurdle. A good personal trainer is a perfect adjunct to this.

If you communicate properly with the patient’s trainer, they can help reinforce the importance of doing the home-care, and help the patient work through it during their sessions. If I think a patient will benefit from strengthening their upper back, what’s going to be more effective, sending them home to do rows with a TheraBand, or working with their trainer to program in a variety of progressively harder upper back movements within the workout they are already going to be doing? Someone who’s going to coach them through every exercise, push them for quality technique and effort, while programming in methodical increases to improve strength and endurance…or their kid watching them fumble around in the kitchen trying to remember exactly how to do an exercise they were taught them 3 days ago? I think the answer is clear (and it isn’t the TheraBand).

A lot of research is beginning to highlight just how important “general exercise” really is, for health, mental wellbeing, and even pain management. Unfortunately saying “just go out and get some exercise” can be a daunting task. If a patient mentions the desire to “get in shape”, or the need to “get back to the gym”, having a personal trainer you can trust to work with them in a safe, effective way is an amazing resource.

Whether they just want one session to learn what to do on their own, or they’re looking for a long-term trainer, being able to recommend someone with a similar philosophy and message as you, is valuable to both you and the patient.

Define Who You Are Looking For

The first step to finding the best referral sources is to define the type of client/patient you are looking for.

Experienced trainers often specialize and target a specific population. This can mean that while some work with the general population others focus on specific genders, ages, sports, levels of athletic performance etc. If you define your dream population it will start to narrow down the list of trainers you should be trying to recruit into your network.

Once the perfect client has been defined it’s time to think about the perfect referral source. Personal Trainers with an approach similar to your own will always provide better referrals than trying to solicit everyone to pass your name along. As a Personal

Personal Trainers with an approach similar to your own will always provide better referrals than trying to solicit everyone to pass your name along. As a Personal Trainer, I want someone in my network who understands the value of exercise, the power of the words we use and the importance of evidence. I also want someone who is used to working with a wide range of athletes. The more my clientele aligns with a Massage Therapist, the more people I can refer to them.

Think of the values that define your massage practice. On a lined scrap of paper record these values. This set of values can function as a checklist which you can quickly refer to, allowing you to decide if someone will ultimately be a benefit to your network or more trouble than they are worth.

Referrals are a two-way street. If you don’t trust a trainer’s expertise enough that you would feel comfortable sending patients their way, it is not worth your time to recruit them into your referral network.

Getting To Know The Locals

Providing a service which revolves around physical contact means local clients are needed.

As such, a strong local referral network is one of the keys to success. Building this network isn’t as complex as it may seem. If you live in a place which is large enough to support your business, you live in a place where there are trainers who want to be part of your network.

Finding them isn’t as hard as it may seem at first.

In my experience the better relationship you have with a potential lead the higher chance you have of bringing them into your network. Due to this, I like to start with the people closest to me and work my way out to new contacts and relationships.

Marketing is all about building and supporting relationships and this task is no exception.

Start With The People You Know

This step seems hard for many people.

To ask those they know if they would be interested in forming a mutual referral relationship takes courage as it opens a person up to rejection, but if you believe in your service (and theirs), not asking is a missed opportunity.

My favorite approach in this situation (especially if you are prone to nervousness), is to write down who and how you are going to ask in advance and don’t over think it. Contact every trainer you can, be it a new relationship or one that has slipped into the past.

Take an interest in what they are doing, ask about both work and life outside of it but eventually come around to explaining that you are open for referrals and open to referring to them. Build on the relationships you have as chances are if you trust in them already they trust in you as well.

Ask The People You Know If They Know Anyone

Trainees are passionate about their personal trainers.

If they think their trainer is amazing they will tell you. Likewise, if they think they need a new one they will tell you that too. Asking friends, colleagues, and family for introductions to their trainers is a win-win-win situation. Not only does the person you are asking feel their opinion is valued but the trainer feels valued to be considered worthy of consideration and you gain a potential lead.

Ask EVERYONE whose opinion you value.

Physiotherapists, Chiropractors, and other healthcare professionals are great sources especially if they are already in a trainer’s referral network but anyone in a highly social profession could be an exceptional source for information about local personal trainers.

Trainers often target highly social professionals as referral sources so real estate agents, lawyers etc. all may have been approached previously by the trainers you are trying to target.

Social Media

Social Media is ubiquitous, it is the perfect tool to find local, proficient and engaging individuals able who are able to provide clientele fitting the criteria you defined earlier.

Almost every trainer has a social media presence and almost every trainer is looking for ways to increase client retention and acquisition rates.

The most effective way I have found to locate Personal Trainers and other referral sources on social media are by using Facebook. Facebook provides query filters which allow the narrowing of friend searches to your current city, hometown, mutual friends etc. This is a powerful tool. Search, pick the people that seem to best fit your desired criteria and start communicating. Posting insightful comments on things that they post, friend requesting them as you build a repertoire and then speaking via messenger is extremely effective. It’s not an immediate payoff but relationships take time. A little effort each day is all that it takes.

It’s not an immediate payoff but relationships take time. A little effort each day is all that it takes.

Of course with local personal trainers, the real goal here is to meet them in person and see if both your clients and theirs would benefit from being part of the same referral network.

Meet, Connect, And Assess

The main task you have in the first meeting with a potential referral source is to get to know them and for them to get to know you.

Finding common ground is a requirement before trying to convince them of your value and bring them into the fold. Most of this should have been done via your messenger conversations but this is a chance to build on it.

Buy them a coffee (or a beer if they so please) and just have a conversation without thinking too much about referrals and such. What makes or breaks your referral chances is the personal connection. Essentially they are buying into you, not just the value of your services. Keep it light, keep it fun, and don’t be a pushy salesman, nobody likes that crap. More than likely work and the purpose of the meeting will come up naturally as it will be a “common thread” which is easy to fall back on when conversation stalls.

Just like a date, if it goes well follow-up, heck even if it doesn’t go all that well follow up. The trainer that doesn’t mesh with your style may know another one who does. Don’t burn bridges if you don’t have to. 

The follow-up, continuing to speak to people on a regular basis, and offering support (where you can) is probably the most overlooked variable involved in getting people to refer patients your way. A continued line of communication builds trust, it keeps you in their minds and it shows you are in this for more than just yourself.

Photo by: StartupStockPhotos

Expanding Beyond The Locals

Due to the rapid expansion of online training and trainers working remotely, the potential for referrals from trainers all over the world now exists.

A personal trainer in Cork, Ireland may have a client in Burbank, California for example. Trainers are no longer limited by geographical location which means they can work with people who are local to you.

If they don’t they probably know someone who does. Bringing trainers from all over the world into your network and expanding globally is the same process as with local trainers.

Sure you can also join mutual Facebook groups, use Twitter, Instagram etc. but the idea is the same. It is all relationship building. Meeting for coffee gets replaced by meeting via video chat or a phone call but the steps remain the same.

The Process in 35 Words Or Less

  • Define who you are looking for
  • Ask your existing network for introductions
  • Search using Facebook’s search modifiers
  • Comment on their posts to open the lines of communication
  • Move it to messenger
  • Video chat
  • Keep communicating, nurture the relationship

A Word About Incentives

Small personalized gifts are a great way to leave a lasting impression and keep you in their mind but never devalue your services. I’ve sent books, birthday cakes, and cufflinks but I’ve never provided a discount on my services to get people signed up. If you provide value they will pay what you are worth. No discount needed.

Conclusions

In many ways building a referral network is not unlike building a client base. The ideal person of interest must be defined and a search for such a person must be undertaken. This initial phase is followed by building/expressing value over time. It isn’t a “quick fix” but a strategy for long-term growth. Answers to common questions can be pre-written and rehearsed but relationships can’t be automated. In a world of gimmicks and inauthenticity personal connection is what will make you stand apart from the crowd.

How To Get More Traffic To Your Website

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Getting more traffic to your website isn’t voodoo.

It doesn’t take a miracle and it’s not rocket science either.

The secret ingredient – which isn’t that secret – is to give people a good reason to visit your site.

Combine that with a strategy and a consistent approach and before you know it, you’ll begin to see more visitors to your website.

This article will show you, in 3 key areas, how you can go about getting more traffic to your website.

These 3 areas are:

  1. Optimize Website Content – Increasing traffic to your website starts with optimizing the content on your website for both people and search engines
  2. Connect on Social Media – Being active on social media plays a major role in developing a consistent stream of traffic to your website
  3. Leverage Content Outreach – Reaching out to the key influencers in your industry will further grow your website and attract new audiences

So now that you have an idea of what we’ll be looking at, let’s dive right in!

Optimize Website Content

The first leg of increasing traffic to your website is to make sure the content on your website is optimized and performing at its best.

Here are some things you should consider:

Set Up Analytics on Your Website

Getting more traffic to your website starts with having in place an analytics and tracking system.

Without one, you have no way to measure the amount of traffic to your website.

Luckily for you, this system already exists and it’s free!

You’ve probably already heard of it: Google Analytics.

Google Analytics will give you both the insights you need to know what’s working and what’s not, as well as a clear picture into your current traffic numbers.

Some of the more important metrics to pay attention to in Google Analytics are:

  • Users – The number of unique visitors to your website
  • Bounce Rate – How frequently people “bounce” off of your website and back to the search results page
  • Sessions Duration – How long people spend on your site
  • Top pages – Which pages receive the most traffic
  • Pageviews – How many pageviews your content received
  • Exit % – The percentage of people actively exiting your website from a particular page

As you begin to analyze these metrics and compare them to actual pages on your website, you’ll start to realize valuable information that you can use to tweak and refine your traffic growth strategy – which leads to the next step:

Develop a Content Marketing Strategy:

Having a plan in place will make it much more likely that you’ll see success as you strive to increase your website traffic.

Here’s what should go into an effective Content Marketing Strategy:

  1. The goal of the strategy – What are you hoping to gain with more website traffic? Do you want more people to subscribe to your mailing list? Are you trying to sell more products? Start your strategy off by defining S.M.A.R.T goals.
  2. A definition of your audience – Knowing who your audience makes it that much easier to send the right message and reach the right people for your business.
  3. The types of content you intend to produce – This could be blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, e-books, a combination of all or some.
  4. What is your edge? – How do you plan to add value and separate your content from your competitors? What makes your content unique and valuable?
  5. Frequency of posts – How often do you intend to post new content?
  6. Getting your content out there – How do you intend to reach people with your content? (We’ll be taking a closer look at this later on)

You may find your strategy changes over time; your goals may change or you might discover new insights about your audience.

That’s alright and is to be expected.

The important thing is to remain focused on your goal yet remain flexible enough to course-correct as required.

Keywords

Now with a way to track website traffic and a strategy in place for getting more visitors, it’s time to look at the actual content itself.

You may already have a good handle on the topics that matter most to your audience.

If that’s not clear to you, you can turn to tools such as Google’s Keyword Explorer, another free tool that lets you see the search volumes for a particular phrase or keyword.

This is a great tool that will give you a sense of how many people are searching for a particular phrase and what the competition is like for that keyword.

For additional ideas, try plugging your candidate keywords into Google and scrolling down to the suggested searches section:

These are related search terms that Google also gets high volumes of search queries for that may give you additional inspiration about what content to produce.

Write More Compelling Headlines

People have short attention spans. That means you have to hook them quickly!

One of the most sure-fire ways to do that is to write catchy, compelling headlines that people just can’t help but click on.

Here are a few quick tips for writing catchy headlines:

  • Use numbers in your headlines (“7 Tips to Reduce Belly Fat”)
  • Create curiosity (“How I Managed to Quit My 9-5 Job and Travel the World”)
  • Use compelling language (“The Definitive Guide”, “The Secret to..”)
  • Add something in brackets (“The Top Cities in the World to Visit [Infographic]”)

Keep your headline length below 70 characters to avoid them being cut off by Google and other search engines/devices.

Great headlines alone aren’t enough to create sustainable website traffic.

Write Better Content

Without content to match, you might get visitors to your website but they’ll quickly “bounce off.”

Without content to match, you might get visitors to your website but they’ll quickly

Here are some things you can do to keep readers sticky to your page:

  1. Perfect your introduction – Learn how to write a good introduction that hooks your readers early on and entices them to read on.
  2. Use shorter paragraphs – Shorter paragraphs are easier for readers to scan and digest. A good rule of thumb is to try to keep your paragraphs under 5-6 lines, ideally 2-3.
  3. Provide data – Real facts are much more compelling than opinions and speculation. Surround your content with data and link to it with images and descriptive link text.
  4. Use multi media – Images and other multimedia are a great way to break up chunks of text and engage readers further.
  5. Proofread – Typos and other inconsistencies weaken credibility, so make sure content is error-free before you hit the ‘Publish’ button.

Link Internally

If done right, linking internally to your own content is great for SEO and the User Experience.

From an SEO perspective, it increases time-on-page. It also promotes loyalty and increases the odds that your content gets shared on social media.

When linking internally, make sure you:

  1. Use descriptive link text – Descriptive text not only tells visitors what they can expect to find if they click on the link but also indicates to search engines the content of the link.
  2. Link to relevant content – Don’t link for linking sake but instead link to content that will augment the User Experience and enhance the value that you’re already providing to your readers.
  3. Don’t overdo it – A page full of links looks spammy and takes away from the impact that good internal linking can have; it also cheapens the SEO power with every additional internal link you add.

Employ Basic SEO Best Practices

You don’t have to be an SEO expert to execute on some of the basics.

Including these tips will ensure that the search engines know how to understand your content:

  • Have one main heading that includes your keyword phrase, usually the h1 heading
  • Include the keyword phrase in the URL of your page, remove any stop-words like ‘and’ or ‘the’ and separate words with hyphens to make sure the URL is the most search engine-friendly it can be
  • Include your keyword phrase or semantically similar words in the meta description of the page and somewhere within the first 100 words of your content
  • Remain on topic and put secondary keywords into secondary headers as content unfolds
  • Link internally and externally throughout your content when it makes sense to do so from a value-added perspective

Track Content Traffic

Remember when you set up Google Analytics on your website?

As you publish your content, make it a habit of checking in every week or so to see how your content is developing.

Take a look at the metrics we mentioned above and see how your content is faring.

Sometimes you’ll find that one piece of content, in particular, is receiving the most amount of traffic while another isn’t doing as well.

In cases like these, don’t get too precious about the content that isn’t doing so hot.

Instead, think about what you can do to leverage the traffic you’re already getting.

Make Sharing Super Easy

It probably goes without saying but your content should be easy to share.

In the next section, we’ll be talking more about social media but remember that it’s critical that you include social sharing widgets alongside all your web content.

Build Up Your Mailing List Subscribers

Email marketing has one of the highest success and conversion rates versus all other content marketing.

That said, developing your email subscribers can have long-term rewards for your business.

One way to gain more subscribers is by using what’s called a Lead Magnet.

This is essentially the exchange of something valuable for the visitor’s email address.

You’ve probably encountered these a thousand times, usually in the form of an offer to receive a free e-book or a special piece of content.

Lead Magnets can supercharge your mailing list subscribers so consider what you can offer readers to sign up for your mailing list!

Connect on Social Media

Now that we have a solid handle on how to approach creating content and strong methods in place for ensuring our content will hit the mark with both people and search engines it’s time to spread the word on social media.

Identify Your Key Social Media Channels

Each social media network has its own set of characteristics, each attracting uniquely different audiences and demographics.

Depending on your business and which market you’re looking to attract, the social media channel you choose to focus on will vary.

Ideally, the best way to learn which social media channel you need to be on is to ask your audience.

In case you don’t have that info handy, here’s an overview of the types of audiences the major social media networks attract:

Facebook is the dominant social media platform with a majority demographic ranging from 18 to 49 all the way up to 65. It sees a daily 1.15 billion active users and leads the pack among all other social media platforms.

YouTube gets more viewers than any cable network on TV. It attracts users between the ages of 18-34 as well as a large portion of people aged 35-49. As YouTube is owned by Google, your content will benefit from being tied into the Google search engine algorithm.

Instagram is the fastest growing social network. Geared more towards images and videos, Instagram tends to have a younger demographic (with most of its users under 35). If you have a business that can make use of this heavily visual platform, then this might be a strong fit for you.

Twitter is perhaps the most over-saturated and transient social network, leaning more towards being a social feed than content posting platform with more than 50% of its users never posting an update. Twitter is most popular among millennials and people under 35.

Pinterest has a wide spread across age demographics ranging from 18-64. Interestingly enough, this visually-oriented social network is made up of about 80% women.

LinkedIn is unique in that it is mainly geared towards professionals and B2B. It has a significant amount of active users so if you’re targeting business professionals, you shouldn’t ignore LinkedIn.

Develop Your Social Media Followers

Now that you’ve identified which social networks you should be targeting, it’s time to develop your social media followers.

Developing an audience on social media takes time and a commitment to sticking to and executing your Content Marketing Strategy but here a few a things you can do to maximize your efforts and speed up the process:

  • Fill out your social media profiles completely and be consistent with your company image
  • Link to your social networks from your other social networks
  • Include social links in your email signature, website, and published content
  • Share and engage with other people’s content
  • Post your content regularly
  • Engage with your social media followers

Maximize Your Post for Each Platform

As you begin to post content to social media, it’s important that you maximize your efforts by optimizing the way you post to each platform.

For example, if Twitter is one of the social media platforms you intend to be on, you will want to understand how to use hashtags effectively and the syntax for targeting users and key influencers on the platform.

Each platform offers its own unique set of characteristics so once you know which social media platforms your business should be on, do your research and find the most effective way to post your content.

Stick to a Schedule

When it comes to social media, there is something to be said for when you choose to post your content.

For example, the best times to post on LinkedIn are in the mornings before work, at noon, and after work midweek, Monday to Friday.

Each social media platform is different, so do your research to discover the best times to post.

Photo by: geralt

Leverage Content Outreach

You’ve optimized the content on your website and are now connecting to your audience on social media.

The next step to really take your website traffic to the next level is to connect to key influencers in your niche and get your content published on industry-leading websites through guest posting and content republishing.

Doing this puts your content in front of large, highly-targeted audiences. It also helps your website rank better on Google by linking your website to these publications.

Republish Your Content on Larger Websites

Large content publications generally have huge content needs and are actively looking for content to post to their website.

Here’s how you can get your content on these large publications:

Step #1: Find websites that accept and/or republish content

Websites that accept content will have pages detailing their guidelines for content republishing and guest posting.

To find these pages, start by searching Google for your industry keyword plus “guest posting”, “write for us”, or “submit an article” (many other variations exist, so you’ll want to employ smart search tips for finding guest blogging opportunities).

Step #2: Choose content you are going to pitch to these websites

Once you know who’s accepting content, it’s time to figure out how you can add value to these publications.

In the beginning, it’s easier to pitch an original piece of content than it is to pitch content that already exists on your site, so it’s a good idea to start off by understanding the publication that you’re targeting.

Are there opportunities for your content? Is there a gap in their content that you can fill with your knowledge or expertise?

Also, familiarize yourself with the tone and style of the publication so that your content will be a more natural fit for their audience.

If you find that your content isn’t a great fit off-the-bat, you can always tweak your style a little bit to match.

Step #3: Pitch your article

Once you know what content ideas you’re bringing to the table, it’s time to pitch them to the publication.

Pitching your ideas is where the rubber meets the road, so it’s important to bring your A-game and to do it right.

Here are some tips for crafting a winning pitch:

  • Write an engaging subject line – Content editors get boatloads of pitches so stand out by crafting an engaging subject line
  • Know who you are pitching to – Do your homework and find out who you’re pitching your idea to and, if possible, address them by their first name in the pitch
  • Understand their readership – Large publications are in the content business, so make sure you’re giving them stuff their audience will find valuable and be sure to include in your message how your contribution will benefit their readers
  • Include options – Your first idea may not be accepted, so have 2-3 additional ideas to offer in your pitch
  • Be patient – It may take up to a week before your pitch gets seen so don’t be too eager to follow up right away

Step #4: Prepare your content

Once you get the green light from the publication that your content idea has been accepted, it’s time to prepare your content for publishing.

Here are a few pointers:

  • Review the content and publication guidelines of the publication to make sure that you are following them correctly
  • Include at least one link back to your website in your content; aim for 2-3 links to your own content if it makes sense to do so
  • Provide your professional bio and a headshot along with your finished content

Conclusion

We’ve now broken down the three key elements to getting more traffic to your website:

We looked at optimizing the content that is already on your site so that it connects better to your readers, creates engagement and more social shares, and does well with search engines from an SEO standpoint.

We talked about using social media to find the right audiences for your business and stimulate more visitors to your website by making the most out of the content you post.

Finally, we discussed how connecting to large content publications in your industry can provide you with huge boosts in terms of website traffic and SEO and how you can find and approach these publications about republishing and guest posting opportunities.

All that’s left to do now is to get to work.

Good luck!

Putting Your Safety As A Massage Therapist First

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It was the strangest thing to happen in my career to that point.

Something just felt off, right from the introduction to a new patient. I couldn’t explain it, it just felt off.

The patient came in and was very demanding. Telling me over and over again, “deep pressure is the only thing that works for me, it HAS to be deep pressure.”

Fair enough, I weigh around 215lbs, I should be able to put enough pressure into this.

After they got on the table, I went to work. As I pushed in with more pressure, I would continually check in to make sure they were satisfied with the pressure.

Then about 15 minutes into the treatment the patient abruptly said: “this isn’t working for me, I want to stop!”

I quickly asked if I had done something wrong?

“No, I just want this to stop now, it’s not working for me.”

I ended the treatment and said I would meet them outside when they were ready. As the patient exited the room, their hand reached out with a credit card in it. I said there would be no charge as it was only a 15-minute treatment (they were booked in for 45) and were also dissatisfied with it. But they refused and paid for the treatment.

I sat there even more confused (although happy I would have the next 1/2 hour to figure out what just happened).

As they walked out the door, the patient turned back and said: “thanks a lot for making me feel safe.”

Now, I was even more confused (and convinced the person had been sent in as a test or something), but even in the confusion, there was something that I was concerned with even more.

What about MY safety?

Right Of Refusal

This is where things can get a bit tricky.

When I look at our provincial bylaws (I’m just going to assume most other places are about the same) under the code of ethics there is a wide range of topic and wording that apply to us in practice. And that wording can be read a couple of different ways, depending on your interpretation.

To highlight a few that are applicable to the point of this post:

  • Massage therapists must set and maintain appropriate professional boundaries with a patient.
  • Despite section 23(iii), a massage therapist may immediately terminate the therapeutic relationship with any patient that:
    • sexualizes or attempts to sexualize the treatment or environment, or
    • threatens the massage therapist or otherwise endangers the massage therapist.
  • Massage therapists must protect and maintain personal and professional integrity.
  • Massage therapists must maintain a safe and healthy treatment environment.

Now granted, the colleges responsibility is to protect the public and most of these are probably in place with that thought in mind, as opposed to protection of a therapist.

The reason I bring all of this up is because of the story I mentioned in the beginning but also because, most of the time when I hear of someone who has been falsely accused of something (these are just things I’ve heard in passing, not from anyone directly who has been accused), I also hear, they regret not ending the treatment themselves because something just felt “off.”

Since we are to maintain appropriate professional boundaries with a patient, the responsibility lies with us. If the patient is going beyond a boundary it is up to us to end and or alter the treatment.

As laid out, we can terminate a therapeutic relationship if a patient threatens or otherwise endangers us as a therapist. In this case, I’m sure the intent was if a patient was actually threatening or physically endangering us. But what about when they are doing something that could possibly endanger your career, your mental health, or your overall well being? If something during the treatment happens and our gut tells us something isn’t right, we should have the full right to end that treatment. It won’t be easy to do, but in the long run, it could save not only a career but also mental anguish. This is also a way we can protect and maintain our personal integrity.

Since we are also expected to maintain a safe and healthy work environment, have we taken the time to think how that affects us as opposed to our patients?

In my past career before becoming an RMT, I worked in an industrial setting dealing with health and safety. The one thing that always came up was our right as employees to have a safe work environment. Part of those rights was the ability to deny unsafe work. If you were told to do a job but considered it to be unsafe, you had the right to deny doing it.

While you had to give sound reasons for why you considered it unsafe, the company could not force you to do it until the safety concerns were rectified.

In this case, if a patient is doing something that is setting off some red flags for you, it is your right to demand a safe workplace environment and in turn should be able to deny treatment to a patient if you think your safety is at risk.

Photo by: JESHOOTS

Working Alone

This is another one of those areas that is often overlooked because we are either self-employed or work as contractors.

There was an article being circulated a month or so ago, which highlighted a massage therapist getting killed on the job as she was doing mobile, home care work (I think it later came out that she was working under less scrupulous employment) with no one else around.

If someone was working as a mobile therapist by themselves, or even working alone in a clinic, there are certain safety guidelines set out through WorkSafe or department of labour that stipulate conditions that are to be met to protect someone in this case.

Some of the guidelines that are set out in order to protect someone working alone or in isolation are as follows:

  • Develop and implement a written procedure for checking the well-being of a worker assigned to work alone or in isolation.
  • Procedure for checking a worker’s well-being must include the time interval between checks and the procedure to follow in case the worker cannot be contacted, including provisions for emergency rescue.
  • A person must be designated to establish contact with the worker at predetermined intervals and the results must be recorded by the person.
  • Time intervals for checking a worker’s well-being must be developed in consultation with the worker assigned to work alone or in isolation.

So, if you are a clinic owner, think of how this applies to some of the people working in your clinics. Are there times in the day when they are at the clinic alone? Is anyone calling in to check on them? Are there emergency procedures in place if something were to happen to one of them?

How about for those of you who do mobile massage on your own? Do you have a check in system before and after your treatments? Does someone know your schedule for the day and the addresses you’ll be working at? Do you have a contact in case of emergencies?

This doesn’t have to be an expensive complicated endeavour, even if it is regular contact throughout the day to a loved one or co-worker, who can regularly check in with you, as long as there is constant contact with someone.

However, there are companies out there who offer this kind of check in service. When I used to work alone I would have to call in to a company every two hours. If they didn’t hear from me, they would try to make contact. If contact failed they would dispatch emergency help to come and check on me (fortunately this never happened). There are now even some phone apps available like this one to handle these types of scenarios. The whole point of this post was not intended to scare anyone, but as self-employed people, we rarely take the time to think about possible safety issues within our work. We are trained to constantly think about what is safe and appropriate for our patients, when in reality isn’t our safety just as, if not more important?

Hacking Your Way Through The Jungle Of Research Claims

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“When we place our hands on a patient and act/move in certain ways our patients improve.”

Social media receives a good deal of criticism from folks who feel it is the ultimate waste of time…though those same folks are usually posting these opinions on social media. Research “findings” are frequently posted on mass media sites, but end up being fluffy opinion pieces rather than accurate and objective articles. Even published papers can be misleading or poorly conducted, creating an impression of conclusive proof when none exists.

As an active member of a number of manual therapy groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, I read many posts that speak to the “proof” of specific manual therapy modalities and their effectiveness based on published findings, but occasionally am I able to watch as a paper is deconstructed.

The Skeptical Massage Therapist Facebook is a rather small group devoted to those who identify themselves as scientific skeptics, of which I include myself. (While their name would imply that I, as a physical therapist, would be excluded, they are liberal in allowing a wide range of manual therapists into their group) There was a recent post on the Group made by Nick Ng, a journalist for the TellUs News Digest, formerly of Guardian Liberty Voice and massage therapist, in response to an article he had written for the TellUs News Digest on CranioSacral Therapy. He posted to the Facebook Group, asking for feedback on a specific article titled “A randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of craniosacral therapy on pain and heart rate variability in fibromyalgia patients”(link)

Bryan Quesnelle provided some excellent observations and he graciously allowed me to share those observations here. Bryan runs the Clinic Wise Clinic Management Database and online CEU courses). I am not research literate, in comparison to many of my peers and when I read a paper published in a science journal I often make assumptions that there are stringent rules to assure the writers pass certain standards before the paper is published. While I am not casting any negative light on the writers of this study or the subject matter, Bryan had some very good observations:

“The “sham” group wasn’t receiving sham cranio treatments, they were attached to a disconnected magneto therapy machine… Basically, this was comparing CST to laying down without intervention. This doesn’t help at all to validate the premise of CST, just shows that attentive human touch can impact perceived pain levels. The controls necessary to isolate CST mechanisms from other non-specific therapeutic benefits were basically nonexistent here.“

“That also presents an issue for blinding, since the “sham” vs. real interventions were obvious, leading to a lot of bias and placebo influence.“

“The p values are all over the place for each measured tender spot over time, most going from 0.6 to 0.03 between measurement periods. Some variation is normal, but they’re pretty extreme jumps. That’s a lot of discrepancy in reliability of results of the same painful areas over time.“

I realize that my own modality, myofascial release, has similar problems, as do many of the hands-on approaches used by physical therapists, massage therapists, and chiropractors.

On the  Research Page of the Foundations Seminar website,  there are dozens of published papers showing myofascial release to be a successful modality in the treatment of various disorders.

But all of those papers, while stating the oft-used and outdated explanatory model, do nothing to prove how MFR affects the body. They show the hands-on aspect to be helpful, but do not prove how it works. This is an important distinction that many therapists miss. When therapists place their hands on patients and interact in a manner that they were taught in their myofascial release (and craniosacral) training, the outcome is often positive. If we could just keep our language more general and avoid explaining the outcome based on outdated or false models,  there would be less discourse when it comes to the claims of various modalities.

This does not diminish the effectiveness of MFR/CST, it simply should make you question the claims you were taught. If we spoke in more simple terms such as these, it would place most of the claims of many of the manual therapy modalities in question…which is not a bad thing!

As I increase my science and research awareness, I have allowed my language to be more accurate as well. Some might feel the opposite to be true, as I no longer sound so sure of myself and I no longer repeat inaccurate/outdated explanatory models using fascia as the primary source of pain, dysfunction, and “cure”.

MFR is effective, but I now know that the nervous system plays a much larger role than originally thought. The extent and manner in which the nervous system impacts my work has not been fully sorted, so I use a more broad explanatory model to explain my work to my patients and my students/therapists. I include past models of hypothetical fascial change as a frame of reference as well as a few different models of how the nervous system oversees all happenings. As some point, however, I will add:

When we place our hands on a patient and act/move in certain ways our patients improve.

If manual therapists and their teachers could be humble enough to speak in these terms I believe all of us would benefit. But this sentence is too simplistic for many. It doesn’t make the speaker sound informed. But it is bluntly honest and this is my goal.

So, challenge yourself to improve your research literacy. Question what you were taught and currently believe. I am doing the same. Accepting another person’s word at face value is rare, so why accept their explanatory model without questioning?

Keeping It Constructive And Challenging Ideas That Hurt Critical Thinking

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I should probably start off by saying that I am not actually fully registered as a Massage Therapist just yet- I have just graduated.

In general, studying massage therapy has been a wonderful experience. Even in my short time getting to know the profession, there are some really harmful messages I’ve already heard loads of times, often by people I admire and who surely mean well. I’m sure these phrases are probably all too familiar to just about any experienced therapist.

The good news is, we can do a lot to improve these messages just by recognizing them and giving them some discussion.

Here’s a list of the worst offenders I’ve heard so far. How about you?

1)Dismissing Or Denouncing A Person For Not Endorsing A Certain Modality

Maybe these harsh words have been said to you directly, or to other therapists you know: closed- minded, uncreative, unsupportive, negative, too literal, concrete, black-and-white, just can’t get it.

Surely we don’t have to let anyone call us less of a therapist or person just for wanting to ask questions, think critically, or voice meaningful concerns about different modalities.

This kind of silencing tactic comes from a real place of fear sometimes, often with good intentions behind it. A lot of us can probably remember having used it ourselves at some point. People have a lot invested emotionally in some of their approaches. But that doesn’t make this right. We need to think about modalities appropriately and honestly, and not just with unquestioning acceptance labelled as openness.

On a similar note…

2)Criticizing The Very Idea Of Questioning A Practice

Maybe it was said that questioning a certain method somehow equated to “dumping on” it or “demeaning” it in a way that was perceived as unfair. Again, many of us have probably made the mistake of doing this ourselves.

We don’t have to let anyone try to convince us it’s wrong to not automatically accept an idea or practice, or that a lack of approval is as simplistic as an unwarranted “dumping” on something.

Maybe we or someone we know has said this upon feeling attacked or threatened, but that doesn’t make it okay for a practice to go unquestioned, no matter who likes it or who feels like it works. It’s okay for us to express earnest doubts and make changes to ideas as needed.

3) This Is Just Part Of The Industry, It’s Tradition

We don’t have to let anyone try to force us to accept/adopt an idea with these suggestions.

None of us signed up for anything, except to learn about massage and work safely and effectively with our patients. We don’t have to think, feel, believe, or adopt anything in particular as long as we are properly following basic standards.

Tradition doesn’t make something universally appropriate. Traditions needn’t be imposed on us just because they are common somewhere. This does not necessarily make them right for everyone.

We have the right to question or let go of ideas when we need to.

 

Photo by: Fxq19910504

4)It’s Prejudiced To Question Using A Practice Associated With A Particular Place Or Region

Yikes! This idea is probably used with good intentions, but it’s often very misleading.

First off, we know that many “alternative” practices branded as, for example, “traditional eastern” or “traditional indigenous,” etc. are actually much newer, invented or re-invented practices that have been popularized in just the last few decades (or 1-2 centuries at most).

This is often done by people who have little to do with the cited culture, and frequently it’s in association with a “new-age” movement. There’s no real cultural prejudice in questioning these practices because, in reality, they’re not truly tied to a particular cultural tradition.

Second, even if something is traditional, that doesn’t automatically make it right to use it in absolutely any setting, especially a therapeutic setting that may also have nothing to do with the original culture.

It may even be a way to offensively misuse someone’s traditional practice.

Thirdly, when we keep associating the word “traditional” with certain cultures and/or associating certain cultures with mysticism or exotic practices, we diminish and oversimplify these cultures and may even wind up inaccurately insinuating that they are somehow “less modern” than other cultures, even when this is simply not true.

Now, all of this is prejudiced, and it allows us to harmfully overgeneralize about large and diverse groups of people.

This idea surely comes from a place of wanting to embrace multiple cultures, which is great, but we don’t need to exoticize or misappropriate anything from anyone in the process.

5) We Must Be Too Different As Therapists To Understand Each Other, Or Work Together

Ouch.

Of course, just because people disagree on something does not mean that they are necessarily all that different from one another, let alone that they can’t still have a productive relationship.

Our field has a long history of mixing evidence systems with belief systems, and this problem can make every conversation feel very personal. That doesn’t mean we have to let our professional culture pit us against one another over every disagreement.

We can do better, and we can recognize that we’re all basically in this for the same reasons and we all care just as much about helping people and helping our profession.

It seems that virtually everyone, whether a new student or a seasoned professional, wants the same basic things for the massage therapy profession: improved regulation, increased mainstream recognition, and more knowledge about how we can best serve the needs of clients and patients.

These things are hard to a achieve when we come from a history of conflating evidence systems and belief system or conflating fact and opinion. Our history and resulting professional culture can make conversations about therapeutic techniques and practices feel personally threatening, even when we are just trying to examine and improve our body of knowledge.

If we wish to exist and advance as an evidence-based profession, then we need to be able to commit to the critical thinking and constructive conversation that this entails. Although it can be hard, we need to be able to ask questions, have doubts, think critically, and share concerns, especially without having to fear such harsh and personal responses as the ones above that we so often see. This is the only way we can really hope to move forward and reach these collective goals.

Tips On Saving Your Thumbs And Achieving Greater Gains With Ease

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Do you have a love-hate relationship with your thumbs? Do you want to use them but without the resulting pain?

Many therapists want to use them for deeper strokes and precision work but find that it always results in pain and discomfort. This is a problem because therapists are natural caregivers, it is in our nature to look after others, we make it our priority, sometimes we deny ourselves the same care we give our clients, we advise them not to work through pain yet we do not take our own advice.

How many times do we hear stories about how hard our job is on the body? Our work is tough, yet we compound the problem day in and day out hoping it will simply go away. Maybe you’ve tried a variety of solutions without finding a permanent one and stoically you continue to work through the pain, I might just have a solution for you!

Arthritic type pain in the saddle joint is at the top of the list of work-related injuries that a soft tissue therapist suffers, the solution is simple, but the change can be a challenge to implement because bad habits are usually difficult to change.

There are solutions, such as the no hands approach, correcting your body mechanics, trying different tools, all of which might result in some relief but doesn’t enable us to make use of them again.

But what if you could reintroduce them without any resulting pain?

My early life as a dancer was well spent, it helped me to understand how to use my body as an effective tool and it set the foundation for my future career as a massage teacher and therapist. I came to understand how to create strength out of ease, power out of lightness and stability from alignment. It is these concepts that have allowed me to remain injury free in a career that has lasted 20 years.

First let us establish what your individual challenges might be, for example, hypermobility. The principles I will be introducing are equally relevant to you as they would be with any therapist who has stable joints.

Do you recognize your thumb type in the digital picture below? Can you make your thumbs bend at child frighteningly odd angles? If you’ve answered yes then the following advice is a must for you.

 

The suggestion that you can reinforce a thumb by bracing it with the other one (which is just as bendy as the first one) will not do you much good. With this amount of flexibility, you will also not be able to align your thumb with the forearm to protect your joints.

So what is the solution?

 

I am blessed with strong thumbs but even so, I seldom apply any techniques using my thumbs independently. The majority of the time I use the support of my other hand, notice I did not say my other thumb or finger, instead I specifically said my other hand.

This is key in creating the ease you need plus the strength and power you want to translate through your thumb.

Place one hand on the body, ensure it is flat making full contact, including the heel of your hand, your bottom hand should remain soft, the top hand can be used to add more power if needed.

Below demonstrates how it will appear if you were to lift your hands off of your client, where you place the heel of your hand will determine how specific you want to be with your thumb.

Also, you might find one option more comfortable than the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the power should come from your base, your movement originates from your torso and feet allowing the upper body to remain relaxed.

Other benefits of using this approach include more accurate feedback from the tissue, often leading to a more effective outcome of treatment, precipitating fewer negative post-treatment symptoms and leading to greater client satisfaction, especially from those clients who want deeper work without the brutality.

Remember that the thumb is making the connection, it is the communicator, if it is stiff it will generate tension in the tissue, this is a natural response to techniques that are pokey and/or invasive.

This approach allows you to remain at ease, increasing the accuracy of your perception of the condition of the tissue and allowing you to work more sensitively. These are just a few of the benefits that come from using this method.

A majority of therapists come to this job to help others, with the intention of making a difference, we want to help people, ease their discomfort, but if we do not take care of ourselves then we’re the ones that will either be out of a career and be another statistic or become the client who is in need of fixing.

I have put together a special Massage Monday video that will take you through the process step by step, it will be available next week.

Join and stay up-to-date!

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