Being Of Service, While Still Being Kind To Yourself

/in , , , , , , /by

Several years ago, I started this blog, and the whole reason was to be of service to my community of like-minded Massage Therapists while trying to educate and lift up the profession. 

Well, the last year has been really tough to do that, and I feel like I’ve kind of let you down as a reader of this blog. 

So, I thought I would share why. 

Like it has been for most of us, this pandemic over the past couple of years hit hard, but I truly didn’t understand how hard it hit me and ended up going through some health issues if any of you were going through something similar, I’d love to hear back from you. 

There were a few big things I dealt with and what I learned about them along the way. 

Insomnia

I was dealing with major bouts of insomnia, and several things contributed to it; and fortunately for me, I live in a part of the world where I could get referred by a doctor and get help with this as part of our medical system. So I was referred to a psychologist who helped me start sleeping again. 

I didn’t know this, but there are two types of insomnia, one where you have a hard time getting to sleep and one where you have no problem getting to sleep; staying asleep is the issue (this is what I had). 

During our sessions, the doctor had me make a sleep log, and we determined that, on average, I was getting about five and a half hours of sleep a night. I’d go to bed around 9:30 and usually try to get up between six and seven in the morning. When I made my sleep logs, there were big gaps throughout the night where I was awake. So, the strategy we used was to “condense” my sleep. 

We picked a time I would like to get up in the morning, so I chose 6:30 am. The doctor counted back 5.5 hours and said okay, then I want you to start going to bed between 12-12:30 pm. Basically, getting myself to the point that I’m so tired around midnight would make sleeping easier to stay asleep. 

We continued to fill out the sleep log, and as the sleep became more condensed, we would start adding 15 minutes to my go-to bedtime. So instead of 12 pm, I’d go at 11:45 pm, and as that sleep got better, then 11.30 pm and so on, until I was going to bed around 10 pm and sleeping much better. 

He also recommended that when getting up in the morning, I immediately expose myself to light as this helps reset the circadian rhythm, which made going to bed that night more inducive to sleep. 

Interestingly he also told me that all the things we are told in the media etc about “sleep hygiene” doesn’t really matter. If you wanna watch TV right until bed, go ahead, and many of the other things we are taught don’t really matter either…except one. 

Alcohol. I enjoy my wine, and I know over the pandemic, probably enjoyed it a bit too much. Now, I was told there’s nothing wrong with having a glass of wine at night, just don’t have any alcohol three hours before bed because while we quite often think it helps our sleep, it actually messes it up pretty good. So avoiding it three hours before bed is a good rule if you’re trying to sleep better. 

Burnout

I know I’m not alone on this one. 

But over the past year, burnout has played a big role in my life, and my mental health has taken a beating for it. I’m sure it contributed to insomnia as well. 

However, there were a few things to learn with this as well. 

Figuring out the things that are important to you and focusing on those things. 

For me, I know exercise does a lot to help my mental health. Especially if it’s sports like hockey, or golf where I get to hang out with the boys and enjoy camaraderie in conjunction with an activity. Going to the gym was helpful as well, but getting that social aspect helps a lot as well. 

It’s also really important to give yourself a break and be kind to yourself. 

If you’ve been dealing with the same and are wanting to become more productive, one thing that’s helped me is just setting small daily goals of accomplishment. Everything seems so overwhelming most of the time but it has helped to just break things up into small chunks and try to accomplish a little each day, even if it’s just a half hour to an hour of work, at least I’m getting something done.

While the outside pressure of careers etc will never go away, sometimes we just have to accept that we can’t do it all, all of the time. It’s okay to take a break, it’s okay to have downtime, and it’s okay to step away from some things if you don’t have the capacity to do it all without beating yourself up about it. 

A Break-Up and Mental Health In General

As I know probably happened to many, I also had a good relationship come to an end. 

So taking into account insomnia, burnout, and, more recently, the end of a relationship, my mental health over the past year, as I said, has taken a bit of a beating. 

BUT, I came to learn that it’s okay to ask for help. 

I think all too often in our career we don’t ask for help. We are considered the ones people come to for help, but how often are we asking for help ourselves?

Yeah, we see posts online about “self-care” which is usually followed by suggestions for yoga or some other thing (not that there’s anything wrong with these suggestions), but how often do we really ask for help regarding our mental health?

We have people come in every day, lay on the table and vent about what’s going on in life (yet it’s suggested we don’t influence mental health at all), and quite often, we take some of that on ourselves. But how often are we talking about it? 

I’d venture to guess not nearly as much as we should be. 

So I’ve started having regular counselling appointments so that while the gym and sports for me is beneficial, especially for my physical health, it’s time to really start making mental health just as much of a priority. 

Now, I didn’t write this article to gain sympathy or anything like that, I don’t want that. 

I did it to highlight the need that we as healthcare professionals need to recognize our health is just as important as the people we are helping. To show that it’s okay to talk about it and that yes, sometimes WE need help, and it’s okay to ask for it. 

As I mentioned at the beginning, I started this blog to be of service to my community, so if you’ve been dealing with anything similar, I hope you know you’re not alone, there are probably more of us dealing with this than we care to admit. 

And if there’s some way I can help you, please email me and know there’s someone on the other end who’s going through the same but still pushing forward.

 

Weekend Courses vs Ongoing Training – Which Is More Effective?

/in , , , , , /by

Many Massage Therapists look at continuing education and training as something that should be scheduled around their busy work schedule. Unfortunately, this can lead to missed opportunities, and the quality of education often isn’t what it should be.

Massage therapists have two options when it comes to training, in person, or online. 

Is one method of training more effective than the other?

We live in an era of never-ending information overload.

In our field, it’s especially true.

There are hundreds of books on how to be a successful Massage Therapist and hundreds of continuing education programs that Massage Therapists can attend at their convenience. The challenge is most of these courses aren’t very well organized, making it difficult to know what to do next. If you want to stay up-to-date in our field, you’re going to need to find the most effective way to keep learning new skills and concepts.

Some Of My Best Learning Experiences

Two of the best courses I have taken throughout my career were one delivered by Greg Lehman, and the other is the San Diego Pain Summit. 

Here’s why those were great. 

With Greg’s course, while he is a great presenter, he did something I had never seen in a continuing education course before. After the course, he sent out an email with a link to his google drive. 

There were tons of research papers in that drive all divided into different categories, which the course was based on. He continually updates the research, and you always have access to it. I was so impressed by this that it’s something we do in our live courses now. 

Greg went out of his way to provide extra support after the course was over, and that support continues as long as he updates those research papers. Support in our continuing education is crucial because if you’re anything like me, you take a course and then think “how can I implement this Monday morning?”. Then by the end of the week, you’ve forgotten most of it, and you’re back to the same things you were doing before. 

Now for my favourite conference (I’m sure you’ve seen me mention it on here before). 

Yes, the content is always great at the conference, but the community makes it really special. Every year I go, it feels like a family reunion. 

No one ever cares what kind of therapist you are, and you’re rarely ever asked. But when you get there, EVERYONE is excited to see each other again. 

There is even a private Facebook group where all the attendees can communicate, ask questions, and leave comments. Since I started going to this conference, there have been times where I’ve reached out to other attendees for help on certain things, and every time I’ve asked, the answer has always been a resounding yes!

That community truly makes a massive difference in the ongoing learning experience. 

So what I take from both of these experiences is: 

More Support + community = Better learning outcomes. 

Comparison of Ongoing Training and Weekend Courses

Going to a weekend course to get our continuing education is not always convenient. It is usually tough to take off work to attend such a course.

However, Ongoing Training is a great way to learn new information and to stay up to date with the latest research.

When Covid hit, it made a massive shift in continuing education. We were super stressed about how we were going to service all the great therapists who had signed up for our courses, so we decided to take them online. 

I’ll be honest the first iteration of this was not as good as our last and we are continually improving. 

The reality is, I think most education is starting to trend this way, even HUGE companies are doing it, and they’re doing it for a reason. 

I have been a first aid instructor for 11 years now and I’ve watched a huge company like the Red Cross change their approach… they’re going online!

When you look at a company like this one, they certify thousands of people a year in first aid courses. But they took a step back and realized they were usually (if not always) helping working professionals. So they transitioned to make it easier to get access to courses. In addition, other companies who had to send their employees wanted change because they were paying employees to go spend entire weekends in courses. 

Why were they complaining? The cost. 

Time is money and these companies didn’t want to have to put out the added cost of paying overtime, days off, plus the addition of the course costs. So, Red Cross transitioned. 

It’s the same thing for us. Time is money! 

If we aren’t in the clinic working, we aren’t making money. And since we don’t have employers paying us to take our continuing education, we are even more in a position where TIME IS MONEY. 

However, there was another result of a big company like this making a shift in addition to all of this. Better support and better outcomes. 

You see, there is a reason you have to re-cert your first aid every three years. This is because new research comes out and things change…much like our massage therapy practices. 

So what happened was the students were given an online program where they still had access to the information after the course, and the information was continually updated. So if they had questions, they could go back and review it, giving them more confidence if they had to face a medical emergency. 

Another benefit is the students and companies were saving money. 

What I take from all of this is: 

Community + Support + Consistent Updates + Cost Effective = Better outcomes for us professionally and for our patients. 

This is why we created theMTDC Community. 

We wanted other Massage Therapists to have a supportive community, access to consistently updated information, and make this cost-effective so you can spend more time helping your patients, less time worrying about what your next CEC course was going to be. We will do this with consistent monthly presentations that you will always have access to (so you can come back and watch them when you need a refresher), research reviews, and of course, that supportive community that we all need.

Click on the image below to join us and learn why online, ongoing training is the way to go for Massage Therapists today.

 

Articles Of The Week February 13, 2022

/in , , , , /by

We all have patients that use them, and I’m sure we’ve all recommended them. However, what does the science say about their use? Well…the evidence is mixed.

Is foam rolling effective for muscle pain and flexibility? The science isn’t so sure – Ken Nosaka

It is really important for us to understand how a treatment affects the people we are helping. Equally important is taking into account contextual factors of treatment and the language we use, or the things we say are just as important to understand.

Nocebo Effect Vs. Placebo Effect: Language Can Affect Outcomes – Joe Camoratto

We know how much the brain influences pain and the perception of pain. Turns out some mindfulness work can influence your thoughts to modulate perceptions of pain which utilizes a completely separate brain pathway than the pathway used to send the physical pain signal to your brain.

Neuroscientists Identify How Mindset Alters Pain Perceptions – Christopher Bergland

Change is difficult, REALLY difficult. However, our profession needs change but we are not alone, every manual therapy profession needs change. The best way to cause change in the profession is to look within and be the change we wish to see, this will cause a ripple effect.

Our Toxic Massage Community Can Change When We Work Together – Stephanie Rodriguez

Science is REALLY cool. While it’s still early and only one person so far, it looks like scientists have found a cure for Type I Diabetes that hopefully will change the lives of so many.

First person cured of Type I Diabetes thanks to stem cells – David Zarley

Overcoming The Difficulties Of Being An Evidence Based Massage Therapist

/in , , , , /by

Often we see courses offered as the next new “technique” to have in our toolbox but we know when we look at evidence-based practice, the technique really doesn’t matter as much as things like communication, and therapeutic alliance, education, and movement.

As we strive to become more evidence-based a lot of what we see can get confusing as it sometimes seems like it’s telling us what not to do, rather than what to do, while many of the aforementioned courses seem like they’re giving us the “recipe” that will work for everything. 

So how do we know which direction to go?

Recognizing The Limitations

One of the limitations of evidence-based massage therapy are that the practitioner must have the ability to quickly implement this into practice, yet it can take years of practice and training.

Also, the literature fairly consistently talks about EBP in a multidisciplinary setting, which is typically referring to a hospital setting.

We quite often mistake this with a multi-disciplinary setting as we work in, but the two are quite different from each other. In those cases, people are paid hourly, have paid staff meetings, and have situations where collaboration is made easier because they are given the time to do so. 

In order for a team to take this approach in the hospital setting someone’s designated job is to take on the leadership role of implementing EBP throughout the team, however, this doesn’t really happen in most musculoskeletal clinics.

I don’t know about you but sometimes (even when you’re working in a multi-disciplinary setting) it can feel like you’re working in a silo. 

You go to work and spend the day working with your patients and kind of see your colleagues in passing while you’re focused on doing charting and cleanup between treatments. 

This can be even more of a challenge if you’re the only one in the clinic who is working on being evidence-based and others in the clinic are still sticking to the old narratives they’ve used for years, especially when the recommendations for success are for the entire organization to work as a team and adopt this approach.

Another issue we deal with is the arguments we often see on social media discussions where people are scared to even ask questions to help their practice for fear of the negative feedback they will receive. Yet because it sometimes feels like we’re working in a silo this may be our only way to reach out and ask for help or guidance if we need it.

And let’s be honest, implementing an evidence-based practice can just seem like a daunting task. When we look at reading research, dissecting, applying, and then collaborating with others to be truly effective, in addition to running our business, no wonder this is a huge difficulty for us. 

So what can we do?

Is There A Solution?

Truthfully speaking, Massage Therapy is the best-positioned profession to spearhead the application of evidence-informed and science-based practice.

When it comes to evidence-based practice, there are many ways to make this process easier. The first thing to do is to get familiar with the most recent research that has been done in the field. This will help you to become aware of what works and what doesn’t work. You should also find out if there is any further research that needs to be done. The second thing to do is to use the internet. You can find a lot of information on the internet using sites like google scholar, PubMed, or sci-hub to find research articles and you can check out various blogs (like this one) to find what you are looking for.

However, this does take a lot of time.

What if there was a place that could help you with all of these things, plus could give you:

  • a safe space to ask questions about your practice
  • regular presentations to help implement new research
  • research reviews
  • a community of like-minded practitioners willing to help and share their experience
  • people in leadership roles to help the team implement EBP

That’s what we have created with theMTDC Community.

We truly believe that Massage Therapists can be the leaders in MSK care because we have all the tools necessary to do so. We can educate, reassure, provide movement, and give one delicious feeling massage…which is exactly what evidence-based guidelines recommend! 

One of the biggest reasons we can be leaders in MSK care is also because of the time we get to spend with our patients. This extra time we get with people gives us more opportunities to connect, interact, and explore options that will work well for the people in front of us. This is a huge bonus for not only our success but for the success in helping the person in front of us.

However, in order to be a leader in MSK care, we still need to implement new research and keep up to date with the new information available to us. This is where we want to help. We want you to be able to focus on that extra time with your patients and not have to spend so much time seeking out the new research.

We’re going to do that for you with monthly presentations from industry experts and regular research reviews to not only make your practice better (and make you a leader) but also to save you time, money, and build a supportive community around you. 

You can continue working hard on your own but we want to help you take the next step and get on the right path to a successful practice! Join us and get involved in a community where you will have a place to get the guidance and support we all need in our practice. Click on the image below to join theMTDC community today.

 

 

Articles Of The Week February 6, 2022

/in , , , , /by

When we look at many of the things recommended as a major component of physical fitness flexibility is one of the topics that inevitably comes up. When we compare this to things like cardiovascular endurance, strength, or muscle endurance, is it really as important?

The Case Against Stretching – Alex Hutchinson

I sometimes wonder why others are able to accomplish more than me and honestly I get a little jealous about it. I’ve always thought maybe I just don’t have enough grit to get certain things done. However, it turns out this line of thinking can actually be detrimental.

How I Learned About the Perils of Grit – Todd B. Kashdan

We have always been big fans of movement as a tool to help patients who come in for help. Sometimes it can be a bit confusing on just how much movement to recommend (and this obviously depends on what the person is dealing with). So how much movement in general is beneficial for people? Well, here’s some guidelines!

24 Hour Movement Guidelines – Canadian Society For Exercise Physiology

At this time of year we may have people coming in with new years resolutions about health and fitness along with maybe a new gym membership. As it is with pain there may be a biopsychosocial influence behind why a person wants to do this, and it’s important we take it into account.

I Didn’t Start Weight Lifting Because I Wanted to Be Strong – Casey Johnston

It is often said that word of mouth is the best advertising. What if we took it a step further and took word of mouth online? As this article points out getting patient reviews can not only do great things for people who are booking in but also for the culture in your clinic.

Harnessing the power of patient reviews – Katie McBeth

Three Therapeutic Exercise Progressions For Lateral Movement Of The Hip

/in , , , , , /by

Last week we posted some hip exercises called the “Monster Walks” which were some great exercises you can do

right in your treatment room with a simple exercise band to help with balance and general exercises for the hips.

 

This week we’re going to add to those movements with some extra focus on lateral movements to help with

abduction and adduction.

 

Let’s start with just some simple lateral movements that will work the hip really well for abduction/adduction.

 

Once those more static movements get easier for your patients we can ramp up the intensity a little

by providing some more variability to the movement.

Now we’re going to increase that variability by adding some forward and backward walking movements.

 

Takeaways

  • Make sure your patient is part of the decision-making process for when to progress the exercises.
  • Use the least amount of resistance to start and then add more when the person you’re helping is ready.
  • If you’re giving this as homecare make sure they can give you a good explanation of what they’re supposed to do.
  • Find ways to make this fun and incorporate it into things they already enjoy doing.

Join and stay up-to-date!

Email Marketing by AWeber

Have a solution to a problem within our industry? We want to hear about it!

Learn More

© 2020 – 2026  James Johnston RMT • All Rights Reserved