How To Find A Massage Therapist Who Can Relieve Your Pain
Nov 22nd, 2009 by Kathryn Merrow
When you have muscular pain and want relief, how can you find a massage therapist who will give you the most benefit for your money? A nice “feel good” massage has many benefits but not when what you want is pain relief.
There are many types of massage and a few different professional organizations and lots of massage schools. There are all types of different philosophies, personalities, beliefs and training. Some massage therapists have a ton of advanced training and some massage providers never go beyond their basic training (which may be short) not even to read an article or book.
Word of mouth is usually a great way to find a good therapist. If someone you know got relief from their massage therapist that may be a good person for you to interview.
There are credentials that can help you decide, too. Here are a few.
- Professional Membership in the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA.)
- Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (NCTMB.)
- State Licensed. (At the time of writing, about 3/4’s of states license massage therapists.)
Here’s how to interview a massage therapist.
Most will be happy to give you a brief free consultation.
First of all, don’t ask, “Do you work with people who have (my type of) pain?” or, “Do you treat (this type of) pain?” There are many massage therapists who will say yes, even though they don’t have the training or experience to successfully treat your specific complaint.
Instead, ask him or her the following questions, and listen closely to his answers. See whether the answers make sense to you.
- What are the most common causes of (my type of) pain?
- How will you determine why I have pain?
- What is your pain treatment strategy?
- What type of massage training did you have?
- What muscles could be involved in my situation?
- How long do you think it will take for me to feel better?
- Will there be pain or discomfort from the massage?
Feel free to ask additional questions. Also, ask him to explain any answer you did not fully understand.
You can learn a lot on the phone, but you can learn even more in person. The massage therapist may actually touch your muscles as he explains, and that will make it even easier for you to understand.
Sometimes when muscles are very tight, as they often are with pain, there may be some discomfort during the massage. There may also be some tenderness afterward. That is because you have some areas of tight muscles and they are not yet used to someone pressing on them.
If you have any discomfort from the massage, you may perceive it as “good pain,” which is a fine thing. Your body is saying, “Yes! This is what I need!” Or it may be quite intense and you can ask the therapist to lighten up.
It is okay for you to guide your massage therapists. Please do! They want to know how you are feeling and responding. They want you to feel better.
Sometimes discomfort during a therapeutic massage session is unavoidable, and it’s usually worse the first time than later visits.
But, the payoff from massage therapy for pain relief can be huge.
Start looking for massage therapists to interview today.
“Because You Deserve To Feel Better!”
