I've been getting my bodywork at The Lightworkers Cottage in New Farm, a close-in suburb. Specifically, I've been going to Nicholas Bestevaar, a Pyschosomatic Therapy practitioner.
We all know that the body-language we use around stress -- pain in the neck, monkey on my back, pain in the butt, etc. -- can have literal physical manifiestations. At its simplest, psychosomatic therapy takes that to the next level. Combining professional manual palpation skills with energetic sensitivity, these therapists find places of congestion and tune into the emotional/psychological/spiritual issues that might also be associated.
It hasn't been "counseling" as such. Nick has simply asked me to reflect on the congestion, pain, tightness, restrictions he's encountering. He talks to me about what's been going on with me. He reflects on life issues to may manifest in ways similar to what he's finding. He doesn't inform me that x/y/z is clearly going on and I obviously need to do 1, 2, 3.
He just observes and reflects and encourages me to be open to what might be good for me at that point, all the while using his hands in traditional therapeutic massage kinda ways.
I just got back from a 3-week trip back home to DC. It was a trying visit emotionally and physically. I landed back in Brisbane physically beat (thank you American Airlines!) and emotionally drained. My neck and shoulders have been tight though not painful. My feet were sore and I was experierincing some mild but stubborn jet-lag-related edema in my lower legs
Nick started me prone and began working on my feet and legs. Which turned out to be in worse shape than I even imagined! Holy crap.
Nick worked pretty deeply. His manual techniques were a combo of deep tissue, myofascial release and/or structural alignment, and some stretching. And it hurt. A LOT. A whole lot. I almost kicked him in the chest once -- by accident! I swear! -- in reflexive response to a tender spot he found.
Oh dear GOD it hurt.
While I was experiencing this work (when I had spare brain cells from trying to remember to breathe), I reflected on the role of pain in bodywork. I wondered if I would have been willing to induce this much pain, even if I was convinced it was going to be productive.
I took one of Ben Benjamin's Orthopedic Massage workshops a few years ago. One of the things that hung me up was that the treatment required being willing to do something that the client would experience as painful. My instinct to lighten up, back out, or stop when I got to the point of pain was practically overwhelming.
We all know that the body-language we use around stress -- pain in the neck, monkey on my back, pain in the butt, etc. -- can have literal physical manifiestations. At its simplest, psychosomatic therapy takes that to the next level. Combining professional manual palpation skills with energetic sensitivity, these therapists find places of congestion and tune into the emotional/psychological/spiritual issues that might also be associated.
It hasn't been "counseling" as such. Nick has simply asked me to reflect on the congestion, pain, tightness, restrictions he's encountering. He talks to me about what's been going on with me. He reflects on life issues to may manifest in ways similar to what he's finding. He doesn't inform me that x/y/z is clearly going on and I obviously need to do 1, 2, 3.
He just observes and reflects and encourages me to be open to what might be good for me at that point, all the while using his hands in traditional therapeutic massage kinda ways.
I just got back from a 3-week trip back home to DC. It was a trying visit emotionally and physically. I landed back in Brisbane physically beat (thank you American Airlines!) and emotionally drained. My neck and shoulders have been tight though not painful. My feet were sore and I was experierincing some mild but stubborn jet-lag-related edema in my lower legs
Nick started me prone and began working on my feet and legs. Which turned out to be in worse shape than I even imagined! Holy crap.Nick worked pretty deeply. His manual techniques were a combo of deep tissue, myofascial release and/or structural alignment, and some stretching. And it hurt. A LOT. A whole lot. I almost kicked him in the chest once -- by accident! I swear! -- in reflexive response to a tender spot he found.
Oh dear GOD it hurt.
While I was experiencing this work (when I had spare brain cells from trying to remember to breathe), I reflected on the role of pain in bodywork. I wondered if I would have been willing to induce this much pain, even if I was convinced it was going to be productive.
I took one of Ben Benjamin's Orthopedic Massage workshops a few years ago. One of the things that hung me up was that the treatment required being willing to do something that the client would experience as painful. My instinct to lighten up, back out, or stop when I got to the point of pain was practically overwhelming.
I always talk to my clients about the difference between "productive" and "non-productive" pain. I have always told the client that they need to let me know if we cross the line from productive to un-productive pain. Even when they give me permission to go deeper into "productive" pain, I find myself very reluctant.
Some of it may be a simple human urge not to hurt someone.
Some of it may be a deeper unwillingness to be the "bad guy" who causes pain, wanting my clients to only have happy associations with me.
Maybe it's a reaction to that over-done 80s mantra "no pain, no gain". How many clients have we all seen who've gone too far in their own body-management efforts, presuming the more it hurts the better it is for them?
Maybe I'm not confident in my ability to know when "enough" becomes "too much".
Of course, I've also met too many people who presume that I'm not doing enough if they aren't hurting. They only know effectiveness through pain. And there are MTs out there who really don't know you can be effective short of pain.
So, was Nicholas being insensitive to me? Was he being clumsy or ham-fisted? My instinct says "no". He was moving slowly and attentively. He approached congestion with a variety of approaches and paid a lot of attention to when congestion finally opened up.
Could he have done all of this with less pain? I don't know, honestly. The fascia of my legs was clearly very gummed up. We had only (!) 90 minutes. It worked, though my legs and feet were sore all day (but much better today). It had been a very trying 4 weeks prior to this and 3 weeks since I'd had any bodywork.
It does have me re-visiting my ideas about the place of pain in professional, compassionate, effective bodywork.
I'll admit to being a bit torn on this one. I've talked to friends who have had ART massages and talked about how it hurt like the dickens - and yet they felt TONS better the next day or so. However, for the most part I am a total wimp, and I tell my MT's that I am looking for the "old rich lady massage" aka, nothing more than relaxation.
ReplyDeleteNow, that being said, I have had a couple massages where we had an agreement of "I will say when it's too much" and I held out more than I thought I might have otherwise - not that it was "painful" but more a race between pressure nerve signals and pain nerve signals as to who would get to my brain first. But, the next day, I felt great, so something must have gone right.
And, I have a non-MT friend with *wonderful* hands, to whom I can ask, "Can you work on my shoulders for a few minutes?" and he does. And while it feels wonderful, he hits the pressure points in my shoulders like a ton of bricks. I wouldn't say it's painful, but the micro-massage definitely has an immediate impact - and I certainly feel it as well the next day - and in a wonderful way.
Where I have had the most issues in massages is not in too much pressure on cranky areas, but too much friction. I would take the feeling of a rubber mallet on my shoulder any day of the week over feeling like my skin was being pulled off my legs. (Which is why I go for the old-lady massage vs. traditional Swedish - just too much skin friction.)
So, when it comes to massages, I wouldn't say "no pain, no gain" should be the automatic assumption, but for some clients, I would say that some "auurgghhhh" now may certainly equate to "aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh" later. I would just say that it's better to have a client feeling like they've been worked over rather than being skinned.