As one of the oldest healing arts it is no surprise that more people are finding out how beneficial it is to add massage therapy to their healthcare regimen. Studies show that nearly 90 percent of disease is stress related. We all have pressure and anxiety in our lives and while we cannot eliminate stress completely, it can be managed with massage.
In this fun and informative podcast Tom Merrill, licensed Massage Therapist, joins the show to share the many benefits of massage therapy, which can extend to more than just feeling good!
Selected Podcast
Massage Therapy as Complementary to Physical Therapy
Featured Speaker:
Tom Merrill, LAC, LMT
Tom Merrill, LAC, LMT has been a licensed acupuncturist for 11 years and is also licensed in massage therapy graduating from Central Maryland School of Massage in Frederick. He realized through personal injury the benefits of hands on treatment to return to the pleasure of pain-free movement. Tom believes that easy, pain-free and even joyous movement is everybody’s natural birth rite. Tom provides massage therapy to new and current patients at Meritus Total Rehab Care. Transcription:
Massage Therapy as Complementary to Physical Therapy
Melanie Cole (Host): It’s one of the oldest healing arts, so, it’s no surprise that more people than ever are finding out about how beneficial it is to add massage therapy to their healthcare regimen. My guest today is Tome Merrill. He’s a licensed massage therapist with Meritus Health. Tom, tell the listeners what is massage therapy?
Tom Merrill, LAC, LMT (Guest): As you said Melanie, massage therapy has been around for a long, long time. It is working with the body, the tissues of the body and the simplest definition of it is running your hands while in contact with the skin and moving them. It gets much more complex than that. There’s probably at least 40 or 50 well-known different variations and or schools of massage, but it’s something that helps calm the central nervous system down, helps soothe and relax the muscles and helps us change from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous systems.
Melanie: Certainly, something we can all use. So, describe because people have heard some of the different as you say there are so many different types, but we have heard of hot stone massage, and Swedish and deep tissue. So, give us a little run down on some of the most popular ones.
Tom: Well Swedish is probably one of the most popular here in America. It’s generally what’s experienced in spa massages. You have deep tissue, which is generally deeper pressure to get to more deep lying issues. You have trigger point, you have wow, I mean there are just so many of them. You have stretching is involved, different stretching systems. You have craniosacral, you have more specific sports massage type things. You have got basically any type of massage exists for any type of need. That’s a big statement, but I believe it’s true.
Melanie: It certainly is, and as more and more people are realizing the benefits, speak about some of the real health benefits that are you know, people are seeing with massage.
Tom: Oh my gosh, one of the biggest is sleep. I mean people who come to me, they sometimes have got some chronic pain issues, but they don’t feel it is bad enough I guess to register as pain medication or coming once or twice and suddenly they are talking about not only the length, but the quality of sleep is increased. Range of motion is almost always increased and easier. It’s just quality of life issues really, Melanie.
Melanie: So, as far as long-term benefits, because now more and more we are hearing about massage therapy for cancer patients and always we have heard about it for athletes and such, long-term as we look, it’s not just relaxing, right, I mean it’s definitely something that can help get everything better and working together.
Tom: Oh, absolutely. One of the difficulties with the way our body works is that the fight, flight, flee, section of our nervous system can be activated but the rest, recovery, oppose side of our nervous system has to be more allowed and permitted. And with all the stimulation that happens in our lifetime; with the fact that most of us have to drive back and forth to work and that’s often our nervous system considers that life threatening. All it takes is somebody shouting at some of us and we activate and get very tense. And then the more that that happens, the less we have a chance to recover from it; the more that becomes our steady state of existence. And that’s just really sad. Because we are meant to be about as relaxed as cats and about as tense as needs be, but not to live in any single one of those states. So, yeah, I mean I have done quite a bit with helping people like relearn to walk after surgeries, I have done quite the same amount with helping people who have had respiratory issues, breathe more deeply. I mean it’s just ongoing. There’s medical reasons for massage and then there’s life quality ongoing, I mean just the damage that is done to our body by sitting in front of a computer is something that we just get used to and don’t notice. But we don’t have to live with it.
Melanie: As a massage therapist, how do you determine what to work on? How do you know, I mean people can tell you well I feel it my neck or my shoulders, sitting at the computer, I feel that stress, but how do you determine where to work? Is it always a whole-body thing or do you concentrate on one area?
Tom: I always try to work whole body. My understanding of the body is that it is a system of systems and usually where the pain is, isn’t where the pain is from. So, like one of the little stories I like to make up to explain this to people is that there’s a victim and there’s a culprit. The victim often makes a lot of noise, screams out in pain, sometimes even agony and gets a lot of attention in this scenario. And the culprit skulks away. And unless we get the culprit, the situation isn’t going to change. So, a lot of times, somebody will have a pain in the neck, quite literally and it might be their calf, the set of their ankles. It might be the fact that their pelvis is off. It might be that their chest is deactivated and therefore curved and caved in. All of these require different answers for what presents as the same problem.
Melanie: So, now people are adding massage therapy to a physical therapy program. Tell us how you are working with physical therapists and so how this can benefit people. How do they get involved?
Tom: Well, I usually get a referral from the PT and often will consult and then I get some information thusly and I get some information from talking to and working with the individual and you know, I have had some very, very good results with this, especially with some people who have had some long, long term issues and every profession, every modality actually every professional inside every modality has a different history and a different viewpoint on things. So, bringing a team approach to things really has brought some very outstanding results for some of the patients here.
Melanie: So, Tom, people see a physical therapist, they know that this is something medical, they just expect what’s going to happen. But when you hear massage, are people uncomfortable with it? Have you run into where maybe a woman is a little more uncomfortable and if that’s the case, how do you ease their mind and explain that you are a professional and this is what you do?
Tom: I understand Melanie. The body is an interesting thing in our culture. We are unfortunately in a culture that doesn’t touch very much. And therefore, it becomes laden with other things. I really just have an ongoing conversation with whoever I work with. I always let whoever I’m working with know that they are in charge. If I’m doing something and it feels good when I release their soleus, and they want more of that, then we can probably arrange that. If the pressure is too deep and or I’m getting even close to an area they don’t want addressed, that’s fine. One of the things I always let people know is that you are going to be under sheets if it’s a straight up massage. If I’m doing – I’m cross trained in a fair number of other modalities, if we are doing some fascial stretch training, if we are doing some strain counter strain, if we are doing something else to address the situation, then you might not be undressed. But always you will be covered, always you will be in complete and total charge. I just make that clear from the beginning, the middle and the end.
Melanie: What do you want people to do in between times, in between their sessions with you? Do you like them to do stuff at home to do stretching or to do meditation, anything to help keep what you are doing so that it’s working longer than just the time that they are there?
Tom: Oh absolutely. Hydration is very high on that list. And then what I like is the phrase nutritious movement. There’s often a confusion with exercise where people overdo exercises. But especially one of the things I have been running into in the last few months is a lot of people with deactivated muscles which just means that they haven’t been using them like maybe sitting at a desk and hunching forward so long that the chest starts to forget how to rise and be proud, so to speak, go into spinal extension would be the technical jargon. And often I will just ask people to sort of bend forward and almost look down and then to look up a little bit to go into a little bit of spinal extension to go into a little bit of spinal flexion while they are seated at their desk and that type of thing for me is what I ask people to do. A safe range of movement that activates something that’s useful for their individual situation.
Melanie: Brushing aside any thoughts that massage is just only the feel-good way to indulge or it’s pampering ourselves, give us a good take home message about massage therapy and the benefits and where they can find it at Meritus Health.
Tom: Well, I what I would say is that massage is a very broad spectrum. It does include that aspect of things. And that’s not what I’m drawn to. What I’m drawn to is helping people move and live better, easier, with less pain, more enjoyment of movement. I usually refer to myself as a body work type of massage therapist just to try to make that a more clear distinction and also a little bit more structural rather than spa oriented and we are right here in the Robinwood Center at Total Rehab Care and you can definitely reach us here.
Melanie: Thank you so much Tom, it’s really great information. You’re listening to Your Health Matters with Meritus Health. For more information on massage therapy through Total Rehab Care please visit www.meritushealth.com that’s www.meritushealth.com . This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for tuning in.
Massage Therapy as Complementary to Physical Therapy
Melanie Cole (Host): It’s one of the oldest healing arts, so, it’s no surprise that more people than ever are finding out about how beneficial it is to add massage therapy to their healthcare regimen. My guest today is Tome Merrill. He’s a licensed massage therapist with Meritus Health. Tom, tell the listeners what is massage therapy?
Tom Merrill, LAC, LMT (Guest): As you said Melanie, massage therapy has been around for a long, long time. It is working with the body, the tissues of the body and the simplest definition of it is running your hands while in contact with the skin and moving them. It gets much more complex than that. There’s probably at least 40 or 50 well-known different variations and or schools of massage, but it’s something that helps calm the central nervous system down, helps soothe and relax the muscles and helps us change from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous systems.
Melanie: Certainly, something we can all use. So, describe because people have heard some of the different as you say there are so many different types, but we have heard of hot stone massage, and Swedish and deep tissue. So, give us a little run down on some of the most popular ones.
Tom: Well Swedish is probably one of the most popular here in America. It’s generally what’s experienced in spa massages. You have deep tissue, which is generally deeper pressure to get to more deep lying issues. You have trigger point, you have wow, I mean there are just so many of them. You have stretching is involved, different stretching systems. You have craniosacral, you have more specific sports massage type things. You have got basically any type of massage exists for any type of need. That’s a big statement, but I believe it’s true.
Melanie: It certainly is, and as more and more people are realizing the benefits, speak about some of the real health benefits that are you know, people are seeing with massage.
Tom: Oh my gosh, one of the biggest is sleep. I mean people who come to me, they sometimes have got some chronic pain issues, but they don’t feel it is bad enough I guess to register as pain medication or coming once or twice and suddenly they are talking about not only the length, but the quality of sleep is increased. Range of motion is almost always increased and easier. It’s just quality of life issues really, Melanie.
Melanie: So, as far as long-term benefits, because now more and more we are hearing about massage therapy for cancer patients and always we have heard about it for athletes and such, long-term as we look, it’s not just relaxing, right, I mean it’s definitely something that can help get everything better and working together.
Tom: Oh, absolutely. One of the difficulties with the way our body works is that the fight, flight, flee, section of our nervous system can be activated but the rest, recovery, oppose side of our nervous system has to be more allowed and permitted. And with all the stimulation that happens in our lifetime; with the fact that most of us have to drive back and forth to work and that’s often our nervous system considers that life threatening. All it takes is somebody shouting at some of us and we activate and get very tense. And then the more that that happens, the less we have a chance to recover from it; the more that becomes our steady state of existence. And that’s just really sad. Because we are meant to be about as relaxed as cats and about as tense as needs be, but not to live in any single one of those states. So, yeah, I mean I have done quite a bit with helping people like relearn to walk after surgeries, I have done quite the same amount with helping people who have had respiratory issues, breathe more deeply. I mean it’s just ongoing. There’s medical reasons for massage and then there’s life quality ongoing, I mean just the damage that is done to our body by sitting in front of a computer is something that we just get used to and don’t notice. But we don’t have to live with it.
Melanie: As a massage therapist, how do you determine what to work on? How do you know, I mean people can tell you well I feel it my neck or my shoulders, sitting at the computer, I feel that stress, but how do you determine where to work? Is it always a whole-body thing or do you concentrate on one area?
Tom: I always try to work whole body. My understanding of the body is that it is a system of systems and usually where the pain is, isn’t where the pain is from. So, like one of the little stories I like to make up to explain this to people is that there’s a victim and there’s a culprit. The victim often makes a lot of noise, screams out in pain, sometimes even agony and gets a lot of attention in this scenario. And the culprit skulks away. And unless we get the culprit, the situation isn’t going to change. So, a lot of times, somebody will have a pain in the neck, quite literally and it might be their calf, the set of their ankles. It might be the fact that their pelvis is off. It might be that their chest is deactivated and therefore curved and caved in. All of these require different answers for what presents as the same problem.
Melanie: So, now people are adding massage therapy to a physical therapy program. Tell us how you are working with physical therapists and so how this can benefit people. How do they get involved?
Tom: Well, I usually get a referral from the PT and often will consult and then I get some information thusly and I get some information from talking to and working with the individual and you know, I have had some very, very good results with this, especially with some people who have had some long, long term issues and every profession, every modality actually every professional inside every modality has a different history and a different viewpoint on things. So, bringing a team approach to things really has brought some very outstanding results for some of the patients here.
Melanie: So, Tom, people see a physical therapist, they know that this is something medical, they just expect what’s going to happen. But when you hear massage, are people uncomfortable with it? Have you run into where maybe a woman is a little more uncomfortable and if that’s the case, how do you ease their mind and explain that you are a professional and this is what you do?
Tom: I understand Melanie. The body is an interesting thing in our culture. We are unfortunately in a culture that doesn’t touch very much. And therefore, it becomes laden with other things. I really just have an ongoing conversation with whoever I work with. I always let whoever I’m working with know that they are in charge. If I’m doing something and it feels good when I release their soleus, and they want more of that, then we can probably arrange that. If the pressure is too deep and or I’m getting even close to an area they don’t want addressed, that’s fine. One of the things I always let people know is that you are going to be under sheets if it’s a straight up massage. If I’m doing – I’m cross trained in a fair number of other modalities, if we are doing some fascial stretch training, if we are doing some strain counter strain, if we are doing something else to address the situation, then you might not be undressed. But always you will be covered, always you will be in complete and total charge. I just make that clear from the beginning, the middle and the end.
Melanie: What do you want people to do in between times, in between their sessions with you? Do you like them to do stuff at home to do stretching or to do meditation, anything to help keep what you are doing so that it’s working longer than just the time that they are there?
Tom: Oh absolutely. Hydration is very high on that list. And then what I like is the phrase nutritious movement. There’s often a confusion with exercise where people overdo exercises. But especially one of the things I have been running into in the last few months is a lot of people with deactivated muscles which just means that they haven’t been using them like maybe sitting at a desk and hunching forward so long that the chest starts to forget how to rise and be proud, so to speak, go into spinal extension would be the technical jargon. And often I will just ask people to sort of bend forward and almost look down and then to look up a little bit to go into a little bit of spinal extension to go into a little bit of spinal flexion while they are seated at their desk and that type of thing for me is what I ask people to do. A safe range of movement that activates something that’s useful for their individual situation.
Melanie: Brushing aside any thoughts that massage is just only the feel-good way to indulge or it’s pampering ourselves, give us a good take home message about massage therapy and the benefits and where they can find it at Meritus Health.
Tom: Well, I what I would say is that massage is a very broad spectrum. It does include that aspect of things. And that’s not what I’m drawn to. What I’m drawn to is helping people move and live better, easier, with less pain, more enjoyment of movement. I usually refer to myself as a body work type of massage therapist just to try to make that a more clear distinction and also a little bit more structural rather than spa oriented and we are right here in the Robinwood Center at Total Rehab Care and you can definitely reach us here.
Melanie: Thank you so much Tom, it’s really great information. You’re listening to Your Health Matters with Meritus Health. For more information on massage therapy through Total Rehab Care please visit www.meritushealth.com that’s www.meritushealth.com . This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for tuning in.