A word on body image...you shouldn't be self-conscious here
How you feel about your body will have a large impact on how your body feels.
Read that again.
As Licensed Massage Therapists, we see and touch a lot of bodies, a task I personally see as a high honor. That someone would trust me enough to work with their most sacred possession requires that I hold their trust with high regard.
During sessions, clients often speak in a negative manner about their bodies thus giving clues about what their feelings are about their body image. One beautiful side effect of professional Massage Therapy is that through positive, therapeutic body work, clients often come to appreciate their bodies as they are.
Negativity presents itself in several forms. At times its due strictly to cultural standards of beauty or aging. Other times clients will express frustration with their bodies due to disease processes or the tole a lifetime of injuries. While both are valid experiences for anyone to have, we find it an important part of healing to coach our clients to think realistically and with gratitude about their bodies.
Take it from someone who sees a lot of humans. We are all different. Difference in skin colors, scars, tissue makeup, body compositions, tattoos, age spots, and everything else you can imagine. We do share one thing. The body each one of us is in, is our sacred vessel carrying us through our experience in this world. It is the most complex piece of machinery any of us will ever own. Unlikely we will ever understand all the secrets and mystery of the human body. That makes it positively magical.
We love to remind our clients how amazing their body is, regardless of disease, age, body composition or injuries. Our favorite example: If you took your phone, or your car and broke critical components, those things would stop to function. This is exactly what happens to our bodies, and yet it still functions. The difference between our bodies and our phones is that our bodies continue to adapt and work until it runs out of adaptations. That is amazing.
Specific to injuries and disease processes. The mental tole of sickness is real. Having limitations presents with frustration that all too often leads down the path of depression and/or anxiety and the host of quality of life issues associated with it. This often leads to clients having a negative view on how their body is "failing" them. As we begin to work with clients through Medical
Massage Therapy our goal is to help our clients understand more about the injury/disease and adaptation process so that they become more empowered to work with their body.
Client outcome is always our number 1 goal as Licensed Massage Therapists who focus on Medical Massage. Understanding all the various aspects of the human experience helps us to educate our clients to be able to reach their best quality of life.