Written by Marissa Orchard
A while ago, I encountered a woman during a chair massage event. I asked her if she had any accidents, injuries, or conditions I should know about and if there was anything she wanted me to work on specifically. She told me that she had been head-butted years ago and her neck is always extra sensitive and because of that, and she wanted me to completely avoid her neck.
As a Massage Therapist who specializes in helping people recover from accidents and injuries, this is like nails on a chalkboard for me!
I know that I can help her, especially because it’s been years since the incident. Her body has had time enough to heal that I can definitely address her needs and help her get back to more how she felt before the accident. But it was a quick 15 minute chair massage, so I didn’t say anything because 15 minutes isn’t enough time to address the issue anyway.
We have ran into this a number of times: people not wanting us to work on certain areas because they’ve been previously injured and they usually have been told that there’s nothing anyone can do for them. They’ve been fed a lie that they have to rely on pain killers and avoidance to cope with their chronic pain.
Here are some reasons why you want us to work on your more sensitive or previously injured areas:
- We always work within your pain tolerance. If you are sensitive, that’s okay! You can tell us to go lighter in that area. We have different techniques that have helped sensitive areas become less sensitive, which aids in the overall health of the muscle.
- We have options. You don’t have to only rely on deep tissue massage in order to recover; that’s why we use many types of massage in our practice. We also use other treatment options like heat treatments or cryotherapy. We have more gentle, superficial treatments to address the first layers of problems. As we gently work through each layer, we can start addressing the root of the problem.
- Injury doesn’t mean the end. We are trained to help you increase your range of motion and decrease pain. Most injuries can be rehabilitated from, at least to a point where it’s not painful for someone to touch you. You do not have to live in pain the rest of your life. You do not have to settle for getting daily headaches. And it’s not because your body has a lack of ibuprofen or other medications.
Depending up on the injury, when it happened, or the type of surgery, we may not be able to help you. Some surgeries prevent joints from moving again, others install so much hardware that we have to take so many precautions that it might But if we can, what’s stopping you from trying us?