Bodyology Massage School Blog

This blog is based on www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect

During the last 30 years big money pharmaceutical companies sales has dropped due to their difficulties proving in ‘double blind’ researches that their medications are better than a sham, look-alike pills or placebo pills. Its not that their medication were less effective but purely the placebo effect got stronger. Why?
Volunteers in those researches show an increase improvement to the ‘placebo response’ or the ineffective treatment.
Some products, like Prozac that tested to be very effective would not be release into the market as today research would conclude to be ineffective.

The placebo effect was recognized by the medical profession only after the World War II. Henry Beecher, a US troop surgeon and his staff gave sham morphine injections to injured soldiers to relieve the soldier’s pain. Later on the American Medical Association decided that every new drug would need to ‘compete’ against a sham, placebo pill to find out if its more effective.
That started an era of looking at the placebo effect from the wrong angle, placebo was a problem, not an opportunity to improve health for the medics.

Drugs companies started to analyze their data to find out that their success in treating symptoms of many illnesses, together with their insistent marketing strategy is to blame in the increased placebo effect. Most of us believe in what the drugs company tells us without any doubt. For that reason we believe in anything that looks like a real medication, without having any therapeutic effect.

How to understand the placebo effect and use it the best in massage therapy?
On the turning of the 21st century, professionals started to understand that health, disease and treatments is part of our life and our culture. We, member of the modern society use our previous experience to anticipate what would work for us and what’s not.

Placebo now is viewed as the inherent ability of the brain to improve our health, just by anticipating that something sounds/looks/feels right. Certain Alzheimer patients, where the part of the brain that deals with future anticipation degenerate can not experience any placebo effect!

We, massage therapists, can learn how to use placebo to our favour. A lot of the placebo effect is due to what called in medicine ‘bedside manners’. For example, if a doctor would not look like a doctor, the medication he/she would give would be less effective. Proven by the drug companies.

We, massage therapists, can help our clients to improve a lot by improve our image and our status. And for that we need to work harder.
Thanks for listening.

(in response to this blog entry)

Very good research as it has a sham treatment and compares it to other treatment. I am surprised as acupuncture did not come as high as massage but it all depends on the therapists who took part in the research.
I agree with the author about the point he made on different school gives different theory and technique. Sometimes I am baffled to how many different style of therapy are offered. One the other side I am not that surprised as each one of us react differently to therapy. Take for example medications. Each medication has so many sides’ effects that may be present only to few patient. You may ask why not to all? Aren’t we ‘work’ the same way? The answer is definitely not! One of the therapist’s needed talent is to find which therapy works for which patient, how to talk to the client, explain about the treatment and other things wrongly put under the placebo effect.
I am running a massage school in London name Bodyology www.bodyology.org.uk I prefer to teach my student differently. Instead of teaching them what to do in each case, I teach them few ‘tools’ they can use. During the course we practice on which technique would fit best to which client. Easy to say, hard to teach but there is no other way. I would love to hear some responses on info@bodyology.org.uk Dror Steiner, Osteopath, acupuncture, massage therapist.

After 12 years of practicing massage, osteopathy and acupuncture, treating hundreds of clients a month, giving health-related lectures and teaching massage therapy I offer my view on how to become a successful therapist.
First, by successful massage therapists I mean having a busy massage practice.
To have a busy practice one would need to develop three themes, equally important and cannot stand alone:
• Ability to give a good treatment
• Therapeutic relationship that inspire your clients
• Promote their business to many potential clients

In Bodyology we abbreviates it as The ATP.
Want to know more? Click here

I have read today on a professional osteopathic magazine the following reseearch. They calculated how often osteopaths use certain technique such as massage, joint mobilization, joint adjustment, MET and more.
It appears that the most common treatment techinque is…massage. In 75% of treatment osteopaths give massage to their clients. It makes me feel proud being both massage therapist and osteopath. But also to realize that osteopaths know much better HOW to use each technique. And this is one thing I would like to teach other massage therapists.
Have a good day.

Mr M. came to visit me after he heard my lecture in St John’s Wood library.
He suffers from a life-long headache so severe not any pain killer have helped him. I have treated him for 5 sessions, each one improve his condition a bit more. There is still a long way to go with the treatment, but both me and Mr M. established that the treatment deffinately help! For Mr M. masssage did help. Would it help to other headache sufferes? Most likely not to all, BUT it’s worth a try as headache stemed from neck and should wrong posture is very common. I feel this treatment symbolize how elegant massage treatment can be and the help it can offer to so many sufferers. Would it helps all? No, but its the same for all medication- it helps some patient and hurts others. Have a good day.

Although easier to run massage courses which separate the theory studies from the massage practice, we in Bodyology chose more interesting way teaching massage. We realize that theory and practice should come together. The theory gives students the background, the concept from which you can understand how to develop your practice. But theory without practice is like learning a new language’s grammar without the vocabulary. In many ways massage training is a new language. It is best to practice massage while the theory is still fresh in your mind, it easy to make meaningful connection to the theory you have learnt before lunch, rather than 2 months ago. For example, learning the skeletal system in the morning students will be doing palpation bony landmarks and using body paints to identify those bones. Our motto is “if you read, write, talk, palpate and massage it then you will know it”. The days of ‘dogmatic’ studying are over.

What amazes me is how in different countries a certain profession can be valued completely differently. Massage, for example.
I was lucky to study massage in The Swedish Institute, New York City. It is one of the best places to study massage as courses are long and serious. Actually, everybody is taking massage as a serious profession in New York. The course took 12 months and we met for 4 hours every day. I was so high learning every day human anatomy, massage, therapeutic relationship with clients. Only later when I graduated from The Swedish Institute and went to learn at the British College of Osteopathic Medicine in London I understood what a fantastic job teachers at The Swedish Institute did. The experience was professional and connected art and science together. I was so emotionally involved in classes that I remember very well my fellow students, teachers and my clinic clients. I remember Mrs A coming from Long Island every month, suffering pain from lumbar stenosis and reported that the treatment works. I felt so proud, so happy to help, do make the different for her for that month. I remember Steven, another student, who came with the almighty sentence ‘the effleurage (a type of massage stroke) have changed my life’. And it did change my life. To give an effleurage was almost like to meditate or pray, and I still love it. And then graduating. Working in private practice, seeing clients, feel the respect they give you and helping them distress and improving their health.
I wish the situation in the U.K. would be the same. Massage have to become much more recognized and respected as it can offer so much more than most people think. That’s why I have started Bodyology. Besides the fact that I love teaching massage…Have a good day and remember- one day ‘this effleurage will change your life’.

I participate in a workshop given by Celia Johnson, 20 years massage therapist in the Business department of the British Library. The subject was how to be a successful therapist. I was a bit surprised that the room was full of massage therapists, many of which just graduated lately.
It appears that most of the therapists in the room had the same problem in becoming a successful therapist: a lack in knowledge and confident in marketing skills.
It was so interesting how the same problem comes over and over again from many directions- most students are fine with giving massage, but they don’t know how to find clients. I feel that in Bodyology we need to do even more to make our graduates ready for the challenge. I have some new ideas that will put right into work at the next massage diploma course.
I liked few things that Celia said about be a successful therapist. The first one is that success is a decision, not a state of your business. The second one is that for a professional success you have to be completely professional. If you want your clients to take your therapy seriously, you have to be the first one to do so.

In a nutshell the idea behind the swap shop is to have massage therapists meet, give each other a treatment, giving each other feedback and recieving some ‘fine tuning’ from a highly skilled tutor. Its not a course as you are not learning a new technique but you will gain valuable experience.

For more information about the swap shop emial info@bodyology.org.uk or look at www.bodyology.org.uk

These notes are dedicated to my students and clients, who taught me to treat and teach better.