The fellowship of those who bear the mark of pain: who are the members of this Fellowship?

Those who have learnt by experience what physical pain and bodily anguish mean, belong together all the world over; they are united by a secret bond. 

~Albert Schweitzer

Massage and Pain:  

24 CE. Instructor: Christopher & Xerlan Deery, LMT, BCTMB

One of the most challenging demographics that massage therapists can be successful with is working with pain. There has been research done on the effect of massage therapy as a complementary resource for pain management, and the 2015 Meta-Analyses on Pain and Massage Therapy by the Samueli Institute sponsored by the Massage Therapy Foundation, was a watershed of recognition for our profession. Christopher Deery, LMT, BCTMB was one of the subject matter experts on that project, and he brings forward his experience to this class. Major types of pain discussed are General Pain (Chronic Complex); Oncologic Pain (Complex and/or Intractable); and Post Surgical (Acute Complex). The role of inflammatory pain is also explored. Focusing on the way massage therapists work within the pain environment while staying updated with the current pain science, this class helps us to responsibly explore and resolve pain issues; recognize our limitations and scope of practice; and focuses on being that effective alternative/complement to pharmacology. Highly interactive and hands-on, this course serves as a valuable component of ‘raising the floor’ and helping massage professionals recognize the power within our hands.

Components of this class include:

Pain Management: A Person-Centered Approach (3 CE)

Instructor:Xerlan Deery LMT, BCTMB 

Providing therapeutic massage to individuals who identify (or are identified) as have a pain diagnosis can be challenging.

In this course, we will be exploring the particular ethical challenges to working with people who are in pain, have a chronic pain diagnosis, report experiencing pain constantly, frequently or situationally due to pathologies, injuries, during and after cancer treatment as well as pre and post-surgical.

Massage Therapists are compassionate and individually focused on helping people resolve the issues that brought them to our tables. In our deep desire to help we may fall into a pattern, and resort to ‘protocols’ when dealing with specific issues, or refer to individuals as ‘archetypes’. As we all know – each session with each person is a unique moment – and we need to understand it as such an honor creating a therapeutic relationship that supports the efficacy of our manual treatments.

This class is about adapting to a ‘person-centered approach’ when interacting with individuals. When we consider the word patients we may be thinking of their diagnosis or identify them as their condition. When we consider the word clients we may be talking about a financial commitment. When we talk about humans, individuals as a person-centered approach we want to bring this to the level of addressing their needs, recognizing vulnerability, engaging boundaries, expressing empathy, actively listening, being authentic, having respect for them, staying focused on the session and therapeutic goals and sometimes admitting you may not be the best therapist for them. The flip side to this is making sure that we are very aware of our scope of practice, and as many massage therapists can confirm, we sometimes get ‘too much information’ and have our roles unintentionally challenged by clients wanting us to be more of a psychotherapist than a massage therapist.

Research Informed Manual Therapy Refinement for Chronic Pain (6 CE)

The number one reason people seek out massage therapy is for discomfort related to pain. The effects of pain can be very temporary, but for people with chronic pain, the physical, mental, and emotional frustration can be almost unbearable. With the epidemic of opiate use and abuse running rampant in our modern culture, more and more of our clients are looking to complementary therapies such as massage therapy to address their situation.

In this class, we will examine the history, pathophysiology, and characteristics of behavior that chronic pain exhibits in our clients and potential clients. Basing our understanding in both the objective measures of what chronic pain represents and what the effects of therapeutic massage are, we will put our understanding through a subjective lens, combining our understanding into a more thorough approach to working with a client with chronic pain.

We will discuss and explore methods of working with chronic pain clients, as well as refine our tactile approach to include methods and approaches that we may not have thought of using. This class sources over fifty combined years of experience working with chronic pain and the Massage Therapy Foundation/Samueli Institute’s The Impact of Massage Therapy on Function in Pain Populations—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials: Part I, Patients Experiencing Pain in the General Population  (available here)

Research Informed Manual Therapy Refinement for Surgical Pain (6 CE)

Instructor: Christopher Deery, LMT, BCTMB

This class is a great stand-alone class, or as a follow up to our Pre- and Post-Surgical Massage class. Exploring the topic of surgical pain, this class discusses the unique differences between acute, chronic and surgical pain – not just inflammatory based pain, but aspects throughout the post-surgical and rehabilitative stages. Using the Massage Therapy Foundation/Samueli Institute’s The Impact of Massage Therapy on Function in Pain Populations—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials: Part III, Surgical Pain Populations, (available here) this class will broaden understanding of the unique characteristics of surgical pain and ways to address it.

In this class, we will also discuss the many approaches to addressing post-operative pain, including some of the most popular pharmaceutical treatments and prescriptions, and some of the more utilized complementary therapies available. Hands-on practice, including positioning, bolstering, and body mechanics when working with a surgical client will be covered, so be prepared to work in peer-to-peer pathophysiological challenges in this hands-on class!

This is a hands-on class, so be sure to bring your table, a set of sheets, a bolster or two, or make arrangements so you will be able to work with your peers! It is also highly recommended that you bring something to write on, and with!

Research-Informed Manual Therapy Refinement for Oncologic Pain (6 CE)

Instructor: Christopher Deery, LMT, BCTMB

Providing massage therapy to individuals that are in cancer treatment and are challenged by the effects of their treatments including discomfort and pain is becoming more acceptable and utilized in major hospitals, cancer centers, health care facilities, and massage therapy practices. This class seeks to clarify the issues surrounding the specific challenges of intractable cancer pain, side effects from pharmaceuticals, including chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and joint pain, bone pain due to metastases, medical devices, radiation as well as changes in activity, inactivity, movement, and fatigue. This course was developed with over fifty years of combined experience helping clients with cancer pain in a variety of settings, as well as the Massage Therapy Foundation/ Samueli Institute’s The Impact of Massage Therapy on Function in Pain Populations—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials: Part II, Cancer Pain Populations (available here).

This course is in no way intended to be or replace a foundational oncology massage course, as offered in our Safe Harbor: A Comprehensive Introduction to Oncology Massage(found here) but it is a distinct opportunity to learn more about what makes cancer pain unique, and how to approach providing therapeutic massage for pain management for individuals during and after cancer treatment that is safe, comfortable and effective.  

This class is a hands-on learning environment, so please come expecting a didactic and tactile education experience!  This is a hands-on class, so be sure to bring your table, a set of sheets, a bolster or two, or make arrangements so you will be able to work with your peers! It is also highly recommended that you bring something to write on, and with!

Massage Therapy Research Overview for Pain Management (3 CE)

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarc

This course offering is absolutely not boring or dry – despite the fact that we’ll be investigating research. Contrary to what some may have said, or made you feel, research is not necessarily just for people who like to argue or be right, it’s data. Data that may show or illuminate possibilities for progress, practices, and proficiency. Data can be proven or disproven, but it needs to be researched first. Research is one of the two main ways we grow as a profession and is one of the easiest ways to promote our understanding and efficiency of massage for our practice. In the Massage Therapy Profession and across most of the health care disciplines, one of the most prominent topics is pain – specifically, the crisis surrounding opiates for pain and their use and abuse.
 
Here’s the cool thing – the Massage Therapy Foundation, in collaboration with the Samueli Institute with funding from the AMTA, facilitated the first of its kind Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Massage Therapy on Pain in 2016. This was a huge project that involved subject matter experts from our profession and physicians from the department of defense, and the results have been published in some really prominent journals. It’s open source to read – but that’s the thing – how many of us can really read the research for content, facts, and fun? Sure – we know what it the title is, but do we have the ability to really drill down and ferret the facts out? Can we discern good research from perhaps some that is less than desirable?
 
This course will help the participants be research articulate – that is, it will show us the parts of research papers, case studies, and meta-analyses, and provide the context we may need on our way to research literacy. Being research articulate doesn’t mean that we’re all going to run out and produce volumes of scientific, peer-reviewed case studies, but it will allow us to understand how to sift through research and discover how it can apply to our practices, and conscientiously improve the way we care for our clients and our profession. Research doesn’t have to be only for the college educated or for advanced degreed people – it’s for our profession and needs to be understood – contextually and practically.
 
We will base our exploration in the three meta-analyses on massage and pain, but that won’t limit our journey – it will hopefully inspire us. Yes – we’ll talk about statistics, what ‘statistically relevant’ really is, and what numbers mean when we are discussing data and results, and how they apply to our work on the table. We’ll introduce the models of how researchers and pain professionals try to frame the understanding of pain and look at some of the research that supports and refutes their points. And yes, we’ll also talk about how to begin producing research – resources for you to utilize to potentially start your path in becoming more research articulate.  

Christopher Deery, LMT, BCTMB was a subject matter expert on the 2016 meta-analysis on Massage Therapy and Pain. The links below are for the three abstracts and to your right of the page is an Access to Document link. Click that and see the wonder that may be therapy for insomniacs or nectar for nerds. These will be the main documents that will be utilized for this class. 

There’s no set fee for this class – instead, all we would ask is that you donate what you perceive the value of the class to be directed to the Massage Therapy Foundation. Really – we’ll have envelopes there for you to stuff, seal, and send. It’s the same CE’s – and you get the certificate.

“Come on baby light my fire” –The Doors