About Massage...Continued
Upon asking "John" to try to touch the floor while standing, he can barely reach past his knees. "John's" hamstrings are obviously contracted in almost the shortest position possible from all of that sitting that he has been doing. The large muscles of his hamstrings are pulling down so hard on the pelvis that it is literally being pulled out of position causing the low back muscles to sound the alarm! "Help! We are being yanked out of our normal position! Do something or we'll fix it ourselves by making you so miserable that you will want to do nothing but stretch out on the couch for a week to allow us to get some relief!" "John" has two choices. 1) He can trust that the trained massage therapist that he is coming to see knows what will ultimately help him the most and allow treatment on whatever areas the therapist feels need work or 2) "John" can specifically request work on ONLY his low back, which will obviously miss treating the cause of the problem altogether. Number 1 results in a longer term of relief (and possibly erasure if "John" starts remembering its important for him to stretch his legs every single day.) and number 2 will result in only palliative care.
4.) "The therapist is just a facilitator." - I have heard it said by many different therapists that they are only 20% of the healing process that goes on in their treatment rooms and that the other 80% of healing that goes on lies solely in the credit of the client.