When will this get better? When will my pain be gone? When can I do what I want to do – when I want to?
Tough questions for us massage therapists to handle. Truth, we don’t usually know. Massage does marvelous things for the mind, body and soul – but what it does is often entirely up to the person receiving the massage – and the intent and skill of the person giving the massage.
The timeline? That may be set by many other things – perhaps even a higher authority.
When clients drop these questions on me I look them right in the eye and tell them all I can do is try to help them feel better. As pain drops, function returns. One can’t predict the time involved in healing.
It’s not a very satisfactory answer for some clients impatient to going back to doing the exact thing that brought them in feeling wounded. With as soft a tread as possible, as we develop a therapeutic relationship, I have a few ways to explain further. These come in handy with sticky troubles such as fibromyalgia or other conditions that vary day by day.
Answer # 1: You will turn the corner, but you may not realize it. Often you realize it afterward. You will discover that some pain or restriction has been gone for a while.
The body really heals itself in its own time. All we can do is try to make it easier to get there.
Is that fair to clients? I think so. I have rarely ever seen someone making no progress from massage. But I have often observed one factor in common with the impatient client: A chronic problem has often been ignored for so long it takes time to create an awareness of how to heal and avoid re-injury.
