W - What’s it all about?
Are you feeling fragile? We are here to help you.
This fantastic illustration by Pascal Bernardon @pbernardon tells me - ‘What it’s all about’ . It is how we are all feeling at the moment . Vulnerable, Unsure & a little low perhaps? How can we help each other to regain our equilibrium and move forward?
Answer - By being kind, supportive and helpful!
At SPS we have been providing education, support and guidance for nearly 30 years. It is not new to us and we continue to provide information, programmes of study and an ‘ear’ to those who need us.
Personally my 40 + years of experience in health, fitness & wellbeing does not make me a dinosaur who should be extinct, but a wealth of understanding and knowledge. It is very easy to dismiss people who appear to have ‘always been there’ as out of date and out of touch. Nothing could be further from the truth! We (the older therapist/practitioner) have a fantastic balanced and ‘common sense’ approach to a multitude of problems and issues. Why not use this knowledge to help, guide and support you when you feel vulnerable and unsure?
Why am I writing this now? I am writing this as ‘hands-on’ therapy is subtly being pushed aside in favour of exercise prescription at a distance, advice via telecom and virtual study. It should not be one or the other but a ‘blend’ of both. Society as a whole has never felt more like being ‘touched’ than it does now. The ability to hug a loved one, comfort an elderly or confused friend and just give a soothing stroke to someones tired aching muscles has never been more wanted. Now is not the time to ‘throw the baby away with the bathwater’!
Society as a whole will regret in the longterm the demise of massage & soft tissue therapies. It will be forced to reinvent the wheel as the ‘dinosaur’ will be extinct by the time the loss of these modalities is felt. I have heard all the ‘research’ based arguments and fully support the need to understand the outcomes of specific interventions. However, I know the outcome of practice based evidence when patients, clients and athletes alike voice their relief, gratitude and thanks. When their pain, problems and injuries are managed with soft tissue therapy alongside exercise and advice they return to their work, sport and activities. We do not have to ‘wait’ for the evidence, we only have to explain that we don’t know why certain interventions work. If our clients understand this when consenting to your proposed massage or soft tissue strategy then no-one is misled. Honesty is the best policy……..
When we present our proposed strategy to a client it must always involve ‘risks and alternatives’ . If a therapist provides exercise prescription then surely an alternative and or adjunct to that exercise can be soft tissue therapy. This is even if the exercise therapist is a purported supporter of ‘evidence based practice’! Whether soft tissue therapy is explained by neuroscience or placebo it has an effect. Lets use it not loose it!
If you need any further help, support or guidance then contact us to arrange a One to One or attend a course in advanced soft tissue skills, assessment or agree a bespoke education programme to meet your needs as we return to studies, education & training.