Massage Clinic Experience Paper

Massage Clinic
Situation:
On the 12 October 2017, I attended a placement at JCU massage clinic. My partner for the day was Samantha Duggan.
Task:
The purpose of the placement was to become comfortable with clients, develop communication skills and expand on massage techniques learnt in semester one. The client I have chosen to reflect on is a male in his early twenties who self-referred to the massage clinic with complaints of tightness in his thoracic region, shoulders, and some pain during breathing.
Action:
The client was greeted in the waiting area and I began the subjective assessment during the walk to the massage room. I sat the client down, confirmed his full name, date of birth and then resumed the subjective assessment. The client marked out on the assessment sheet the region of discomfort, I obtained a VAS score from him and preliminary checks were conducted using THREADS & CODFISH. I explained to him what I was
going to do during the massage and why. Furthermore, I explained to him I would require him to remove shirt and lay face down on the bed before gaining informed consent from him.
I left the client to change and make himself comfortable while I spoke to Jade the Physiotherapy Supervisor at the clinic.
I described to Jade the client’s symptoms, VAS score and what techniques I was going to use and why as detailed below.
Flat hand stroking was conducted to warm up the skin and allow the client to become comfortable with my touch it also gave me the opportunity to feel for any areas of tension or warmth. The client had a knot between the scapular and vertebral column on the right and some tension over the left scapular. Kneading was conducted along the muscle fibres to improve tissue mobility and remove any chemical toxins from the tissue.
Trigger point technique was used for the knot found on the client’s right shoulder. I had the client place his right hand on the small of his back to open up the area and make the knot more accessible. I explained to him to take a deep breath and breathe out slowly and explained to him as he breathes out I would apply pressure to the area for 30-60 seconds to reduce the muscle
tension.
Towards the end of the massage myofascial release was applied to reduce muscle tightness by increasing muscle extensibility and rupture any cross bridges that may have formed post training. Effleurage was used to help remove any toxins released from the muscle tissue in a distal to proximal direction towards the lymphatic system.
Results:
Once the massage was completed I checked with the client to evaluate how his shoulders and upper back were feeling in comparison to how he had felt prior to the massage. He told me, he felt a lot better and he did not have any pain. I advised him to do shoulder stretches and try using a tennis ball in areas of tension or where the pain refers to when he breathes.
Learning:
The skill I would like to improve on is subjective questioning as Jade did mentioned the purpose of the activity was to practice massage techniques and liaison with clients’. The goal was to achieve more flow during the subjective assessment and become less direct with questioning as the straightforwardness of how questions are conducted can be overwhelming for some clients. I tried to be less direct when asking THREADS and CODFISH and found it quite challenging trying to explain draping, pain warning and covering the informed consent questions.