Massage Therapy Journal Fall 2025

Fall 2025 • 37

In addition, every word conjures an experience and a specific context: • Who touched? • Where? • How long?

of a man might be associated with feelings of distrust, confusion, dread or fear. Were this person to become a massage therapy client, they might need time to adjust to the reality of a pleasant and nonthreatening back massage. As a result of disturbing touch associations from the past, they might be suspicious of a male therapist’s intentions or reminded of childhood abuse. Massage therapists are generally well-prepared when clients describe low back pain or headache complaints. When it comes to interpersonal or emotional disclosures, however, the profession’s training lags somewhat. Student massage therapists describe feeling nervous and uncomfortable when faced with client tears or frustrations because they are

• How did it feel? • Was it pleasant?

• Was it uncomfortable? • What happened before? • What happened afterward?

By the time one reaches adulthood, most touch sensations have created a context for understanding other touch. Unlike visual or auditory senses, to interpret a sensation accurately, the context and personal history of touch becomes as important and meaningful as the touch itself. 10,11,12,13 “By touching a body, we touch every event it has experienced. For a few brief moments we hold all of a client’s stories in our hands. We witness someone’s experience of their own flesh, through some of the most powerful means possible: the contact of our hands, the acceptance of the body without judgment and the occasional listening ear. With these gestures we reach across the isolation of the human experience and hold another person’s legend. In massage therapy, we show up and ask, in so many ways, what is it like to be another human being. In doing so, we build a bridge that may heal us both.” 14 You might think of touch this way to gain clarity: Consider the intimate experience of a child held, patted, stroked and soothed by their father whenever they were frightened as a child. The experience helps the child create a context for what feels safe and secure. As a result of early positive touch experience with their father, the child would likely maintain strong, positive touch associations with men once in adulthood. If their partner stroked their back when they felt unhappy, sad or fearful, the partner’s nurturing could remind the adult of their father’s care and help them to self-soothe. If, however, the light touch of a man reminded them of an uncle’s secret expectation for sexual intercourse when young, the touch

For clients to feel wholly safe and accepted, they may need to express their feelings in a given moment, and so massage therapists must have the knowledge and experience to respond appropriately, compassionately and safely.

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