Massage Therapy Journal Fall 2025

The principal challenge for massage therapists in working with security personnel lies in educating the soldiers about empowerment: to appreciate the safety inherent in massage, choose what parts of their body they may want massaged, negotiate a stop signal, and remind soldiers that massage therapy need not be painful in order to be effective. Such lessons oftentimes fly in the face of military training. Additionally, a soldier who receives massage therapy may bring their endurance training and stoicism into a massage session, expecting the massage to be deep, painful and uncomfortable because of their training. The risk here is that instead of speaking up or asking for something about the massage to change, the client will choose to endure. Remember, soldiers and police officers are often conditioned to carry out the orders of their superiors and may view the massage therapist as an authority figure who they need to simply follow “orders” from rather than seeking the treatment that suits them best. Clinical Pearls of Wisdom: Helping Clients Understand Pain Pain scales are universal. Asking a client to identify their pain on a scale of 1–10 is an easy way to seek evidence about a client’s condition. Pain scales are relative. How people perceive and interact with pain in their lives depends on their life experience. Pain scales are personal. We can never interpret pain scales objectively. They depend on an individual’s attitudes toward pain, complaint and weakness. Interviewing A Client With A History of Trauma: A Sample Conversation When clients attend an appointment as a result of a referral—but they appear uncomfortable and uneasy—it is essential to ask questions plainly so that there is no

TAKE A DEEPER DIVE Want to know more about how massage therapists can work effectively with veterans? Explore AMTA's course “Military Veterans and Massage Therapy”, available at amtamassage.org/learn or by scanning the QR code above.

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