What a Pain in the Sacrum

Have you ever gotten a massage?  And I don't mean a quick back rub from your significant other, I mean full on nude beneath sheets, getting up and feeling like you just had the best orgasm of your life kind of massage.  No?  Then you, my friend, do not know what you have been missing.  Oh, and you don't have to be nude to get an amazing massage.  There are over 250 different variations of massage, bodywork, and somatic therapy.  At some point I'll describe the ones I know... which is nowhere near 250.

Anyone who has gone to a spa can tell you one of two things.  1. The massage was great or 2. The massage was horrible.  Like any other profession, therapists do have levels of ability, professionalism, and knowledge.  As a client, all three will affect you.  A therapist can get away with not being the most professional (although they probably won't be very successful).  A therapist could have some amazing natural ability.  But without the knowledge to back that up... then you have a problem on your hands.  Especially if you are the client.

I had the grand experience today of being the client to a student who quite obviously did not have the knowledge to back up his ability.  I use the word "client" loosely... more like "test dummy".  We are currently learning myofascial massage, which involves the stretching of your fascia.  Fascia is the connective tissue that holds everything inside of you in it's shape.  Stretching the fascia gives almost instant relief because it loosens your muscles.  Anyway, myofascial massage pretty much is just putting a little bit of pressure on the muscles and slowly waiting for it to release/stretch.

Notice what I said the pressure goes on.  The muscles.  The soft part of the body.  The part that can actually stretch.  My therapist, either thru lack of memory of the landmarks, or just not understanding the instructions, made the unfortunate mistake of pushing directly on my sacrum (that bony part at the top of your butt cheeks).  Many times.  With his elbow.  With way too much pressure.  I walked away with bruises.

Did I say anything during the massage?  You bet my bruised back I did.  Did he change what he was doing?  Nope.  And that, my friend, is what differentiates between a good therapist and a bad therapist.  I don't mean that because the pressure was too much he was bad... often times it will take a bit of time for the therapist to figure out what pressure is appropriate to the client.  It was because I pointed out what hurt multiple times and it was ignored every single time.  If I was a client in the real world, I would in all likelihood have asked for my money back and would never return.  A good therapist, and usually a great massage, can be judged by how well the therapist listens and, ultimately, how much they care.

Because that is really the reason behind being a therapist.  You have to care about the client.  You have to want to help them.  And I look forward to the day when a client enters my room in great pain and exits without.  Oh yes, I look forward to that day because I will know then that I have improved someone else's life in a way that they couldn't.

Next time: a bit on clients and a return to fun facts!