Help needed from massage practioners

[skoolgirlqt03]

Hi, I have just started out as a newly qualified massage practitioner in a busy clinic and I have been coming across all different kinds of problems with my clients.
One of my clients is experiencing lower back pain and has been for quite a a number of years. He has little lumps of cartilage (according to his gp) on the top of his pelvis. I would have been happy to do some friction over this area if it were knots of muscle. However I didn't know whether to do friction on loose cartilage. In the end I missed out the friction as I didn't know whether it would be safe to do this and so I just did effleurage strokes on his lower back.

Any advise will be much appreciated.

Lisa

 

[Liza Arzuolaitis]

Hi,

Congratulations on your new job, I'm sure your keen to make a good impression, and you don't want to risk "damaging" clients. If this client is suffering from a chronic condition, it may be referred pain. If you want to avoid the cartilaginous areas, concentration on trigger points in the gluteus medius. One minute sustained pressure, about 7/10th on the pain scale. three times during the treatment.

The client may also want to invest in a tennis ball, to place between himself and a wall. It is quite easy then to apply pressure themselves until their next treatment.

Good luck.

Interested to hear others comments.

p.s. Try and get a full picture of when the problem first occurred, whether it is purely a physical problem, or a physical manifestation of a trauma.

Look at the client when they are standing, does he stand erect, are his shoulders, and hips square, do his knees meet in the middle, do the feet point inward or outward, is his pelvis tilted forward, or backwards.

These are all good indicators of what muscles are being used, and where the problem may lie.

 

[fjezguwaiwniwdejo]

Hi
Thank you for your replies. My client suffered with sciatica a number of years ago. He said that it cleared up by itself but since then he has had a weakness in his lower back. It doesn't help by the fact that he sits down at a computer everyday. He works from home so I suggested that he takes breaks from sitting down and do some simple stretching exercises for his lower back.


Lisa

 

[tfmnlntj]

Excellent,

Once you have gleaned the information from the client, you can start to do research on what symptons conditions produce, and what treatment you can use to assist them.

TC