Til Luchau: Welcome to The Thinking Practitioner. Hello, Til Luchau here. When I was looking for a publisher for a book that I wanted to write, I was lucky enough to have had two offers. One from a large international media conglomerate, and the other from Handspring Publishing, a small publisher in Scotland run by […]
Archive | Massage Education
The Thinking Practitioner Episode 28: Advanced Credentialing and Massage as Healthcare
Here is the transcript for our recent Thinking Practitioner Podcast, Episode 28 on Advanced Credentialing with Cal Cates. You can hear the episode by clicking here. Whitney Lowe: Hello, this is Whitney Lowe and welcome to the Thinking Practitioner Podcast and we’d like to thank Books of Discovery for sponsoring our podcast today. Books of […]
The Thinking Practitioner Episode 18: Ann Blair Kennedy and Kemi Balogun: Project COPE
Whitney Lowe: Welcome to The Thinking Practitioner podcast. Til Luchau: A podcast where we dig into the fascinating issues, conditions, and quandaries in the massage and manual therapy world today. Whitney Lowe: I’m Whitney Lowe. Til Luchau: And I’m Til Luchau. Welcome to The Thinking Practitioner. Whitney Lowe: Welcome to The Thinking Practitioner. Til Luchau: […]
The Thinking Practitioner Episode 17: Who Charts Our Path?
Whitney Lowe: Welcome to The Thinking Practitioner Podcast. Til Luchau: A podcast where we dig into the fascinating issues, conditions, and quandaries in the massage and manual therapy world today. Whitney Lowe: I’m Whitney Lowe. Til Luchau: And I’m Til Luchau. Welcome to The Thinking Practitioner. Whitney Lowe: Welcome to The Thinking Practitioner. Til Luchau: […]

The Long and Winding Nerve
Introduction Do you ever recall sitting in a classroom in school and thinking that one or two students were getting the lion’s share of attention when others had things to contribute as well? It seems the world of soft-tissue pain and injury problems shares this metaphor. Take nerve entrapment for example. As soon as you […]

Exploring Synovial Plica of the Knee
Massage is great for many soft-tissue pathologies. However, sometimes various conditions exist that seem like a common pathology, but then don’t respond to the treatment. In some cases an undiscovered problem may exist. In this post we’ll take a look at the synovial plica, a cause of knee pain that can easily mimic other common […]
The Role of Continuing Education for Massage Therapists
Overview Unlike other healthcare fields, such as physical therapy or occupational therapy, massage therapy is actually two primary “tracks.” The first track is geared towards the use of massage as a personal care service, with a focus of general relaxation and wellness enhancement. While massage performed for personal care can enhance health, the focus of […]

Certificate vs. Certification: Credentialing Terminology Matters
There is a great deal of confusion in our profession (as well as many others) about the terms certificate and certification. We have an abundance of marketing and promotional materials in our field which advertise for “certification” in particular modalities or technique methods. However, this illustrates a common misunderstanding about the distinction between a certificate […]
Central Sensitization and the Benefits of Massage
About a year ago Melissa was involved in a car accident where she sustained a moderate whiplash injury. She had pretty serious pain in her neck for several weeks, but then it subsided. Recently she’s been having a very similar pain sensation, although she has not had any recent injury that would appear to aggravate […]
Confronting the Challenges of a Major Paradigm Shift
I’m not sure when it really happened. I guess these things don’t often happen with a sudden event, but with a gradual period of change when you look around and notice that things look different than they used to. For me I think it began several years ago when I started running across some articles […]