CranioSacral and Emotional Release

[kellamnity]

And what are you asking exactly? If I would have allowed myself to be guided by my intuition? Then yes, I would still have and I still do. If I would have continued with the session as an energy work session? Then no, I would have stopped and told her what I was feeling and gotten some feed back as to how she wanted to proceed. That is what I do now.

Akb, thanks for replying. I thought this would be your answer. I think this is a great thread for new massage therapists to read, because it brings up the amazing yet confusing nature of the first experience with strong energy flowing during a client session. How do we respond to the energy when we don't yet have the words to describe what we're feeling, and when we haven't thought in advance how to proceed (in terms of communication with the client)?

The way you type that Blisss makes it sound like she received an emotional release instead of a relaxation massage as if 'emotional release' is something I've got on my menu that I wasn't telling her about and decided to give it to her at the last minute. I firmly believe that emotional releases are the body's response to touch and not something a therapist can 'give' to a client.

I agree with you completely. I'm sorry I wrote it that way. I guess I felt that the energywork (which she wasn't expecting) led to the emotional release, and that it may not have happened during a traditional massage. However, that could be completely untrue. This client could have had an emotional release, no matter what modality you used. (I've certainly had clients have releases on my table during regular massage therapy). However, it's my understanding that they're a little more common during the lighter touch modalities (cranio, reiki, mfr, etc.)

FTR, it didn't sound in the initial post like Anita changed the technical direction of the session - just that some energetics came up in the context of the agreed-upon techniques.

Actually, Akb can clarify, but if you re-read the initial post, she says that her intuition guided her to use cranio-energy techniques completely instead of massage, and she didn't describe these techniques to the client until the session was over, and they were discussing the client's response to the work.

I think there has been some talk on the board somewhere about going in for one thing but getting another. But feel free to use this thread to discuss the ethics of it if you'd like. It's a perfect example.

Thanks akb. The reason I tacked this ethical discussion onto your pre-existing thread, it that it's such a great example. It takes it out of the hypothetical and gives a specific example of how this could happen to any of us (as therapists) and explains maybe why it has happened to us sometimes (as clients.)

EgoMagickian, I think all of your questions are great to get us all thinking in advance of how we would proceed in a similar situation.

 

[Pompal 09.]

Akb can clarify

I am fairly certain that I did not actually do much swedish massage. So BJB-LMP you would have hated it completely!

 

[leons1701]

I am fairly certain that I did not actually do much swedish massage. So BJB-LMP you would have hated it completely!

No, no! Sometimes I read back my posts and just cannot believe how harsh they sound. I have no doubt that you can sense the difference btw a client who wants to go with the flow, and a client like me who needs a high level of verbal information and consent. That's all I really meant - that my own needs have made me err on the side of caution in this area, not that any other MT's approach is actually wrong or unethical.

 

[Jeff H.]

I have no doubt that you can sense the difference btw a client who wants to go with the flow, and a client like me who needs a high level of verbal information and consent.

For the record, AKB is one of my favorite posters on this forum. If we lived closer to each other, I would have booked a session long ago. I felt comfortable asking her these ethical questions because I believe she's someone who can handle on-line debate without taking it personally.

That said, I do think it's unwise when we tell each other intuition overrides client consent. Even the best therapist can be wrong. I think keeping the client in the loop (verbally) is the best way to show them respect, and acknowledge that all bodywork/energywork is a partnership between client & therapist. I'm not saying I think we should be talking throughout their appointment. I'm saying that when we switch modalities to something they aren't expecting, that requires permission (in my opinion).

 

[homer00j]

For the record, AKB is one of my favorite posters on this forum. If we lived closer to each other, I would have booked a session long ago. I felt comfortable asking her these ethical questions because I believe she's someone who can handle on-line debate without taking it personally.

Well I thought about taking it personally for a few mintues, but then I just let it go. It would have taken too much energy to be irritated and put off. I'd much rather be unattached and go my merry way then stay tethered to hurt feeling for this or that.

I am not offended at all if anyone thinks I did the wrong thing in this instance. I have continued to do wrong things in different scenarios but I try to make a learning experience of the 'shame of messing up'. I learn my lessons, I move on.

But it's funny timing that Blisss pulled this out of the MassagePlanet nether regions and started to talk about ethics because I have been feeling strongly about a change in the way that I express the work that I do.

I think deep down I've been taking issue with what the 'Massage Therapist' label says about the work that I should be doing vs. the actual work that I do. To touch people and collect money for 'manipulating' their soft tissue I need to have an MT license. And yet the work that I do, the intention that I have during the session has precious little to do with trigger points or insertion/origin of muscles or the techniques for treating the physical body. It is more like I use massage techniques to manipulate the energies that are stored in the body, that hold the body together in whatever habitual pattern it does, that are stuck or too 'fluid' and I am so very very rarely thinking about muscles.

So before this thread surfaced again I was thinking about how to communicate or describe my style of bodywork to new clients and to my existing clients. My existing clients probably could care less as they already experience what I do. But in attracting new clients, I want to make sure that I am not leading people to believe that I am something that I am not. I was strongly considering just dropping the term Massage Therapist altogether. For sure though I've been letting my mind come up with the wording to describe my work so that I attract the clients most suited for my practice, and in putting it out there to the public I would be more attached and committed to the direction I desire to go with my business and career interests.

So it's slightly off topic considering we're discussing the ethics of switching modalities mid session. But in the broader picture of that, I feel I haven't necessarily been straight up with some of my clients about what I am all about as a 'Massage Therapist.' And I've taken on clients with pain issues that I probably shouldn't have because I'm not that kind of a therapist (a 'mechanic' as I read on a friend's blog recently).

The client in the OP is a prime example of a client I should have referred out immediately simply because that is not my area of interest when it comes to working with the physical body. I am not interested in being a muscle mechanic, but praise for those who are because there are clients who are not interested in discovering the energies stored in their bodies....they just want someone to mash the begeeezusss out of their trigger points and make their bodies work better.

Experiences since the original post have brought me to a place where I am ready to step out of the MT box and describe the work that I do with clarity and confidence to potential clients. That way everyone is getting the experience they signed up for.

Thanks Blisss for opening this old thread, the discussion has made some things apparent to me.

I think keeping the client in the loop (verbally) is the best way to show them respect, and acknowledge that all bodywork/energywork is a partnership between client & therapist. ....I'm saying that when we switch modalities to something they aren't expecting, that requires permission (in my opinion).

I completely agree.