Self-paced Online Home Study Evidence-Based Medical Massage

Course overview

Clinical practitioners, including licensed massage therapists, should always practice with an evidence-based approach. Evidence-based work can validate a practitioner's treatment as therapeutic and effective. In this 5 CE hour class, we will review dozens of massage-related published medical research studies. This includes reviewing research differences between case studies, clinical trials and systematic reviews. We will simultaneously use this research to teach similar hands-on skills and bodywork approaches that are used in the research studies. By the end of class, practitioners should find that the reviewed research and simultaneous hands-on practice has improved, validated and/or corrected hands-on skills. The medical research and hands-on skills that will be reviewed in this evidence based training includes: How to look up various massage and bodywork research and studies What to expect to find when looking up massage and bodywork related research studies Various instructor demonstrations of medical massage therapy applications from research, including: Massage sequence for chronic tension headaches Treatment for Non-Specific Low Back Pain Myofascial release for low back pain Ice Massage for Knee Osteoarthritis Aromatherapy patch test Aromatherapy abdominal massage to relieve constipation Passive head and neck chair massage Lower extremity and foot massage Seated Hand & Arm Massage for all Healthy/Normal Populations Myofascial Decompression (Cupping) on Hamstring Length Back Massage for Geriatrics Sports Massage, Vascular Issues, etc. A review of different types of research, including case studies, comparative research, clinical trials, reviews, single blind and double blind research studies, plus the difference between high and low quality research studies This is an extremely fast-paced course to review as much research, medical conditions and practice as possible. Some of the hands-on skills reviewed in these research studies will require further hands-on training beyond the time we have to teach in this evidence based course. The same applies to all of the massage and bodywork modalities reviewed in this course. We will simply review research of various massage therapy and bodywork practices, then therapists should seek additional training in any subject or field where they would like to practice more, if they do not already have that training (i.e. MLD, aromatherapy, reflexology, myofascial release, hot stone, etc.). This course is designed to provide massage therapists innumerous amounts of research to both validate and improve their work.