The Rub: a podcast about massage therapy

Substack: Massage Therapy Has a Labor Problem

Send us a textRead this article hereThe Work We Do But Won’t NameScholars who study labor have a term for work that involves “particularized knowledge and sustained personal attention.” They call it intimate labor. According to scholar Viviana Zelizer’s framework, this work includes things like shared secrets, bodily information, awareness of personal vulnerability, interpersonal rituals, and private languages.Read that list again. Now think about what happens in a massage therapy session.We know our clients’ bodies in ways that even their partners may not. We hold their secrets about pain, about stress, about the divorce they haven’t told anyone about yet. We know things about our clients we don’t even realize we know, the way a janitor knows what a household discards, learning private details from what people throw away.Support the showSubscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands" Send us an email: podcast@healwell.orgLeave us a voice message: 703-468-1799 Check out our interview-style podcast: InterdisciplinaryYou can support Healwell and the cool things we make by donating here!Ways join in: Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Check out Healwell’s live and online classes Continue the conversation with a free 3-day trial of the Healwell Community Find a copy of Rebecca Sturgeon's book: "Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care" Thank you to ABMP and AMTA for sponsoring us!Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org

Substack: Why Don't We Just...?

Send us a textRead this article hereThe massage therapy profession has problems. We have so many problems, those problems have bred and now have enough problematic offspring to hold a problematic family reunion.You’re probably reading our Substack because you see these problems and you want to know how to fix them. You’ve probably thought of some plans yourself. How many times have we all had conversations that start with “Well, why don’t we just [insert solution]? That would solve it!”The next time you start to have this conversation, stop right there and really look at that question.Why don’t we just [insert solution]?The answer is that what you’re asking for is really hard. If it was easy, it would have been accomplished already.Support the showSubscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands" Send us an email: podcast@healwell.orgLeave us a voice message: 703-468-1799 Check out our interview-style podcast: InterdisciplinaryYou can support Healwell and the cool things we make by donating here!Ways join in: Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Check out Healwell’s live and online classes Continue the conversation with a free 3-day trial of the Healwell Community Find a copy of Rebecca Sturgeon's book: "Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care" Thank you to ABMP and AMTA for sponsoring us!Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org

Substack: Broadcasting Safety

Send us a textRead this article here“Everyone who is engaging with humans—as a teacher, a psychotherapist, as a bodyworker—should be aware of the state of the other,” Porges explained. It’s not dismissive to say this. It’s foundational. Take a moment to consider how often you truly do this in your work. I’m not talking about structural or postural assessment, at least not in the way that many manual therapists typically do. I’m talking about sensing and feeling the level of autonomic reactivity your client [and you!] experience.When you become polyvagal-informed, you’re evaluating your client’s autonomic state through observation: their muscle tone, their breathing patterns, the quality of their voice, how they hold themselves in space. You’re noticing who’s tightly wrapped and who’s more accessible, and these cues are often quite subtle. Support the showSubscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands" Send us an email: podcast@healwell.orgLeave us a voice message: 703-468-1799 Check out our interview-style podcast: InterdisciplinaryYou can support Healwell and the cool things we make by donating here!Ways join in: Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Check out Healwell’s live and online classes Continue the conversation with a free 3-day trial of the Healwell Community Find a copy of Rebecca Sturgeon's book: "Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care" Thank you to ABMP and AMTA for sponsoring us!Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org

Substack: It's Not Magic, It's Emotional Labor

Send us a textRead this article hereEmotional labor is work that involves managing your and other people’s emotions. Emotion management (also known as emotion work) is how you actively shape and direct your feelings. Emotion management happens internally and is a private activity. It becomes emotional labor when that private activity becomes public work.This distinction matters. Support the showSubscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands" Send us an email: podcast@healwell.orgLeave us a voice message: 703-468-1799 Check out our interview-style podcast: InterdisciplinaryYou can support Healwell and the cool things we make by donating here!Ways join in: Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Check out Healwell’s live and online classes Continue the conversation with a free 3-day trial of the Healwell Community Find a copy of Rebecca Sturgeon's book: "Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care" Thank you to ABMP and AMTA for sponsoring us!Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org

Substack: Research Networks- Not Just for People Who Wear Lab Coats

Send us a textRead this article hereWelcome to Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRNs); a simple idea with big potential!The Massage Therapy Foundation is building MassageNet, the largest (and only) international PBRN dedicated specifically to therapeutic massage.And they’re building it for you.Support the showSubscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands" Send us an email: podcast@healwell.orgLeave us a voice message: 703-468-1799 Check out our interview-style podcast: InterdisciplinaryYou can support Healwell and the cool things we make by donating here!Ways join in: Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Check out Healwell’s live and online classes Continue the conversation with a free 3-day trial of the Healwell Community Find a copy of Rebecca Sturgeon's book: "Oncology Massage: An Integrative Approach to Cancer Care" Thank you to ABMP and AMTA for sponsoring us!Healwell is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org