Podcast

A client with a complex health situation wants massage to improve their heart rate variability, and they are prepared to track results with a smartwatch and a smart ring.

What does this mean?

Why does HRV matter?

Are there downsides to biometric tracking related to massage?

Full show notes available at https://www.abmp.com/podcasts/ep-283-heart-rate-variability-and-biometric-devices-i-have-client-who-pathology-conversations-ruth

Following a motor vehicle accident, a client has dystonia—a neurological problem with muscle tone. She is using two powerful muscle relaxants: Botox injections and a baclofen intrathecal pump.

Is there anything massage might do to help? Not only is the answer yes, but we even have some data to back it up!

Full show notes available at https://www.abmp.com/podcasts/ep-280-dystonia-i-have-client-who-pathology-conversations-ruth-werner

A new massage therapist has a client who presents some special challenges: she has chronic pain, uses a lot of medications to manage it, wants deep work, and no matter what the MT does, seems to want more. The MT feels out of their depth and at a loss for how to help this client improve.

In this special episode, we talk about those feelings of inadequacy with our clients who seem to be especially demanding, and what we can do to help ourselves stay present and positively engaged.

Do you have advice for this therapist? I’d love to hear it. Contact me at ihaveaclientwho@abmp.com

Full show notes available at https://www.abmp.com/podcasts/ep-278-imposter-syndrome-i-have-client-who-pathology-conversations-ruth-werner

A client is a bodybuilder. He tells his massage therapist that he has started using anabolic steroids to help him achieve his goals. What does this mean? Are there risks for massage—for the client? For the therapist? How much of this is really our business as MTs, and what does it mean in relation to other possible drug use among our clients?

It’s a sticky topic, with few solid answers, so let’s delve into it.

Full show notes available at https://www.abmp.com/podcasts/ep-275-anabolic-steroids-i-have-client-who-pathology-conversations-ruth-werner

A client who is a nurse from the Philippines has a positive tuberculosis test. “It’s latent,” she claims. “Everyone in the Philippines tests positive for TB.” Could this be true? Is she infectious? Is it safe for her to receive massage? Tuberculosis, an infection with a long, deep impact on our history and culture, is not a disease of the past; it is very much all around us. Is this something we should be worried about? Listen on for more.

Full show notes available at https://www.abmp.com/podcasts/ep-273-tuberculosis-i-have-client-who-pathology-conversations-ruth-werner

Til Luchau of Advanced Trainings joined me in real space, and we took advantage of that opportunity to record an I Have a Client Who story regarding a person (Til’s wife, in fact) who has chronic sciatic pain that has never fully resolved, despite receiving the finest manual therapy available.

We discuss what happens when all our best skills don’t get the results we hope for, and what it means to redefine goals for chronic pain conditions to improve levels of function and quality of life.

Full show notes available at https://www.abmp.com/podcasts/ep-270-sciatic-pain-til-luchau-i-have-client-who-pathology-conversations-ruth-werner