Therapeutic massage

About the course

You already know how to give a massage. Now it is time to learn to understand better what you feel under your hands, why you choose one technique or another and what result you want to achieve.

Swedish massage gave you a good foundation in working with the tissues. On the relaxing massage course you learned to work with the nervous system, on the lymphatic drainage course — to understand the movement of fluid and the workings of the lymphatic system. You know the main massage techniques, anatomy, and can already deliver a full session.

But in practice a moment quite quickly arrives when this is no longer enough.

A client comes in and says:
"My lower back is always tight."
"My shoulder hurts, especially when I raise my arm."
"After work my hands go numb and tired."
"It's tense right here all the time. Massage helps, but then it all comes back."

You can massage a painful or tense area well. But if you want to grow as a specialist, other questions arise.

Why does it hurt right here? What am I feeling under my hands? Which structures may be involved? Is it even necessary to work directly on the site of the pain? Which technique should I choose? How deep can I work? What has changed after my contact? And what should I do in the next session?

On the therapeutic massage course we learn exactly this. Not simply to perform a set of techniques, but to think, assess, choose and check the result.

From techniques to clinical thinking

On the core courses you were, above all, mastering techniques: learning to perform the techniques correctly, feel the tissues, regulate pressure, build the sequence of the massage. Now we go further.

Two people can come in with the same complaint of lower-back pain. One spends ten hours a day at a computer, the other trains at the gym five times a week. The complaint is similar, but the causes, the tissue condition and the way of working may be completely different.

So on this course we gradually move away from universal protocols. You learn first to understand what is happening with the specific client, and only then to decide how to work with them.

Your hands begin to give you more information. One of the most important parts of the course is the development of palpation. We deepen the knowledge of anatomy and physiology not for the sake of yet another block of theory — it is important to us that you can apply this knowledge directly while you work.

You will learn to find anatomical landmarks, identify structures under your hands more precisely, notice differences in tissue condition, understand fascial connections and match what the client says with what you see and feel. Over time, a massage therapist's hands become not only a tool of contact — they become a tool of assessment.

Assessment first — then massage. Before starting work it is important to understand what the person has come with. What is bothering them and where? When did it start? What worsens or eases the discomfort? How do they move? What do we see on observation? What do we feel on palpation? Are there grounds to work, or should the client first be referred to a doctor?

On the course you will master a step-by-step approach: complaint and history → observation and functional assessment → palpation → working hypothesis → choice of techniques → work → reassessment.

This is not medical diagnosis, nor an attempt to go beyond the massage therapist's scope of competence. It is a professional way of answering a simple question for yourself: "What do I want to change during this session, and why do I choose this particular contact?"

Not a collection of new techniques. Of course, there will be many new techniques. You will study myofascial methods, work with trigger points, post-isometric relaxation, positional release and other approaches. But the value of the course is not in adding another twenty techniques to your collection — the important thing is to learn to choose the right tool at the right moment.

Sometimes deeper work will be needed. Sometimes gentle work. Sometimes it makes sense to work directly on the area of the complaint, and sometimes to look for a connection somewhere else entirely. That is precisely why therapeutic massage is the next level after core training: you begin to think not in terms of individual techniques, but in terms of a strategy for working with a person.

And one more important tool — your own body. The deeper and the more you work, the more important the massage therapist's own technique becomes. If every deep contact is performed with the strength of the wrists and thumbs, it is impossible to work like that for long.

So we address ergonomics separately: body position, weight transfer, load distribution, using your own weight instead of unnecessary muscular effort, protecting the wrists and recovering between clients. Good technique should help the client without destroying the massage therapist.

What you’ll learn

• Read the tissues with your handsPalpate more precisely, find anatomical landmarks, distinguish tissue condition and use palpation as a source of information.
• Carry out a professional client assessmentTake the complaint and history, observe, carry out functional assessment and palpation within the massage therapist's competence.
• Work with the fascial systemUnderstand the properties of connective tissue and apply myofascial techniques taking into account direction, depth and tissue response.
• Work with trigger pointsFind them on palpation, understand referred-pain patterns, choose a method of contact and assess the result.
• Apply neuromuscular techniquesUse post-isometric relaxation (PIR), positional release (the Jones technique) and include these methods in the session when there are grounds to do so.
• Build individual work with the clientCombine the results of assessment, palpation and the client's complaint, choose suitable techniques and plan subsequent sessions.
• Understand the limits of your competenceRecognise contraindications and red flags, understand when massage must not be carried out and when the client needs to be referred to a doctor or another specialist.
• Conduct consultation and documentationRecord the initial condition, the work carried out, the client's response and the progress between sessions.
• Protect your own bodyWork deeply without unnecessary load on the wrists, thumbs and back and build correct body mechanics for the massage therapist.

What you’ll be able to do after the course

The main result of the course is not the number of techniques you can add to your list of services. The very approach to the client will change. You will be able to:

• Carry out professional assessment and palpation
• Formulate the goal of a specific session
• Choose techniques for the person, rather than working to a single protocol with everyone
• Apply myofascial, trigger-point and neuromuscular techniques
• Combine already familiar methods with new ones
• Regulate the depth and intensity of contact
• Assess the client's response before and after the work
• See contraindications and red flags
• Understand the limits of a massage therapist's competence
• Keep professional records and track progress
• Plan further work with the client
• Work deeply while protecting your own body

And the next time a client says "It hurts right here", you will no longer automatically start massaging that exact spot. First you will ask questions. You will look at how the person moves. You will carry out an assessment. You will palpate the tissues. You will match up the information you have gathered. And only then will you start working — understanding what you are doing with your hands, why you are doing it and how you will assess the result. This is the next professional level of a massage therapist.

Who this course is for

Requirements to join

• This is a next-level course — it is not intended for learning massage from scratch
• Completed courses: Swedish (classic), relaxing and lymphatic drainage massage
• Graduates of other schools with equivalent training may also be accepted onto the course after a preliminary review of their MAWS training programme