Trauma Resolution Skills for Massage Therapists

Trauma Resolution Skills for Massage Therapists

This seminar is open to licensed massage and bodywork therapists, mental health professionals, and other health care professionals.

When threatened or injured by shock or traumatic stress, the body and the nervous system respond by dissociating, stiffening and/or collapsing. These unconscious defense strategies immobilize the body and brain to prevent further threat or injury.

If these somatic patterns of dysfunction and held stress in the musculoskeletal system are not given an opportunity to reorient to a functional, integrated midline (spinal relaxation, tissue flexibility, etc.) a myriad of symptoms may occur. Some of these are anxiety, depression, insomnia, visceral dysfunction, chronic pain, headache and other adaptive responses.

When skillful observation of the client’s autonomic nervous system is made and hands-on work is applied gradually, stored stress in the sympathetic branch is given the opportunity to release. Release may be indicated by tissue vibration, body trembling, accelerated heart rate, sweating and other autonomic events.

To address this phenomenon, you will learn a new approach to add to your existing practice called neuro-affective touch. Our focus will be practical application of new research with hands-on work to increase clinical effectiveness for a wide variety of musculo-skeletal problems. Emotional release work will not be taught.

Educational Objectives:

• Understand the stress response between the brain and the body
• Learn the relationship of the autonomic nervous system to the musculo-skeletal system
• Study the neuroscience of the client-therapist relationship
• Recognize the complementary role of hands-on therapies in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in conjunction with licensed mental health providers