Going to continuing education for massage therapy in Portland often feels like I’m attending a convention for extras from a Science Fiction movie. Older women with oversized glasses and wildly disheveled hair cluster on one side of the room, discussing there lasted revelations with energy work. Students huddle together on the other side, awkwardly flirting between texts and sporadically looking at anatomy flash cards. The rest of the assorted gathering falls somewhere between the extremes, sitting quietly and sipping cheap hotel coffee. I always expect the older crowd to whip out a ruler and dispense some discipline on one of the flirting students, but this doesn’t happen and I turn my attention back to the class material.
The last class I attended was for sciatica relief, something many of my clients suffer from. Sciatica can be caused from traumatic falls or accidents but more often than not it is from prolonged sitting, poor posture, inadequate core support and poor flexibility. The key to effectively treating sciatica is being able to access where it is originating from and treating accordingly.
Most of the massages I do at the spa require the client to be passive and relax. Treating sciatica is almost the complete opposite. Retraining the muscles, nerves and joints requires active involvement of the client.
If you have sciatic pain, don’t expect this treatment to be a relaxing experience, but do expect results and to be actively involved in your healing. Having worked at physical therapy clinics in the past, these treatments are much more along those lines. With that I will also expect you to do the exercises at home that will continue to aid you in your recovery, and if you don’t I just might have to have one of my new friends from class whip out their ruler and dispense some discipline. Trust me, you’ll thank me in the end.
