Recently I spent an entire day working on arms. The first woman I worked on was a client I have seen for about the past 6 months for an ankle break that required 3 metal plates. She had a second accident and broke her proximal radius about a year ago. That required an L shaped […]
While at the AMTA convention, we did free 15 minute SMRT sessions at our booth to promote the technique, videos, and classes. I spent quite a bit of time working on lower extremities while there. One of the therapists I worked on (who also happened to be a CE instructor) had a chronic hip problem. […]
I recently did several 15 minute sessions at the AMTA Convention. One of the sessions that stood out to me was a man who asked specifically for subscap work. He had been struggling with shoulder pain and tension during movement in his left shoulder for a few years. He said, “I still have full range […]
I met a therapist in a class last year who, at only 26 years old, was bent at the hip. I attempted to help her with body mechanics, and she explained that it had been 2 years since she had stood up straight. She had given up on getting rid of the lower back pain […]
One of the student therapists in my last class asked me to look at her left shoulder. She had limited flexion and abduction. With palpation and assessment, I believed that she had a facilitated latissimus dorsi on her left side. Assessing the Shoulder As I began to work on her, most of the class gathered […]
A new client of mine is a woman who had throat cancer and had 6 lymph nodes removed from her neck. She was sent to a physical therapist after the surgery to teach her to do lymphatic drainage on herself and to receive this treatment. The physical therapist told her that her scars were creating […]
I recently worked on a client who has chronic neck pain. We were focused on her legs. She broke her left tibial plateau a few years ago and the hardware was giving her grief, plus she had hurt her right foot about a month ago and it still had residual tension. How the Body Connects […]
One of my regulars presented a few weeks back with pain in her right hip. She pointed to the pain in the right hip and pointed out the pain as I worked on that hip. I only spent a few minute on the hip before I moved to her left knee, lower leg, & foot. […]
After working with my clients, I’m often asked to explain to them what it is I do and how SMRT works. I received this message from one of my clients: “I don’t know what you do. I tried to explain it to my physical therapist, but I don’t know how. I ended up telling him […]
I recently had a client complaining of pain in her sacral area. When I was in massage school, almost all of our instructors skipped this area. We learned in Swedish to push the sacrum inferior as we made a long stroke down the back, and in deep tissue we learned to do a little bit […]
I recently taught an advanced SMRT arm & hand course. We were exploring how to increase our knowledge of the hand, working with muscles, connective tissues, and bones. One of the therapists fell into a deep state of relaxation while on the table. Her partner was working on her left thumb. Specifically working to increase […]
I recently was teaching a class on the lower extremities, and many of the therapists were focused on the hip. We were changing the hip balance by working on the lower extremities. One therapist came in with TFL pain that he had been foam rolling constantly for months without lasting pain relief. He was working […]
How often do you work on the abdominal muscles? What do you do? When using SMRT, we teach therapists to balance left and right abdominal muscle tone by working directly with each of the abdominal muscles. The Respiratory Diaphragm We begin with releases for the respiratory diaphragm. The respiratory diaphragm is of major importance to […]
Benefits to DVD’s: Save the travel and tuition money of attending a class. No time off required to attend the class. Ability to review the demonstrations as often as needed. Control of how and when you learn the information. Convenience of being able to watch and follow the DVD with the client on the table.