Massage Pathology Chronicles

Massage therapy for a patient with a mental disorder can be a challenging session, but it can also be a rewarding one as well. After noting what mental disorder the client has, the therapist should make special considerations for that disorder and adjust therapy sessions accordingly. For example, if a patient has a phobic disorder, the therapist must first and foremost insure that the patient is not phobic to human contact. If this is not an issue for the patient, the therapist must then find what the patient is phobic to and remove the stimulus from the therapy session area if necessary to ensure the comfort level of the patient. If the patient has a panic disorder, on the other hand, the therapist should not administer therapy during an attack or when the patient is feeling particularly anxious. If a patient has a panic attack during a therapy session, the therapist should help the patient into a sitting position and encourage the client to take slow, deep breaths. The emergency contact person should be contacted to come and get the client from therapy in order to get them in a more comfortable environment, and the massage session should not be resumed if a client has a panic attack.

Mental disorders, especially Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, and Bipolar Disorder, are pretty common disorders that I may come across in my patients. The way these disorders cause people to feel could affect the way the patients view therapy, so I would want to plan a session to make it comfortable for them. Generalized Anxiety Disorder, for example, can have symptoms that cause people to feel very uncomfortable. Symptoms can range from heart palpitations, nausea, to sensations of choking. People suffering from Major Depressive Disorder feel intense feelings of sadness and hopelessness, fatigued, and sometimes suicidal. Bipolar disorder can cause people to be in a manic stage, where they are uninhibited and extremely energetic, or in the depressive stage, in which they are very withdrawn. The most important aspect when dealing with patients with mental disorders will be to make them feel comfortable and that they are in a place where they will not be judged.

I was very interested in mental disorders and I have all ready come in contact with it during massage. I have a cousin who is bipolar and she has told me that massage actually improves her mood and keeps her on a stable level when in correlation to her medication which shows me some clients get so much satisfaction from massage like the beneficial release of hormones called endorphins and that people who have anxiety or panic disorders are always tensed and have tensed muscles so massage for them could help them relax and not have pain due to their disorders when it comes to bodywork.