The Massage Pundit

I am seeing a disturbing trend in the past few years, and that is the children whose little bodies are such  stressed-out wrecks full of taut muscles and knots.  I’m not a parent, so this isn’t something I’ve dealt with personally on a daily basis (or been the cause of, thankfully).  But there are a few enlightened parents out there who bring their children in for massage, and it’s terrible to me to touch an 8-year old who feels like he has the stressed-out shoulders of a stockbroker on crash day.

One factor is certainly the heavy book bags kids carry.  Why does a first-grader need to carry twenty-five pounds on his back?  I urge parents to get a rolling suitcase instead. 

Sometimes, sports-related or other injuries are the reasons parents bring children in.  I often wonder how many injuries it takes to get it through to a parent that enough is enough.  One mother told me her daughter, whom she truly considered to be a future Olympian, had decided to give up gymnastics when she realized at the age of ten that she was having her thirteenth MRI.  In defense of the mother, she had supported, but never forced, her little girl’s desire to be a gymnast, but I have seen some children where that wasn’t the case.

Early in my career I had three sisters as clients, who when they started with me were 8, 12, and 16.  They were all competitive swimmers–because their father, a swim coach, insisted that they be.  They all hated it.  One of them wanted to take piano lessons; one wanted to be a cheerleader, and the other wanted to be in the local theatre group, but they were all forbidden outside activities that would interfere with their training time and their swim meets.  That was a lot of years ago.  I’ve thought about them from time to time and wondered if the resentment I could feel them carrying in their shoulders is still there.  I hope not. 

If you’re still a new therapist and haven’t yet had the opportunity to work with children, it’s good to have some guidelines to go by.  In my clinic, for anyone from infants through the age of twelve, we want the parent to be in the room during the massage.  The intake is very thorough, for no other reason than we want to take a little extra conversation time to make the child feel comfortable about a stranger touching them.  We insist that children leave their underwear on.  We don’t touch the gluts or any other potentially sensitive areas unless it’s really necessary to the treatment, we explain to the parent and child what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and the parent is sitting right there.  We ascertain at the time the appointment is being made if the parent prefers a therapist of the same sex.  For very young children, we might limit the massage to thirty minutes; it’s sometimes hard to get them to lay still longer than that, and they don’t have as much terrain to cover as an adult.

Children have stress too, and they need positive touch.It’s a privilege to provide it to them. 

Peace & Prosperity,

Laura Allen