Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 30, 2025
Application of Consistent Massage-Like Perturbations on Mouse Calves and Monitoring the Resulting Intramuscular Pressure Changes
Published on: September 20, 2019
What is Effective in Massage Therapy? Well, "It Depends…": a Qualitative Study of Experienced Orthopaedic Massage
Jennifer L Stewart-Richardson1,2, Suzanne C Hopf1, Judith Crockett1
1School of Allied Health, Exercise and Sport Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury.
Background:
Massage has been used as a treatment for musculoskeletal pain throughout history and across cultures, and yet most meta-analyses have only shown weak support for the efficacy of massage. There is a recognised need for more research in foundational questions including: how massage treatments are constructed; what therapists actually do within a treatment, including their clinical reasoning; and what role therapists play in determining the effectiveness of a massage treatment.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to explore what experienced orthopaedic massage therapists consider to be the aspects of their work that contribute to effectiveness.
Setting And Participants:
Semi-structured interviews were conducted via Zoom with six experienced orthopaedic massage therapists in Australia.
Research Design:
The interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis, seeking insights that might be practically applied, rather than theory-driven interpretations.
Results:
The participants focused on the underlying differences between clients, between therapists, and between treatments, and clearly indicated that this concept of "difference" was foundational to their view of their work and was the underlying context for the comments they made. Within that frame of "difference", three key themes were interpreted from the data: (1) "Everyone is different so every treatment is different": how they individualised treatment based on these differences; (2) "How therapists cope with difference": how they managed the challenges of working in this context; and (3) "What makes a difference": the problem-solving processes they used to target each treatment to meeting the client's needs.
Conclusions:
Participants did not identify specific techniques or modalities as "effective" or not. Rather, a therapist's ability to provide effective treatment was based on an iterative process of treatment and assessment that allowed them to focus on the individual needs of the client. In this case "effectiveness" could be considered a process rather than a specific massage technique.
Related Concept Videos
01:25Elements Crucial for Effective Psychotherapy
The Therapeutic Alliance
The therapeutic alliance refers to the relationship between the therapist and the client. The alliance strengthens when the therapist and the client engage in a nurturing, supportive, trusting, empathetic, and respectful relationship, improving therapeutic outcomes. Therapists must monitor this relationship...
01:15Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
01:28Factors Affecting Body Temperature
Factors may include:
01:30Therapeutic Communication
Verbal communication depends on language or a prescribed way of using words so that people can share information effectively. The critical aspects of verbal...
01:28Factors affecting Blood pressure
Physiological Factors:
01:24Factors Affecting Respiration