The Well-Embodied Professional: Attitudes around Integrating Massage Therapy & Psychotherapy when Treating Trauma

Immediate and long-term effects of trauma result in mental, emotional, and physical symptoms that ultimately can inhibit normal daily functioning and cause dissociation and disorganized attachment. Previous studies highlight effective strategies in cognitive and physiological approaches to treating trauma. However, limited research has been found in the area of integrative approaches that include the use of touch. This qualitative study examines the professional attitudes around the integration of massage therapy and psychotherapy into a sound clinical practice for treating trauma. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five massage therapists and five licensed independent clinical social workers from Minnesota, all having clinical experience with trauma. Findings reveal that the multi-dimensional effects of trauma warrant a multi-dimensional approach. Therapeutically, benefits include providing comprehensive care, enhancing the therapeutic process, and saving time and money. This model would be professionally beneficial by promoting exceptional leadership in the healthcare industry and providing a sense of personal and professional gratification. However, therapeutic barriers include the client’s ability to handle touch, the client’s ability to understand the intent of treatment, and the potential for re-victimization. Professional barriers include personal and professional boundaries, professional identity related to scope of practice, fear of allegations, ambiguous laws and guidelines, and institutional resistance to change. These findings suggest a need for better advocacy, stronger laws and practicing guidelines, further research and practice models, continued dialogue among professions, and a shift in societal perspectives around the use of touch

Factors influencing the readmission of fifteen patients at the Boston Veterans Administration Hospital

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

The Well-Embodied Professional: Attitudes around Integrating Massage Therapy & Psychotherapy when Treating Trauma

Immediate and long-term effects of trauma result in mental, emotional, and physical symptoms that ultimately can inhibit normal daily functioning and cause dissociation and disorganized attachment. Previous studies highlight effective strategies in cognitive and physiological approaches to treating trauma. However, limited research has been found in the area of integrative approaches that include the use of touch. This qualitative study examines the professional attitudes around the integration of massage therapy and psychotherapy into a sound clinical practice for treating trauma. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five massage therapists and five licensed independent clinical social workers from Minnesota, all having clinical experience with trauma. Findings reveal that the multi-dimensional effects of trauma warrant a multi-dimensional approach. Therapeutically, benefits include providing comprehensive care, enhancing the therapeutic process, and saving time and money. This model would be professionally beneficial by promoting exceptional leadership in the healthcare industry and providing a sense of personal and professional gratification. However, therapeutic barriers include the client’s ability to handle touch, the client’s ability to understand the intent of treatment, and the potential for re-victimization. Professional barriers include personal and professional boundaries, professional identity related to scope of practice, fear of allegations, ambiguous laws and guidelines, and institutional resistance to change. These findings suggest a need for better advocacy, stronger laws and practicing guidelines, further research and practice models, continued dialogue among professions, and a shift in societal perspectives around the use of touch

The Buffalo Commons: Its Antecedents and Their Implications

Over the last 150 years, the North American Great Plains, once a region of native grasses and wildlife, has become largely agricultural. During the same time, however, many have responded to the changes\u27 environmental, social and economic costs by proposing preservation. In the December 1987 issue of Planning, we contended that the future of the rural parts of the region lay in a vision we called the Buffalo Commons. To us the Buffalo Commons meant more bison and less cattle, more preservation and ecotourism and less conventional rural development and extraction--in short, a Great Plains that nurtured land uses that fell between intensive cultivation on the one side and wilderness on the other. The Buffalo Commons provoked much debate and led, directly or indirectly, to many public and private Plains initiatives that went in its direction. This article places our idea in historical context by examining it, its precedents, and the implications of both. In the Native American period the Plains amounted to a sort of Buffalo Commons. In the Euroamerican period numerous observers have suggested variations on Buffalo Commons-style preservation, conservation, or set-asides. George Catlin offered the earliest suggestion for a Great Plains Park in 1842, and the photographer L.A. Huffman had a similar idea in the early 1880s. The environmentally and politically restorationist Plains advocacy of the Indian prophet Wovoka led to the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. In the twentieth century proposals for versions of the Buffalo Commons came from the Agriculture Department official Lewis Gray; Interior Department Secretary Harold Ickes; biologist V.H. Cahalane; economist Herbert Stein; geographers Daniel Luten and Bret Wallach; and novelists Sharon Butala, Tom Clancy, James Michener and (in the twenty-first century) Annie Proulx, among many others. The Buffalo Commons is effective in part because it echoes this broad and varied group of thinkers. We suggest that the long-term persistence of such a controversial idea means that portions of it will continue to find success as well as resistance

The Real Price

This article examines the component of time and psychological price in consumer decision making. Social pricing is a critical element that determines consumer satisfaction and offers another element on which to segment the audience

WIC Improves Child Health and School Readiness

New research by Children's HealthWatch demonstrates that young children who participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) are more likely to be in excellent or good health and have a reduced risk of developmental delay. Investing in WIC supports the nutritional and health needs of young children during a critical window of brain and body growth.Progam improvements that decrease access barriers, provide the full amount of fruits and vegetables recommended by the Institute of Medicine, and accommodate working parents' schedules will help young children reach their full potential

Energy Insecurity is a Major Threat to Child Health

With the recession and this winter's harsh weather, many families are facing a choice between eating and heating. Research by Children's HealthWatch shows that young children whose families struggle to pay their utility bills ('energy insecure' families) are more likely to suffer a host of problems including food insecurity, poor health, hospitalizations and developmental delays.The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides low-income households with assistance in paying their utility bills, is effective at shielding young children from the harmful effects of energy insecurity.According to research by Children's HealthWatch, young children whose families received LIHEAP were less likely to be at risk for growth problems and had healthier weights for their age.By appropriating the maximum authorized funding for LIHEAP and ensuring that climate change legislation buffers vulnerable families and children from the harmful effects of higher energy prices, Congress will be taking important steps to protect children's health