What is Soft Tissue Therapy

Soft Tissue Therapy has evolved over the last 30 years through the work of a small group of pioneering therapists who kept increasing their clinical skills so they could meet the needs of their clients better. And those needs have also changed because Physiotherapy in the UK no longer includes the hands-on techniques that Soft Tissue Therapists now specialise in.

Soft Tissue Therapy is emerging as the only one using a range of hands-on skills that have proved effective in treating people with minor and chronic pain and injury for a very long time. Everyone gets these aches and pains during their life and so the carer and income potential for Soft Tissue Therapists is very strong.

It includes:

• Therapeutic massage for improved general health and wellbeing as well as symptoms relating to other medical conditions.
• Sports Massage as part of a support package to help athletes prevent injury and enhance performance
• A range of massage techniques to improve the recovery from acute and chronic injuries.
• A range of assessment methods to determine whether Soft Tissue Therapy is appropriate and devise a suitable treatment plan for the individual client.
• A range of advanced soft tissue techniques to improve joint and fascial mobility.
• A range of Neuromuscular techniques to improve function movement.
• Rehabilitation: Offering advice on a range of remedial exercises and lifestyle factors aimed at speeding up recovery, preventing injury as well as improving posture, performance and function.

These are all put together within a Biopsychosocial framework of care. We don’t treat injuries, we treat people with injuries.

Sports Massage aims to support the specific needs of a client’s sporting activities. But unless you are dealing with an elite/professional, most people do sport as part of their lifestyle and so sports massage should only be part of the job.

Sports massage alone can be a good fun job but after a while it gets repetitive and is not the stimulating lifetime career that many of us want. Athletes are not all young fit and healthy either, they may suffer with pain and injury which has little to do with their sport. And the rest of the population who don’t do sport can also suffer with minor and chronic musculoskeletal pains. They all need good effective hands-on treatment but where can they get it. Physiotherapy training no longer includes the manual techniques we use even though they have proved to be so very effective.

Soft Tissue Therapy has evolved from Sports Massage and is now becoming the only therapy that used these hands-on techniques to treat minor and chronic injuries. It does this in a way that can help people from all walks of life, suffering with the widest range of musculoskeletal problems, caused by any of life’s stresses. And we don’t just treat “injuries”, we treat “people” with injuries because everyone is different and should be treated as an individual person, not just an injury.

Read more...

There is no International recognition for any professional qualification in any profession. All countries and States have their own regulations and there is no internationally recognised standard for anything.

Some training organisations include the word ˜International" in their title but this only means they are involved with training in some other countries.

When our therapists go to other countries we do whatever we can to support them by sending the details of our qualification to that authority but it is up to them whether to accept it or not.

Examples:

To be a licensed massage therapist in the State of New York you have to have done a 1,000-hour training course but in California it is only 500 hours.

Canada requires a two year full time training to be a licensed therapist but their curriculum includes many advanced subjects that are only taught to Physiotherapists in the UK.

In Europe, unlike the UK system of Common Law, countries are based on a Statutory legal process which only allows a medically qualified practitioner (Doctor, Physiotherapist or Osteopath etc) to diagnose and treat any injuries. Our qualification includes the treatment of chronic pain and minor injury which is not really allowed there. Some countries enforce this strictly but we hear of other countries (or regions) that seem to have a more relaxed attitude. You could still work under the massage therapy title but without promoting your additional skills.

Our latest understanding is that in Australia and New Zealand, to be a registered therapist there you have to have a ‘transcript’ which is a document you can only get from a training school in that country. So you have to go to one of their schools and get them to award you with a transcript based on your prior learning with us.

Sports Massage is intended to be part of a support package for athletes and not just a good massage. It needs to be carefully planned as a regular and integral part of training so it can help prevent injury and enhance performance.

Therapists also need to be able to assess the condition of the tissues to identify and treat potential injuries as well as effectively treat sports related injuries when they do occur.

It has to include more than just the traditional massage techniques because it also needs some advanced Neuromuscular techniques which have a more profound effect on treating and preventing injury as well as improving performance.