Comments on: AAMT Conference 2014 in Review – The 5 Hot Topics in Remedial Massage You Should Know About.

By: Aran Bright

Aran Bright — Sat, 31 May 2014 03:02:39 +0000

I agree whole heartedly, the more research that is carried out in the field of massage the better and as discussed at the conference, RCTs are not the only form of research that is of value in this area. In fact qualitative research may actually be more valid in the early stages. I am hoping that we see massage therapists and complementary health practitioners more generally get on board with this research as this is more valuable that professional registration will ever be.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 30 May 2014 00:28:21 +0000

I think the ARCCIM project is a massive step in the right direction for massage therapy as well as other areas of complimentary medicine. I think that the public health aspect of research is one that we don’t pay any attention to as practitioners. We are understandably more interested in RCT’s and more treatment specific research – And I think that when we initially hear about ARCCIM’s approach it is easy to get a bit put off as it moves away from validating specifics of our skill sets. But to highlight what value massage therapy offers the general public and what it is like to be a therapist within our industry is really the first step to getting the attention of policy makers and improving the status to a point of which we become a recognised profession. Only then will massage therapy open up more opportunities and interest/funding to pursue the RCT’s and more specific approaches to treatment effect.

I had never really looked at it from this aspect prior to the weekend, but I am glad that AAMT has gotten involved.

By: Aran Bright

Aran Bright — Thu, 29 May 2014 09:58:31 +0000

I agree it was a very well organise event. Yes the catering was great and the dinner really was top notch. Well done AAMT.

I really couldn’t fault any of the presenters, sure some areas might not really be everyone’s cup of tea but there was something there for everyone. I missed Matt Stewart’s presentation, my loss obviously, but I will remember to keep an eye out in the future.

I am interested to know your thoughts on the ARCCIM project Dan, do you think there is value in it for massage therapy?

Aran

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 28 May 2014 13:58:41 +0000

Based on the way a number of presenters were advertised I was rather skeptical about going along. Have sat through enough guru laden presentations in the past. But this was hands down one of the best conferences I have attended. From venue and organisation through to catering and presenters it was a top notch weekend.

Matt Stewarts presentation on fascia was great stuff. And James Waslaski was def someone I thought every massage therapist could benefit from listening to. . He owned his errors of the past and discussed treatment approaches with more recent advances of knowledge and evidence incorporated. And was humble enough to give credit to all his mentors and the researchers. I really thought he was going to be a nutter…..

Did you not find kate butler’s talk abit like a self counselling session for her?