The Importance of a Massage Therapy Assessment

Ian Paron - Registered Massage Therapist (RMT) 
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There’s a problem. You’re in pain and are feeling limited in your ability to perform the activities you normally enjoy. You’re not able to play with your children; or maybe simple things like taking the stairs are causing you difficulty. You may love to exercise but you have a tweaky shoulder or bad back. Whatever the symptom is, it’s keeping you from living your best life. 

​As a massage therapist I help people get back to moving pain free so that they can get back to doing what they love most. This article will give you better insight into the process I use to assess the key problem area.

​The goal of an assessment is to understand where you are and how we’re going to get you to where you want to be. It starts with a health history, where we go in-depth to determine what activities or health states lead to your current condition. We then perform a variety of tests that can include range of motion tests, strength tests, special orthopaedic tests and more. You may be asked to perform different movements that try to reproduce the pain so I can understand what positions are challenging for you and how your body may be compensating.

Throughout the assessment we are putting the pieces of the pain puzzle together with the end goal of selecting valuable treatment targets. If a therapist isn’t assessing they are just guessing on what to treat.

“But if my neck hurts can’t you just treat my neck?”  Maybe. But what if your neck pain is being referred from your shoulder? Or vice versa? Without a proper understanding of what’s going on you will get less than optimal treatment. The areas I treat and the type of treatment techniques I use are determined by my assessment. That’s why performing a thorough assessment is so important; it allows me to be able to deliver the best results in less time.

Next time we’ll discuss what the treatment portion of a massage therapy session looks like. Book your initial assessment and treatment, with me at Natural Alignments.