massage and bodywork professionals
a community of practitioners
I'm sorry, I just don't get research....
I started another blog post on the future of the massage profession and happened to mention research. It turned into a discussion on research. I decided to start a new blog post.
I'm sorry, I just don't get research. I'm not interested in it really even though I do have more of a science background than most massage therapists (AA degree in Biology). I am interested enough that I do keep trying to learn about it but I am just not getting it. The way researchers talk is beyond me. The best thing I can think of is the theories in a book called "Made to Stick" where they talk about a few things like the "Curse of Knowledge" where people know too much and forget that others don't know what they know and how to take info and put it into usable formats so that all understand.
What good will it do to have one or two studies that show promise in one area? All of the research on cancer and we still don't have a cure for it although Candace Pert says she has one but she can't get funding to study it. No one wants the answer. (updated post - actually I think Candace Pert says she has the cure for aids not cancer - my mistake!)
So what if there were 20 or 100 studies done on a topic? Would that prove that it works? No, not really. When I took a research class on cancer with Tracy Walton a few years ago she said to say something like 'research shows promising results in this area".
I am also quite skeptical having a friend in research at a prominent univ. where she manages researchers who are always skewing the results and throwing out data that doesn't fit their hypothesis. It is funded by big drug companies of course and the researchers want to continue to play and have their jobs.
Who is interpreting research for us? Is there someone who is going through research and analyzing it saying things like who did funded the study, what were the results, how good of a study was it etc? I would guess that people reading research could interpret the results the way they want to see them. How is research being used? How will it improve my business or practice? I do mainly injury work but don't feel any need for research. If massage doesn't work within a few weeks or a month, I send people on their way maybe even to another massage therapist. If research says it will work -does that mean my technique and presence will work?
And speaking of research - What I would like to see researched is how many hours of training do we need as a massage therapist? Is massage licensing needed or even working to do anything for the profession? I would love to see research on just using presence and the healing process. How would you measure that?
So I don't really know where I am going with this. I sort of have this interest but bad taste about research. I am going to the conference so I am sure I will be writing about it later!
Julie
I'm sorry, I just don't get research. I'm not interested in it really even though I do have more of a science background than most massage therapists (AA degree in Biology). I am interested enough that I do keep trying to learn about it but I am just not getting it. The way researchers talk is beyond me. The best thing I can think of is the theories in a book called "Made to Stick" where they talk about a few things like the "Curse of Knowledge" where people know too much and forget that others don't know what they know and how to take info and put it into usable formats so that all understand.
What good will it do to have one or two studies that show promise in one area? All of the research on cancer and we still don't have a cure for it although Candace Pert says she has one but she can't get funding to study it. No one wants the answer. (updated post - actually I think Candace Pert says she has the cure for aids not cancer - my mistake!)
So what if there were 20 or 100 studies done on a topic? Would that prove that it works? No, not really. When I took a research class on cancer with Tracy Walton a few years ago she said to say something like 'research shows promising results in this area".
I am also quite skeptical having a friend in research at a prominent univ. where she manages researchers who are always skewing the results and throwing out data that doesn't fit their hypothesis. It is funded by big drug companies of course and the researchers want to continue to play and have their jobs.
Who is interpreting research for us? Is there someone who is going through research and analyzing it saying things like who did funded the study, what were the results, how good of a study was it etc? I would guess that people reading research could interpret the results the way they want to see them. How is research being used? How will it improve my business or practice? I do mainly injury work but don't feel any need for research. If massage doesn't work within a few weeks or a month, I send people on their way maybe even to another massage therapist. If research says it will work -does that mean my technique and presence will work?
And speaking of research - What I would like to see researched is how many hours of training do we need as a massage therapist? Is massage licensing needed or even working to do anything for the profession? I would love to see research on just using presence and the healing process. How would you measure that?
So I don't really know where I am going with this. I sort of have this interest but bad taste about research. I am going to the conference so I am sure I will be writing about it later!
Julie
Views: 171
Comment
-
Comment by Kim Goral on April 12, 2010 at 4:35pm
-
So timely...
Not necessarily about massage specifically, but about science in general.
"You are entitled to your opinion...you cannot create your own facts"
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_deni...
-
-
"Whats becoming apparrent, as has happended to both of you, there is a chance this peace of mind will be disturbed. "
Yes, and there is actually a term for this disturbance. It is called "cognitive dissonance" and occurs when, to put it simply, beliefs that you currently hold are challenged by new, conflicting informaiton. In order to resolve it, you have 2 options: reject the new information, or change your existing beliefs so that they are in allignment with the new information. Both Vlad and Stefanie have chosen the latter course of resolve. Many people will choose the former, and then engage in another behavior called "confirmation bias", where you will seek out information that confirms your existing beliefs and ignore the information that doesn't.
To give a non-massage related example, this happened a lot to Americans (and maybe others) when the war in Iraq started under the false pretenses of Sadaam Hussein having WMD's and being responsible for 9/11. Many people were in favor of the war in Iraq when we thought we were going after "the one" responsible for our tragedy. When conflicting information surfaced, it was upsetting for many to think that we were now fully engaged in a war under false pretenses and without justification; some of these people rejected the new information and clung to the belief that SH was responsible as it made the acceptance of the war easier. They probably then only sought out (inaccurate) information confirming SH was responsible and said the true information was false or lies.
However, outright rejection of new information without further investigation should not be what happens. Rejecting new information after critical thinking and analysis- perhaps; sometimes new information we receive about things is not correct. But I fail to understand why so many people are "wed" to their modalities and afraid to look deeper into them instead of taking a step back and thinking "hey, helping my client is my number one priority and it makes sense to me to use whatever technique or approach is found to be most effective". No one is saying you need to change careers or that you all of a sudden can't be a massage therapist, so why the extreme reaction of rejection instead of more critical examination of new information which could ultimately improve your practice making you a more effective therapist? *shrugs* I don't get it.
-
Comment by Vlad on April 12, 2010 at 3:48pm
-
due to reading research that negitively effects your ethics, morality, integrity as a pactitioner, may have identified why there is so little interest on this site,
Reading about it (and with a critical eye) is not a negative thing. In fact, it should be done in search of integrity. By the way, when people start looking at it, they will find that there's integrity in good science and there are some scientists that don't have it in my view. They're skewed. They bend it and use those three letters after their name as a way to try and get people to believe stuff. THAT is more than negativity to me. It makes me a bit angry when I think about that. But apart from that, I don't feel negative about it or have any negative feelings.
Ignoring something that may be hard to stomach because it sheds new light on what we're doing is giving into fear and ignorance. I can totally relate to someone not wanting to look at it, but is knowing about it not a lot better than ignoring it? Sure, the peace of mind might be disturbed for a bit, but then you make changes and afterwards you have MORE peace of mind that you ever did before.
You're right about the positivity aspect. I think we as a group are trusting and positive people. I think we as a group trust what our teachers have told us and we'll trust what we read in magazines and we'll trust what we read in research. I'm beginning to think that we're too trusting.
The nationally certified over here are forced to do an ethics course. Do you think that "selling stuff that has been scientifically shown to not work is ethically wrong" is in that course anywhere? Do you think it should be in there? Does anyone think that scientists should be forced to take an ethics course? I'm not sure if they do, by the way, but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't.
Anyway, peace of mind disturbed? Yep, only for a wee while, which lead to changes, which lead to more peace of mind. Also, it also lead to confidence, empowerment, knowledge, feeling like I was doing the right thing and yeah......real peace of mind. You hit it on the head.
-
Comment by Christopher A. Moyer on April 12, 2010 at 2:31pm
-
That's an interesting observation, Stephen.
-
Comment by Stephen Jeffrey on April 12, 2010 at 2:21pm
-
Those that give up a modality due to reading research that negitively effects your ethics, morality, integrity as a pactitioner, may have identified why there is so little interest on this site, in reading negative research ...... maybe we do, just want to carry on as we are, helping our clients avoid hip surgery etc.
As a group I think we are very vonerable to negativity full stop. Going into a treatment room, to help someone's problems, requires peace of mind, in positivity, that we will help that person.
Whats becoming apparrent, as has happended to both of you, there is a chance this peace of mind will be disturbed.
-
Comment by Stefanie Adams on April 12, 2010 at 12:10pm
-
Stephen, I'll break my rule and say it, against my better judgment.
I went to massage school when I was seeking my own spirituality. My parents are cult-like Christian fundamentalists and at the time I was trying on more of a new age spirituality for size. I started my practice with Reiki, reflexology and polarity. My clients raved about it and I quickly built a thriving practice. One client swears to this day the reflexology helped her avoid hip surgery.
I never "felt" the energy myself, and that prompted me to delve into the research. After reading it I could no longer in good conscience take money for something that wasn't proven to even exist, much less provide real results. I felt silly for being a rational person who "fell" for magical thinking, so I re-trained in evidence based modalities. This decision went hand-in-hand with my decision to reject the religion I was raised with. After studying the evidence I decided it wasn't healthy FOR ME to believe, practice or promote either one.
Alright, folks, this is just me. I don't judge you. I celebrate your right to believe and practice anything you want with good intent.
-
-
The nearest I can think of is finding out I was selling non exsistant holiday timeshare
I like that analogy.
It's not as if it was the main source of income, but I did have some that wanted it alone. It was awkward explaining to some of my clients that requested it frequently that I'd dropped it. But I explained why and they just changed it to regular massage and it worked out fine.
See, here's the thing.
The way I view it is that there's 4 forces at work in our profession and one big umbrella. I hope Julie doesn't mind me hijacking her thread for this, but it's only to highlight where research comes into the picture.
The 4 forces are:
Education: That's the massage therapist's education AND the education of our clients
Research: It's what basically provides the foundation for what we do. If anyone says that it's on based experience, yeah, that comes into play to some extent, but objective analysis is the only way to show cause and effect. Basically most people that we work on will feel better afterwards and pure belief in that both from the clients perspective and the LMTs perspective will come into play with that, but it's not enough just to go by that alone. At least, it shouldn't be.
The LMTs in their practice. How each one of us operate affects the big picture. I think people think of themselves as detached and that "it doesn't really matter what I do, since I'm only one therapist in my wee practice". I don't see it that way at all. Each of us is part of the whole and what each individual does has an impact on the rest of us.
The economy of our profession. Money. It's not just the money that we make, but it's the financial aspect of the schools and CE providers. The economy also includes supply and demand. The demand of the public is shaped by a number of things, including information that they get from all over the place and their education. The supply comes from the LMTs. There's also the supply and demand of classes and students. Again, students get information from all over the place and the schools/teachers supply the classes.
All 4 of these are meshed together.
The big umbrella that covers all of them is the umbrella of ethics and integrity.
If people neglect to look at research and then bring what they are finding into their practice where they educate their clients on what they are finding, then they are basically not seeing where they fit into the big picture. They don't see how their actions are affecting the profession.
Also, if anyone says "supply and demand" either from the schools perspective OR the LMTs perspective is all that matters, then to me that's like putting a big massive hole in the umbrella of integrity and ethics over our profession. It all ties together. If one of the 4 is out of whack then it will screw up everything else and it'll punch more holes.
That's the squirrel's perspective. Weird, I know, but looking at research with a critical eye shouldn't just be done by the MTs in their practice - it should be done by everyone. LMTs should look at it critically and it might be a case of them thinking "There are studies that show this doesn't work, maybe all I'm witnessing is the placebo effect in my practice. Is it ethical of me to keep on "selling it"?".
-
-
If you dont want to say Vlad then thats fine,
I'm just struggling to think of myself or others in a simular position, ie = of getting good results, having client demand, making a living, but then dropping it just because of research results ?
The nearest I can think of is finding out I was selling non exsistant holiday timeshare ?
-
Comment by Julie Onofrio on April 9, 2010 at 10:35pm
-
Stefanie, I don't get the thing about the blues and you being a blues musician???
Julie
-
-
Stefanie,
I have suggested plenty of solutions...and am creating many more.
http://www.massage-career-guides.com/massage-therapy-research.html
http://thebodyworker.com/massage_research.htm
I am talking to Ruth Werner about how to make research more understandable...
And am shelling out $375 to go to the conference...
Maybe I should have titled this - Who thinks we need research? or something else... What I am trying to see is if there are others out there that don't care about research like the few who posted in this other thread to show the researchers what needs to be done.
I am just trying to get all the people who do research and write about it to start thinking about who their audience is - people who like to touch who in general are not scientific- that's all.
Julie
© 2024 Created by ABMP.
Powered by
You need to be a member of massage and bodywork professionals to add comments!
Join massage and bodywork professionals