After a couple of years of sabbatical, Massage Matters is back, although we are now called TOUCH MATTERS – why? Because we have decided to expand to a wider audience, with more content, more education, and more irreverence to the status quo of our industry!

In this episode of Touch Matters Podcast, part of the Physio Matters group, your hosts Anna Maria Mazzieri and Matt Phillips of Runchatlive.com are joined by special guests Roger Kerry and Kenneth Young, two of the lead authors on the recently published paper "⁠A Modern Way To Teach And Practice Manual Therapy⁠" (free to access, click link to view).

The paper was a collaboration between 16 authors from different professions (one of which was our very own Anna Maria Mazzieri), with other lead authors including Steve Vogel and Vasilis Georgopoulos.

In this episode, you will hear how traditional systems of manual therapy, including physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic, and soft tissue therapy have been built on principles such as clinician-centred assessment, patho-anatomical reasoning, and technique specificity.

It is discussed how although these historical principles are not supported by current evidence, data from clinical trials does support the clinical and cost effectiveness of manual therapy as an intervention for musculoskeletal conditions, when used as part of a package of care.

In conclusion, it is proposed that a modern evidence-guided framework for the teaching and practice of manual therapy is needed, which avoids reference to and reliance on the outdated principles of traditional manual therapy. Instead, the framework should be based on three fundamental humanistic dimensions common in all aspects of healthcare: safety, comfort, and efficiency, elements that are contextualised by positive communication, a collaborative context, and person-centred care.

As always, we would love to hear what you think of the episode, so feel free to leave a comment and do please remember to click subscribe for Touch Matters Podcast, and leave us a review!

Does a day go by when you don't either see a "debate" occurring on socials, or even find yourself preparing to wade in on one side or another? Especially in the world of massage and manual therapy, this seems to have become the norm and we at The Massage Collective certainly like to participate too! But on reflection, what does this achieve? What do we even think we're setting out to achieve? And, like some recent papers in Science have questioned, is social media really the best way to be furthering scientific debate when limitations on characters exist and the algorithms involved intentionally limit your audience to those who already have skin in the game? It certainly makes for an interesting discussion...

Social Media - now there's a mine field. As massage therapists we're generally brilliant at what we do - massage! We never trained in social media. We've all got profiles on various platforms, but how do you ensure personal and business play nicely and convey the right messaging to potential clients? Over to Katie Warburton, the ISRM's resident social media guru, soft tissue therapist, owner of Hands On Health (http://www.handsonhealthsheffield.com/) and all round super woman!

Katie takes us through her approach to social media, what she's learnt about what works and what doesn't, and how to avoid being "vanilla" whilst also retaining a professional feel to your content.

If you're interested in finding out more about Katies course, drop her an email at: hello@handsonhealthsheffield.com