ABMP Podcasts for Massage Therapists & Bodyworkers

In this episode of The ABMP Podcast, Kristin and Darren speak with Mindy Totten about how an injury changed her course, why she gravitated toward craniosacral therapy, how massage therapists can make the leap to a solo practice, and why she decided to become a mentor to the massage therapy community.

A client reports that she has a femoral artery stent, placed in 2017. Her doctor and nurse think massage is fine. All systems go, right? Maybe, maybe not. It turns out this topic is a lot more controversial than we knew, and a lot depends on what kind of stent she got.

In this episode of The ABMP Podcast, Kristin and Darren speak with Lynn and Ann Teachworth, owners of Trunamics, to discuss how massage therapists can deepen their practice by looking to different modalities, understanding the design and function of the body, how the words we use impacts our clients, and what led them to create Trunamics.

A client is recovering from a very severe case of COVID-19. She is in physical therapy and wants to add massage to her recovery. What do we need to know to work safely? What are some assumptions we can and cannot make about this client’s situation? Put on your critical thinking cap and listen in!

The boundaries we hold as bodyworkers can make or break our careers. But we are an empathetic group. This means our ability to distinguish a boundary from the reaction to a lack of boundaries can be confusing. We can learn a lot from our own anatomy. Our fascia and the compartments they create can offer some clarity.

In this episode of The ABMP Podcast, Kristin and Darren sit down with author and CEO Rachel Beider to discuss the growth of her company, PRESS Modern Massage, how the concept of servant leadership guides her approach to management, and advice to other practitioners wishing to make the leap into private practice themselves.

What happens when your stomach pushes up into the mediastinum and compresses your lungs—and maybe even your heart? This common condition starts as a simple sliding of the esophagus but can progress to be life-threatening.

In this episode of The ABMP Podcast, Kristin and Darren speak with Mandy Urena, author of If These Hands Could Talk: The Girl Who Touched the World, about the global power of massage, her insight on how massage is viewed differently around the world, her advice to MTs who wish to blend travel and bodywork, and what motivated her to write a massage memoir.

What is a migraine? What is cortical spreading depression? What is trigeminovascular system activation? And what does it mean when this causes temporary one-sided paralysis?

And most of all: What if it’s not a migraine—what if it’s a stroke? Migraines generate more questions than answers, but this episode will help sort out some of the basic factors.

Rob Libbey's years of studying and practicing bodywork came to a screeching halt when he suffered multiple bone fractures to the chest from a car accident. But Rob turned his misfortune into an inside look at what exactly is happening with ligamentous pain patterns and recovery. His book, Ligamentous Pain Referral Patterns, and his classes on Ligamentous Articular Strain Techniques are proof in the pudding. 

Cultivating sensitivity and trust is essential to keeping clients safe—especially as we are aware that many women and men have experienced physical or sexual trauma. In this episode, Dr. Ben Benjamin discusses how to avoid violating client boundaries and whether maintaining boundaries is a shared responsibility between client and therapist.

A client can’t find a massage therapist, because they have a condition that no one knows how to work with: Chiari malformation. One patient describes it as, “My brain is too big for my head.” But is massage really off the table for people with Chiari malformation? Probably not! Listen in for more on what this condition means, and how to figure out where our work fits.