ABMP Podcasts for Massage Therapists & Bodyworkers

Can you be a leader and a healer at the same time? In this episode of The ABMP Podcast, Darren sits down with courage-builder and collaborative change-maker Amy Andrews McMaster to discuss the Great Resignation—or better put, the Great Realignment—the characteristics of a leader, the saboteurs that get in the way of our success, and frameworks for navigating your call to courage.

A client has nutcracker syndrome, and she is not a good candidate for surgical correction. She wants massage to help deal with her symptoms. But nutcracker syndrome is a kidney problem with a risk of thrombosis and renal damage. Yikes, can massage be safe? As always, it depends. Listen in to see what it depends on. 

Art Riggs stumbled into a career that happened to be perfect for him. After pivoting later in life and discovering the world of bodywork and massage, Art studied with the best and soon became a legend. But his humility and his love of people are what make him most fascinating.

People think that if they’re exercising regularly, they’ve got their bases covered. But is there more to movement than just routine exercise? In this episode of The ABMP Podcast, Kristin and Darren sit down with biomechanist Katy Bowman to discuss the concept of “movement nutrition,” alignment concepts for massage therapists, different kinds of movements our bodies should be doing each day, and what movement exercises MTs could incorporate in their daily lives.

A pregnant massage client, who is consistently late and unusually demanding, wants deep—really, really, deep pressure on her hip. The tricky part? She has been diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome: a condition that often begins with an injury but complicates to chronic, intractable, and sometimes spreading pain. And massage can make it worse.

In this episode of The ABMP Podcast, Kristin and Darren sit down with Ann Baldwin, PhD, to discuss how she went from skeptic to convert, her training and studies in the practice of reiki, what research exists that proves the validity and success of reiki, and how reiki is being used in a clinical setting today.

A client stiffens up when the therapist touches her upper leg, but doesn’t know why. The therapist responds with compassion and sensitivity, and creates some amazing possibilities.

How do we fix something that can’t be fixed? We can’t. But a good look at the levator scapulae gives us some insights into how we perceive pain, how our clients might perceive pain, and what, exactly, we can do with all that perception. Join Allison in pondering this powerful muscle and the lessons it might teach us if we begin to pivot how we listen. 

In this episode of The ABMP Podcast, Kristin and Darren sit down with Eric Stephenson to discuss what motivated him to develop and teach pain-free deep-tissue techniques, common mistakes practitioners make when doing deep-tissue work, how practitioners can work better while seated, and ways you can work thumb-free.

There’s a condition that is not well understood. It creates a lot of common signs and symptoms: headache, dizziness, tinnitus, and a few others. But it hides a lurking danger: weak blood vessels that may bulge in some places and become dangerously narrow in others. What is it, and what are the cautions for massage therapy for people who have it?

When a client walks into your treatment room, they are asking for your hands to help them. But oftentimes, they are also asking—whether explicitly or implicitly—for us to tell them what’s happening with their bodies.

A middle-aged, otherwise healthy woman woke up one day and found that her face had sort of collapsed on one side. Very alarming! Her doctor diagnosed her with Bell’s palsy. The clerk at the health food store told her that she needed to get massage, and that would fix her right up. So here she is, in your office.