Takeaway: Notice the tendency to “appear smart” in communication when connection is what you seek. 

A few months ago in the Healwell community, we invited members to share examples of massage therapy jargon. And we asked anyone who shared examples to provide their understanding of their meaning. That thread is still going. We’ve explored everything from adhesions to friction to shearing and beyond.

When is a word or phrase considered jargon? Is jargon bad? If jargon is bad, is it always bad? It’s easy to get bogged down.

Language is how we connect. It’s one of our main tools to understand each other. We use it to help our clients understand their bodies and to talk with each other about our work. Our clients use it to help us understand what has brought them to us. When there is disagreement about the meanings of words, the wheels of connection start to come off. Spend 10 minutes on any Facebook group and you’ll see derailments around language. 

I became curious about this concept while reading a book about the use of theatrical improv exercises to teach scientists how to connect with audiences in presenting their findings. They didn’t use the exercises during their presentations, but rather participated in them as part of their education. Almost without fail, these often stiff, jargon-centric folks, whose presentations had previously been impenetrable for laypeople, became more skillful at connecting and sharing information. Their communication was much less hindered by strange words that could be misconstrued or were simply unintelligible. 

In my research about language, one definition of jargon that resonated is “unnecessarily complicated language used to impress, rather than to inform, your audience.”¹ The trick here, of course, is to decide when your use of certain words or phrases is “unnecessary.” When should I say fascia and when will tissue suffice? When is tensile simply more accurate than tension? Our egos and our familiarity with a topic can conspire to make this kind of discernment difficult. 

Jargon can also happen when the speaker or writer has not made space to consider their audience. It’s common to unwittingly assume that our audience knows the same things we do. When we spend a lot of time exploring and practicing around a certain topic, the jargon of that topic becomes second nature to us and sometimes replaces more commonplace words that would get our point across more clearly. Maybe, in the old days, we used to say skin, but now we say epidermis. We also used to say palm up; now we say supinate. 

We all want to feel comfortable and respected for what we think we know or have suffered or learned. Even when we’re not at work, we want, without realizing it, to show others we are smart, aware, kind, a good person. Jargon plays a big role in this. It’s exhausting and counterproductive. And we’re doing the same thing in massage therapy. 

Experienced therapists talk over newer ones. Therapists who “do ortho work” talk over those who “just do relaxation massage.” The list goes on. 

We find ourselves trying to connect the dots between what another therapist said to a client who is now on our table and what that client thinks they heard. We know massage therapists make inaccurate statements and we know clients hear things differently than we intend. We also know we’re all using the same words to mean different things. So, how do we close these gaps?

My friends, it’s not a competition. The competition is pain. Discomfort. Limited function. We are all working to address these things in different ways, described with both different and similar words.

When we engage with each other, we have an incredible opportunity to teach and to learn. Some people are impressed when we use words they don’t understand. Jargon makes us stop listening or reading, and dampens any desire to connect, ask, or learn more. We just move on. When we share our knowledge with clients and use words they don’t fully grasp, we support the erroneous notion that we know more than they do about their bodies—or at least that they need us to make sense of them. They give over some power, quite by accident, when we describe a phenomenon in their body with words they don’t know. And we miss the opportunity to truly connect with a colleague about our work if we leave them in the dust with our modality-specific jargon. 

There’s enough air for all of us, and there is value in the way we touch, no matter what words we use. And we could use a lot of the same words if we wanted to. We could let each other in and build more bridges where now there are walls. And we could do so much of it by using language mindfully, kindly, and with a spirit of connection.  

I wonder if we can invite each other to explore words and concepts in a brave space, where there may be discomfort, but it is the discomfort of agreeing that we’re not on the same page . . . yet. We can remember that our goal is connection and humbly say, “I have never heard that word used like that. Can you tell me more about how you’re using it?” If you’re the one who used the word, it’s your responsibility to invite the listener to join you in further learning for both of you—even though it may be tempting to pounce and jargon yourself away from this invitation.  

Let’s own our stories about language, agree to get curious about the power of words, and hold ourselves and each other more accountable about how we use them. 

Note

1. Plainlanguage.gov, “Avoid Jargon,” accessed November 2022, www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/words/avoid-jargon.

Healwell is hosting a symposium in late February 2023 called “Within Reach: The Quest for Information and Research” that will explore this topic and related challenges around scientific communication. Learn more at healwell.org/literacy2023.