Takeaway: What we know about the body and how we affect it with our work is constantly changing. We must do the same.

Critical thinking is, well, critical. Effective practice depends on it. Yet, our human desire to know and our deep tendencies toward loyalty to ideas and to each other make it hard for us to willingly seek and incorporate new information that may challenge long-held, precious beliefs. But still, we must do it. It’s nothing short of unethical to choose to do otherwise.

My son declared recently, “We get a lot more oxygen from grass than we do from trees,” adding that grass is the Earth’s main oxygen producer. I grew up “knowing” that we get our oxygen from trees. I mean everybody knows that. People in middle school these days learn different things than what I was taught in school many years ago, so I no longer outright refute them,¹ but simply ask, “Where did you learn that?” 

My son made a clear argument and cited sources. Still, I did some research of my own. My son wasn’t wrong; but they weren’t right either. When we compare trees and grass, grass produces more oxygen than trees, but neither of them is responsible for most of the air we breathe. Turns out oceanic plankton is the top producer of oxygen in our atmosphere at more than 50 percent.² Rainforests (not the mighty oak) make up another 28 percent, and then there’s another 2 percent “from other sources”³ . . . sources like, you know, grass and maple trees.

It’s not clear to me how much oxygen grass actually produces because when I researched it, I discovered that most of the grass-positive publications were written by sod and turf companies that stand to benefit from more people believing grass is the best. Golf courses also seem to be very excited about people thinking that grass is good. 

The bottom line is that I had to be curious—even skeptical. And then I had to change something I’ve believed since I was 6 years old. I had to change it because, even though my teacher Mrs. Manista taught me about air and trees and I loved her and she would never lie to me, her information is a bit dated. She did the best she could with the information she had at the time. 

And isn’t that what we all think we’re doing? 

Critical thinking is a term that seems to have lost its meaning in massage therapy education circles. Generally, people think it’s “about using science” or it’s “about making a good session plan.” These ideas are not incorrect, but they are incomplete. At its heart, critical thinking is about embracing change. It’s about recognizing that the world and what we understand about it is constantly changing. And then it’s about being willing to change with it.

New information will not just find its way to us though. We need to guard against dusty knowledge, particularly if we’re a sole practitioner and even if we work with others but slip into the comfortable groove of seeing “the same” clients about whom we lull ourselves into thinking we know all that needs to be known. We have to seek out new and credible information. We have to be willing to abandon things that were taught to us by instructors who love us and who mentored us and gave us our most foundational understanding of the very work we love.

For example, we have known for quite some time that massage therapy does not flush things from the body—not lactic acid and not the dastardly “toxins” we hear so much about. If you do an online search for “Does massage therapy flush lactic acid?” or “Does massage therapy flush toxins?” you will see massage schools, franchises, and science nerds around the world sharing about their new understanding of these things. And yet, our clients thank us for doing just that and we smile and agree and hand them a glass of water. We all wander off assuming that our strokes are picking up mysterious slack for the body’s vital organs and for our connective tissues—even if we’ve heard and read that this is not the case.

Critical thinking demands that we learn what’s true and then integrate it. This includes sharing what we’ve learned with our clients. 

Your client says, “Thanks for the water. I know I have to get these toxins out after that great session.” You can say, “Water is so important for all of us and, actually, even before you walked into my office today, your kidneys, lungs, and liver were killing it in terms of flushing the leftovers from your body’s natural processes, which actually aren’t toxic, just not useful anymore and already on their way out.”³ 

Our bodies are amazing, and while massage therapy does have the potential to elicit relaxation and possibly disturb or improve local circulation, it’s not “necessary” to ensure that we avoid the fate of becoming walking cesspools. This is important for both you and your clients to understand as you think about what’s happening during your time together. 

This is truly the tip, or maybe it’s the base, of the critical-thinking iceberg. We have to be willing to notice the ways we are unwilling to accept or at least are resistant to new information. And then? Seek it out and share it. It’s our ethical (and often fun!) obligation to the well-being of the people we serve. 

Notes

1. My son uses nonbinary they/them pronouns.

2. NOAA, “How Much Oxygen Comes from the Ocean?,” accessed June 2023, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ocean-oxygen.html.

3. National Geographic, “Save the Plankton, Breathe Freely,” accessed June 2023, www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/save-the-plankton-breathe-freely.

4. Lexington Healing Arts Academy, “Massage and Releasing Toxins: Educating Clients on This Myth,” June 17, 2019, www.lexingtonhealingarts.com/massage-releases-toxins-educate-your-clients-on-myth; AMTA, “Myths, Massage and Research,” February 1, 2022, www.amtamassage.org/publications/massage-therapy-journal/myths-in-massage-research; Massage, “Old Myths Die Hard: The Truth About Toxins,” December 12, 2018, www.massagemag.com/myths-massage-releases-toxins-87973.