Growing up, my Dad changed his career towards Massage therapy. His route wasn’t to do the “fluff and buff” that he saw others do. The more I learned, the more I realized his focus was on healing. He’s created a fantastic career in healing people’s bodies. So it came as such a surprise when, years later, I had been handling extreme burnout from a company I worked with, I learned the importance of Massage.

Whenever I had the time and finances, I wanted a massage. My body holds its tension in my shoulders and hips. They become tight, intense pain, and difficult to start getting me to move under times of stress. The longer I go without getting help with releasing these muscles, the more susceptible I am to more stress, increased emotion, dissociation, and irritability. So, Massage has become a large part of my own self-healing treatment.

**The Fear of Massage**
Unfortunately, with CPTSD, the idea of having another person touch you all over can be intimidating and outright fearful. When our society and the people around us start to discuss messages, they don’t consider what has happened to them. Fear of your

autonomy, fear of speaking up, and fear of letting someone know that you need something changed can impact your experience and try to pull on skills you either have lost or have never developed.

So, what are some ways to conquer this fear?

Call the massage therapist beforehand and let them know that you have a history of trauma and are just getting used to any form of touch.
Only dress down to what feels safe to you. If you feel safe wearing large jeans and an oversized sweater but can allow the therapist to work on your jaw and scalp, that is perfectly fine.
Give yourself a chance to leave if you don’t feel comfortable. Seriously, practice in the mirror or with a friend in different ways to tell the therapist that you are not comfortable and leave.
Research massage therapists that advertise understanding trauma. It is worth the wait to see them. You may not be able to get an appointment immediately, and allowing yourself to see the right fit will be better for you in the long run.
Work up to it. You may not feel like Massage is something you can do right now, so get a self-massager (no, not that kind) and work on your body, allowing yourself to pay attention to what your body feels like before and after the session.
Practice breathing exercises before, during, and after. Remember the post on breathing? It may be something you revisit, as it may help you get through something like this.
Cost can also be challenging. This may mean trying something like self-massage to help. I often worked with people to massage their hands in my grounding skills group. Many acknowledged feeling calmer and ready to manage their anxiety more effectively.

The Benefits of Massage

Now for the essential stuff. The reason why I’m writing this post in the first place. Massage can be a potent tool. Gard followed 9/11 first responders to identify the best ways to cope after being involved in such a significant event. One thing that they found was that those who went to talk therapy afterward were MORE likely to develop PTSD symptoms. Does that mean that therapy causes PTSD? Not inherently. Therapy focuses only on talking about the trauma and not assisting the client in feeling their body and emotions. The other group did self-care; many got massages and engaged in yoga. This group often did better. One big thing is that first responders are a fantastic group of people who are usually resilient because they know that they are supporting and assisting their community and their nation, even if they are just human.

There are other reasons that Massage can be so supportive, including:

Identifying when a muscle is relaxed and when it is tight gives you a pinpoint of how a tense or relaxed body actually feels.
You may start to feel safe, something you may never have experienced.
It gives you a chance to connect with others.
It actually calms your nervous system down, which is an incredibly activated system when it comes to PTSD.
It can help with multiple other medical issues and support you in many changes.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it does help us recognize what we can benefit from and how we can grow.

What now?

Give yourself time to digest all of this; you may not entirely know where you want to go with this, and the answer might be nowhere. Remember that these tools are here every Thursday (maybe during the holidays, unfortunately). Still, they are here when you need support getting where you want to be.

Leave a comment below asking what steps you plan on taking, what your experiences with massage are, and how it has helped. Subscribe to learn more tools every Thursday and more education on CPTSD every other week on Tuesdays! I hope this helps you find your True North.

References

Baskwill, A., & Sumpton, B. (2019). A series of case reports regarding the use of massage therapy to improve sleep quality in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork, 12(4), 22–27. https://doi.org/10.3822/ijtm-19-4

Gard, B. A., & Ruzek, J. I. (2006). Community mental health response to crisis: Massage therapy and trauma interventions for 9/11 first responders. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(8), 981–990. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20287

Kahn, J. R., Collinge, W., & Soltysik, R. (2016). Post-9/11 veterans and their partners improve mental health outcomes with a self-directed mobile and web-based wellness training program: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18(9), e255. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.5800

Smith, E. C., & Burkle, F. M. Jr. (2018). The forgotten responders: The ongoing impact of 9/11 on the ground zero recovery workers. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 33(5), 563–568. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X1800095X

Boland, P., & McGreevy, S. (2022). Touch: An integrative review of a somatosensory approach to the treatment of adults with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 50, 101385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2022.101385