Table Lessons: Insights in the Practice of Massage Therapy

by Douglas Nelson

Table Lessons is a book of narratives that contain insight into the mastery of massage therapy. Each short story represents a problem solving strategy or the embodiment of a physiologic principle that affects the practice of soft-tissue therapy, specifically Precision Neuromuscular Therapy. Stories embody knowledge in a way that simple facts cannot; they give context and meaning to help the reader apply these lessons in his/her own practice. In these clinical narratives, the reader is guided through the clinical decision-making process of soft-tissue therapy. Not just a book of clinical success stories, this book contains numerous stories of struggle, difficult lessons learned, and the art of clinical reasoning. The reader will learn strategies and reasoning processes that can be applied to soft-tissue therapy or across any discipline where critical thinking and reflective practice is vital.The book is divided into four sections: Strategy, Learning Through Failure, Differential Assessment, and Communication.

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2011

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting insights into a profession that I adore.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

My status updates on this are basically my review. I liked it, although there was a lot of dead air while the author established and re-established the idea that trigger points work in mysterious ways.

I wish there had been more detail about his treatments, instead of "I treated the area that was causing her pain," etc., but some of the diagnostic methods were useful and I LOVED the essay near the end about the relative care afforded injured dancers and college athletes: one is given every available resource and put back in the game ASAP, and the other is told to find some other dream.

[Rachel Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and deliberate

If you are a clinically focused practitioner, you will be hard pressed to find honest, intelligent, appropriately humorous and practical lessons within these short stories. Great read.