Coming Off of Autopilot: Using Massage and Bodywork to Treat Pain

Let's say that every day, for years, you take the same route home. Let's also suppose that the route you follow happens to be a bit circuitous and a little arduous, but you use it mainly because you always - or what feels like always - have. One day a detour pops up which forces you to take an new path home. At first it feels like a giant hassle, but you realize this way is faster and easier! A few days later, after the detour is gone and you are no longer thinking about which way you are going, which route are you going to take home? Logically, it makes sense that we would take the shorter road. But for most of us, routine and familiarity will unconsciously take over and we will choose the path we have traveled for years over the one we discovered more recently, even if the new one is objectively better.

This is is analogous to how our brains create our posture and movement patterns. Once we learn a pattern it becomes our “normal” and we consistently return back to it; even if it is inefficient and dysfunctional or causes us discomfort and pain. To explain why we return to these patterns, it is necessary to look at the causes of pain. Acute pain is your body calling for attention to a compromised or injured area. Chronic pain can also be a response to an injury that is present however, sometimes the threat is one the brain only thinks exists - a hyped up, overprotective reaction to a past disaster Both chronic and acute pain can be born of patterns of movement and guarding that are built up in response to areas weakened by over- and improper use during repetitive daily activities. Pain usually results when these compensations are no longer enough to sustain function. Despite any pain we might feel, our bodies will sometimes continue to hold these patterns, normalizing them, because we have sustained them for an extended period of time (days, weeks, months, or more). Dysfunction becomes the default because we're stuck in a way of moving that once worked and reverting to previous movements or evolving to new ones seems resource inefficient and risky. It’s a strange cycle we do not yet fully understand.

Enter massage! Bodywork, in all of its forms, acts as a detour directing our brains to choose the easier, more healthful movements.

Because the brain can get stuck in unsustainable patterns even after the crisis is past, bodywork's goal is creating a new normal, one which allows for healing and overwrites the compensations that cause pain. However, as we mentioned before, familiarity equates to normalcy so the mind tends to bring the body back toward the known patterns even after a more efficient one has been introduced. Achieving this new state then requires intervention that shortens the time the body has to return to its old, painful patterns. In other words, we need a continued detour signaling to take the shorter route home until turning left (instead of right) becomes automatic.

What this means for massage is that scheduling sessions closer together at the start of treatment increases the likelihood and speed at which we get the changes of the initial intervention to stick. As time goes on and your brain adopts the new patterns, the session frequency can decrease until you no longer need the therapy to live pain free. It is at this point that my clients choose to return as needed (which is sometimes never) or to continue regular maintenance massages. Ultimately, massage and bodywork’s intention is to raise your self awareness and provide you with enough tools (ones that you actually employ) to prevent the creation of painful patterns in the first place.

The length of an effective treatment protocol is entirely individual, however most of my clients tend to graduate after 5 to 15 sessions. Ready to start shifting your patterns? Book now. What has been your experience with using massage to treat pain? What new postural or movement patterns have you achieved with bodywork? Share in the comments below!

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