I can help!
If you have fibromyalgia, you know how debilitating it can be; especially when people tell you that you “don’t look sick” or “don’t look like you’re in that much pain.” That’s because most people don’t know the difference between chronic pain and the pain of an injury (also called acute pain). The cause of fibromyalgia is unknown, but there are many ways to reduce its effect on your life. It may not be possible to totally eliminate your pain, but together we can usually reduce the intensity of the pain and the frequency of the flare ups.
Not long after becoming a massage therapist in 2002, I saw my first client with chronic pain. He told me that I was the first therapist to give him real relief and he became one of my first “regular” clients. The number of clients with chronic pain and fibromyalgia who showed up on my massage table and became regulars slowly increased. In 2005, there was a sharp increase in those numbers and I received feedback from many of them that they felt I had a knack for working with chronic pain. I decided to pursue specialization.
I’ve now spent the majority of my massage career learning all that I can about chronic pain. There’s more to treating chronic pain than taking a few classes, which are usually taught by “experts” who have never had chronic pain themselves. I listen to what my clients tell me about how their pain can change from day to day or minute to minute, as well as what makes their pain worse; I read as many books and blogs written by people with chronic pain as I can. Most importantly, I never assume that I know more about your pain or your body than you do.