Jay's CEU Class Weekend

Short version:

Jay has spent all weekend, both days, taking another neuromuscular therapy continuing education class from Jim Cain. It's focused on the upper extremity, so he's getting a good refresher for a lot of the shoulder and carpal-tunnel work that he does with his clients. Thanks to those of you who called wanting a Saturday appt. with him for understanding why he can't accomodate you this week.

The long version:

Jim Cain is a local neuromuscular therapy teacher. He's the one that we chose after we graduated over all the other options.

Why?

He was the only one that worked on me without making me cry.

You've probably heard this story before, but new clients might not have, so here it goes.

We get a lot of training to be LMTs. It's quite amazing. The school I went to used the same pre-med text books for anatomy and physiology as the university and we learned a lot. And then we started learning about the muscles.

Myology is the study of muscles and hence is what the class segment is called. We learned almost every muscle that can be touched, some that can't, where they start and end (insert and attach), and what they do. Some muscles only do one thing but most do their primary action and assist in others. It's fascinating.

The school realized two things about massage therapy students. One is that we are very kinesthetic (learn from doing/touching/interacting) and the other is that neuromuscular therapy is something we'll need in our career. It's an effective and almost expected tool for our therapy tool boxes.

Our "practicum" for myology was neuromuscular therapy training. We learned the technique and how to palpate and treat each muscle. Granted, it wasn't as in depth as the CEU classes; we were just getting our foundation.

Now I'm a bit type-A in a lot of ways. I'm a lot better than I used to be, but when it comes to school I still show my colors. I have to learn what they teach us, what the book says, do more research and be "the best" in the class, whatever that means. Even if I hate the class.

And I hated it. I thought it was the most awful thing to do to someone.

(You see, and I've told most of my clients this on their first visit, their really is a huge range of what people like touch-wise. Jay likes extremely deep pressure. The joke is that, "If I stood on his back in stilletos and weilded a sledgehammer, that would be his favorite massage ever." It's not that big of an exaggeration. Now I, on the other hand, am a little hypersensitive. I like what most people consider a "fru fru" massage, and in fact my favorite techniques are all, or at least start out with, a lighter touch.)

The reason why I hated it was because when the students would try to find these muscles and the adhesions (what you might call a trigger point or, more commonly, a "knot") I would get all kinds of pain. It really really hurt.

So I learned it. I wanted to be the best at it, but I felt I'd be damned before I'd ever use it on someone.

Allow me a minute to laugh at my naivety.

Thanks.

It got so bad that I would get so anxious that I was literally sick to my stomach before class. The owners of the school gave me permission to not get the work done; to just give. So for the rest of this long segment in my educational career, I gave a lot of hands-on work.

Several teachers knew about my issues and would ask to work on me. It became a fairly common request. About that time we moved into studying other modalities (techniques) of massage and had a different teacher each week for that segment.

I let each teacher that asked give it a try. Each teacher put me into or near tears. One even pressed hard on a trigger point in my upper trap (shoulder) that referred to near migraine pain and I had to go home.

Finally, Jim Cain had us for a class. I wish we had had him for our myology training. Beaner was a great teacher, don't get me wrong, and I love it when we end up in the same weekend CEU classes, it's just that everyone explains things differently and has a different touch.

Jim asked me if he could work on me. At this point I was in a bit of pain (I'm a neck pain and headache stress-carrier; it's why I chose to specialize in helping others with the same problems) so I agreed, once more, swearing that it would be the last time.

But something happened. Jim Cain worked on me. And he didn't hurt me. Actually he helped me quite a bit in the five (if that) minutes he had his hands on my neck. He was gentle and respected that my comfort level was so much less than what most other people have.

I became enamored with this technique that I had previously despised and Jay and I both decided that after we graduated we were going to do our NMT training with him.

And we did.

A lot of my clients remark that I'm the first person they've gone to that didn't hurt them. That means a lot to me. I've helped many people with a variety of pains find relief. It's the most rewarding part of what I do; especially with the headache, neck pain, and TMJ dysfunction treatments.

I'm really proud of that. It makes me look forward to getting up in the morning and seeing my first client of the day. It keeps me going so that I give the last client of the day the same amount of enthusiasm and attention. I have that love for what I do. (Being able to make my own schedule helps a great deal, too. Spa therapists don't have that and burn out quickly in some cases.)

So that's the long story. We really respect Jim Cain and love to take his classes. This is also the story of why we chose to study with him and why we use the technique and philosophy that we do, rather than a harder/tougher/"go for the pain" attitude.