0:00

I've definitely seen many psychological conditions benefit from massage from depression to anxiety to par postpartum

0:09

depression um also postconcussion syndrome is another big

0:15

[Music]

0:23

one greetings hello good day I want to welcome you to the true hope Canada podcast true Hope cast my name is Simon

0:30

I'm going to be your host trp Canada is a mind and body based supplement company that is dedicated first and foremost to

0:36

promoting brain and body Health through non-invasive nutritional means and more

0:41

now than ever people are looking for ways to support their brain health and this is a huge part of what we're trying

0:48

to do at true hope Canada our current series of episodes on this podcast are discussing how different therapists and

0:54

practitioners are applying their profession towards mental health for more information about your Canada you

1:00

can visit us at true hope.com and you can also find us on all the usual social media sites Facebook Instagram Twitter

1:07

miwe Etc just search for True hope Canada and you will be uh connected

1:12

we've got another lovely guest with us today um registered massage therapist Kayla ruuk and we're going to be talking

1:19

about how professional massage engages with the nervous system to support mood disorders such as anxiety and depression

1:27

Kayla works and practices in caml British Columbia she's also a yoga teacher and a birth Dueler Kayla

1:33

graduated from the West Coast College of Massage Therapy in 2010 worked in Vancouver for four years and now um

1:41

works and practices in cam loops Kayla's got a love for further educating herself

1:47

as she continues her understanding of human anatomy and physiology and has a focus within her practice in cranial

1:53

secal techniques visal manipulations and myofascial therapy Kayla is fascinated

1:59

by the human form and its capacity for homeostasis and healing she feels incredibly honored to have a career in

2:05

manual therapy and um support her clients on their path to Wellness so

2:11

first of all Kayla thank you so much for being with us today and my first question as always is how are you hi

2:17

Simon it's a pleasure to be here and actually I'm quite wonderful today how are you I'm doing good we've had a

2:23

lovely bit of snow and we've got this really funky sunlight Cloud snow

2:28

situation Happening Here in count today and considering I've only been living here for a few weeks I've seen about 50

2:35

different types of Sky out there and it's really beautiful to be here um so why don't you tell us a little about

2:41

little bit about you your journey into becoming um a therapist and a Healer

2:46

yeah um so I feel pretty blessed by the fact that uh massage therapy was a

2:52

calling for me um I think I was 11 or 12 years old I didn't even know what a massage therapist was and that's what I

2:59

wanted to be um I was in a high school play and they had a write up on all the actors and I still have the little play

3:07

script that said Kayla Ruck would like to be either a professional piercer or a registered massage

3:13

therapist and um i' I've followed that dream and I am so glad I did it's been a

3:20

career that has um truly uh been my passion and has uh truly given me

3:28

purpose in life awesome thank you so much for sharing um yeah I took a little bit of time yesterday to do a little bit

3:34

of like research on Pub Med and green Med info for just searching for massage and stress and looking kind of what

3:40

Publications came out and the results were quite incredible so many you know scientific based studies done for

3:46

massage and and stress whether that's um anxiety postpartum depression insomnia

3:52

autism pain so much research out there um and there's no question especially if

3:57

you have had a good quality massage in the past that a professionally applied

4:03

massage session can change so much your in internal environment whether that's

4:08

physical or um psychological so Kayla in your experience what types of

4:13

psychological conditions can benefit or you've seen benefit from from

4:19

massage I've definitely seen many psychological conditions benefit from

4:25

massage from depression to anxiety to par postpartum depression

4:30

um also postconcussion syndrome is another big one that has a lot of benefit from massage therapy it's

4:38

amazing um with what has been done with research um massage therapy has been

4:44

shown to increase oxytocin oxytocin is a neuropeptide that um mediates mood and

4:52

social interactions um it's been shown to increase serotonin to increase

4:58

dopamine um and to decrease uh norepinephrine and cortisol both to

5:03

Major hormones of stress amazing so massage as you say like in your own

5:09

personal experience with clients as well the science is going to back that up as well that massage is going to take that

5:15

individual into a parasympathetic rest and digest place where the body's actually going to be able to heal and

5:22

create that hom homeostatic environment that you know we're kind of all looking for do you have a particular type of

5:30

injury or issue that you you see see more of um I wouldn't say a particular injury

5:39

um however what I do see a lot of is our chronic North American posture a lot of

5:44

us are sitting for multiple hours a day what that does is it really shortens the

5:49

muscles of the chest it shortens the hip flexors and um creates some stagnation

5:56

in the abdomen um serotonin uh which is a major mediator of

6:02

depression and mood um a lot of or about I think 90% of the serotonin is found in

6:08

the gut so if you don't have proper gut health because you're sitting all day and you're not getting a lot of blood

6:14

flow or you don't have great um kind of nerve Health in that area

6:21

definitely um you're you're going to perhaps be affected by

6:27

depression yeah absolutely I think no that's that's that's a great answer and I was just thinking as you know as you

6:32

as you mentioned posture I immediately like you know put my shoulders back and try and sit up properly but you know if

6:37

we are like kind of slumped down a little bit we're restricting our upper body and our abdomen and we're going to

6:43

be inhaling a lot less oxygen that's going yeah and that's going to create a

6:49

stressful environment in the body because the body's like what he's going on you know oxygen levels on on high right now slipping into that stress

6:56

state that we spoke about so absolutely I'm sure you the the the pain and

7:02

injuries and discomfort that people come in to talk to you about I'm sure one of the first things that you look into is

7:08

like how someone sits or how someone stands and how someone spends their day yeah and that also that kind of North

7:14

American posture creates a lot of pain throughout the upper back midback even the low back and as we all know someone

7:21

who's dealing with that General achy tension or pain in their body that also affects mood so um helping postural

7:29

awareness helping to calm the sympathetic nervous system bringing the

7:36

body more into that parasympathetic rest or digest are all super important things that massage therapy can do yeah that's

7:43

awesome and I I've personally had a couple of sessions with Kayla very very recently and I've had a lot of massages

7:50

from a lot of different practitioners and um just taking that time in the beginning of our sessions to yeah look

7:56

at my posture and have the conversation around you know how am I spending the majority of my day how active am I these

8:02

are obviously huge questions because you know I might be you might be having a session for an hour with with a

8:08

practitioner but there are many many hours outside of the of that of that 1H

8:13

hour therapy session that that are going to you know really contribute to somebody's pain and ailment yeah you

8:21

know the body doesn't lie so it's I think it's so important to have that kind of postural view before a session

8:27

to see and and really just ask like oh what does what does this body have to

8:33

tell me um cuz the body it's just so incredibly wise and smart and it will

8:39

lead you to where it needs the treatment um also I think the health history is

8:45

also super important um just just to know what goes

8:50

on in that body's life dayto day um what position is someone taking on a regular

8:57

basis any hobbies they have any previous injuries what medications all those things really factor in to help create a

9:05

really um uh a treatment that is specifically for that one person rather

9:11

than just like a you know prescription recipe massage sure so the things that

9:19

you discuss in your intake form and you know pre massage obviously so important

9:24

into how you're actually going to apply the the therapy session itself yeah yeah

9:30

and some of those big factors again can you just repeat some of those are like the big things you look at before you even like you know make contact uh well

9:39

um any major accident injury fracture or

9:46

operation or major scars for sure even if it doesn't pertain to the issue that

9:51

um that person that individual is coming in with that day um that that really tells a story and we often don't realize

9:59

how these surgeries or accidents or fractures how they can affect and impact

10:05

the whole body in in Western medicine I find we tend to divorce the parts of the

10:10

body we have a specialist for this one area or that area or we're looking at a certain muscle and really the body is

10:20

360° interconnected head to toe side to side um so we have to look at all of the

10:27

body and look at it as a holistic being and from there I often feel like a little detective putting together Clues

10:34

from uh like I said accidents injuries any illnesses that someone has had

10:39

perhaps they've been bedridden for uh with a pregnancy for 6 months that that

10:45

really impacts the body perhaps they've um had digestive issues throughout their

10:51

life I want to know what's going on with the body that way and then also also very important is to know kind of what

10:58

position the B's in from a day-to-day basis if there's any repetitive strain or stress um how active someone is and

11:06

then also uh medications what they're on what they're treating and if there is any um mood

11:14

disorders or um someone if someone's experiencing any um challenges with if

11:22

they're a woman with their menal cycle yeah obviously everything's so interconnected and I love the fact that

11:27

you mentioned that yeah the body is so beautifully it's just working together

11:32

the whole time I've got a personal like story with that you know like I I broke my clavical my bre clavical playing

11:38

soccer when I was like 21 and for the last 15 years massively aged myself

11:44

there but 15 years I've experienced um like right hip pain right knee pain and

11:50

right ankle pain and you know maybe 10 15 years ago you know I'd have that have

11:56

that pain in a different area and just immed immediately think that it's isolated and the pain in my right knee

12:03

is because of my knee and that's where it needs to be focused and treated but no like you know I need to be taking into consideration I had a really

12:09

serious um accident that would have affected the whole of my body and now that I not now I know that there are

12:16

things that I do that affect my hips that pull on my muscles that affect my knee and towards my upper body as well

12:23

so yeah everything being super connected and knowing that pre pre session is obviously vitally important

12:30

and obviously checking people's um prior illnesses and medications as well is just you know part of being a

12:36

responsible professional um therapist what percentage would you say

12:41

of your clientele experience mental health related conditions especially like let's just consider now like we're

12:48

in the early parts of 2021 after the most insane year um know in a normal

12:54

year anxiety depression stress is high anyway if you notice a big difference

12:59

I would say everyone um 10 years ago when I first got into practice um I was

13:06

actually surprised at the amount of people who were experiencing um mental health challenges

13:13

and um now it's even more definitely if not anything clinical but definitely

13:21

um as the the climate of our world has changed as uncertainty has come in um

13:28

everyone who walks through my door is experiencing a decrease in mood or is

13:35

just expressing challenges that they're having especially with their mental health and i' I'd have to say anxiety

13:42

depression are are at an all time high yeah I think it's actually like

13:48

just walking around it's really palpable that energy and and I actually I consider you very energetic person

13:54

that's my experience with you personally and as a practitioner and for people

13:59

like that you know you can just look or just feel a room or a person you feel

14:05

that you feel that energ energy and I feel I've got a little bit of that too but and yeah it's like you can you can

14:10

just tell that out there right now it's it's it's just people are scared people are anxious people stressed out and um

14:18

whether that's massage or acupuncture or a workout routine doing something active

14:25

to self serve yes is is vital now more more than ever

14:31

um back to the back to massage and the therapy I personally think when I think of I think of my main reason for massage

14:39

and acupuncture and anything that I do for my body back pain is like a main reason I personally seek you like

14:44

massage therapy and I'm sure that's super common for a lot of people are the

14:49

psychological benefits that you know you mention all those um neurotransmitters

14:54

you know that are are exhibited during a massage you know the the happy hormones we can call them are those psychological benefits just

15:02

this added bonus of you know being taken care of physically and emotionally you know during the hour

15:08

session yeah I think um I think the investment into mental health actually happens when

15:15

you take that time for yourself when you you know either if you're paying it for

15:21

by by yourself or if you have medical coverage if you're taking the time to submit your receipts to do all that

15:27

stuff um it's it's all an investment into yourself that's you're taking care of

15:33

yourself which is just an added bonus and then yeah like a lot of people come

15:39

in for back pain and then end up seeing um the results of increased

15:46

mental health yeah that's and relaxation really I mean if it feels good you're

15:51

you're going to have the tendency to do that again as well so that's an added bonus of of having people recognize that

15:57

they're not just coming in to fix an injury they're also coming in and and getting extra added bonuses such as

16:04

increased mental health yeah that's awesome and we um we did a our first ever podcast was on acupuncture and how

16:12

just being kind of sat in a chair or lying on a on a therapy bed you can't go

16:19

anywhere and apart from like going to sleep or passing out asleep at night

16:26

usually quite late into the quite quite late into the day and after watching screens for so long when do we ever

16:33

really take that time for ourselves to sit or lie down and just you know be

16:39

with ourselves and you know we're going into an hour massage or another therapy session you're kind of forced quite

16:46

forced to take that time for yourself and how how wonderful that can be that

16:52

release MH and to be taken care of by somebody and know especially when you get a really good practitioner that's um

16:59

got that energetic feel for you um I think that's really really really wonderful and you know I've met some

17:05

amazing practitioners who can really feel what's going on with somebody like they've got this kind of added sense

17:12

that we've kind of spoke spoken about um can you talk to us a little bit about the kind of

17:17

energetic frequency aspect to massage because we've spoken we've had we've had

17:23

a few conversations on this podcast already about like that that that

17:28

energetic IC frequency side of things that you know everything every cell of

17:33

our body emits a frequency and different parts of our body when it's out of syn or um out of line that we can consider

17:42

that pain or dysfunction or disease in in some some aspects um and what we're

17:47

trying to do is create create homeostasis and we're trying to create like that frequency to be in Rhythm and

17:52

in time how it wants to be can you um like touch on that in regards to to

17:58

massage yeah there's many rhythms in the body um I think the heart emits its own

18:06

electromagnetic resonance um it's so cool like it's Auto rithmic so even if it was disconnected

18:12

from your brain your heart would still beat with and and does with no

18:18

neurological input um you've got the Resonance of of the neurological system

18:26

and the Brain um and then you've got this NE called the cranial sacral Rhythm

18:31

um where you can palpate kind of the the flow of cerebral spinal fluid um so

18:39

massage therapy is so incredibly powerful because it helps in Trin all that it helps bring it down and and

18:47

definitely sedate it to a point where if it's too high it brings it down if it's

18:53

too low it brings it back and there I think I believe actually there is a lot of research on that

18:59

energetically I mean yeah you do just as a practitioner feel things I think um I

19:05

often get the question of like oh man is your body sore after massaging for so long and actually you know as a

19:12

practitioner if I take care of myself and I do do yoga and go to the gym and meditate on a regular basis um my body

19:20

actually feels quite fine but what I do find that the the um aspect of my job

19:26

that can get pretty heavy is that energetic um aspect of it where

19:33

sometimes things are heavy and you do really um you can really take that on

19:38

and can really feel that so are you talking about like when somebody's coming into you and their energy is just

19:45

like whether it's down whether they're having chronic pain or sometimes you can have what's called an emotional release

19:52

where you're massaging a part of the body and someone will just start to um experience deep sadness or they'll just

19:59

start to cry or they'll laugh and it's a real um you can't really there's nothing

20:06

to really explain it other than they're just having an emotional release often the person who's experiencing it doesn't

20:12

even have a particular memory or a why about it but it's almost like this burst of energy where their body just releases

20:19

whatever is being held in that area and um it's it's such an honor to be able to

20:26

witness um and it can also be pretty pretty intense yeah I can absolutely

20:33

imagine that that's really cool um how much of what um what the client does

20:39

your clients what how much of what they do outside of the treatment room yeah plays a factor into you know

20:46

their own their own healing because absolutely yeah I think it's everything um I've I've had um people come to see

20:54

me and then all of a sudden they've started to um

20:59

engage in other activities in their life such as going to the gym or going for a walk on a regular basis maybe it's going

21:06

to counseling and and just those things that people do outside of the treatment room absolutely I've seen basic miracles

21:14

happen with people um sometimes I feel like a keystone habit like just uh like

21:20

the Habit that everything else hinges off of so sometimes someone will start going to massage and then that feels

21:27

really good and they keep on investing their time and their money into that and then they want to do more things that

21:32

make them feel good they want to do more things that add to that frequency of healing and wellbeing and and once that

21:39

kind of train starts going man it it just it goes and and some of the things

21:44

that I've seen have been absolutely amazing that's really cool um yeah when

21:51

it comes to obviously this so much um personal responsibility now if you're actually going to take the time to make

21:56

an appointment and go and see somebody for you know something you're experiencing that's that's a wonderful thing to do but the responsibility

22:03

doesn't you know end there you know you're going to go and see a practitioner for an hour a week maybe

22:09

there's so many more hours where you are you know exper you're still with your own body that body that may be

22:14

experiencing pain or discomfort or something and you've got this big responsibility on yourself to do those

22:21

to do the things outside of the session that's going to help complement it yeah and I think with massage therapy one of

22:27

the the true Gifts of it is is bringing awareness so often we're um disembodied

22:32

and especially with depression that's a main symptom of it is that we're not really feeling our body as much anymore

22:39

and um I think with our really fast-paced instant gratification kind of

22:46

um lives that we live we end up being a little disconnected from our body and disconnected from the messages that it

22:53

has for us and Massage Therapy that that touch really helps us re-engage with

23:00

what is our body telling us what are we actually feeling I can't tell you how many times I'll start I'll be drawn to

23:06

an area and start massaging it and my my client is like oh wow I didn't even have any idea that that area was sore so um

23:14

definitely I think a a real benefit of the massage is that um not only are you investing the time but you're also

23:21

reconnecting with your body and you're able to have more awareness of what's going on and then you're better better

23:27

able to um make decisions in your life um that will further serve that great

23:33

and how how important you think it is to you know to to commit to going to see a

23:39

therapist on a regular basis rather than like you know going for back pain and you book a massage because you heard

23:44

that could release some of it and you know some people might be disappointed that their back pain is not completely

23:50

eradicated after an hour session how important is it to you know to keep up the practice and create that relationship with a therapist well

23:55

here's my terrible metaphor um we often treat our cars better than

24:01

we treat our bodies if you're just driving your car you know once a week and you're within the speed limit then

24:07

you know maybe you don't need to have a tuneup all the time or change the oil but if you're putting some good mileage

24:13

on your body um or you know you're driving a sports car then you're going to want to have a little bit more um

24:21

have a more tuneups have more oil changes and that's where I think complimentary alternative medicine comes

24:27

in if you are um if you have more injuries if you've had more surgeries like if you know

24:32

depending on what's gone on in your life if you're playing lots of sports or if

24:38

you're sitting for many hours through the day you're probably going to want to have to do a couple more tuneups on your

24:44

body and that means seeing your whatever works for you I mean I think it's great to try many different practitioners and

24:51

of many different therapies and find the things that I mean you your body knows you will know what feels good for you

24:57

and what is what is really helping you and you will know what maybe doesn't feel so great so finding a few

25:03

practitioners and a few therapies that really help you and continuing um to engage in them uh but I

25:12

you know I always tell my clients like your body will no one to come back and so staying staying connected with your

25:18

body and and making those appointments when your body feels ready awesome yeah

25:23

again like it's a big Commitment if you if you really if your pain or discomfort is at a point where you you you know

25:28

it's giving you those internal messages to actually go and do something about it you need to be really be honoring that

25:33

that message from the body and yeah it's again it's a self-commitment thing yeah and and not only that I mean often these

25:39

these things these chronic things that we come up with back pain or um uh chronic overuse syndromes uh it

25:47

didn't take a day or a week even or even a year sometimes to create them so it's

25:53

it's going to take a little bit longer to fix them than just one session it's a great start and it's a great awareness

25:59

and um yeah definitely asking for homework from your practitioners um is a

26:07

great idea I think as well because like we talked about having that agency to help yourself out and often um

26:14

especially as a massage therapist we do a lot of work with giving people remedial exercises so that they can um

26:22

be empowered to to take care of themselves when they're not in their session do you think that any um if

26:29

there one or sure there's one or many but like is there a specific other therapy that really complements well

26:36

with massage um well in my

26:41

experience um yes I'd say a really uh great uh registered

26:50

acupuncturist um Can Work wonders um as well a really good chiropractor

26:57

chiropractor acupuncture yeah yeah yeah I think obviously in my experience as a

27:02

nutritionist I've often seen many of my clients they like to go towards kind of

27:07

like one practice and kind of stick with that rather than being um you know dabbling in different areas to you know

27:14

support different parts so you know someone might be taking care of your nutrition but you know maybe somebody

27:19

else needs you need some support with your your physiotherapy or yeah that acupuncture piece you know so it's

27:26

there's amazing practitioners all over the world now in pretty much every city so yeah not just getting stuck on one

27:33

practice and I think I was going to ask you now about um what's obviously you live and practice in cam loops very

27:41

difficult to do a zoom massage um but you know for people who aren't people who are listening who

27:47

aren't in cam loops and they're looking for for a practitioner the mass a registered massage therapist what kind

27:53

of thing should they be looking for because they're a good they're a good therapist and they're a bad

27:58

yes um so definitely like we talked about before someone who really takes the time to do a thorough health health

28:05

history um someone who actually looks at and palpates your body before the massage who's going to kind of see where

28:12

your body's at right now um uh and I think um when you're getting a massage

28:20

someone who and I mean we're all definitely I have been um guilty of this but someone who doesn't talk too much

28:26

someone who gives you the time to really sink into your treatment I mean there are times when people want to talk and

28:32

that's great but also to be able to really sink into your experience and and

28:37

take that time for yourself without hearing your therapist story about their day or you know um I think someone also

28:46

who uh engages the tissue of your body in a way that is respectful and in a way

28:53

that um Works into it rather than just like you know when people have a feel

28:58

for things and definitely trusting your own internal wisdom if it feels good it probably is and if it doesn't it

29:05

probably isn't yeah you can probably get a feel pretty much right away from meeting a therapist whether you know

29:10

it's it's kind of going to go well yeah and someone who who listens to you I

29:16

think is is absolutely important yeah I think there any any therapist in any modality that would be key yeah

29:24

absolutely that person's coming to see you because they need support they need help and they need that know high level

29:29

of of respect that goes along with that I'd like to talk about

29:35

fascia I think fascia is very very cool and I've heard it described in different ways um can you give us a little rundown

29:43

on fascia what it is and how important it is to um take care of it

29:50

yeah great I love this fascia is amazing so fascia is connective

29:56

tissue um it runs through your body from head to toe it uh it surrounds every

30:04

blood vessel muscle fiber individual muscle bone it's it's pretty much um the

30:12

structure of your body we often think about our bones as holding the structure of our body but it's actually the fascia

30:18

um if you took everything out of every bone everything out of your body and just left the fascia there it would

30:25

still maintain the form of a body so you would be able to tell that that was a body it's so incredibly strong I think

30:33

it's 3,000 lb of pressure per square inch to move it um it's so strong that you could take

30:40

the fascia from one body and basically hang a one ton truck off of it wow yeah

30:46

um so it is incredibly important in our body we're now finding tons of new

30:52

things about it I mean we used to just kind of especially in like a cadaver lab they just take it away and not even look

30:59

at it but now we're finding more and more how integral it is to our body and to our structure and to our health um it

31:07

actually transmits information from the body to the brain faster than our nervous system does like multiple times

31:14

faster wow yeah yeah so um that's really

31:19

cool it's very cool so fasal Health especially from for me in in my job is

31:27

is pretty much everything everything um and what I do as a massage therapist in

31:32

working with my fascia is to really help it be functional help it have continuity

31:38

and help it um be movable pretty much uh

31:43

it can get stuck on itself it can get stuck on things um the body is so smart

31:48

it it wants to it wants things to be easy so if your body is sitting in a

31:54

certain position or is has maintained a certain position for any length of time

31:59

especially over 10 to 12 hours the body will start laying down Little Fibers of fascia to help like basically lock it

32:07

down um so if you're not engaging in regular movement your body will actually

32:12

lay down fibers to help you stay in that position which I mean isn't exactly that

32:18

functional and can add to a lot of pain syndromes or a lot of postural dysfunction yeah that makes a lot of

32:24

sense if we were to be you know we don't really want to be sounds like that's a defense mechanism to you know lay down

32:31

that those layers to keep that rigidity to kind of protect but obviously we're not built to yeah and sit and be stuck I

32:37

would really um a man who I deeply admire his name is Gil Hedley g i l h e

32:45

d l e y um he's an anatomist and he actually has a little I think a YouTube

32:51

video called the fuzz which shows exactly that if you're not uh weak of

32:57

the stomach sure I'll make sure there's a link to that in the show notes but I can kind of Imagine already what what kind of video

33:03

that is yeah but that kind of stuff's super fascinating so F no doubt about it yeah um can you talk to us a little bit

33:10

about now you've obviously got like there relaxing massage there deep tissue and obviously we've got different types

33:16

of tissue whether that's you know just the the skin fascia muscles and even

33:21

deeper you know there's obviously some potential organ palpation when it comes to massage as well can you talk to us a

33:26

little bit about maybe the different between you know you focusing on the fascia of a muscle organ area of the

33:34

body I get a versus like you know like muscle like that that that deep muscle

33:39

yeah so um when you're working with muscles you're more working with Swedish

33:45

massage you're working to affect the muscle spindles you're working to affect the goldi tendon organs and so that's

33:52

more your traditional massage with oil you're doing a lot to increase circulation

33:58

um you know stroking techniques um a little bit of trigger point release and

34:05

um so that will help to really lengthen the muscles uh with fascia it actually is a

34:12

lot um a lot it takes a lot of patience um because you have to put the time in

34:19

to do to work with the fascia um so to to affect the fascia you'll have to do

34:25

slow deep sustained pressure generally you're not working with oil um

34:31

and you're you're assessing the tissue with your hand and then you're engaging into the tissue and finding the areas

34:37

where it wants to go and then the areas of restriction then you would engage the tissue into the area of restriction and

34:43

hold till you find a release and often that takes anywhere for from 2 to 3

34:49

minutes wow that's like a lot of attention in that one area and yeah you're having to just like really

34:54

probably be really subtle with that touch and being really um cognitive of

35:00

like those like really subtle small micro movements yeah the touch isn't exactly subtle anybody who's had Mal

35:07

fascial release um it can be actually quite intense um often there's like a

35:12

heat response generated um but definitely you do have to be very as a therapist be very tuned into the

35:18

subtleties of the body um for sure cool

35:24

um and just to kind of wrap this up in regards to the nerve system obviously here at Trope Canada we're all about

35:30

trying to um promote mind and body Health um and every single you know structure

35:37

that we've spoken about when it comes to the human body and massage everything is obviously innovated with nerves and

35:42

connected to our central nervous system which ultimately is going to really predict whether we're going to be in a

35:50

stressful sympathetic fight ORF flight state or we're going to be in a kind of more rest and digest and obviously we

35:57

very organic Al and naturally fluctuate between the two nervous systems and when it comes to a fight or flight response

36:04

you know we're only really designed to do that in a very short period of time um but it sounds like massage really

36:10

beautifully connects dependent from what I hear on the therapist who really can

36:16

make that connection with that person and that body and that energy and that frequency that person is

36:21

experiencing really long-winded question but um can you kind of like maybe sum up

36:26

or wrap up the whole idea around massage touch and how that can

36:32

ultimately engage that rest and digest parasympathetic nervous system response

36:38

that that type of therapy really helps because not many people walk in not many people book a therapy session s massage

36:45

therapy session because they're feeling anxious it's usually pain or aches but

36:50

obviously what we spoken about today it can really support somebody's physical

36:56

and mental health to just lay there and really be connected with a with a good practitioner yeah so definitely the

37:02

connection with a practitioner um however above that is

37:08

the amazing research that we have to show that massage therapy um medium

37:14

Touch Massage um helping to decrease the hypertonicity in the body the tension in

37:20

the body increases oxytocin serotonin dopamine and it really decreases is

37:27

those stress hormones of um norpine and cortisol they did a study where they

37:34

tested people's saliva um before and after and continue to test it for a few weeks and sorry

37:41

before and after a massage yeah yeah and the cortisol levels in their saliva markedly went

37:46

down um and and cortisol is a a huge moderator of the figh ORF flight um the

37:54

figh ORF flight response in the body um on top of that I I do really want to

37:59

speak to the fact that um anxiety and depression are physical

38:05

we feel them in our body and and sometimes it's kind of I feel like it's kind of the chicken or the egg question

38:10

what came first did what we're doing our lives create the tension in our body

38:16

which then created the loop of the kind of adrenaline axis where we're having

38:21

that adrenaline cortisol we're really aware that we're feeling tense our body's producing that

38:29

um is is it did like we can really affect one or the other you can affect

38:35

the adrenaline and the cortisol response by letting go of the tension in the body often with depression and anxiety you

38:41

have that chest T tension you're not breathing fully um I think one of the first things that happens when you go

38:48

into a fight ORF flight response is that we really breathe apically we breathe to the top of our chest and with massage we

38:54

really can encourage the muscles of respiration to relax so that we're able to take nice Deep full breaths um so

39:03

we're we're creating a really great physical environment for that fight or

39:08

flight to not happen wonderful yeah and obviously feelings of stress anxiousness

39:16

depression you know these things you know we we're I believe we're supposed to experience them on some level but it

39:23

obviously gets to the point where yeah we're having this significant Loop that's always on always on play and it

39:29

gets to you know it can get to a position where we're in an environment or we're thinking something or we're

39:35

feeling something that's immediately trigger triggering us to get into that state and there are so many wonderful

39:42

ways that we can help ourselves get out of that continual kind of subconscious Loop and I've had a personal experience

39:49

with this massage therapy is without question one of those things I just love getting on that bed closing my eyes for

39:55

that hour and just like all I need to do for that hour is just focus on my breathing and working with a practitioner I think maybe we can just

40:02

touch briefly on the breath as well because I've had massages in the past where sure it's been

40:07

painful but my breathing is rather than working with the T working with the

40:13

pressure I'm kind of maybe resisting and and I'm like locking up a little bit and I can definitely feel that's just

40:19

definitely not helping but now I kind of like like to I like to breathe with the pressure and I kind of need to like let

40:26

not just the area go with the areas around it to kind of make it a little bit little bit more loose and just allow

40:31

that area to just like okay listen it's okay we're in a safe space here we can let go a little bit here just so we're

40:37

actually getting that that that Focus that attention and that that therapy on that area can you just touch on a little

40:42

bit about like how important you know it is for you as the patient but also the therapist to work with you in regards to

40:49

like making sure that you're breathing properly during that session because there can be there can be quite painful moments especially when it comes to

40:55

massage yeah it can it can definitely be uncomfortable but if

41:01

the if the person on the table isn't able to let go then the massage therapist is just fighting their body so

41:07

I think it's definitely a lot of communication between P practitioner and

41:14

um and client to really uh help to bring mindfulness bring awareness to the area

41:20

and um for the therapist to be able to encourage that their client to breathe through it and to relax into it and to

41:27

know when too much is too much um I I really um no pain no gain is really not

41:35

something that actually applies to massage and and there can be some some times where things are uncomfortable but

41:41

it's got to be you got to be able to breathe through it and you can't be tensing your muscles towards it those are my two main main things that I

41:47

always tell the people who are on my table is that if like I just said if if you can't if you're having to change

41:53

your breath and you can't you're holding your breath or you're holding your muscles to my touch then you need to let me know it's it's too much MH yeah

42:01

wonderful I think that's a great place to wrap this up um obviously yeah you're in Cam Loop so yeah you you obviously

42:08

you're you're here practicing how can people get hold of you who are who are in cam loops yeah um they can email me

42:16

my email is Kaya rrmt gmail.com that's Ka a y l a r u d d o c k rmt gmail.com

42:27

awesome and say I am in Victoria and you know I can obviously Google rmt near me

42:35

or in Victoria I'm going to get a whole list that can be actually quite overwhelming that whole bunch of people

42:40

but say for example if I wanted to call up and actually have a conversation with that therapist or the the The Spar or

42:46

whatever they're working at if I'm not you how can is there anything I can ask them about like the session or the

42:54

therapy just so just so I can find like the right practition because you know massage isn't cheap and I what you know

42:59

yeah no I think um that's a great question I think it's definitely um depending on what you're looking for and

43:05

highly individualized but I would say um ask around um especially if you're looking

43:12

for more of a relaxing massage and you just need to get I mean stress we all know is is a killer um so if you need to

43:20

really de-stress find ask your friends ask people that you know ask people that

43:26

are are doing doing well with their body and um and that are investing in their body who they found that works well for

43:33

their body and and um also kind of what kind of massage it is depending on what

43:39

you're looking for beautiful Kayla thank you so much for coming and talking to us

43:44

today I really enjoyed that thank you Simon it's been a pleasure um thank you everybody I hope you enjoyed that

43:50

episode we will be back next week um this is the official true hope Canada

43:55

podcast true Hope cast I hope you you enjoyed the episode all show notes will be in the um description below so you

44:02

can get access to everything we kind of spoken about today if you want to

44:07

connect with TR Canada we've got a brand new website brand new podcast brand new blog got some really great stuff

44:14

happening for the new year you can go to Tru hopec canada.com to get connected with that and yeah we're on Facebook

44:20

Instagram miwe YouTube all the usual sites and lots of content coming out

44:25

each and every day so so um don't hesitate to jump in there and get connected um this has been the true hope

44:32

official Canada podcast have a beautiful day goodbye

44:38

[Music]