07/02/2025
This is sort of both a warning and an educational post at the same time.
Unbelievably, it is not a legal requirement to have qualifications in massage therapy in the UK.
it does mean you can't get insurance, but it's not illegal to practice.
When choosing your therapist, please do find out what their qualifications are, because it is SO EASY to further injure people if you don't know what you're doing.
A perfect example today is i had to turn someone away today. As TRAINED sports massage therapists, we know what to look for, we know certain "buzz" words that make us think hmmmm maybe that's not muscular, and we have special tests to do to check these.
The photo shows a simple test we do for back issues, and my client today was positive for this test.
If I had massaged, I could worsen symptoms, caused further injury by compressing nerves, cause tingling, pins and needles and weakness, increase the inflammation and just make things a whole lot worse for her instead of better. What i did instead, was advise her to see her GP as I suspect (i do NOT diagnose) a disc issue. I did the best I could do for my client today by not treating her.
Choose your therapists wisely π xx