Healthcare Communication makes the Manual Therapy a Fascination

From Far-East Asia to the United States, the manual therapy has been adopted by the Physical Therapists (PTs) as a commonly used treatment because of the similar curative effects of manual and physical therapy. A definition given by the US chiropractors described manual therapy as “Procedures by which the hands directly contact the body to treat the articulations and/or soft tissues.[1]"

The “manual therapy” in the United States generated the public’s attention due to the effort of Dr. Andrew Taylor Still in 1874. Dr. Andrew Taylor advocated the study, “Osteopathic medicine.” He believes that the human body should be viewed as a whole and every body part is connected to one another. He also contended that since one’s frame and muscle are key factors to one’s health, the Osteopathic Therapists (OTs) should obtain the practice license as the physicians have done. After passing the standard four-year college education and the standardized exam, one can get a DO license, Doctor of Osteopathy.

In East Asia, the manual therapy has been popular and refined for thousands of years. The ancient Chinese even created a human body map that precisely pointing out the pressure points all over the body. To date, people often generalize various kinds of Asian-orientated manual therapy as the same thing and call them “massage” that sometimes make people relate to pornographic profession. 

Furthermore, there was no standard license or certificate for the manual therapists to take. Almost every excellent manual therapist has been marketing themselves through the word of mouth, which is effective but not efficient enough in this rapid and dynamic world.

Treated differently by the public, the Asian-orientated traditional massage, on the one hand, is often considered as a type of leisure activities, helping people relax and relief the pain.

Foot massage at Travel Channel TV

Thanks to the internet generation, the value of massage or manual therapy is now flourishing. By merely surfing YouTube, one can find millions of video teaching how to perform manual therapy. 

Online Teaching of Manual Therapy 

 

On the other hand, the regular physical therapy is considered as a more serious curing process that is time-consuming and painful. Now the PTs are faced with a dilemma: should they include the massage service in their rehabilitation centers or not?  

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[1] Gatterman MI, Hansen DT. (1994). "Development of chiropractic nomenclature through consensus". J Manipulative Physiological Therapeutics 17 (5): 302–309.