Wellness and wellbeing; how is our industry being redefined and called upon and how can we approach this opportunity

What is wellness and wellbeing to us?

There has been a really interesting shift recently in conversations around wellbeing and wellness so we thought it was important to discuss our approach and how these terms fit into the treatments we offer our clients.

Here at the Academy we have been talking about the idea of ‘what to notice’; what is it important that we notice and take into consideration about our clients to help us inform our treatments and ensure that we are treating the whole picture? Chris has spent some time talking about the three elements that, for him, formulate the idea of wellbeing and wellness, and how we can enlist these as therapists.  

These considerations apply to all therapists, it doesn’t matter whether you are a holistic massage therapist, reflexologist, aromatherapist or sports massage therapist; it is so important that we take the whole client into consideration when treating them. For example, when a client walks into your clinic are you noticing their posture? They might have rounded shoulders, an incredibly common issue that can present for a huge number of reasons. Are you considering the impact that lifestyle has? For example; desk work, long hours driving, pregnancy & breastfeeding. Further to this, are you considering the emotional elements? For example, challenging home & family life, unhappiness at work, depression and anxiety, and how this presents in the body.   

 

Sometimes there is a tendency to feel that if you are a holistic therapist you consider the emotional and lifestyle elements but not necessarily posture; equally for sports therapists there is a big emphasis on posture and lifestyle, making it easy to pay less attention to the emotional element.

 

To tackle wellness, we can all use this approach, looking at the full picture of the client and allowing the observations of each element to inform your treatment.

 

Next Chris will be demonstrating how all therapists should be looking at posture, in particular the most common presentation of rounded shoulders, he talks about how all therapists can notice a postural issue and use it to inform their treatment.