December 29, 2023 • 29 mins
It's been a great journey since the podcast's inception, and your support has catapulted us across 15 countries with a burgeoning community of listeners. This special New Year episode is a toast to you, as we reflect on the strides we've made and the ground we're set to break. Your voices are the backbone of this platform, so consider this your invitation to shape our future episodes with your insights and curiosity.
This episode isn't just a retrospective glance; it's a discussion of the path forward. I'm rolling out two brand new hands-on courses that address common and complex concerns for lower back, pelvic, neck, and shoulder pain. I want to move these courses from theory into a evidence-based approaches. I will also be presenting a number of webinars and my foray into industry conferences, where I'll be demystifying the complexities of chronic pain management for therapists.
Head on over to my website. This includes a list of all my upcoming courses, webinars, self-directed learning opportunities as well as some helpful learning resources.
thecebe.com
Please connect with me on social media
FB: @ericpurvesrmt
IG: @eric_purves_rmt
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ericpurves2502
Would you like to make a donation to help support the costs of running my podcast?
You can buy me a coffee by clicking here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Eric (00:08):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Purves Versus
.
My name is Eric Purves.
I'm a registered massagetherapist, course creator,
continuing education providerand curriculum advisor for
massage therapy education.
I am passionate about advancingmassage therapy towards current
science and adoptingevidence-based best practices.
Thank you for listening andbeing here today.
If you enjoy my podcast, pleaseshare it on social media and
(00:30):
subscribe to be notified of allnew episodes.
This podcast is also availableto be viewed and listened to on
YouTube, so please check us outthere.
Hey everybody, thanks for beinghere today.
This is going to be just metoday, just chatting with you.
Happy New Year.
This is my end of the year happynew year episode and I just
(00:51):
wanted to take some time just tokind of go through and talk
about some of the events of 2023that are worth mentioning, as
well as telling you, my loyallisteners, what is up with me
for 2024.
It's crazy to meet it, to feelit, to see that there's the end
(01:12):
of another year.
I know, when I was younger andprobably most of you feel the
same way that your parents andyour grandparents would say
things like oh, you know, whenyou get my age, you know I'm
just flies and maybe I'm at thatage now?
I don't like to think I am, butI do feel that time goes by
pretty darn quick.
It's crazy to think that fouryears ago, we were just on the
(01:35):
verge of COVID hitting our livesand changing the world and
really impacting all of us insome way, shape or form, and so
that was four years ago now, andI just find that really crazy
to think.
So I wanted to say just firstoff, for those of you that are
here and listening to, thank youvery much for being supportive
(01:58):
of my podcast this.
I launched my first episode inApril of 2023, and I started
recording my episodes at the endof 2022, and I wanted to make
sure I had a good library ofthem first before I launched the
podcast, and I still have quitea few new ones to put out for
(02:21):
next year, for 2024, and I'mreally excited about the guests
and the topics that we are goingto explore.
What I would like to say,though, is that if there are any
topics that you guys areinterested in, or any guests or
things that you would like tohear more about, please let me
(02:43):
know, because I enjoy doingthese podcasts, but I'm happy to
explore some things that you,my listeners, are looking to
hear more about.
So if you have any comments orany suggestions, please feel
free to contact me.
Easiest way, probably, is tosend me an email which is hello
at ericperviscom.
(03:04):
Or you can send me a DM onFacebook or Instagram which is
just ericpervisrmt and let meknow what you think.
The thing that's kind of funnywith doing these podcasts is
that you never really know whois listening.
And I get my stats of how manydownloads I've had and how many
(03:26):
minutes and what countries arefrom, but unless somebody
actually tells me they'relistening, I actually have no
idea.
So one thing I would love foryou if you are listening to this
episode right now, pause it andconnect with me.
Let me know whether you post iton social media and you can tag
me, or you can just take aminute to send me an email and
say hey, I'm listening to yourpodcast.
I would love to hear that,because I have no idea who
(03:49):
actually is listening to thesethings.
There's quite a few of you thatare, and that's fantastic, but
yeah, I would like to put somenames to the download numbers.
And just speaking of downloadnumbers, actually this is a
thing that's kind of fun.
I'm all about numbers and dataand stats and those kind of
things.
But when I got a notificationhere for end of the year through
(04:12):
my podcast, the Buzzsprout, whoI do my podcast through and I
have no idea if this is good ornot, but it said my podcast is
in the top 50% of all podcasts,so I don't know, I mean there's
millions of podcasts out there,probably, so I was probably not
saying much.
But hey, you know it's betterthan being in the.
You know, maybe I'm 50.1%, Idon't know.
(04:33):
I was surprised to see that.
And I was really excited to seetoo that this year that my
podcast was listened to in 15different countries, which to me
it just blew my mind.
I would have thought you know,where do I have?
Where do people, where do Iknow people from you know that
follow me, canada, the US, theUK, new Zealand, australia.
(04:55):
That's five, so there's 10other countries out there that
people are listening from.
So, yeah, let me know if youare listening to this, let me
know where you're from, not justyou know, don't just connect
with me and say hi, my name is,you know, john Smith, and I
listen to say yeah, I'm JohnSmith and I'm from wherever.
I'd like to know where you'refrom, what countries are
(05:17):
listening to this, and what alsoit's exciting about the podcast
is that there has beenincreased the number of
downloads and listenership,since every episode seems to get
faster in terms of how manypeople reach a certain threshold
(05:39):
of downloads, so that'sexciting to see, so I'm really
appreciative of that.
It has been interesting, though,doing this podcast compared to
how when I did the other onewith my friend Jamie, the
massage therapist developmentinitiative is that you know when
you're doing this on your own,they're actually quite a bit
(05:59):
more work than I would haveexpected.
I've been on so many otherspeople's podcasts over over my
years and even having doing thatone with Jamie, I didn't
realize how much time and ittook to do these, so it's been a
learning curve for me in termsof the scripting and the
connecting with guests, and thenthe editing and the putting in
(06:24):
the sounds, and then, you know,putting in the little clips to
put on social media, which isusually put on Instagram and
Facebook.
It's been quite time consuming.
So one of the things that I wasable to do this year that's
made that process a little biteasier for me is I was able to
hire my first assistant.
So some of you may have hadconnections with Kate.
(06:45):
She's my virtual assistant andshe takes care of a lot of the
kind of back end stuff of thethings that I do, which includes
a lot of the stuff for thepodcast.
So that's exciting.
That's something I neverthought that I would need or
want.
But you know, one thing I havelearned over the last number of
(07:07):
years is that you know time is afinite resource and you know
when you can pay somebody elseto help you, to take time, to
give you more time, it's worthevery penny.
So I'm really appreciative ofKate and the work that she's
been able to do for me and so ifever you anybody contacts me
(07:32):
through email, and if youcontact me at the support at
ericperviscom email, thatactually goes to Kate.
So she also does a lot of mysocial media stuff.
So if you ever do get a chanceto connect with her, you know
just to say hi and you knowappreciate, say thank you,
because she's definitely makingmy life a lot easier.
I don't realize how many hoursI was spending doing things
(07:54):
until I had her support.
But in addition to the successof Purpose Versus is, you know
this, last year I startedactually doing my first paid
work as in Crickham Developmentand this has been something
that's been really, reallyexciting and it's something I'm
(08:16):
really passionate about.
And if anyone that has takencourses for me, or you guys that
listen to this podcast or otherpodcasts I'm on, I'm really
passionate about, you know,changing in a positive way the
professional massage therapy byadvancing us and moving towards
science and best practices andreally just like using the
(08:38):
evidence to inform what it isthat we do so that we can
provide higher value care to thepeople that come to seek our
support and our treatments.
And so I've done a lot of workwith schools and a lot of, you
know, talks with differentschools across the country and
you know the barrier that theyalways that I hear consistently
(09:01):
from everyone and I've probablyworked with about.
I'd have to stop and count, butI've probably done at least 10
different schools I've done.
I've contacted or I've been incontact with the deans of
education and I've had theopportunity just to speak to
classes and you know aboutdifferent things depending on
what the topic that they want toexplore and the feedback I
(09:26):
always get I shouldn't say oftenthe feedback I always get from
the students is you know, whydon't we learn this stuff in
school?
If this is what the science issaying, why don't we learn this
in school?
And it's a delicate discussiontoo to have, because you don't
want to throw the schools or theinstructors under the bus, but
the barrier always is oh, we'rejust, you know, we have to give
(09:49):
the students based on thecompetency documents.
We have to teach them based onthe approved textbooks from the
regulatory colleges, and Iunderstand that and I'm
appreciative of that, and itkind of sucks because it's a big
barrier when a school has toteach outdated content.
But I've been a huge believerand a huge advocate for a long
(10:12):
time that you can still teachbased on those competency
documents and get students topass tests, but giving them the
current science and bestpractices, and I know that
there's a way to do that.
Often there's barriers Peopleother schools didn't want to
(10:33):
invest in it or didn't feel thatit was their job because it's a
business and they were justpumping out students, and that's
fine and I can understand that.
But what I was really excitedabout, though, this year in 2023
, was the lovely people atVickers School of Massage
Therapy in Alberta reached outto me and hired me as a
curriculum advisor, and it hasbeen some of the most rewarding
(10:55):
work that I've ever done.
The team there of educators andthe owner wanted to basically
redo a curriculum that was basedon current best science, best
practices.
They wanted to get rid of theor revamp the way things were
being done, which was verystructural, postural,
(11:17):
biomechanical, focus andincorporate.
How do we keep the traditionsof massage therapy, how do we
keep the information there thatstudents need are going to need
to answer on a board exam, buthow can we also inform the
students with the currentscience?
And they have done a fantasticjob at revamping their
(11:40):
curriculum.
From what I have seen and thework that I've done with them
has been really really, reallyexciting and the faculty they
have there seems to be on boardwith it, and I am convinced and
excited that they're going tohave a lot of success in the
students that, coming out ofthat school in the next few
(12:02):
years, are probably going to beat a very high level of
knowledge, which is exciting tosee, and so, fingers crossed, I
look forward to seeing what thecompleted curriculum is, but
they won't start launching untilnear the end of 2024, I believe
.
But anyone here is listening tothis episode or listening to
(12:22):
this, or someone you know aneducator, or you know faculty at
school, or you know people thatown a school, or you work at a
school anything you can changethe curriculum, you can change
how things are being taughtwithout having to completely gut
(12:46):
the current program.
Ideally, that would befantastic, but for you know what
I think is a worthwhileinvestment you can make big
changes in your content andstart putting therapists out
there in the world that don'thave their heads filled with
useless or unhelpful information, and informing them so that
(13:12):
they understand what the currentscience says about how do we
treat people with pain, thecurrent science about how manual
therapy works.
You know, loaded up with lotsof the soft skills that are
necessary for communication andlistening and for how to use
movement and exercise.
And you know, exploration oftouch into a program is possible
(13:37):
, and so if you are listeningand you want to hear my thoughts
on that, or if you want to havea conversation with that,
please again connect with me,send me a message and I'd be
happy to talk to you about that.
So Vickers School MassageTherapy in Alberta good for you
guys.
I'm really excited to beworking with you and that's been
a big thing with me in 2023that I'm really proud of, and I
(13:57):
look forward to continuing mywork with them throughout 2024.
Also, too, another thing to lookforward to in 2024, which is as
I have created a couple newcourses, and I created them in
2023 and I taught them a coupletimes as kind of more of these.
You know, see how they go andtry and learn and develop them
(14:20):
even more, to develop them evenmore, to make them better.
But I did create two newcourses.
They're called Research toPractice for lower back and
pelvic pain.
Another one is called Researchto Practice for the neck and
shoulder, and what I did is allmy other courses that I've done
over the last number of yearshave had a lot of theory in them
(14:42):
and a lot of information, heavystuff, a lot of myth busting,
and you know they're moreinformation based and discussion
based rather than super heavy,practical.
So what I wanted to do withthese kind of next bunch of
courses is I wanted to take afurther step, more into what do
(15:02):
we do with this information.
Right, if you are familiar orcomfortable with kind of the
pain science stuff and kind ofmost of the evidence based
practice kind of things, thenthese courses I think are for
you in terms of, like, how do wetake that information and how
do we apply that in theseregional areas?
Right, how do we assess?
You know, how do we, and whatassessments do we use?
(15:25):
Which ones do we throw away?
Because we know there's lots ofstuff out there that you know
it talks about.
You know how most assessmentsaren't valid or reliable.
They don't have a.
Their sensitivity andspecificity isn't really that
great.
So these new courses we'refocusing on how to assess,
basically called assessment,made simple.
(15:45):
And then how do we?
You know, what do we do withour hands, with this information
?
Like, how do we, if we're goingto be evidence based and we
understand the what, what Idon't want to say limitations
but if we understand how, whatwe do when we have our hands on
people, how do we, how do weincorporate these things into
(16:06):
treatment?
Because a lot of stuff I say isright, just touch people nicely
, make people feel good, butwhat does that actually look
like in practice?
And so these courses, what I'vedone is I've really tried to
Make them as practical aspossible so you get your hands
on people, you get to practicedifferent techniques.
I'm going to show you, you know, my 16 years of of experience
(16:28):
clinically to try to dodifferent things with people and
give you Some perspectives onhow to touch people nicely and
and maybe a way that's differentfrom how you you would have
learned in other classes.
And so the, the similarities andlow back and pelvic pain, in
terms of how that course istaught, it follows a very
similar format.
Right, we go through a littlebit of the you know the, the,
(16:50):
the re are what do we call arehash or a Reminder of kind of
some of the pain science stuff,and we go from there into kind
of the, the, the current, likeRegional specific things you
know, like.
How do we determine if it'slike sadica or, like you know, a
pseudo sadica type thing orlike, is it a ridiculous pain or
(17:12):
is it, like you know, justmechanical low back pain or is
it, like you know, is therethings coming from the neck or
the shoulder, like is it frozenshoulder?
Is it, you know, do you havepain in the rotator cuff from?
Maybe it's a tendinopathy ormaybe it's, you know, you know a
tear or sprain, strain, thesekind of things.
(17:32):
So we go through all thedifferent kind of regional
presentations how to assess them, how to treat them and then we
focus a lot on like, how do weincorporate movement?
Well, the Person is on and offthe table in what I say is a
less prescriptive way.
So it's Giving you theclinician Freedom to not have to
follow a lot of specific rules.
(17:54):
Now I'll give you someprotocols in these courses and
and kind of.
So you have something to follow, like a, but it's not something
that it has to be Prescribed aspecific way.
So this is what I've done andwith my new courses, I thought
you know, I'm still teaching,potentially, my chronic pain
courses and these other onesthat I've been doing for a while
(18:16):
, but the, the new ones Ithought would be would be fun.
So I spent a good chunk of 2023just basically getting out
there and Reflecting on whatI've done and what I want to do,
and this is what I've come upwith.
And I did them twice this year.
I did one low back and pelvicpain and one neck and shoulder
one.
The feedback I heard was waspretty good, and so I've going.
(18:38):
I've even developed them evenmore to make them a little bit
More practical, so that'sexciting.
So if you are listening and youwant to take one of these
courses, you can.
All of my courses are on mywebsite, which is airpurposecom
slash courses.
But April 20th and 21st I'mgoing to be in Calgary, so this
is my lower back and pelvic paincourse, and then June 8th and
(19:02):
9th I'm gonna be in Kelowna forthe neck and shoulder that.
One's already got a bunch ofsales, so I'm excited that my BC
colleagues are looking forwardto taking that one.
I'm hoping that one willprobably sell out sooner than
later.
So that's exciting.
And I also got a couple newlocations this year where I'm
gonna be presenting and teaching.
(19:22):
I'm gonna be actually in Albany, new York, on July 27th 28th
and this is gonna be for a neckand shoulder course.
So if anybody here is listeningand you live in the state of
New York, this is approved bythe NCB TMB and it is approved
for 16 credits and it is gotapproved for the New York
sponsorship as well, and so I'mgonna be teaching that one.
(19:44):
So that should be fun and I'mgonna also be in May.
I'm gonna be teaching at MTAMso the Massage Therapist
Association in Manitoba at theirannual conference I'm gonna be
doing.
Last year I did a two-day lowback and pelvic pain course.
That was my first time I taughtthis version of that course.
(20:05):
But this year I'm gonna.
I'm breaking it up and I'mdoing a couple Shorter little
presentations.
I'm doing One on fibromyalgiawhich is just a half day.
I'm doing a full day on theneck and shoulder which is going
to be just basically thetwo-day course on fast forward.
Just kind of give you the, themain components of that.
(20:25):
And I'm doing anotherpresentation In there for
another just a little lecturepresentation on osteoarthritis.
So that should be fun.
And also another thing that'sexciting for this year for me is
I'm gonna be presenting myfirst conference in the United
States.
I, my fibromyalgia Managementpresentation for massage
therapists was accepted by theAMTA to as one of their
(20:52):
Presentations for next year inTampa, florida.
So I'm gonna be there onSeptember 12th.
So that should be fun.
I've never been to Florida.
It's a long ways to go for justa three hour presentation, but
I'm looking forward to that.
So that should be exciting andkind of.
Last but not least, for onething I've decided to do for
(21:15):
2024, which is going to beSomething.
I started this last year and Idid a couple webinars.
I've decided to do six of themthis year.
So last year I did afibromyalgia webinar, I did a
neck and shoulder webinar andthese ones were kind of just
testers to see.
Do people want to take like a90 minute or two hour webinar?
(21:40):
Is it valuable for them?
It's hard to teach practicalstuff in a webinar format, but
what I did do with the neck andshoulder one is I did include
about 20 minutes of recordedvideos for a couple of
assessment and movement things,a couple of hands on things and
(22:03):
a couple rehab type stuff, andso they were well attended and I
really appreciated everybodybeing there and I really
appreciated the feedback on howto make them better.
So I'm gonna do six differentwebinars for 2022, and these are
gonna be spread out throughoutthe year and I've got a couple
(22:24):
new ones in here as well.
Some of the new ones that I'mgonna be doing I'm gonna be
doing one on assessment andmeasurement.
So this is something that keepscoming up.
I find in the world of massagetherapy is people aren't really
sure about how to do specificassessment and measurements and
how to document that and how tosubmit that stuff to insurance
(22:47):
companies or how to submit thatstuff to you can get treatments
approved.
We are starting to see more andmore insurance companies that
are being a little bit funny andfinicky about approving
treatments or asking for RMTs todocument why treatments have
been going on for long periodsof time.
(23:07):
So I figured that this is fromsome conversations I've had with
people over the last probablyover the last year, but
definitely over the last fewmonths that this is something
that people are concerned about.
So part of my master's degree,I did an entire section on
basically evidence-basedassessment and measurement and
what do we use, like whatactually gives us an objective
(23:30):
measure that we can document andso we can show to not just our
clients or patients but also tothe insurance companies and say,
hey look, this is what theperson came in with, this is
what our findings were and thisis our treatment plan and this
is how they've improved, or not.
So basically this my assessmentand measurement webinar, which
(23:52):
I'm doing on April 8th, and thisone's gonna be more BC specific
, but I'm gonna be doing ittwice this year.
I'm gonna be doing one in Apriland another one is going to be
in November, november 13th.
The November 13th one isn't onmy website yet, but the April
8th one is.
You can find it on theairportvistcom slash courses.
This is gonna be basically takeyou through like what should we
(24:17):
do and what shouldn't we do?
So a lot of the ways that welearned massage therapy and
assessment was we learned thingslike a verbal, like a numerical
pain scale.
We learned range of motion.
We learned that we're supposedto be able to have like
objective palpation things, andwhat we realize when we look at
the science is that that stuffdoesn't really tell us a lot.
(24:38):
What really we need is we needmore patient reported, patient
reported outcome measures whichare standardized and which are
consistently shown to givereliable scores for people over
time.
And there's differentmeasurement instruments that you
(25:01):
can use for different areas ofthe body you know, like for the
neck, there's a couple we canuse for the neck.
For the low back, there's acouple we can use for the low
back.
There's these generalfunctional scores that we can
provide as well.
There's ones for the arm,there's ones for the lower
extremity and there's ones thatare specific just to pain and
pain generally or pain inspecific regions of the body.
(25:23):
So, with this, the reason I wantto do this webinar is I want to
give RMTs the tools and theconfidence to say, hey, patient
comes in after motor vehicleaccident, or patient comes in
after a workplace accident, andthis patient has been coming in
for a time and time and timeagain with the same kind of low
back pain.
How can I assess them?
How can I record an accuratemeasurement?
(25:44):
And then how could I use thatto justify a treatment plan or
to support a treatment plan orto decide that, hey, maybe now's
the time to refer out.
This is something that I don'tthink we are educated well on in
our profession.
So this webinar, I'm hoping, isan opportunity to share some of
that stuff with you, and soI've tried to make them as low
(26:07):
cost as possible and make themas accessible as possible, so
you can find those on my website.
I've also, too, decided to dosome more practical webinars as
well in terms of treatment stuff.
I found last year that doingthese webinars kind of
throughout the year was such agreat way to connect with people
(26:29):
from all over the world andgetting people to register and
take these webinars and learnwith me and learn with other
RMTs A really useful way, whichis simplicity is key.
We don't want to have to travel.
We want to be able to learnfrom the comfort of our home
(26:52):
often.
So these webinars are a way ofdoing that.
So I'll be doing one on low backand pelvis.
I'm going to be doing one onfibromyalgia again.
I'm going to do onespecifically on chronic pain,
which is kind of my meat andpotatoes one.
I like that one.
I've been doing that one thelongest, so that'll just be a
short webinar on that.
These will all be about 90minutes to two hours maximum.
(27:12):
I'll be doing one onosteoarthritis, which is a
new-ish one as well.
I'm going to be doing anotherone called the science of
massage.
I'll be a fun one too.
That's going to look at all ofthe what is massage therapy to
what happens within thatclinical encounter, what happens
when we put our hands on people, what happens when we interact
(27:36):
with people.
What's the science currentlysay is the less wrong
explanation for that?
That'll be something I'mexcited about doing as well this
year.
So there are lots of thingsgoing on in 2024, which are all
exciting A bunch of live courses, a bunch of webinars.
I still have some of thecurriculum and development going
on and as well as I have thispodcast to end to keep this
(28:01):
going.
So I'm going to keep thisepisode short, just to keep it
for less than 30 minutes.
So I could just kind of giveyou guys a thank you, talk about
the successes of my podcastthis year and just to give you,
my listeners, a heads up of whatis happening with me for next
year.
So if any of these thingsinterest you, you can find those
(28:22):
on my website and participateand register for these courses,
whether they're webinars or inperson.
So thank you for being heretoday.
If you enjoyed this episode,please subscribe to on your
favorite podcast network so youcan be notified of all future
episodes.
And also, if you want to watchor listen on YouTube, subscribe
(28:43):
like it there.
And please, please, please.
I would really, reallyappreciate your support to share
the podcast or share specificepisodes on your social media
platforms and please tag me.
I'd really appreciate to seewho's listening and what you
have to say and what you likedabout the episodes.
And, like I said at thebeginning of this episode, if
(29:04):
you can connect with me, say hey, yes, eric, I listen, this is
where I live.
Thank you very much for puttingthese out, or this is what I'd
like to see more of.
Your feedback is really, reallyappreciated, so thank you again
for all your support in 2023.
Happy New Year to each of you,and I look forward to connecting
with as many of you as possible, whether it's live or online,
(29:27):
in 2024.
Thank you.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Purves Versus
.
My name is Eric Purves.
I'm a registered massagetherapist, course creator,
continuing education providerand curriculum advisor for
massage therapy education.
I am passionate about advancingmassage therapy towards current
science and adoptingevidence-based best practices.
Thank you for listening andbeing here today.
If you enjoy my podcast, pleaseshare it on social media and
(00:30):
subscribe to be notified of allnew episodes.
This podcast is also availableto be viewed and listened to on
YouTube, so please check us outthere.
Hey everybody, thanks for beinghere today.
This is going to be just metoday, just chatting with you.
Happy New Year.
This is my end of the year happynew year episode and I just
(00:51):
wanted to take some time just tokind of go through and talk
about some of the events of 2023that are worth mentioning, as
well as telling you, my loyallisteners, what is up with me
for 2024.
It's crazy to meet it, to feelit, to see that there's the end
(01:12):
of another year.
I know, when I was younger andprobably most of you feel the
same way that your parents andyour grandparents would say
things like oh, you know, whenyou get my age, you know I'm
just flies and maybe I'm at thatage now?
I don't like to think I am, butI do feel that time goes by
pretty darn quick.
It's crazy to think that fouryears ago, we were just on the
(01:35):
verge of COVID hitting our livesand changing the world and
really impacting all of us insome way, shape or form, and so
that was four years ago now, andI just find that really crazy
to think.
So I wanted to say just firstoff, for those of you that are
here and listening to, thank youvery much for being supportive
(01:58):
of my podcast this.
I launched my first episode inApril of 2023, and I started
recording my episodes at the endof 2022, and I wanted to make
sure I had a good library ofthem first before I launched the
podcast, and I still have quitea few new ones to put out for
(02:21):
next year, for 2024, and I'mreally excited about the guests
and the topics that we are goingto explore.
What I would like to say,though, is that if there are any
topics that you guys areinterested in, or any guests or
things that you would like tohear more about, please let me
(02:43):
know, because I enjoy doingthese podcasts, but I'm happy to
explore some things that you,my listeners, are looking to
hear more about.
So if you have any comments orany suggestions, please feel
free to contact me.
Easiest way, probably, is tosend me an email which is hello
at ericperviscom.
(03:04):
Or you can send me a DM onFacebook or Instagram which is
just ericpervisrmt and let meknow what you think.
The thing that's kind of funnywith doing these podcasts is
that you never really know whois listening.
And I get my stats of how manydownloads I've had and how many
(03:26):
minutes and what countries arefrom, but unless somebody
actually tells me they'relistening, I actually have no
idea.
So one thing I would love foryou if you are listening to this
episode right now, pause it andconnect with me.
Let me know whether you post iton social media and you can tag
me, or you can just take aminute to send me an email and
say hey, I'm listening to yourpodcast.
I would love to hear that,because I have no idea who
(03:49):
actually is listening to thesethings.
There's quite a few of you thatare, and that's fantastic, but
yeah, I would like to put somenames to the download numbers.
And just speaking of downloadnumbers, actually this is a
thing that's kind of fun.
I'm all about numbers and dataand stats and those kind of
things.
But when I got a notificationhere for end of the year through
(04:12):
my podcast, the Buzzsprout, whoI do my podcast through and I
have no idea if this is good ornot, but it said my podcast is
in the top 50% of all podcasts,so I don't know, I mean there's
millions of podcasts out there,probably, so I was probably not
saying much.
But hey, you know it's betterthan being in the.
You know, maybe I'm 50.1%, Idon't know.
(04:33):
I was surprised to see that.
And I was really excited to seetoo that this year that my
podcast was listened to in 15different countries, which to me
it just blew my mind.
I would have thought you know,where do I have?
Where do people, where do Iknow people from you know that
follow me, canada, the US, theUK, new Zealand, australia.
(04:55):
That's five, so there's 10other countries out there that
people are listening from.
So, yeah, let me know if youare listening to this, let me
know where you're from, not justyou know, don't just connect
with me and say hi, my name is,you know, john Smith, and I
listen to say yeah, I'm JohnSmith and I'm from wherever.
I'd like to know where you'refrom, what countries are
(05:17):
listening to this, and what alsoit's exciting about the podcast
is that there has beenincreased the number of
downloads and listenership,since every episode seems to get
faster in terms of how manypeople reach a certain threshold
(05:39):
of downloads, so that'sexciting to see, so I'm really
appreciative of that.
It has been interesting, though,doing this podcast compared to
how when I did the other onewith my friend Jamie, the
massage therapist developmentinitiative is that you know when
you're doing this on your own,they're actually quite a bit
(05:59):
more work than I would haveexpected.
I've been on so many otherspeople's podcasts over over my
years and even having doing thatone with Jamie, I didn't
realize how much time and ittook to do these, so it's been a
learning curve for me in termsof the scripting and the
connecting with guests, and thenthe editing and the putting in
(06:24):
the sounds, and then, you know,putting in the little clips to
put on social media, which isusually put on Instagram and
Facebook.
It's been quite time consuming.
So one of the things that I wasable to do this year that's
made that process a little biteasier for me is I was able to
hire my first assistant.
So some of you may have hadconnections with Kate.
(06:45):
She's my virtual assistant andshe takes care of a lot of the
kind of back end stuff of thethings that I do, which includes
a lot of the stuff for thepodcast.
So that's exciting.
That's something I neverthought that I would need or
want.
But you know, one thing I havelearned over the last number of
(07:07):
years is that you know time is afinite resource and you know
when you can pay somebody elseto help you, to take time, to
give you more time, it's worthevery penny.
So I'm really appreciative ofKate and the work that she's
been able to do for me and so ifever you anybody contacts me
(07:32):
through email, and if youcontact me at the support at
ericperviscom email, thatactually goes to Kate.
So she also does a lot of mysocial media stuff.
So if you ever do get a chanceto connect with her, you know
just to say hi and you knowappreciate, say thank you,
because she's definitely makingmy life a lot easier.
I don't realize how many hoursI was spending doing things
(07:54):
until I had her support.
But in addition to the successof Purpose Versus is, you know
this, last year I startedactually doing my first paid
work as in Crickham Developmentand this has been something
that's been really, reallyexciting and it's something I'm
(08:16):
really passionate about.
And if anyone that has takencourses for me, or you guys that
listen to this podcast or otherpodcasts I'm on, I'm really
passionate about, you know,changing in a positive way the
professional massage therapy byadvancing us and moving towards
science and best practices andreally just like using the
(08:38):
evidence to inform what it isthat we do so that we can
provide higher value care to thepeople that come to seek our
support and our treatments.
And so I've done a lot of workwith schools and a lot of, you
know, talks with differentschools across the country and
you know the barrier that theyalways that I hear consistently
(09:01):
from everyone and I've probablyworked with about.
I'd have to stop and count, butI've probably done at least 10
different schools I've done.
I've contacted or I've been incontact with the deans of
education and I've had theopportunity just to speak to
classes and you know aboutdifferent things depending on
what the topic that they want toexplore and the feedback I
(09:26):
always get I shouldn't say oftenthe feedback I always get from
the students is you know, whydon't we learn this stuff in
school?
If this is what the science issaying, why don't we learn this
in school?
And it's a delicate discussiontoo to have, because you don't
want to throw the schools or theinstructors under the bus, but
the barrier always is oh, we'rejust, you know, we have to give
(09:49):
the students based on thecompetency documents.
We have to teach them based onthe approved textbooks from the
regulatory colleges, and Iunderstand that and I'm
appreciative of that, and itkind of sucks because it's a big
barrier when a school has toteach outdated content.
But I've been a huge believerand a huge advocate for a long
(10:12):
time that you can still teachbased on those competency
documents and get students topass tests, but giving them the
current science and bestpractices, and I know that
there's a way to do that.
Often there's barriers Peopleother schools didn't want to
(10:33):
invest in it or didn't feel thatit was their job because it's a
business and they were justpumping out students, and that's
fine and I can understand that.
But what I was really excitedabout, though, this year in 2023
, was the lovely people atVickers School of Massage
Therapy in Alberta reached outto me and hired me as a
curriculum advisor, and it hasbeen some of the most rewarding
(10:55):
work that I've ever done.
The team there of educators andthe owner wanted to basically
redo a curriculum that was basedon current best science, best
practices.
They wanted to get rid of theor revamp the way things were
being done, which was verystructural, postural,
(11:17):
biomechanical, focus andincorporate.
How do we keep the traditionsof massage therapy, how do we
keep the information there thatstudents need are going to need
to answer on a board exam, buthow can we also inform the
students with the currentscience?
And they have done a fantasticjob at revamping their
(11:40):
curriculum.
From what I have seen and thework that I've done with them
has been really really, reallyexciting and the faculty they
have there seems to be on boardwith it, and I am convinced and
excited that they're going tohave a lot of success in the
students that, coming out ofthat school in the next few
(12:02):
years, are probably going to beat a very high level of
knowledge, which is exciting tosee, and so, fingers crossed, I
look forward to seeing what thecompleted curriculum is, but
they won't start launching untilnear the end of 2024, I believe
.
But anyone here is listening tothis episode or listening to
(12:22):
this, or someone you know aneducator, or you know faculty at
school, or you know people thatown a school, or you work at a
school anything you can changethe curriculum, you can change
how things are being taughtwithout having to completely gut
(12:46):
the current program.
Ideally, that would befantastic, but for you know what
I think is a worthwhileinvestment you can make big
changes in your content andstart putting therapists out
there in the world that don'thave their heads filled with
useless or unhelpful information, and informing them so that
(13:12):
they understand what the currentscience says about how do we
treat people with pain, thecurrent science about how manual
therapy works.
You know, loaded up with lotsof the soft skills that are
necessary for communication andlistening and for how to use
movement and exercise.
And you know, exploration oftouch into a program is possible
(13:37):
, and so if you are listeningand you want to hear my thoughts
on that, or if you want to havea conversation with that,
please again connect with me,send me a message and I'd be
happy to talk to you about that.
So Vickers School MassageTherapy in Alberta good for you
guys.
I'm really excited to beworking with you and that's been
a big thing with me in 2023that I'm really proud of, and I
(13:57):
look forward to continuing mywork with them throughout 2024.
Also, too, another thing to lookforward to in 2024, which is as
I have created a couple newcourses, and I created them in
2023 and I taught them a coupletimes as kind of more of these.
You know, see how they go andtry and learn and develop them
(14:20):
even more, to develop them evenmore, to make them better.
But I did create two newcourses.
They're called Research toPractice for lower back and
pelvic pain.
Another one is called Researchto Practice for the neck and
shoulder, and what I did is allmy other courses that I've done
over the last number of yearshave had a lot of theory in them
(14:42):
and a lot of information, heavystuff, a lot of myth busting,
and you know they're moreinformation based and discussion
based rather than super heavy,practical.
So what I wanted to do withthese kind of next bunch of
courses is I wanted to take afurther step, more into what do
(15:02):
we do with this information.
Right, if you are familiar orcomfortable with kind of the
pain science stuff and kind ofmost of the evidence based
practice kind of things, thenthese courses I think are for
you in terms of, like, how do wetake that information and how
do we apply that in theseregional areas?
Right, how do we assess?
You know, how do we, and whatassessments do we use?
(15:25):
Which ones do we throw away?
Because we know there's lots ofstuff out there that you know
it talks about.
You know how most assessmentsaren't valid or reliable.
They don't have a.
Their sensitivity andspecificity isn't really that
great.
So these new courses we'refocusing on how to assess,
basically called assessment,made simple.
(15:45):
And then how do we?
You know, what do we do withour hands, with this information
?
Like, how do we, if we're goingto be evidence based and we
understand the what, what Idon't want to say limitations
but if we understand how, whatwe do when we have our hands on
people, how do we, how do weincorporate these things into
(16:06):
treatment?
Because a lot of stuff I say isright, just touch people nicely
, make people feel good, butwhat does that actually look
like in practice?
And so these courses, what I'vedone is I've really tried to
Make them as practical aspossible so you get your hands
on people, you get to practicedifferent techniques.
I'm going to show you, you know, my 16 years of of experience
(16:28):
clinically to try to dodifferent things with people and
give you Some perspectives onhow to touch people nicely and
and maybe a way that's differentfrom how you you would have
learned in other classes.
And so the, the similarities andlow back and pelvic pain, in
terms of how that course istaught, it follows a very
similar format.
Right, we go through a littlebit of the you know the, the,
(16:50):
the re are what do we call arehash or a Reminder of kind of
some of the pain science stuff,and we go from there into kind
of the, the, the current, likeRegional specific things you
know, like.
How do we determine if it'slike sadica or, like you know, a
pseudo sadica type thing orlike, is it a ridiculous pain or
(17:12):
is it, like you know, justmechanical low back pain or is
it, like you know, is therethings coming from the neck or
the shoulder, like is it frozenshoulder?
Is it, you know, do you havepain in the rotator cuff from?
Maybe it's a tendinopathy ormaybe it's, you know, you know a
tear or sprain, strain, thesekind of things.
(17:32):
So we go through all thedifferent kind of regional
presentations how to assess them, how to treat them and then we
focus a lot on like, how do weincorporate movement?
Well, the Person is on and offthe table in what I say is a
less prescriptive way.
So it's Giving you theclinician Freedom to not have to
follow a lot of specific rules.
(17:54):
Now I'll give you someprotocols in these courses and
and kind of.
So you have something to follow, like a, but it's not something
that it has to be Prescribed aspecific way.
So this is what I've done andwith my new courses, I thought
you know, I'm still teaching,potentially, my chronic pain
courses and these other onesthat I've been doing for a while
(18:16):
, but the, the new ones Ithought would be would be fun.
So I spent a good chunk of 2023just basically getting out
there and Reflecting on whatI've done and what I want to do,
and this is what I've come upwith.
And I did them twice this year.
I did one low back and pelvicpain and one neck and shoulder
one.
The feedback I heard was waspretty good, and so I've going.
(18:38):
I've even developed them evenmore to make them a little bit
More practical, so that'sexciting.
So if you are listening and youwant to take one of these
courses, you can.
All of my courses are on mywebsite, which is airpurposecom
slash courses.
But April 20th and 21st I'mgoing to be in Calgary, so this
is my lower back and pelvic paincourse, and then June 8th and
(19:02):
9th I'm gonna be in Kelowna forthe neck and shoulder that.
One's already got a bunch ofsales, so I'm excited that my BC
colleagues are looking forwardto taking that one.
I'm hoping that one willprobably sell out sooner than
later.
So that's exciting.
And I also got a couple newlocations this year where I'm
gonna be presenting and teaching.
(19:22):
I'm gonna be actually in Albany, new York, on July 27th 28th
and this is gonna be for a neckand shoulder course.
So if anybody here is listeningand you live in the state of
New York, this is approved bythe NCB TMB and it is approved
for 16 credits and it is gotapproved for the New York
sponsorship as well, and so I'mgonna be teaching that one.
(19:44):
So that should be fun and I'mgonna also be in May.
I'm gonna be teaching at MTAMso the Massage Therapist
Association in Manitoba at theirannual conference I'm gonna be
doing.
Last year I did a two-day lowback and pelvic pain course.
That was my first time I taughtthis version of that course.
(20:05):
But this year I'm gonna.
I'm breaking it up and I'mdoing a couple Shorter little
presentations.
I'm doing One on fibromyalgiawhich is just a half day.
I'm doing a full day on theneck and shoulder which is going
to be just basically thetwo-day course on fast forward.
Just kind of give you the, themain components of that.
(20:25):
And I'm doing anotherpresentation In there for
another just a little lecturepresentation on osteoarthritis.
So that should be fun.
And also another thing that'sexciting for this year for me is
I'm gonna be presenting myfirst conference in the United
States.
I, my fibromyalgia Managementpresentation for massage
therapists was accepted by theAMTA to as one of their
(20:52):
Presentations for next year inTampa, florida.
So I'm gonna be there onSeptember 12th.
So that should be fun.
I've never been to Florida.
It's a long ways to go for justa three hour presentation, but
I'm looking forward to that.
So that should be exciting andkind of.
Last but not least, for onething I've decided to do for
(21:15):
2024, which is going to beSomething.
I started this last year and Idid a couple webinars.
I've decided to do six of themthis year.
So last year I did afibromyalgia webinar, I did a
neck and shoulder webinar andthese ones were kind of just
testers to see.
Do people want to take like a90 minute or two hour webinar?
(21:40):
Is it valuable for them?
It's hard to teach practicalstuff in a webinar format, but
what I did do with the neck andshoulder one is I did include
about 20 minutes of recordedvideos for a couple of
assessment and movement things,a couple of hands on things and
(22:03):
a couple rehab type stuff, andso they were well attended and I
really appreciated everybodybeing there and I really
appreciated the feedback on howto make them better.
So I'm gonna do six differentwebinars for 2022, and these are
gonna be spread out throughoutthe year and I've got a couple
(22:24):
new ones in here as well.
Some of the new ones that I'mgonna be doing I'm gonna be
doing one on assessment andmeasurement.
So this is something that keepscoming up.
I find in the world of massagetherapy is people aren't really
sure about how to do specificassessment and measurements and
how to document that and how tosubmit that stuff to insurance
(22:47):
companies or how to submit thatstuff to you can get treatments
approved.
We are starting to see more andmore insurance companies that
are being a little bit funny andfinicky about approving
treatments or asking for RMTs todocument why treatments have
been going on for long periodsof time.
(23:07):
So I figured that this is fromsome conversations I've had with
people over the last probablyover the last year, but
definitely over the last fewmonths that this is something
that people are concerned about.
So part of my master's degree,I did an entire section on
basically evidence-basedassessment and measurement and
what do we use, like whatactually gives us an objective
(23:30):
measure that we can document andso we can show to not just our
clients or patients but also tothe insurance companies and say,
hey look, this is what theperson came in with, this is
what our findings were and thisis our treatment plan and this
is how they've improved, or not.
So basically this my assessmentand measurement webinar, which
(23:52):
I'm doing on April 8th, and thisone's gonna be more BC specific
, but I'm gonna be doing ittwice this year.
I'm gonna be doing one in Apriland another one is going to be
in November, november 13th.
The November 13th one isn't onmy website yet, but the April
8th one is.
You can find it on theairportvistcom slash courses.
This is gonna be basically takeyou through like what should we
(24:17):
do and what shouldn't we do?
So a lot of the ways that welearned massage therapy and
assessment was we learned thingslike a verbal, like a numerical
pain scale.
We learned range of motion.
We learned that we're supposedto be able to have like
objective palpation things, andwhat we realize when we look at
the science is that that stuffdoesn't really tell us a lot.
(24:38):
What really we need is we needmore patient reported, patient
reported outcome measures whichare standardized and which are
consistently shown to givereliable scores for people over
time.
And there's differentmeasurement instruments that you
(25:01):
can use for different areas ofthe body you know, like for the
neck, there's a couple we canuse for the neck.
For the low back, there's acouple we can use for the low
back.
There's these generalfunctional scores that we can
provide as well.
There's ones for the arm,there's ones for the lower
extremity and there's ones thatare specific just to pain and
pain generally or pain inspecific regions of the body.
(25:23):
So, with this, the reason I wantto do this webinar is I want to
give RMTs the tools and theconfidence to say, hey, patient
comes in after motor vehicleaccident, or patient comes in
after a workplace accident, andthis patient has been coming in
for a time and time and timeagain with the same kind of low
back pain.
How can I assess them?
How can I record an accuratemeasurement?
(25:44):
And then how could I use thatto justify a treatment plan or
to support a treatment plan orto decide that, hey, maybe now's
the time to refer out.
This is something that I don'tthink we are educated well on in
our profession.
So this webinar, I'm hoping, isan opportunity to share some of
that stuff with you, and soI've tried to make them as low
(26:07):
cost as possible and make themas accessible as possible, so
you can find those on my website.
I've also, too, decided to dosome more practical webinars as
well in terms of treatment stuff.
I found last year that doingthese webinars kind of
throughout the year was such agreat way to connect with people
(26:29):
from all over the world andgetting people to register and
take these webinars and learnwith me and learn with other
RMTs A really useful way, whichis simplicity is key.
We don't want to have to travel.
We want to be able to learnfrom the comfort of our home
(26:52):
often.
So these webinars are a way ofdoing that.
So I'll be doing one on low backand pelvis.
I'm going to be doing one onfibromyalgia again.
I'm going to do onespecifically on chronic pain,
which is kind of my meat andpotatoes one.
I like that one.
I've been doing that one thelongest, so that'll just be a
short webinar on that.
These will all be about 90minutes to two hours maximum.
(27:12):
I'll be doing one onosteoarthritis, which is a
new-ish one as well.
I'm going to be doing anotherone called the science of
massage.
I'll be a fun one too.
That's going to look at all ofthe what is massage therapy to
what happens within thatclinical encounter, what happens
when we put our hands on people, what happens when we interact
(27:36):
with people.
What's the science currentlysay is the less wrong
explanation for that?
That'll be something I'mexcited about doing as well this
year.
So there are lots of thingsgoing on in 2024, which are all
exciting A bunch of live courses, a bunch of webinars.
I still have some of thecurriculum and development going
on and as well as I have thispodcast to end to keep this
(28:01):
going.
So I'm going to keep thisepisode short, just to keep it
for less than 30 minutes.
So I could just kind of giveyou guys a thank you, talk about
the successes of my podcastthis year and just to give you,
my listeners, a heads up of whatis happening with me for next
year.
So if any of these thingsinterest you, you can find those
(28:22):
on my website and participateand register for these courses,
whether they're webinars or inperson.
So thank you for being heretoday.
If you enjoyed this episode,please subscribe to on your
favorite podcast network so youcan be notified of all future
episodes.
And also, if you want to watchor listen on YouTube, subscribe
(28:43):
like it there.
And please, please, please.
I would really, reallyappreciate your support to share
the podcast or share specificepisodes on your social media
platforms and please tag me.
I'd really appreciate to seewho's listening and what you
have to say and what you likedabout the episodes.
And, like I said at thebeginning of this episode, if
(29:04):
you can connect with me, say hey, yes, eric, I listen, this is
where I live.
Thank you very much for puttingthese out, or this is what I'd
like to see more of.
Your feedback is really, reallyappreciated, so thank you again
for all your support in 2023.
Happy New Year to each of you,and I look forward to connecting
with as many of you as possible, whether it's live or online,
(29:27):
in 2024.
Thank you.
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