The Rub: a podcast about massage therapy
Join Healwell in examining and bringing context to the world of massage therapy beyond the table. We have ideas. We have opinions. We want change, and that will only come with an understanding of who and what massage therapy truly is. A variety of topics are up for grabs: history, philosophy, development, and all the other shiny things that fascinate us. Healwell is a non-profit based out of the Washington DC area. Check us out at www.healwell.org
Episodes
I don’t usually write about hope, because it is not a strategy and strategy is my jam. Like Pandora, I keep a lid on my hope.
Article Footnotes:
1
The nice thing about myths is that you can read them any way you like. There is a lot of disagreement about Pandora, why Hope was at the bottom of the box, and why she closed the lid to keep it there. My read is that Hope is the thing you hang onto while all the ev...
As I walk I see many things. I regularly come across encampments of people who have something a bit better than what “was” but which is still shy of what I imagine is possible. They smile and wave and tell me I can stop because they’ve done it. It’s good here. They’ve achieved it. “Don’t make it so hard,” they tell me. I see them and believe that they have, perhaps, re...
Don't let them bring you down.
If you have spent even a year or two in this profession, I bet you have felt a familiar, exhausting sense of déjà vu. We keep having the same arguments about entry-level education, whether we belong in hospitals or high-end spas. We argue about franchise pay and work conditions, the definition of “professionalism,” and we wonder vaguely (but never actually measure or study!)...
Why we struggle to talk about the harassment of massage therapists
Content warning: The following essay contains a generalized discussion of sexual harassment and assault. Please take any precautions you may need before engaging.
There are MANY links to references in this article, so please visit the original article to see them.
We (Corey and Cal) know that generative AI is a hot button question. We think it is a more nuanced conversation than “love it” or “hate it.” This article is about transparency. It is about how we (Corey and Cal) think about the tool that is generative AI, how we use it in our work, and w...
What I have seen most commonly, is that we bring massage therapy students to give “a massage” to medical students or others learning to be healthcare professionals (nurses, physical therapists). Maybe our students talk about what they’re doing during that massage, but we don’t prepare our students to engage with the students from these other disciplines as peers.
When we learn together, we hea...
The next two articles will only be available for our Substack members, and will not be posted to this podcast. To subscribe to the Substack and receive the articles and audio to your email, click here.
I spend many of my days lost in thought. It isn’t unusual for me to lose track of a conversation because a stray idea occurred to me.
Sometimes I get overwhelmed when I read a paper or a book or listen to co...
There are many massage therapists who have worked incredibly hard to open doors in clinical settings. We have spent decades building trust, demonstrating value, and carving out space for our work in environments that didn’t initially (and often still don’t) understand or welcome us as practitioners of a uniquely valuable discipline. That pioneering work has created real impact for pa...
Read the original article here
There’s no way for the associations to know our wishes if we don’t say them out loud. If we want the power to come from the bottom of the pyramid, we have to accept responsibility and ownership of that power. That doesn’t mean saying “I demand you fix my problem” it means saying “I need this specific thing from you in order to fix this problem.”
...
What exactly do we mean when we call ourselves “healthcare providers”?
“Healthcare provider” does not mean the same thing everywhere. Depending on the state, it might mean defined scope and enforceable accountability. It could relate to insurance participation. Maybe it means elevated liability standards.
Worst case, it might mean mostly vibes.
These variations aren’t trivial. Once the lab...
Why we don’t need to get along to get along.
Not all problems are created equal, and the methods that will solve one kind are very different from what you need to solve the other. Oftentimes problems are a combination of simple, complicated, or complex; or vacillate between the distinctions with time. Thinking about the features of each can help us decide how to approach them.
This article is a companion to this...
It’s Time to Stop Going to Aunt Tricia’s
This article is a companion to this one written by Corey. These articles represent each author's independent perspective, and were written without our usual collaborative input. We are super excited about them.
Every technical debate in massage therapy is displacement activity.
Every. Single. One.
We argue about measurement systems (clock hours vs. credit hours)...
Recently several of Corey's projects have come across the same stumbling block: a lot of people believe many skills can’t be taught. This has come up in my poking around the topics of therapeutic relationships, compassion, supervision, writing, and emotional labor.
In each of these areas, there is a pervasive fallacy that the reason a person is good at a skill is the result of a mystical innate genius. So...
What's the plan for The Rub and Healwell in 2026?
Subscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands"
Send us an email: podcast@healwell.org
Leave us a voice message: 703-468-1799
Check out our interview-style podcast: Interdisciplinary
You can support Healwell and the cool things we make by donating here!
Ways join in:
- Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts
- Check out Healwell&...
We’ve all felt the frustration. How can we make therapeutic massage accessible? On top of that, how can we do that while maintaining professional value and sustainability? Many well-intentioned practitioners turn to volunteerism as a solution, offering free services at community events, for hospital staff, at health fairs, and just about anywhere else we’re invited.
While this i...
Welcome to Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRNs); a simple idea with big potential!
The Massage Therapy Foundation is building MassageNet, the largest (and only) international PBRN dedicated specifically to therapeutic massage.
And they’re building it for you.
Subscribe to our Substack: "More Than Hands"
Send us an email: podcast@healwell.org
Leave us a voice message:&nb...
Emotional labor is work that involves managing your and other people’s emotions. Emotion management (also known as emotion work) is how you actively shape and direct your feelings. Emotion management happens internally and is a private activity. It becomes emotional labor when that private activity becomes public work.
This distinction matters.
Subscribe to our Substac...
“Everyone who is engaging with humans—as a teacher, a psychotherapist, as a bodyworker—should be aware of the state of the other,” Porges explained.
It’s not dismissive to say this. It’s foundational. Take a moment to consider how often you truly do this in your work. I’m not talking about structural or postural assessment, at least not in the way ...
The massage therapy profession has problems. We have so many problems, those problems have bred and now have enough problematic offspring to hold a problematic family reunion.
You’re probably reading our Substack because you see these problems and you want to know how to fix them. You’ve probably thought of some plans yourself. How many times have we all had conversations that start ...
The Work We Do But Won’t Name
Scholars who study labor have a term for work that involves “particularized knowledge and sustained personal attention.” They call it intimate labor. According to scholar Viviana Zelizer’s framework, this work includes things like shared secrets, bodily information, awareness of personal vulnerability, interpersonal rituals, and private langu...
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