Ruth Werner, A Massage Therapist’s Guide to Pathology

A good, solid pathology book is indispensable to any professional health care practitioner. Ruth Werner’s book is one of the top pathology books relating to the Massage Therapy Industry. She provides essential information on a wide variety of ailments and diseases that effect the different body systems. She provides a definition of the disease, possible causes, possible complications, signs and symptoms, and methods of treatments available, in very nice detail. Then she gives you the handy dandy “little gray box”, which allows you quick answers to: what the condition is; how is it recognized; and is massage contraindicated or not. All extremely useful and necessary information, so one can best serve, or in some cases not serve, their clients. She also provides color plates of certain skin conditions and photographs depicting particular diseases. An invaluable resource well worth the investment.

Randal S. Persad, Massage Therapy & Medications

I like this book because not only is the author a pharmacist in Canada, but he is also a practicing massage therapist and instructor with very impressive credentials, so that lends a certain relevance to his writing. As the author says, although very different modalities, the purpose of both medications and massage is to affect a change on a physical or psychological level, to assist the patient/client in restoring health and quality of life. Any time we ingest a medication it alters the normal responses of the body in some way. When you add to that the physical manipulations of massage/bodywork, this can alter the body’s normal responses further in some way. Sometimes this combination is a non issue, but at times it can result in adverse effects. This book reviews commonly used drugs/drug categories and gives the therapist the basic knowledge of their actions and effects. It is the responsibility of the therapist to educate themselves so they can provide safe and effective therapy for their clients. This book assists with that education. It would be nice, however, if they could update the information periodically, since new drugs are becoming available at rapid rates, and older ones may not be in use any more. The copyright on this book is 2001.

Nina McIntosh, The Educated Heart

A well thought-out, unparalleled guide for any manual therapist discussing professionalism and all that it entails. It gives consideration to building and maintaining boundaries; guidelines for making ethical choices; and very useful examples taken from real life situations, with regard to the perceived power imbalance, sexual issues, money issues, dual relationships, and more. An essential tool to read all the way through, and then refer back to as necessary.

Lauriann Greene, Save Your Hands!

This book offers clear and practical information on how to safeguard the longevity of your career, by saving your hands. Although the author is not a practicing massage therapist (but a person who injured herself during massage school, and never began a practice), I still think it has merit, and could be very useful especially to those students who don’t have much background in physical education (sports, stretching, etc.) of any kind.

Michio Kushi, How to See Your Health: Book of Oriental Diagnosis

An in depth and fascinating work written for everyone – health care professionals and those interested in just learning more about themselves, and how they can promote better health. Through keen observation of certain irregularities in posture, facial features, the extremities, etc., you can learn how to detect potential problems even before symptoms are exhibited, thus giving you the ability to take preventative measures before you get sick.

Clair Davies, Amber Davies, and David G. Simons, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Second Edition

Not only have the techniques in this book saved me on several occasions when I found myself in a lot of pain, but it is has proven to be a fantastic tool for really understanding the muscles, their related trigger points, and subsequent referred pain patterns. Based on the brilliant work of Dr. Janet Travell, and Dr. David Simons, the author embraces their work, and presents it back to us in simple, reasonable terms, that practitioner and layperson alike can understand and instantly utilize. The drawings are very helpful and the information is extremely well organized. Buy this book if you have pain, or if you are a practitioner in the healing arts, you will refer to it often.

Silver Educational Publishing, The Ultimate Study Guide for the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork: Key Review Questions and Answers, Volume 1: Human Anatomy, Physiology, and Kinesiology; Volume 2: Clinical Pathology and Recognition of Various Conditions; Volume 3: Massage Therapy and Bodywork: Theory, Assessment and Application, Ethics and Business Practices.

This 3 volume set is an excellent, if not a bit over the top, review that should completely prepare you for the NCTMB. The main thing I don’t like about it though, is it is extremely difficult to read for any length of time because of the black ink on bright red paper – something they should have considered before printing. For content though, if you study these manuals, it is highly unlikely that you wouldn’t pass the test, they are that thorough. I have taken the test twice now over the past 5 years. Passed on the first try each time. The first time I took the test I used a different book which had a disc with it that made it easier to study, and then you could take the sample tests on your computer. Unfortunately, I lent that book to someone and I haven’t seen it since, and can’t remember the author either. Anyway, the above volumes were really more comprehensive, so by the time I took the test this past time, the test seemed to be completely easy. Which is interesting, because it supposedly was going to cover more topics than last time. Of course, supposedly no two tests are alike, maybe I just got lucky.