The Mind-Body Connection: Therapeutic Massage and Mental Health

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The Mind-Body ConnectionTherapeutic Massage and
Mental Health

• Karen M. Lane, LMT
• April 24,2015
• NAMI Wisconsin Annual Conference Marriott West
  Middleton, WI

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What is Therapeutic Massage

• Therapeutic massage is a general term that
  describes any type of massage modality that helps
  relieve pain, reduce stress, and work on a
  specific problem
• The manual manipulation of soft tissues including
  skin, muscles, ligaments, and tendons.

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The Science

• While many benefits of massage are still
  disconcertingly uncertain and hotly debated (by
  some), there are two truly proven ones. Massage
  researcher and psychologist Dr. Christopher
  explains that the only truly confirmed benefits
  of massage are its effects on mood and sleep.

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The Science

• massage reduces depression
• massage reduces anxiety
• Improves sleep
• Reduces blood pressure
• Decreases cortisol
• Increases serotonin and dopamine
• Increases oxytocin (the trust hormone)

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Massage and Reducing Trauma Responses

• http//www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/Cortisol_Decrease
  s_and_Serotonin_and_Dopamine_Increase_Following_Ma
  ssage_Therapy.pdf
• The release of oxytocin into the blood steam is
  thought to have important effects, both
  psychological and physiological. Some results
  from recent studies, include
• Autism Children with autism have been found to
  have significantly lower levels of oxytocin, as
  well as hyperactivity in the amagdyla where most
  oxytocin receptors are located. Studies on
  individuals with autism have shown a reduction in
  repetitive behaviors when oxytocin was introduced
  intravenously.

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Massage and Reducing Trauma Responses

• Increasing Trust Human subjects given oxytocin
  via a nasal spray, displayed a higher level of
  trust twice as often as the control group. In
  one study, small doses of inhaled oxytocin
  reduced the wariness of strangers in volunteers,
  while another appeared to make them more
  empathetic and generous with their money.
• Reducing Anxiety Clinical trials using oxytocin
  sprays have been shown to reduce anxiety and ease
  symptoms of shyness. It seems to reduce timidity
  and may help to increase confidence, leading to
  improved healthy social interaction.

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Somatic Therapy

• the study of the mind/body interface, the
  relationship between our physical matter and our
  energy, the interaction of our body structures
  with our thoughts and actions.
• The primary relationship addressed in somatic
  psychology is the person's relation to and
  empathy with their own felt body. It is based on
  a belief, from the principles of vitalism,
  bringing sufficient awareness will cause healing.

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Somatic Therapy

• There is increasing use of body-oriented
  therapeutic techniques within mainstream
  psychology (like EMDR, EFT, and Mindfulness
  practice) and psychoanalysis has recognized the
  use of somatic resonance, embodied trauma, and
  similar concepts, for many years.

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Somatic Theory of Trauma

• Physiological changes (e.g., muscle tone, heart
  rate, endocrine release, posture, facial
  expression, etc.) occur in the body and are
  relayed to the brain where they are transformed
  into an emotion that tells the individual
  something about the stimulus that they have
  encountered. Over time, emotions and their
  corresponding bodily change(s) become associated
  with particular situations and their past
  outcomes.
• When making decisions in the future, these
  physiological signals (or somatic markers) and
  its evoked emotion are consciously or
  unconsciously associated with their past outcomes
  and bias decision-making towards certain
  behaviors while avoiding others. For instance,
  when a somatic marker associated with a positive
  outcome is perceived, the person may feel happy
  and motivate the individual to pursue that
  behavior. When a somatic marker associated with
  the negative outcome is perceived, the person may
  feel sad and act as an internal alarm to warn the
  individual to avoid a course of action. These
  situation-specific somatic states based on, and
  reinforced by, past experiences help to guide
  behavior in favor of more advantageous choices
  and therefore are adaptive.

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Douglas Robinson

• In 2005 Robinson began writing a series of books
  exploring somatic theory in different
  communicative contexts modernist/formalist
  theories of estrangement
• Focus of refugee populations
• Focus on colonization (historical trauma)
• Focus on intergenerational trauma

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Somatic Theory

• In Robinson's articulation, somatic theory has
  four main planks
• the stabilization of social constructions through
  somatic markers
• the interpersonal sharing of such stabilizations
  through the mimetic somatic transfer
• the regulatory (ideosomatic) circulation or
  reticulation of such somatomimeses through an
  entire group in the somatic exchange
• the "klugey" nature of social regulation through
  the somatic exchange, leading to various
  idiosomatic failures and refusals to be fully
  regulated
• In addition, he has added concepts along the way
  the proprioception of the body politic as a
  homeostatic balancing between too much
  familiarity and too much strangeness
• Somatic markers are associations between
  reinforcing stimuli that induce an associated
  physiological affective state. Within the brain,
  somatic markers are thought to be processed in
  the ventromedial prefrontal cortex

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So What Does that Mean?

• In plain language- one does not need an external
  stimulation to illicit a trauma response. The
  body remembers or as Bessel van der Kolk
  describes, the body keeps the score.
• Trauma specific therapy must incorporate the
  persons felt sense of the body to fully address
  the trauma injury as trauma is a whole body
  experience, not just the frontal cortex
  experience or interpretation of the event(s).

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Somatic Markers AKA Trauma Response

• Bessel van der Kolk- The Body Keeps the Scrore
  
• Peter Levine- Waking the Tiger Somatic
  Experiencing Institute. Trauma is worked through
  not only by talk therapy, but without somatic
  experiencing healing is incomplete.
• Trauma Touch Therapy- Christine Smith. Began
  exploring the use of massage to treat
  psychological trauma-related releases she noted
  when working with clients. Works with the bodys
  felt sense to address trauma.

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Closing Thoughts on the Mind-Body Connection

• Oxytocin, the bonding chemical is released.
  This helps create a trusting therapeutic bond
  without words. Trust can be established by safe
  touch
• Restores the bodys felt sense
• Release of serotonin which helps with depression
• Reduces stress and lowers blood pressure and
  blood sugar (always ask the client if they have
  recently taking injectable insulin!)
• Massage can be incorporated into any mental
  health treatment plan.

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Thank you!

• Karen Lane, LMT can be reached at
• The Massage Garage
• 15 West Bracklin Street
• Rice Lake, WI 54868
• comfrey2001_at_yahoo.com
• 715-312-0050