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What is wrong with the word "masseuse?'
Written by Erica A. Steele

What is wrong with the word masseuse? Everyone uses it why, would it be considered a derogatory term. The truth is the word masseuse has a deep painful history for a group of practitioners still attempting to maintain validity in a highly competitive health care environment.

The word masseuse is a term relating back to 1884 when Physicians became skeptical and even fearful that therapists would take their patients. As a means to discredit them they derived such terms as masseuse or as it is defined “back rubber” to simplify our capacity to heal. Even still, the Massage community fought back and devised a society of trained therapists almost to signify that we are more than a layperson.

Here in America the National Certification Board was only enacted in 1992. We still have a long way to go to be truly recognized by the AMA and we need your help to support the healing benefits of massage. Hippocrates, the father of western medicine used massage to heal patients, so where has medicine gone where a doctor doesn’t even touch their patients?

There is a difference between a masseuse and a therapist.

The truth is that myself after nine years of hands on experience, over a thousand hours of training, and countless anatomy plus physiology classes, I am more than a masseuse. I am sure there are many masseuses still out there and often times when you go to certain facilities you know who they are. It feels good immediately after but once you get home you discover the neck pain is still there.

I practice more than just a back rub. In fact, I am very scientific with my approach. I am able to read the body and adapt to functional changes in the body. I realize when a postural imbalance is present, it may be due to contractions of the muscle tissue. I target these specific muscle groups to release and aid in proper muscle function, to free your bodily movement. I also explain these defects and devise ways for you to release them on your own. I can tell you actions, origins, or insertions for most muscles and speak with physicians in their terms.

In fact, unlike physicians, not only do I know the muscles, and adjacent skeletal attachments I can palpate it, or pinpoint them with my hand. I have even had doctors tell me “ just tell me where it hurts in layman’s terms. I wasn’t taught how to identify muscles with my hands in med school.”

There is a difference between a masseuse and a therapist. Many of my patients would tell you the same thing. From TMJD, Sciatica, Frozen Shoulder, Plantar Fascitis, and more, my patients are delighted that the hands that touch them are experienced and knowledgeable well beyond that of a masseuse. I cleverly try and think of other names, medical massage, manual therapy, I don’t know which is the right to choose, and maybe you can help. What I do know is that masseuse is not one of them.

Erica Steele is a nine-year Nationally Certified therapist and educator for massage, health, healing, wellness, and the sciences. She owns a dynamic holistic wellness center in Virginia Beach, Essential Wellness. Visit http://vabeachwellness.com/ for more information.