Dr. David
Hey, welcome to the Stay Healthy El Paso Podcast. I'm your host Dr. David Middaugh, physical therapist and I'm the owner at El Paso Manual Physical Therapy. We've got an employee highlight today, here I am joined with our guest Zarah, she is our massage therapist, and I'm going to interview her today. She's going to give us some interesting perspectives on massage and the benefits of massage Say Hi Zarah!
Zarah
Hey guys, what's up?
Dr. David
So, I'm going to ask her some questions, and just to give you all a heads up, she is excellent in what she does. We have put in some extra training, but we wanted to get her perspective about what massage, and how she got into it, and why it's important for people to be getting massages. So, I'm going to start off with first question here. So, tell us where you're from and where you went to school.
Zarah
Okay, so I'm from El Paso, Texas, born and raised. I went to school at Eastwood high school, and I graduated from EPCC with my massage certification.
Dr. David
Fantastic and you've been with us here now for a couple of months, and you're gradually progressing. It's been fantastic to see you getting better and better. I wanted to find out from Zarah, how she got into massage and just to learn more about why she loves it so much, and what got her kick started into it. So, tell me Zarah, what got you into doing massage?
Zarah
I've always been interested in massage. I have experienced massage from my family and things like that. There is something healing about being touched by someone who really truly cares about you and wants you to feel better.
Dr. David
Yeah, definitely! It makes a big difference when you touch somebody, and do something to their muscles, joints, bones, and it makes a change in their body. It can make a dramatic effect, especially in your case, you're loosening up really stiff parts of their body. So, tell us a little bit about a specific client, or patient of yours that you've helped out in the past.
Zarah
I had a client who broke her wrist, she wasn't able to do the things she used to do, and she was a very independent person. Until she wasn't. She was having a hard time getting back to doing things she could do before. I would go and massage her wrist. And after a couple of sessions she was able to get back to doing things she could do before her surgery and all that.
Dr. David
Fantastic. I've seen massage clients with Zarah, we don't work on the same patient at the same time, but we do work on the same patient, within different appointments. One of the reasons why we hired a massage therapist like Zarah, here at El Paso Male Physical Therapy, is because as a manual therapist, we're working on the joints on the movement. It's combination of hands on work plus the exercise, but I would see patients that had some super stiff muscles, super stiff spots in their body that needed to be freed up, and I just didn't have the time to work on that.
I'm also not the best person to do it. But once we found out that a person like Zarah could help us out, it makes a dramatic difference and speeds up the recovery. Especially in muscles that are in the back, and the shoulders, and neck area, on the legs, and certain parts of the legs that can be contributing to things like knee arthritis, hip problems, other knee problems, back problems, neck issues, and shoulder issues.
I have seen such as work, do miracles on people, she loosens up the stiffest muscles I've seen. So, we're super happy to have her on the team here. Zarah, can you tell us something helpful that you often share with patients that they may not know.
Zarah
So sometimes patients come in with a neck problem, and I'll have to explain to them that I have to work muscles around that area as well. Because everything is connected. Sometimes they don't know that I have to work the muscles around that area as well. Not just the spot that they come in complaining about.
Dr. David
Yeah, I completely know what you mean. Because we get people in here for a foot problem, and then we end up working on their knee, hip, and back. Or they come in for a back problem, and we end up having to go down the hip, knee, and foot, or up in the neck. We have to go into the shoulder, and the elbow sometimes. So, I get you, when you have to work in different areas to treat the real problem to get the outcome that you want. So, are there any other tips that you think might be helpful for somebody looking to get a massage here in El Paso?
Zarah
Yeah, so if you're kind of skeptical about getting massage, because you have to get undressed, there's always something we can do to work it out. Some people get fully nude, other people leave underwear on, it doesn't matter. Really, what I always recommend is getting fully nude, just so that I can use my techniques to the best of my ability to work on the areas to give you the outcome that you want.
Dr. David
Great, thank you so much. So that's super helpful. Yeah, we have clients that aren't comfortable with taking everything off. And that's totally fine. It's to your individual preference and comfort level. We have some clients that just want to take off their shirt, or just roll up a pant leg. That's fine too. So, if you would like to schedule an appointment for a massage, you can reach out to us by calling us at 915-503-1314. And just ask about getting a massage, especially if it's for a specific problem, like back pain, neck pain or shoulder pain, or a knee problem as well. We can help to get some instant relief for those problems.
If you want to go to our website, you can visit www.epmanualphysicaltherapy.com and you'll find a tab at the top of the of the homepage there that says massage and you can learn more about that there as well. And if you mentioned our podcasts, we might have a special offer. So just mentioned that you heard us on the podcast, and whoever is answering the phone, at that time, they'll let you know of any podcast offers that we have going on. Thanks for listening. Please stay healthy. We'll talk soon. Bye bye.
