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Pathology For Massage Therapists and Bodyworkers
By Sharon Burch
Health Positive! Publishing, 1997
pp 281, Paperback

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This book, within a glut of too often self-serving books on or around the subject of massage therapy, clearly stands high above the bulk of them. Written in an organized, easy-to-read way, this always practical book is the kind of book that takes MTs in the right direction--greater professional recognition.

It is increasingly important for seriously comitted MTs to know just where MT "fits in" with its fellow-healers, especially with a more holistic, less conventional medical profession, what and where are the "yesses and nos" in its practice, why the "nos," and how to apply the "yesses" in systemic versus local health situations. RECOGNIZING HEALTH AND ILLNESS helps accomplish this and does it in such a way that it is a most helpful guide to unexperienced MTs and a best check list for the experienced MT, who, as it were, has handy in this book a complete listing of reminders of the countless "do's and don'ts" and "hows" involved in a professional-quality MT practice. With its convenient review "tests" (and equally convenient answers) at the end of each chapter, the book becomes an effective learning tool for the neophyte and an attractive refresher for the old-timer.

The author of RECOGNIZING HEALTH AND ILLNESS, Sharon Burch, has herself practiced MT in hospital, hospice and private practice for some seventeen years, managing now to organize her wealth of material and experience into a book that can take its serious reader from the ABCs of therapeutic massage (e.g. the concise description of the basic massage strokes) all the way to the application and contraindications of MT in cases of advanced cancer and the identification and assessment of "abnormal findings." MT professionals across the board will benefit from the refreshingly repeated emphasis on hygiene and universal safety precausions which are covered in the book in a clear manner.

Though not enough, Burch points out conditions that could well benefit from further study and research to substantiate or refute easily spread notions of where MT is indicated and where it is not. Inexplicably, the mechanical, 60s-ish term, bodywork, is used more often than the professional, massage therapy, its easily recognizable abbreviation, MT, or the more holistic, bodymind healthwork. Otherwise, the book is in every way a most welcome newcomer to the working library of serious MTs determined to do the best job possible for their clients and patients.