Vancouver Island college offers massage therapy to recovery community

A unique partnership between Camosun College and a Victoria-based organization is trying to improve access to massage therapy for people who normally do not have access to it as a health-care service.

Emah Christiansen, a registered massage therapist and chair of the college's massage therapy program, says students from the two-year diploma program will provide therapy to residents of New Roads Therapeutic Recovery Community, which offers supports to men recovering from substance addiction. 

Christiansen says the initiative highlights the value of treating people who don't always have access to more expensive forms of health care, like massage therapy, physiotherapy and chiropractic care.

"There's a bit of a paywall there and this is just an opportunity for everybody to benefit," Christiansen said. 

She notes that students also benefit from the outreach at the community. In a typical setting, massage therapists can often find themselves dealing with patients who suffer from similar injuries, such as repetitive stress injuries.

Their work at New Roads, Christansen says, will allow students to treat with people with diverse medical conditions and a more complex health history.

"Having the student actually see a patient and getting that understanding of what that person is going through, what the experience is, it's just so much more valuable for their learning," Christiansen said. "They really get it at that point."

Justin Pardy, a resident at New Roads, had no experience with massage therapy until Camosun College started offering it to residents at New Roads. He says he initially found it awkward. 

"I didn't really know anything about it," he said. "I always thought it was just something that wealthy people got or whatever, and I didn't really know about the therapeutic benefits of it."

He says the treatments have helped him cope with muscle stiffness and tension in his neck and lower back that followed three and a half years of sleeping on the street.

"I still haven't felt any of that pain return, and I have full motion in my neck again," he said. 

Christiansen says she hopes the program will help break down barriers while also affirm the value of massage therapy.

"Massage therapy ... has fought really hard to be taken as a legitimate form of health care and for us to have people come to us and get treatment and feel that therapeutic health outcome, that's just so exciting," she said.