Massage Therapy for Workplace Injuries
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How We Work with a Referring Physician to Treat Work-Related Injuries
One of the most important missions of our staff at Soulstice is to become a trusted advisor for physicians and their patients. It’s one thing for physicians to know about us, but to then like us and ultimately entrust their patients into our care is the utmost professional compliment.
In order to accomplish this goal, we prioritize building strong relationships with physicians across medical disciplines, focusing particularly on working with plastic elective and reconstruction physicians. We feel that our particular set of skills can be especially helpful to these patients as they rehab following surgery.
We are continually awestruck to experience how bodies/people respond similarly when faced with any kind of trauma – whether from surgery, sports injury, or work-related injury.
Dr. Christian Updike is one of our most admired referring physicians
We are especially proud of the relationship that we’ve built over the years with Christian Updike, M.D., whose practice treats many patients who have experienced workplace injuries and are receiving Workers Compensation. Dr. Updike cares deeply about his patients, and prescribes a variety of adjunct healthcare modalities, including Soulstice Peri-operative massage therapy, to help his patients achieve optimal outcomes.
Dr. Updike was happy to share his story about working with us.
Recovering from a work-related injury can be an immense challenge. In many cases, patients with musculoskeletal pain receive pain medication and steroid injections from a medical doctor, only to find themselves without relief and progressing toward surgical intervention.
I look for dependable adjunct medical practitioners to best serve my patients, and finding less invasive treatments for musculoskeletal pain can be difficult. These practitioners need to understand the rehabilitation process, how to minimize the number of treatment sessions, recognize the professional hierarchy in medical care, effectively communicate with my patients while being mindful of other practitioners, and cost-effective in producing results.
For those who are not responsive to standard treatment methods, medical massage therapy provides a human element of care that encourages patients to heal and re-engage the normal activities of work and life. Trauma has a profound effect on an individual, and many people who are injured have never had the opportunity to receive massage therapy. They are understandably apprehensive about its value. It is vital to have a massage therapy resource that can be relied upon to provide focused and effective care with a professional attitude. Soulstice, Ltd. is a preferred choice for providing this valuable piece of the healing puzzle.
Soulstice, Ltd. has made my job easier and is a vital resource for my patients. They manage my patient’s care with a high level of customer satisfaction, while being mindful that recovery from trauma requires individual responsibility in the rehabilitation process.
Adding a human element of touch does not detract from the medical process, rather it has helped my patients get back to work faster and engage in the functional activities of life with mindfulness and responsibility.
Dr. Christian Updike, M.D. – Medical Director of Employee Health for HealthOne Hospital system Occupational Medicine physician
Thank you Dr. Updike for sharing your thoughtful words.
Get back to work with massage therapy for work-related injuries
One of our favorite stories of working with Dr. Updike involved a patient named Eileen, who came to us through Dr. Updike 7 months after experiencing an on the job injury to her lower back at work.
A registered nurse, Eileen was bending over to open a medicine locker when she felt intense pain in her back, causing her to feel nauseous and faint. From that point on, Eileen experienced daily significant pain. In addition, the workplace injury limited her range of motion through her right hip, making it difficult to walk, work, and sleep.
This was an emotionally devastating blow to Eileen – she was less than a year from retirement, and had been planning to use her time post-career to achieve a life’s goal of hiking every national park.
She met with a neurosurgeon who proposed surgical intervention to address her nerve pain, but Eileen insisted on pursuing other avenues of treatment before resorting to surgery.
Upon her arrival at Soulstice, Eileen expressed gratitude for the opportunity to receive holistic, non-narcotic care for her pain.
Her treatment confirmed her hopes for pain relief:
- She reported a significant reduction in pain
- Felt a renewed sense of optimism for her recovery
- Experienced improved range of motion
- Was better able to cope with the physical demands of her profession
Four months after coming to us, Eileen has begun hiking again!
She also received an education on posture and body mechanics, which she was able to easily incorporate into her daily life to great benefit, and continued to report an increased awareness of how she utilized her body.
She experiences longer periods of pain reduction following each treatment, and has been able to identify which activities in her life tend to aggravate her injury. The combination of treatment and education has benefitted Eileen immensely, giving her immediate relief, as well as tools and knowledge which she can apply to her daily life.
She continues to express gratitude every session, and recently met with her neurosurgeon again, this time to say she feels the surgery is no longer a necessity due to the benefits she has received with complementary care at Soulstice.
We are proud to help patients like Eileen get back on their feet faster and more efficiently.
If you've experienced a workplace injury, you too can get all the benefits of Per-operative massage. Ask your doctor, then call 303-628-0205 or email soulstice to set up a meeting with one of our licensed and specially trained massage therapists.