Save Your Hands!

The physically demanding work massage therapists and other manual therapists do puts them at risk for musculoskeletal injury – it’s a proven fact. Students and professionals know what it’s like to have sore hands or an aching back at the end of the day, and as a result, starting to limit the work they do and eventually feeling burned out.

But injury is NOT inevitable! Save Your Hands! Third Edition gives you the proven injury prevention and ergonomics techniques and practical advice you need to protect your health and your investment in your career.

There are usually a number of factors that cause injury. That’s why working on your body mechanics is NOT enough to prevent MSDs. .Save Your Hands! gives you many different strategies for preventing musculoskeletal injury, so you can protect your investment in your career, work with more ease, and stay in the profession you love.

In an accessible, richly-illustrated format, Save Your Hands! Third Edition shows you how to:

Design your treatment space so you can work safely and efficiently
Find alternative techniques to protect vulnerable parts of your body
Improve body mechanics to work with less physical strain and greater comfort
Use a physical conditioning program developed specifically to keep you healthy as a manual therapist
Recognize early symptoms and address them effectively before they lead to injuries that can affect your work and your life outside of work.

This essential resource offers the comprehensive information you need to save your hands, back, neck, shoulders and emotional well-being throughout a long, healthy career. For all massage therapists, physical therapists, physical therapy assistants, occupational therapists, hand therapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, nurses, athletic trainers, and more.

Author Biography

Lauriann Greene, has been a leading writer, speaker and researcher on injury prevention and ergonomics for manual therapists since 1995. She studied at Brown and Harvard Universities before graduating in 1993 with honors from Seattle Massage School. As a former professional orchestral conductor and pianist, Lauriann was interested in working with other musicians to reduce playing-related upper extremity injury. This interest led her to write an article on musculoskeletal disorders among musicians that appeared in Massage Therapy Journal in 1994.Lauriann used this research, as well as her own experience with an MSD while at massage school to develop the Save Your Hands! Workshopsfor massage therapists. After passing her state boards in 1993, she taught these in-person workshops to hundreds of students and professionals across the U.S. and Canada. Based on the anecdotal evidence she obtained from workshop participants and existing research on musculoskeletal disorders, the first edition of Save Your Hands! was published by Infinity Press in 1995. It was the first comprehensive book on injury prevention for massage therapists ever published.Since that time, Lauriann wrote numerous articles for publications including Massage Therapy Journal, Massage Magazine, ISPA PulseMagazine, Massage & Bodywork and Positive Health Magazine. She also wrote a regular column in Massage Magazine called “Helping theHealers” for two years. Speaking at industry conferences like ABMP and IECSC also helped her get the word out about this important subject. In 2005, Lauriann joined forces with ergonomist and massage therapist Rick Goggins and the ABMP on a a survey that produced the first reliable statistics on the prevalence of injury among massage therapists and bodyworkers. The results were published in 2006 in Massage& Bodywork. Lauriann also completed training to become a Certified Ergonomics Assessment Specialist (CEAS) at that time. Lauriann nowoffers a range of injury prevention and ergonomics consulting and educational services including CE courses to therapists, schools, clinics and spas. Richard W. Goggins, MS, CPE, LMP, is Board Certified as a Professional Ergonomist, and is a Licensed Massage Practitioner in Washington State. He has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in Human Factors/Ergonomics from the University of Southern California (USC). During and following his time at USC, Rick worked for Hughes Space and Communications in El Segundo, Calif., helping them to establish their ergonomics program. From there, he moved north to work for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, where he is now Senior Ergonomist with their Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Through his work at Labor and Industries, Rick has helped employers in a variety of industries prevent injuries among their employees. He isfrequently asked to present talks and workshops on ergonomics at conferences around the country, and has written several articles on the subject for publications including Professional Safety, Journal of Safety Research and Massage & Bodywork. He is a past president of the Puget Sound Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and worked with that group on a project to educate schoolchildren on computer ergonomics.Rick first became interested in massage after receiving excellent treatment from several different massage therapists. He did his massagetraining at Alexandar’s School of Natural Therapeutics in Tacoma, Wash., an experience that he still counts as one of his favorites. He is a professional member of the American Massage Therapy Association. Rick combined his in-depth knowledge of injury prevention and manual treatment work in his collaboration with Lauriann Greene on the first-ever injury survey among massage therapists, and on the 2008 second edition of Save Your Hands! Janet M. Peterson, PT, DPT, has been performing injury prevention services for for over twenty-five years; she has had her own practice inergonomics consulting since 1998 in Seattle, Wash. Janet earned her master’s degree in physical therapy from Stanford University and her doctorate in physical therapy through Temple University. She was on the Board of Directors for the American Physical Therapy Association and is a past president of the Physical Therapy Association of Washington, receiving the 2003 “Physical Therapist of the Year” award. She is a member of the Puget Sound Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Pacific Northwest Ergonomic Roundtable.