Personal Information:
Name: Mr. M
Occupation: IT consultant
Age: 28
Contact details: To be produced if requested
Reason for attendance: Mr. M was my cotenant. He complained of an acute pain in his lower back.
Support and family: He was single and lived in a rented accommodation.
Client consent: The entire treatment was done with his permission and no doctor was consulted as his problem was minor.
Client Profile:
Mr. M was an athletic person and morphologically inclined towards the mesomorphic type. A full time IT consultant, he was unmarried and lived in a rented three bedroom accommodation which he shared with his girlfriend and myself. He was a friendly person but was extremely sober but would like to talk for hours if the topic was interesting. He was declared medically fit by his GP. The pain in his lower back was perhaps due to him not warming up properly before doing his stretch workouts.
Medical History:
Mr. M was a healthy individual. He had no past medical condition either mental or physical.
His present condition was an acute pain in his lower back due to a cramp in the muscle primarily due to stretching a cold muscle. It was not a muscle tear but a definite case of muscle pull.
Emotional health:
Mr. M was my cotenant and I had known him for quiet a long time. He was a friendly person but was very sober in nature. He was extremely polite but would talk for hours if the topic of discussion was interesting enough. He was a person of strong will power and a positive attitude. The muscle pull in his lower back made him a little down as he loved to lead a healthy and active life and the pain prevented him from doing his regular exercises and going for mild jogs. He was on leave from work and was confident that the pain would go away before he rejoined so it didn’t worry him much in that regard.
Life Style:
Exercise: Regular stretch-ups and jogs.
Diet: Healthy diet.
Bowel habits: Regular.
Smoking: Once a week.
Social life: Was popular among his friends and family. His sober nature was always talked of.
Alcohol consumption: Occasionally.
Recreational drugs: None.
Daily routines: Mr. M was a full time IT consultant. He worked for an IT firm in London and stayed in London all the week. He would come back at weekends. He would wake up really early in the morning every day and train first thing in the morning. His breakfast would be after that. That would be followed by the whole day’s work routine.
He would sleep really early every night except possibly on weekends. In a way he had a very healthy life style.
Current presenting problems:
His recent problem was a muscle pull in his lower back due to stretching of a cold muscle. He had no other problems either mental or physical that he was aware of.
Contraindications/precautions:
Existing medical conditions: None.
Skin sensitivity: None.
Dermatitis: None.
Allergies: None.
Asthma: None.
No serious medical condition was present; neither was he taking any prescription or recreational drug, which could have a contraindication with the aromatherapy therapy treatment to be done.
There was no sign of inflammation at the sight of pain.
Treatment Plan:
Client’s problem was a chronic pain in his lower back. He was otherwise a healthy individual with no special medical needs.
There was no inflammation at the site of pain to contraindicate a massage treatment.
We both agreed to three back massage sessions in the following order:
D1: afternoon
D2: none
D3: none
D4: afternoon
D5-D10: none
D11: afternoon
We also agreed follow-ups would be done if needed.
Treatment 1:
Back massage was done that afternoon.
Essential oils used were:
Black pepper (Piper Nigrum)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis)
Career oil used was grape seed oil.
Rationale for choice of oils:
Black pepper (Piper Nigrum) is an analgesic, circulatory stimulant and tonic in action thus making it useful in treating muscular aches and pains.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis) is an analgesic, antioxidant, cordial, restorative, stimulant and tonic in actions. Thus it could be used to dissolve lactic acid and ease tired, overworked muscles.
Grape seed oil could be used as career oil in case of oily skin as it is a gentle emollient leaving the skin with a satin finish without feeling greasy. Also it has a high percentage Vitamin E and is also one of the few oils which are cholesterol free and easily digested. It has no known contraindications and is non-toxic.
(Clarke, 2009)
(Lawless, 2002)
Dilution and measurements:
The synergistic blend:
1 drop of rosemary
1 drop of black pepper
Career oil:
15ml grape seed oil
The massage was done with emphasis laid on effleurage, petrissage, friction movements and some draining movements.
Since client already maintained a healthy lifestyle, followed a healthy diet and did regular exercises so no special dietary or lifestyle change related recommendation was deemed necessary.
He was still advised to do stretch-up exercises only after warming the muscles up. A healthy warm-up regimen and a PNF (proprioseptive neuromuscular facilitation) stretching technique were shown.
(Thompson et al, 2009)
(Alter, 1996)
Therapist observation and client feedback:
After the session was over client himself informed being relaxed and warmed and signs of immediate relief.
The effectiveness of the first treatment session brought more confidence in us both and we agreed to carry on with our initial treatment plan without changing it.
Treatment 2:
The session started with a general feedback oriented discussion followed by a back massage.
Client informed a slight sense of pain which became more obvious when his facial expression changed as he tried to twist his back.
Pain was much less compared to what it was initially.
Essential oils used were exactly the same as the first treatment with the simple rationale that it did help to some extent so it could be repeated to slightly increase body concentration of the essential oil (back being a large area of absorption). Massage could help in blood circulation and aid in recovery.
Movements were slow yet deep as the client was strong enough to endure it and felt deep movements helped relax his core muscles.
Another feedback session was done after training.
Client reported better circulation and a feeling of warmth in the area and a temporary relief from pain.
We both agreed to regular feedbacks which would judge the rest of the treatment.
From feedback done on day 7 (over telephone) it was concluded that there was no further sense of pain and client was capable to come back to his regular life style.
Treatment after that was decided to be relaxation oriented only.
Three sessions were planned and agreed by both of us:
D11: evening
D18: evening
D25: evening
Treatment 3,4 and 5:
Main aim of these sessions was relaxation as muscle is activated by nerves and a relaxed nervous system would mean better neuromuscular coordination
(Viru, 2008)
Essential oil used was:
True Lavender (Lavandula Angustifolia)
Career oil was grape seed oil.
The simple rationale being the fact that true lavender has been almost used as an all purpose oil with minimum side effects and hence made maximum sense for the last session when pain had subsided entirely.
(Clarke, 2009)
(BUCKLE, 1999)
(Ernst et al 2008)
(Lawless, 2002)
Concentration used was:
1 drop of lavender
In
15ml grape seed oil
Massage techniques were similar to treatment 2.
Analysis:
From all the data collected by questioning Mr. M and by carefully observing his non verbal cues I concluded my treatment was successful.
I always analysed data collected by me from his verbal and non verbal cues and this time I felt both me and my client were satisfied by the way the treatment sessions went.
