The New Generation Massage Therapist
Moving beyond modalities to build resilience.
Are you tired of the "fixer" trap? Most massage therapists are taught that their value lies solely in their hands—that if they just learn one more modality or take one more certification, they’ll finally have the "magic bullet" for their patients' pain. But this cycle often leads to two things: patients who remain passive and therapists who end up burnt out.
Welcome to The New Generation Massage Therapist Podcast.
Hosted by Jamie Johnston—massage therapist, firefighter, and educator—this show is dedicated to shifting the industry standard from passive "tissue manipulation" to evidence-informed, biopsychosocial care. We challenge industry norms and dive deep into the topics that many in our profession have long avoided: pain science, mental health, and the therapeutic power of movement.
Each week, we explore how to:
- Shift your identity from a "fixer" to a facilitator of change.
- Master human skills like mindful communication and crisis intervention to build a stronger therapeutic alliance.
- Incorporate movement (without needing a gym) to prove to your patients that they aren't "broken."
- Retrain the nervous system to help patients with persistent pain find lasting results.
Whether you are a seasoned RMT/LMT or a student just starting out, this podcast provides the practical, research-backed tools you need to build a more effective practice and a more fulfilling, sustainable career.
It’s time to stop chasing certifications and start building resilience.
Episodes
56 episodes
The Most Powerful Thing You Can Say to a Patient in Pain
What if one of the most powerful clinical tools you have isn't a technique — it's what you say?In this episode, Jamie closes out the Hobfoll's Five Essential Elements series with Element 5: the Promotion of Hope. And the focus is on some...
The Treatment That Changed Everything — And It Had Nothing To Do With My Hands
What if the most powerful thing you can do for a patient in chronic pain has nothing to do with your hands?In this episode, Jamie shares a story that changed the way he thinks about practice — a patient who had been living with chronic p...
The Most Important Thing You Can Give a Patient Isn't a Treatment
Most of us were trained to fix people. And it feels good when it works — the patient comes in hurting, they leave feeling better, and you did that.But here's the question: what happens between appointments? Are they getting better? Or ar...
Why Changing Your Language Changes Everything
Most massage therapists think of calm as something they create with their hands. But what if the most powerful thing you brought into the treatment room had nothing to do with technique?In this episode, Jamie shares the story of a Navy ...
Promotion of Safety Is the First Job — Not Your Hands
Before your technique, before your assessment, before your hands even touch the table — there's something your patient needs more: to feel safe.In this episode, Jamie dives into the first of Hobfoll's Five Elements of trauma intervention...
How to Hold Space for Trauma Without Feeling Like You're Playing Therapist
What do you do when a patient starts opening up about something heavy — and you're not sure if it's your place to respond?Most massage therapists either freeze, change the subject, or redirect to something clinical. And while that feels ...
I Owe Some People An Apology
There are people I treated early in my career who I owe an apology to.Not because I didn't care. Not because I wasn't trying. But because I was doing things I genuinely believed were helping them — and I'm not sure they were.Thi...
Nobody Taught Us This: Managing Your Money as an RMT — with Heather Green
We learned how to help people physically. We learned technique, anatomy, and how to build a treatment plan. But managing our finances as self-employed practitioners? Nobody taught us that.In this episode, Jamie sits down with friend and...
The Complete Clinician — Are We Mental Health Professionals? Part 3
This is the final episode of the Are We Mental Health Professionals? series — and this one gets personal.Parts 1 and 2 were about your patients. This one starts by turning the lens on us. Because everything we've been talking about acro...
Do No Harm — The Psychology of What We Say (Are We Mental Health Professionals? Part 2)
Most of us were never taught that our words could make our patients worse. But the research is clear — the language we use in the treatment room produces real, measurable outcomes. Not just emotionally. Neurologically.In Part 2 of the A...
Are We Mental Health Professionals? Part 1: "The Hidden Half of Every Treatment"
Are we mental health professionals?It's a question that might make some of you uncomfortable. And honestly, that discomfort is exactly why it needs to be asked.Because most of us are already influencing our patients' mental heal...
Shared Decision-Making: Putting the Patient Back in the Driver's Seat - With Walt Fritz
As our profession pushes toward patient-centered care, one thing is becoming clear — the old clinician-as-the-expert model isn't serving our patients the way we think it is.In this episode, Jamie sits down with Walt Fritz — a physical t...
12 People: One Family's Story and Why Massage Therapists Need to Start Talking About Suicide
We've been told a lot of things by our regulatory bodies about what we should and shouldn't do in our treatment rooms. But there's one area where I think we've been steered in the wrong direction — and that's mental health conversations.
Building A Sustainable Practice with - Mike Reoch
We didn't learn this in school — but we probably should have.In this episode, Jamie sits down with friend and fellow RMT Mike Reoch to talk about something most massage therapists are never taught: how to actually build a sustainable pr...
The Cost Of Caring
We've spent three episodes talking about your patients' nervous systems. This one is about yours.If you're showing up for complex, trauma-affected patients with skill and sensitivity — you're absorbing something in the process. That's n...
Trauma Informed Care In Practice
"Your patients don’t respond to a technique. They respond to safety."Why do some patients instantly brace when you touch them, while others fail to relax no matter how gentle your manual pressures are? In this episode, Jamie Johns...
Trauma Across The Lifespan
"It's not a mechanical problem. It's a biological debt."Why do some patients plateau despite perfect manual technique? In this episode, Jamie Johnston dives into the structural and neurological changes that trauma leaves in the bo...
What Trauma Actually Does To The Nervous System
"It's not an attitude problem. It's a nervous system response."Have you ever had a patient who seems "jumpy," constantly guarded, or simply fails to respond to treatment despite your best manual techniques? In this episode, Jamie ...
Why Therapeutic Movement Matters More Than Your Favourite Modality
"If you move, your disc will bulge." "Your pelvis is out of alignment."As massage therapists, we often use language intended to help, but we might actually be planting seeds of fear. This fear of movement, or kinesophobia, ...
Why You're Confused About Trauma (And What Actually Matters)
"How do I treat PTSD differently than childhood abuse?"If you have ever asked this question in an RMT group, you aren’t alone—but you might be focusing on the wrong thing. In our profession, we’ve been taught to categorize trauma ...
Movement as Education: Stop Treating Symptoms, Start Changing Stories
"I’ve tried every technique and every modality, but they’re still not getting better."If you’ve ever felt this frustration, you aren’t alone. When a patient is stuck in a cycle of persistent pain, our instinct as massage therapist...
Confident Conversations: How Massage Therapists Talk About Mental Health and Keep Boundaries
"I'm not a psychologist. I should just stay in my lane, right?"As massage therapists, we are often told to refer out the moment a patient mentions mental health struggles. But what happens when that referral is the very thing that...
The 3 Types of Movement Every Massage Therapist Should Be Using
"But Jamie, I’m not a personal trainer. I don’t even have a gym in my clinic!"If you’ve ever felt like movement-based therapy is "out of scope" or requires fancy equipment, this episode is for you. Many of us were taught that our ...
Teach-Back: the single habit that boosts adherence and reduces burnout
"I did the work, gave them the stretches, and they still came back two weeks later with no improvement."If that sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. Most massage therapists respond to "difficult" cases by chasing more certifications...
That "research anxiety" you feel isn't burnout—it's Allostasis in action
Have you ever scrolled through social media, seen a post about "pain science" or "evidence-based practice," and felt an immediate surge of defensiveness? Like everything you spent thousands of dollars and years of school to learn was being call...