Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Holistic Healing: Holly Crocker on Transformative Massage Therapy for Veterans
Veterans and anyone seeking relief from physical pain, join us for an enlightening discussion with Holly Crocker, the visionary owner of Balanced Arch Massage in Haymarket, VA. Holly's personal transformation from debilitating pain to a skilled massage therapist offers hope and inspiration. Her expertise in Western and Eastern techniques, including Chinese meridian therapy and acupressure, focuses on restoring the body's natural design for pain-free movement. Discover how her tailored approach to massage therapy has profoundly impacted my life and my wife’s, and learn about the potential for achieving improved mobility and well-being.
Explore the transformative power of touch as Holly and I highlight the role of holistic massage therapy in alleviating tension and stress stored in our bodies. We delve into the essentials of massage sessions, from brief sports massages to extensive relaxation experiences and the added benefits of essential oils and acupressure. Get insights into how massage therapy can complement traditional medical practices and the importance of an initial consultation to address specific concerns. Find a massage therapist near you or look for a VA Whole Health program at your local VA Medical Center.
Good morning. I'm your host, larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services here Today, we have a very special guest, Ms. the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, Ms. Holly Crocker. She's the owner of Balanced Arch Massage here in Haymarket and, in the interest of transparency right up front, I'm going to tell you she is my personal massage therapist and this has made such a huge difference in my life and my wife's life that I wanted to have her come and join us so we could talk about massage therapy and the benefits for veterans out there, to give you a better understanding of what it is, how it might help you, where to get the service. So, holly, welcome to the podcast.
Holly Crocker:Larry, thank you so much for having me here.
Larry Zilliox:It's such a pleasure to be here so tell our listeners a little bit about your background and what led you to becoming a massage therapist.
Holly Crocker:Well, first let me thank you for letting me be here and thank all of our service members, so incredibly grateful to them, and not only to them, but to their wives, their spouses, their children, their families, because when they serve, their families serve as well and also to all those shadow warriors and those who don't always get the acknowledgement on the intelligence community and frontline firefighters, police officers, secret service agents. What led me to massage therapy was, honestly, modern day living and stressful lives, and my body was wrecked from pushing it and pushing it and not taking great care of it. And so I'm a mom of five out of children, and I spent way too much time in my car, at a desk working on a computer and not taking care of myself, and I started to develop sciatica down my legs and my lower back and I went to every doctor there was available and you know the surgeons didn't want to operate on me, so they didn't want anything to do with me and nobody could figure out what was going on. So I worked between a physical therapist, a personal trainer and a massage therapist for three years to figure out what was going on with me. It turns out that I had an SI joint that was out of alignment, that was throwing off my pelvis, which threw off my back, which impacted the nerves going down the back of my leg, and I was way too young to feel this bad Like I. Just you know, I couldn't drive, I couldn't walk, couldn't keep up with my kids.
Holly Crocker:It decided to go back to school. I have absolutely no background in science my background is international studies and Spanish but I loved learning about the body, from helping to heal my own, and I decided to go back to massage school, which is a seven-month program. I loved it. I did a great job. I actually could learn. I was shocked that I could learn. I've gone on and I've taken lots of extra classes and I'll mention now that I do both Western and Eastern massage and I do Chinese meridian therapy as well and acupressure Not acupuncture that's with needles, but acupressure which is with your hands, which is super gentle, and I love it. I healed myself through learning how to be a massage therapist and so the people who I'm helping I can totally under relate what their problem is and I love it. Massage is. It's amazing. I love it. I love seeing what it can do for people and it doesn't matter how young or old. Like I've helped small children, I've helped athletes, I've helped the elderly, so I love it.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, what's your definition of massage therapy? You know there's massage, you can go and get a massage which is relaxing and all that, but then massage therapy is that a course of treatment? Is it a type of therapy? What are our listeners? Is it a type of therapy? What are our listeners? What should they know about? What is massage therapy?
Holly Crocker:Okay, so let me give you a little background for the listeners. I know you've already heard this, larry. So the body is amazing. It consists of over 206 bones and over 600 muscles that work on those bones to make the body move like it's supposed to. And our bodies are built to move. They're built to move without pain.
Holly Crocker:Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles, where we're always sitting or reaching in front of us or sitting at a computer or driving a car or looking down at a cell phone everything is in front of you and what ends up happening is muscles only work in one direction. So the muscles on our front of our bodies tend to become very tight and tense and what they call hypertensive, and then the muscles on the back that are compensating for that have become long and stretched and weak and sometimes inhibited. And then you find you've seen people who have like the rounded shoulders or like the necks, that are like way forward. Or you know massage therapy in my definition. What I do in my practice is I help people rebalance. That's why the name of my practice is Balanced Arch Massage. It's to rebalance the skeletal system so that you aren't in pain, because that pain is a message from your body that something is not right.
Holly Crocker:You know you stub your toe, you have pain Okay, you hurt your toe Right, but you have shoulder. You know neck problems is probably because you've been working at computer so long that everything in your chest is super tight and the back of your neck is telling you this really hurts. I can't hang on like this anymore. I like to work with my clients. Every session is based on their needs for that day. Sometimes I only see a client once. Sometimes I see a client for repeated visits and it depends on what their body needs and what they want.
Larry Zilliox:I will say I'm a repeat customer because I'm in really bad shape. I need a lot of work.
Holly Crocker:You're such a pleasure, larry, you are so amazing and I have to say that, without disclosing any personal information, it's such a pleasure to work with you and with Charmaine and to see how someone who has had habits for a long time can regain motion or momentum with their muscles. And as a massage therapist I can tell by massaging you, where you're holding tension and what muscles are active and which ones are not active. So there are two nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system is your fight or flight. It's I've got this to-do list that has to get done, I've got to go here, I've got to go there. Here's the enemy. I'm running from this enemy. I have to go in this direction.
Holly Crocker:Most of us live in that sympathetic state. But the other nervous system is the parasympathetic nervous system. That's the rest and digest, that's the take the breaks off, relax, breathe, actually let your body recuperate, so then the next day you can take on the stress of what's going on day. You can take on the stress of what's going on. What isn't. Relaxation is like getting in front of the tv and watching like a horror movie or something like that, because you are like literally activating this yeah, system, taking a walk, breathing, literally like bringing oxygen into your body, moving like working the back of your body. Sometimes some of your muscles become inhibited.
Larry Zilliox:Okay.
Holly Crocker:Right. So, like, for example, when you sit all the time, your hip flexors become very tight from sitting and perhaps your glutes actually are inhibited now and they don't work. Even though your body makes the motions that your glutes are supposed to do, your brain recruits other muscles to do that. You can feel that as a massage therapist that those muscles are super hypertensive and they're actually not working. Physical therapists work with this all the time, but to actually make the body work the right way so that you don't have pain elsewhere, you need to make sure that those muscles are active.
Holly Crocker:There are some people who think that if you have a deep massage and it hurts like to the point where it hurts then that's healing. But in my case I don't believe that that's true. Your pain spasm reflex is when you feel pain, then your body tenses up. So if you get a deep massage especially for me, I know personally, if I get a deep massage my body actually feels worse afterwards. Yeah, so my philosophy is that I work deep but I let the muscles and the tissue let me in to get to those tight spots, because you have so many layers of muscles and tissues and fascia under the skin that you have to get to.
Larry Zilliox:Well, let me ask you this and tissues and fascia under the skin that you have to get to? Well, let me ask you this so in Virginia, you're a certified, licensed professional, and so every state has licensing when it comes to medical professionals and massage therapists. And so, right off the bat, if somebody is looking for a massage therapist, that should be one of the first things they check is say OK, is this person certified or licensed? If our listeners wanted to find in their area a good massage therapist, what do they look for in a massage therapist?
Holly Crocker:First of all, you want to find somebody that you're comfortable with. I'll tell you what you want to find a massage therapist who will address your needs. Why are you going? If you just want a massage, a relaxation massage, great. If you want a deep tissue, like a therapeutic massage, that's going to help you. Look at the reviews online, see what their advertising says and see if they work with you. Some people are looking for sports massages. If you're an athlete, sports massages are great. They're very different than a relaxation massage. They're actually meant to activate your muscles and energize your muscles so that you can go perform better for whatever activity you're doing. There are massage book and other online platforms where you can research about massage therapists and find a good practitioner that way.
Larry Zilliox:There's no harm in just making an appointment and going in and seeing how you like that massage therapist and the type of technique that they use. So in your particular case you had mentioned you do Western and Eastern type massages and what I can tell our listeners from my own personal experience is that going to Holly you get a really in-depth explanation about what she's doing to you and how it's helping you. It's not just, oh, just, you know, lay down over here and I'll somehow work magic and I guarantee you'll feel better. It's. You get a real understanding of the process and also homework of the process and also homework. You get homework to work certain muscles throughout the week until it's time to come again and feel amazing. But yeah, so I think it's important that our listeners, veterans, think about massage therapy as a way to help them adjust their body, especially as they get older, things get a little out of whack and you've probably been walking wrong or sitting too long or developing bad habits that affect your posture and just your whole body, and I would recommend people go and just see if they can get in alignment again and free their chi, which is my big problem. All my chi was blocked up and it was just ridiculous really, but I think my chi is free now.
Larry Zilliox:Talk a little bit about what are the mechanics of massage. Is it usually half an hour? Is it an hour or two hours? I know for myself it's two hours and I need all of that, but not everybody does. So how does it work? What are the mechanics of an appointment look like?
Holly Crocker:So let me address something that you, before I answer that question, let me address something else that came up when you mentioned all of that, and that is that our bodies hold tension, emotion, stress, memories both good and bad in our bodies, and so you know, you can tell when you're stressed, you feel it in your neck, right. But when bad things happen, your body also responds and your nervous system is ever adapting, and so your brain will start to think, you know, that having that your shoulders forward is actually straight. When it's really not, that's normal, exactly so your body holds these positions, thinking that it's normal, and so our job as massage therapists is actually help to remind your body. No, really, this is what's straight, this is where your body is supposed to be, and it's amazing, you know what can happen Like I've worked on as old as 88 years old, who've had muscles that have been contracted for a very long time and super hypertensive, and in a massage session, I can, you know, open up their whole chest, and they're standing up straighter.
Holly Crocker:And that's one great thing about being in the military is you learn great posture because you're supposed to be standing up straight at his attention, right? But posture is the number one problem in my book these days, because when you have poor posture then that does affect all of your muscles and then that creates pain. A session for me is however long your body needs. If it's a sports massage, then it's 15 minutes prior to an event or 20 minutes post massage, post exercise. I can do as long as a 60 minute sports massage to help activate muscles between events for somebody, but for a relaxation, healing massage for me two hours is best. When I'm working with my clients I can do it in 90 minutes, but I can't get to the whole body in 60 minutes. You're just too rushed if you think about all the body area that you're covering and that doesn't give you the time to actually go slow and actually release that tissue like the client needs. If I'm doing something like essential oil therapy, yeah it's my favorite.
Holly Crocker:You love it, and that is using essential oils on acupressure points, which helps to free the energy flowing through your body and it make you feel better. But it's the chi, it's the chi. You free your chi.
Larry Zilliox:Yes.
Holly Crocker:Acupressure in itself is very powerful. It's super relaxing, super gentle. I love it. I use it on myself all the time. I highly recommend everybody do self acupressure honestly. And I didn't even know anything about it until I started, until I became a massage therapist and started learning about it. But to answer your question about the appointments, depends on what your body needs.
Larry Zilliox:Right, right, and that's all part of the initial evaluation. When you meet with a massage therapist and say these are my problem areas, this is where I really hurt. You know, for me part, I didn't even realize it, but my breathing was very bad. My muscles in my chest were not working properly and you tuned them up real good and so I breathe a lot easier. And so I breathe a lot easier, which helps with my sleeping, singing in church, actually all sorts of ways. But yeah, it's so important during that initial consultation and meeting to get it all out on the table and don't hold anything back. So you know, ok, my knees hurt, my elbow hurts. I fell out of a helicopter, you know, when I was 23 and I was fine. But turns out when I'm 63 it's not fine. And these are all good reasons to see a massage therapist.
Larry Zilliox:Holly's in private practice and it's a referral basis only. She has a lot of clients, but there are plenty of massage therapists around and in your area. I think it's important to at least try it, at least make an appointment and talk to a massage therapist about how they think they can help you based on your medical needs. And you know a good massage therapist too. If they think you need treatment beyond their capabilities, they're going to tell you that they're going to say look, there's nothing I can do to help you with that. That almost seems like you might need surgery or you should be going to a physical therapist or that sort of thing. So also, too, I think it's a fair question to ask what are the limitations here for me? Because I think if there's a mismatch in a therapist's capabilities and the client's expectations, it's just not going to be a good fit and it's not going to be a great episode.
Holly Crocker:Expectations it's just not going to be a good fit and it's not going to be a great episode.
Holly Crocker:It's called scope of practice. So as a massage therapist, just like every other medical profession, we have our niche in the healthcare community, and so if it's not within our scope of practice, then we will refer you out. Most massage therapists know good physical therapists or orthopedists or things along those lines. Right, I'll just say this, though If you have, say, back pain, give me an example.
Holly Crocker:Our natural tendency is to go to the primary care doctor, because that's what Western medicine is all about. You go to your primary doctor and they'll tell you you have muscle pain, but they actually won't touch you. I don't know about you, but my primary care doctor doesn't even listen to my heart most of the time when I go Like they. Just, you know they listen, they're a doctor for that, right, they listen to you. I have all the respect in the world for doctors. I really do appreciate them. We couldn't live without them but they'll often just refer you out for physical therapy or often, sometimes to a massage therapist as well, and I think there's really a need out there for good massage therapists, because so much of our body is bones and muscles, yeah, and our modern lifestyle is so out of whack with what our bodies are able to do that. We get stuck in these limited motions limited motions and then we end up in pain.
Holly Crocker:that when you take a muscle relaxer or you know a painkiller or something, it actually doesn't fix the problem, it just masks the symptom.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah.
Holly Crocker:So what I like to do with my clients is let's figure out what's causing it, so that you don't have to take all those things.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah.
Holly Crocker:Right and I know that's worked for me and that's worked for my clients that I've I've worked on. I'm not telling anybody to to not take their medication that's been prescribed for them, but I know for me I I haven't taken an ibuprofen for a headache since I started practicing.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah.
Holly Crocker:You know, there's acupressure that I can do for that, or I realize that my posture is off and I I adjust that. So there's, um, it's a very holistic way of healing If if someone's interested in finding a more holistic way of taking care of themselves and so from a holistic standpoint, is massage therapy a part of holistic?
Larry Zilliox:Well, I don't know, be a part of holistic? Well, I don't know. Lifestyle, or when I hear the word holistic, I think it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and it does encompass everything like acupuncture and acupressure and massage therapy and everything. Is it a lifestyle? How do you define holistic? Natural, natural, Okay.
Holly Crocker:And massage therapy is very natural. Yeah, the power of touch is incredibly powerful. You know, just holding a friend's hand, or you know someone who's grieving, giving them a hug, right. The power of touch is so powerful and in our modern world we're so busy.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah.
Holly Crocker:I'm not sure we're really touching people like we need to. You know, it's also a phobic world, right, because nobody wants to be sued for anything or whatever. But the power of touch is amazing because we're creatures that need that. Yeah, even people who say they don't really, they really do. The beautiful thing about massage is when done properly, it can't hurt you.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah.
Holly Crocker:It can release a lot. It can release the tension in your body, but it can also release emotions. It can release pain, both physical and emotional pain, relieve pressure, lower your blood pressure, bring on relaxation, you know, improve your sleep, improve your breathing, you know, improve your ability to walk or move or range of motion in your joints Without pain, without pain. Yeah Right, that's the point is like you, you know, have everything back in alignment. Acupressure is awesome because it either works or it doesn't. It's not needles, I don't. I don't do needles, I do acupressure, which is just using the pads of your fingers.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah.
Holly Crocker:Super gentle, super relaxing, and it can't hurt you.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah.
Holly Crocker:Like you're just touching your body, like and when coupled with aromatherapy, it's.
Larry Zilliox:It's just incredible, it just like, oh, it's unbelievable.
Holly Crocker:So Can I talk about that for a second? Yeah, so I just found it incredibly powerful. When you combine certain essential herbs with certain acupressure points, you can either reduce someone's tension and help them sleep better, eat better, relax, or if someone has like no energy, you can bring them energy. You can give them more energy, clearer mind, more focus. You know you can use it for things like tense menstruation or headaches. It's incredible because there's so many points all over your body and so many different essential oils, the combinations, and you're treating not just the muscles but you're able to work more of the body, more of the systems. It's really powerful.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, and what I like about it is that the aroma is wonderful. I mean, it's sense that you don't normally encounter in your day-to-day activities. So you get this smell, this smell, this aroma of something that's just so different, I mean, and they all are very wonderful and relaxing. You know, it's not like you're smelling gym socks or anything like that. It's all really nice aromas, very relaxing and soothing, and certainly somebody I think everybody would benefit from it. I know I did what's the most important thing before we close out today, that you want to leave our listeners with when it comes to massage therapy?
Holly Crocker:Just listen to your body, you know, pay attention to it. You know when you're working out. Make sure that you're working out equally, although if you're doing a lot of chest exercises, you really need to be doing like three times the number of back exercises, because everything we do is in the front of our bodies. But just because you're young doesn't mean that all your muscles are active. I was working on a high school cross-country runner and was amazed to figure out her glutes weren't firing, which is pretty impressive if you think about it. And boy, she ran a lot faster once I inactivated her glutes. Was amazing.
Holly Crocker:You know, if you are, if you are ready to get back into shape and you want to go to the gym, one of the reasons why you get hurt when you go right back to the gym after not being active is because a bunch of your muscles probably aren't, are inhibited and they're not working. So then you're using smaller muscles to do those bigger muscles jobs and that's when you get injured. So take the time instead of just jumping right up and doing something hard. Take the time to activate those muscles. Make sure your body is moving in the way that it's supposed to and it's using all the right muscles before you jump right into exercising.
Larry Zilliox:Well, that sounds like another reason for our listeners to seek out a massage therapist to say I plan on going back to the gym. That's going to be my new year's resolution. So basically this is the time of year to go see a massage therapist. You know, because I know you're going to make that resolution that you know come January you're going to go to the gym. So now's the time to see that massage therapist and say what do I need to do to get ready to go to the gym so I don't hurt myself, because I'd rather front load this massage therapy than go to the gym, hurt myself and be in pain and have to come back to you to deal with that problem. So I really like that idea because a lot of our veterans are constantly wanting to get back in shape and I think too, if you make that commitment to go to a massage therapist before you're going to try to get back in shape, I think that will make you more committed to actually trying to get back in shape and not talking so much about it actually doing it. So I think that's great advice. So I do want to say to our veteran listeners that in season one, if you go back to episode 35, this was back in December of 2023,.
Larry Zilliox:I did an episode with Dr Jennifer Cho and she's the deputy director for the VA's whole health program at the DC Medical Center and they have a whole health program that involves a lot of these holistic approaches. A lot of these holistic approaches such as massage therapy and acupuncture and just a whole host of alternative therapies that are really unusual for the VA, because usually the VA is just all about medicine and pills and doctors and operations and things like that. So it was very interesting to see that they're looking at and starting to become involved in these type of alternative therapies. So if you're interested and you're near a VA facility, check out if they have the Whole Health Program. But listen to that in season one it's episode 35, and you'll get a good bit of information about the VA's whole health program. Holly, thank you so much for coming and spending this time with us. It's just great.
Holly Crocker:Thank you so much, Larry. I really appreciate you letting me be here and I just wish all of the listeners out there good luck. And I just mentioned you know, massage therapy can be an amazing tool in your toolbox to take care of your body and help you uncover why it's hurting and help you release, Even if it's just not just physical things, emotional things as well. The power touch is really amazing. Even just a massage from your loved one, you know, a mom to a kid, a husband to wife, whatever you know massage therapy, if you think about it, we have a lot of bones and muscles and they all could benefit, right, Because we're always using our bodies for everything. So thank you for letting me have this opportunity to share massage therapy with everyone.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, don't ignore your bones, your muscles and your chi. That's right. Well, for our listeners, we'll have another episode next Monday morning at 5 am. For our listeners, we'll have another episode next Monday morning at 5 am. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can reach us at podcastatwillingwarriorsorg. Until then, thanks for listening.
