Can massage help tame PTSD? Syracuse hospital, vets center give it a try - Syracuse.com

[massage]

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Nearly 50 years after he fought in Vietnam, Lyndon Clark of Cazenovia sometimes still has vivid dreams about combat.

The 70-year-old U.S. Army veteran, who has post-traumatic stress disorder and stage 4 kidney cancer, will sit up in bed and swear in his sleep. In the morning, his wife will tell him: "You were fighting the war again."

Clear Path for Veterans, a nonprofit veteran resource center in Chittenango, is helping Clark combat those dreams with massage. Clark says the relaxing hour-long massages he gets at the center are a good antidote for PTSD.

"That night I sleep like a baby," he says.

Clear Path is teaming up with Crouse Hospital, the Syracuse VA Medical Center and Upstate University Hospital in a new massage for veterans program. The program, organized by Crouse, teaches licensed massage therapists how to work with veterans. A VA psychotherapist teaches therapists about PTSD, military sexual trauma and traumatic brain injury. Upstate faculty members teach them gross anatomy.

Therapists who complete the 80-hour course and pass an exam offered by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork will receive the profession's first specialty certificate in military veteran massage.

Nicole Miller, Crouse's massage therapy program coordinator at Crouse, said massage therapists must take a different approach when working with veterans suffering from PTSD or military sexual trauma, a term used to describe sexual assault or harassment experienced in the military.

Veterans with those conditions are often initially uncomfortable about being touched, according to Miller. The program teaches therapists to let veterans control their environment when they get a massage. For example, veterans who want to remain fully clothed during a massage can do so.

A veteran with PTSD also can get stressed out if a therapist suddenly moves the veteran's arm to improve range of motion. "Things like that we have to be very careful with," she says.

Clear Path offers free massage therapy to veterans in its wellness center. The service is provided by volunteer massage therapists and therapists taking the Crouse continuing education program.

Massage benefits veterans physically and emotionally, Miller says.

"Relaxation is often the No. 1 goal for people who live with PTSD or depression," she says. "They need to get over their anxiety."

Contact James T. Mulder anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-470-2245

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