The biopsychosocial model applies to disciplines ranging from medicine to psychology to sociology its novelty, acceptance, and prevalence vary across disciplines and across cultures.” 5,6Įxamples of some factors and which biopsychosocial domains they are most frequently associated with: Lorimer Mosely, Ph., in “Explain Pain Supercharged”: “The biopsychosocial model counters the biomedical model, which attributes disease to roughly and only biological factors, such as viruses, genes, or somatic abnormalities. “The biopsychosocial model is a broad view that attributes disease causation or disease outcome to the intricate, variable interaction of biological factors (genetic, biochemical, etc.), psychological factors (mood, personality, behavior, etc.), and social factors (cultural, familial, socioeconomic, medical, etc.),” wrote David S. 3 It didn’t have a great impact until John Loeser, MD, introduced his onion-skin model of pain and suffering in the 1980s. Some quick background: the word biopsychosocial was coined by George Engel, MD (1913–1999) in 1977 to encourage medical practice to become more patient-centered and reject the prevailing biomedical model.

Understanding the biopsychosocial models of pain and therapy, and how those are applicable to massage, is incredibly helpful throughout the process of establishing rapport, intake conversations, hands-on work and client education. Massage therapy has been slowly gaining greater acceptance as an intervention for pain, stress, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and other medical concerns that tend to persist over time.īecause pain is one of the primary reasons people seek massage therapy 1, 2, I encourage massage therapists to learn about current pain science, which is based on a rapidly growing mountain of research. Massage therapists are witnesses to clients’ pain perception, evidenced by armoring, vocalization and other reactions from the table. Pain Perception: New Research Can Help You Benefit Clients and Set Yourself Apart

Pain perception definition