My reflection...

Throughout my research and compilation of this blog I have managed to further appreciate the benefits of progressive muscle relaxation. It is my understanding that the use of this relaxation method is continually expanding to many different settings, with most research having been done in the acute mental health area. This research strongly suggests it as an effective method to reduce anxiety, a common area of focus for us occupational therapists.

Having had two placements in mental health, it is an area of work that is close to my heart and with evidence to support my positive experiences of progressive muscle relaxation it is something I can see myself utilising as an occupational therapist in the future. Looking back to my facilitation of the progressive muscle relaxation sessions, it took me a couple of times at facilitating to feel I was reading the script at the right pace for the client. To help with this I would encourage you to perform the muscle actions as you read, to get an idea of how long to let the client tense before relaxing.I also found benefit or having soft, relaxing music in the background, to break the silence between my instructions.

I do however acknowledge that like most interventions, there are groups of people that might not be suited to progressive muscle relaxation, as touched on earlier but also the literature suggests it may put excess stress on the body for those with hypertension or cardiac disease (Neistadt & Crepeau, 1998). I therefore encourage a little research of your own if you plan to use progressive muscle relaxation with clients experiencing  physical ailments.

I feel as though the population that benefit from use of relaxation techniques is endless, as I mentioned before, none of us can go without that feeling of stress when we experience change or difficult circumstances. Some of us can only imagine the stress of being diagnosed with a debilitating mental or physical illness, and even if our main priority for intervention is not an individual's stress or anxiety, we might just like to encourage the idea of relaxation techniques.

Thanks for reading my blog, I hope you feel informed and encouraged to explore progressive muscle relaxation in the future. If you still aren't convinced of the effectiveness of progressive muscle relaxation I encourage you to give it a go and feel the benefits yourself!

:)