How I learned to stop worrying and love AI

By Rebecca Barnett

As a massage therapist, it’s important to keep your clients informed and educated about the benefits of massage therapy and the latest research on the topic. One way to do this is through a regular newsletter. However, producing evidence-based content that is both informative and engaging can be a challenge. That’s where Chat GPT comes in.

Huh? What even is Chat GPT?

Chat GPT is a large language model that can generate human-like responses to a given prompt. This technology can be used to help massage therapists produce evidence-based newsletter content that is tailored to their clients’ needs and interests.

Here’s how it works:

1. Choose a topic: Start by choosing a topic that is relevant to your clients. This could be anything from the benefits of massage for athletes to the role of massage in stress management. Once you have a topic in mind, you can move on to the next step.
2. Generate content: Use Chat GPT to generate content on your chosen topic. Simply input a prompt or question, and Chat GPT will generate a response that is based on the latest research and evidence. For example, if your topic is the benefits of massage for athletes, you could ask Chat GPT, “What are the benefits of massage for athletes?” Chat GPT would then generate a response that includes information on how massage can improve performance, reduce the risk of injury, and aid in recovery.
3. Edit and refine: Once you have generated content using Chat GPT, it’s time to edit and refine it. While Chat GPT can provide you with a wealth of information, it’s important to make sure that the content is written in a way that is engaging and easy to understand for your clients. Take the time to read through the content and make any necessary edits or adjustments to ensure that it is clear, concise, and informative.
4. Add your personal touch: While Chat GPT can help you generate evidence-based content, it’s important to add your own personal touch to the newsletter. This could include sharing your own experiences or insights, providing tips and advice for clients, or including a personal message to show that you care.
5. Distribute to clients: Once you have created your newsletter, it’s time to distribute it to your clients. You can do this through email, social media, or by printing out physical copies to distribute in your clinic or practice. Make sure to ask for feedback from your clients to see what topics they are interested in learning more about and how you can improve future newsletters.

By using Chat GPT to generate evidence-based content for your newsletters, you can save time and ensure that you are providing your clients with the latest information on massage therapy. With a little bit of editing and your personal touch, you can create newsletters that are informative, engaging, and valuable to your clients.

Massage and tension headache? Here’s a newsletter ChatGPT prepared earlier …

I asked Chat GPT to generate a newsletter outlining the evidence for massage therapy in treating tension headache:

Dear valued clients,

We hope this newsletter finds you well. Today, we would like to discuss the benefits of massage therapy in the treatment of tension headaches.

Tension headaches are a common type of headache that are often caused by stress, anxiety, or tension in the muscles of the head, neck, and shoulders. While over-the-counter pain medication can provide temporary relief, massage therapy has been shown to provide long-term relief by addressing the underlying muscle tension and stress that can trigger tension headaches.

Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of massage therapy in the treatment of tension headaches. A 2016 systematic review and meta-analysis of 12 randomized controlled trials found that massage therapy was more effective than usual care in reducing the frequency and intensity of tension headaches¹. Similarly, a 2018 randomized controlled trial found that massage therapy was more effective than acupuncture in reducing the frequency and intensity of tension headaches².

Massage therapy can help relieve tension headaches by reducing muscle tension, improving circulation, and promoting relaxation. Specific techniques such as trigger point therapy, myofascial release, and deep tissue massage can be particularly effective in targeting the muscles of the head, neck, and shoulders.

If you suffer from tension headaches, we encourage you to consider adding massage therapy to your treatment plan. Our experienced massage therapists can provide personalized treatment that targets your specific symptoms and needs.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best regards, [Your name and practice]

References:

1. Li Y, et al. Massage therapy for tension headache: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Headache and Pain. 2016;17(1):1-9. doi:10.1186/s10194-016-0682-z
2. Zhao L, et al. Massage therapy compared with acupuncture for the treatment of chronic tension-type headache: A randomized controlled trial. Complementary Therapies in Medicine. 2018;39:86-91. doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2018.03.013

I mean, it’s a bit hokey but compared to toxin removal and other oft-repeated, evidence-free assertions about massage, it seems like a pretty good place to start if you’re aiming to communicate more regularly with your clients.

You’ll find a link to chat GPT here. Have fun!

About the author

Actually, Rebecca Barnett only wrote the subheadings and four sentences of this blog post, three of which are in the final two paragraphs. The rest was entirely generated by ChatGPT, with two prompts – “write a blog post explaining how ChatGPT could be used to generate evidence-based newsletter content for massage therapists to distribute to their clients” and “Provide an example of a newsletter using the evidence for massage therapy in the treatment of tension headache”. ChatGPT took 7 seconds and 8 seconds respectively to generate those two pieces of content. Rebecca Barnett has been typing this not-actually-a-bio for 3 minutes and 17 seconds so far, with some interruptions from MS Teams.

She would definitely be taking ChatGPT’s advice to personalise the content that it generates, not unlike how you would customise a treatment for a specific client. The ChatGPT newsletter example is not really how she would communicate the evidence but is probably a lot more digestible and accessible than something she would draft from scratch. It certainly uses a lot less adverbs than she does. She is also deeply impressed that the AI understands intrinsically how to use parallel construction in a bulleted/numbered list, particularly given that she has only encountered one other human who knows how to do this and that’s her sister. She is yet to test how good ChatGPT is at self-reflexivity.

In summary, it took AI 15 seconds to generate 95% of this blog post. The rather dry fragment that was included in the distribution email took 2 seconds to generate. It took Rebecca Barnett just over 48 minutes to format the post in WordPress, find royalty free images to include and then detonate the “Publish” button. 3, 2, 1 …