Humanized professional training with Shantala massage workshops: dialogues between theory, technique, and practice

Abstract

Objective: To understand the experiences lived by professionals and students participating in baby massage workshops: one of the activities of the Baby Massage and Stimulation (BMS) extension program. Method: A phenomenological hermeneutic trajectory was undertaken with the question: what was your experience like in the baby massage workshop? At the request of the Health Promotion Program, Shantala massage workshops were conducted in the city of São José dos Campos, SP, aiming to implement the BMS program’s educational action, characterized by Baby Massage and Stimulation Therapeutic Groups in the routine of maternal and child care in Basic Health Units. Results: The meanings given to the experiences lived by workshop participants point to perspectives that help them in their ability to establish human relationships in professional spaces. Participants construct themselves, situate themselves, and create culture, realizing that the bond is also moral, contextual, ethical, and political. Final considerations: Dialogues between theory, technique, and practice are proposed in BMS program training settings, organizing and integrating new knowledge with existing knowledge, aiming at transformations.