Massage therapists know that many clients need to be listened to – really listened to – when they come in for therapy. But during the session there is something else that clients crave – the ability to be distracted away from their focus and relax. I often use distraction in massage sessions, oddly enough in … Continue reading Massage with Attention and Distraction
Clients seek massage therapy for many reasons, and one of the most challenging for a therapist is chronic pain following surgery. It’s a tough spot – here we are dealing with tissues that have had a direct surgical intervention – moved, touched, cut or compressed. We also are dealing with structures altered when the body’s … Continue reading Providing Post-Surgery massage to clients
I always like to check in with new clients on their goals for massage. Do they want to improve sleep, performance, reduce aches, release stress, etc. I like to give people a few choices on my intake, plus the opportunity to mark “all of the above.” Lots of “aota’s” later, I have come to see … Continue reading Helping your clients set goals for their massage sessions
As they graduate from education programs, massage therapists have many choices for employment. Yet finding that perfect job can be elusive. The venues have expanded in the past few years but the economics remain the same: work a lot for less pay, work a lot less for more pay. For recent graduates looking to pay … Continue reading Starting Choices, Massage Therapists
A new massage client had a request: eight months after an outbreak of shingles, she still had a strip of weird-feeling and painful skin. “I call it my shingles ghost,” she said. “It’s haunting me still.” What she described sounded like post-herpetic neuralgia, a sensation that an area afflicted by herpes “chickenpox” virus is still … Continue reading Massage for Shingles ‘Ghost’
At this time in my massage therapy career, I think I have got the whole stress thing down. Then something pops up that tells me: HA! Yes, HA! A very karmic and cosmic and pulse-wave HA! My family and i have been living in a hotel for nearly a month following flooding at my home. A … Continue reading Stress Experts Love Massage
I was enjoying the evening air, checking the massage therapy schedule book to review next week’s bookings when my 90-year-old mother-in-law asked for help. Help? I dashed in from the patio and stared. A little tsunami of water was spreading down the hallway into the living room, and all the bedrooms. Oh, and it was … Continue reading Massage and the Great Flood
Smart phones have created an endless employment opportunity for massage therapists – we can relieve the head and neck aches they foster and show clients how to reduce their sting. At best the glare-y screens will make a users neck stiff and tight to flexion on the side holding the phone. So many people peer … Continue reading Smart Phones and the Rectus Gang
The nice man who likes to run every day came into my massage therapy office looking for some relief. I thought I was going to do a massage – but it turned out to be an intervention. This man had gotten a hold of a trigger point therapy workbook. He had been doing his own … Continue reading They are Called Trigger Points for a Reason…
So many people work on computers and in hunched positions that massage therapists are seeing more clients for acid reflux and heartburn problems. Recently I doctors have referred clients for massage to relieve reflux, and the results seem good. I wanted to offer some treatment tips. First, reflux symptoms – burning in the throat, burping … Continue reading Massage Relief for Reflux and Indigestion