Massage therapists need enough information from our clients to understand where we are heading in a massage session. Working at spas, therapists get used to brief intakes and a question or two before starting a massage. In my practice, I get to take the time to do a longer intake and get more detail. … Continue reading Goals and Perceptions
When will this get better? When will my pain be gone? When can I do what I want to do – when I want to? Tough questions for us massage therapists to handle. Truth, we don’t usually know. Massage does marvelous things for the mind, body and soul – but what it does is often … Continue reading Offering Reassurance and Hope to Your Clients
We massage therapists pride ourselves on our abilities in touch – and that’s why I am so surprised when clients give me an earful about fingernails! This is a touchy issue for massage therapists – we figure we’re doing things like avoiding perfumes and warming our oils so we can facilitate relaxation in our clients. … Continue reading Nail It!
Is it OK to stretch a client’s adductors? What if the client is female, the therapist male, and the wind is whistling through openings in the drape? Oh my, the topics that come up for question in a massage clinic. One of my friends had a complaint from the husband of a couple whom had … Continue reading Best Intentions? Massage and Permission
A client stopped in last week a bit worried about her neck. She had been on vacation, feeling very tight in the neck and shoulders and stopped for a chair massage. Eager to get rid of the tension, she asked for a 30-minute massage. Toward the end of the massage, she started to feel faint … Continue reading Dizzy Chair Massage
Sometimes when I am square in between someone’s shoulder blades, I find myself thinking about how some of these knots got there. Most are whiplashes and hard work – a traffic encounter followed by running a lathe at the machine shop, or writing some intensely detailed thesis. No fun involved. Once in a while somebody … Continue reading Therapist Notes from a Low-Slung Sports Car
We massage therapists sometimes see the un-doctored, the folks who are big believers in the preservation of health by staying far, far, away from anything medical. I respect people’s beliefs, especially when they are dearly held, but I also know that I have a duty to at least bring up the subject of finding explanation … Continue reading Tremors
It is an old law school question: Would you be Hitler’s lawyer? It is a tough one. All people regardless of their crimes are due a spirited defense, law students are taught. Yet what about the worst criminal in recent history? Would you be the one? Could you? Here’s how the question could … Continue reading Massage with an Historic Difference
The question comes up. A caller on the phone, looking for a massage. I had no openings. Let this massage therapist say for the record that I really had no openings. We talked for a while, a male voice on the phone, pretty husky voice. A Carolina accent. Sometimes you wonder, the … Continue reading Too Big for Massage or Too Dark?
Gift certificates for a massage are always welcome, and if the massage therapist who wrote them is lucky, the certificates are used and result in a new client; if the massage therapist is lucky in another way the certificate is never used. Heck, in California, and possibly a few other states, gift certificates … Continue reading Forever Gifts