Time management in the massage room can be tricky. Even with a thorough intake, you never know what you’re going to find until you get your hands on someone. It’s important, though, to keep your word to your clients. If, somehow, you can’t do what you said you would and you need to alter the plan, it’s vital … Continue reading Time Management
Clients can seek massage for stress relief and relaxation, or for therapeutic work on a specific problem. Sometimes a client with an acute problem comes for general relaxation and stress relief. You can’t assume that just because they have a chronic issue that that’s always why they’re there. I have a chronically unhappy left shoulder due to car … Continue reading Getting Lost in a Body Area
In today’s digital age, with so many of our clients (and ourselves!) spending so much time hunched around our smartphones, curled up with our tablets, and bent over our laptops, a new syndrome, which I call “computeritis,” seems endemic. It may be common for massage therapists once they hear of a client’s heavy use of such devices … Continue reading Do You Know Your Massage Client’s Hobbies?
Let’s say you have a big, beefy athlete of a client on the table, with lots of delicious areas to work on. You dive in. You get the belly of the muscles. You get into the soleus, work their erectors. You proceed to work on their arms and get into the deltoids. Everything’s great, but you have … Continue reading Massage the Full Length of Muscle
I’ve noticed a ‘narrowing syndrome’ that sometimes develops among experienced massage therapists. When you first go to massage school, you learn all sorts of techniques which are new and exciting, and you try them all on your clients. Then, as you practice and become increasingly more confident, you find that a certain set of techniques emerge as your … Continue reading Don’t Let Your Massage Techniques Go Stale
We’ve all heard from clients the occasional horror stories of their having been “brutalized” in a session with another massage therapist in which techniques were used that were so deep as to be painful and leave them bruised. Some of us may have even experienced that type of massage ourselves. How does that happen? While clients do have … Continue reading Finding the Right Massage Speed
Once upon a time, there was a quiet little massage room which had the most interesting people pop in for treatments, people who said the darndest things… Therapist: What is our goal today? Client: I’d like to have the right side of my body removed. Therapist: That would make you a leftist. Sure you want … Continue reading Massage Funnies
Unique and specific techniques, like myofascial release, can greatly enhance the therapeutic benefit of your work on your clients, but when using them, it’s important to consider, and appropriately set, the client’s expectations for the session. Myofascial release is a wonderful way to create space for muscles to relax. Tension in muscles can sometimes be caused by the layer … Continue reading Communicating With Massage Clients About Myofascial Release
We all need to be listened to, but sometimes, that need can actually obscure communications. Take care not to be misled when a client gets carried away responding to your intake questions. Massage sessions typically begin with a question from the therapist to the client along the lines of “What would you like to work on today?” or … Continue reading Drama Queen Massage Clients
Body modesty is always an issue, given that our clients quite literally bare all when they are in our care. This can lead to a question for some therapists around the matter of whether a typical massage session should include work on the glutes (a.k.a. the muscles of your hiney).’ This group, which includes Gluteus Maximus, … Continue reading To glute or not to glute… that is the question