Dear Clients: When will you hear what I say? Parents understand this concept perhaps most. Parents can say “don’t slam the door; hang up your clothes or look both ways before you cross” about 6,000 times and it may take anywhere from 5 to 18 years for a child to “hear” them. It’s not that … Continue reading Relax your Shoulders.. and Other Urban Myths
With Thanksgiving less than a week away, many of us are making mental lists of all our blessings and things we have to be grateful for. For several years now, my list has included, “I am thankful that I am a grown-up, can eat what I want, have access to fresh cranberries, and will NEVER … Continue reading Cranberry Relish (Sans SHLOK!)
Nobody would start a war over a table, right? Well, wars have started over less. In this case, the possible storm brewing involves an electric lift table, the only one in the six-room massage business where I work. When I first began working there, I was afraid I had become too spoiled with electric lift … Continue reading The War of the Table
Lots of therapists like to say they are not salespeople, that they didn’t get into massage to sell anything and they don’t like to “sell” anything to a client. I never understood that. A therapist is always selling their skills and benefits of massage to clients. When I was doing training for a large day … Continue reading What Is More Professional?
I’ve been a fan of trading since I was a kid watching Little House on the Prairie on our rabbit-eared television set. Doc Baker might not have been paid a lot by his patients, but he ate a lot of home-baked goods and probably never had to go to the grocery store. On the other … Continue reading Trade Ya!
At first, I wasn’t sure that Melinda (not her real name) was drunk. I mean, my eyes, nose and my intuition were sure that she was, but it’s not like the front desk was going to be able to give her a breathalyzer test—though she certainly would have failed had she been forced to “walk … Continue reading Massage and Alcohol Abuse
Well, California can once again be accused of being different and difficult. It’s a land of fruits and nuts, yurts and yogurt, movie stars and serial killers. And one of the oddest hybrid massage licensing laws ever. First, after a long-fought battle mostly amongst ourselves, the California licensing law isn’t a license, it’s a voluntary … Continue reading Another Kind of Business, Not Massage
It seems you never realize how important music is in your massage life until it stops playing. At my first job, a large massage business, we had the typical piped-in stereotypical massage music, which we often made fun of. I personally referred to it as New-Age-Neil-Diamond-Meets-Elevator music. It was somewhat relaxing, yet often repetitive. At … Continue reading Pandora: Musical Godsend
My blogging this week was thrown for a loop when I unexpectedly came down with a bug. No, not a cold or the flu. A computer bug. A Trojan virus to be exact. I was thrilled beyond imagination (which is to say the exact opposite). As we roll on toward November, no one is exactly … Continue reading Views on Flu
Well, the experiment with Bamboo and cotton yarn sheets, I am happy to report, is going quite well. Earlier I wrote about how much I loved the light, silky yet warm feel of 100-percent bamboo yarn sheets, and how my clients appreciated them as well. Then, alas, after a few washings the yarn developed little … Continue reading Tough Sheets Update