Tag Archives: clients

Joyful, Useful Skin Massage

Snappy massage therapists used to make fun of “skin massage”, using it as a stand-in for a massage of no connection, a mere application of oil, an unmemorable massage of no consequence.
But hey, snappy aside, there is a really awesome aspect to skin massage worth thinking about – and doing.
Here we are dealing not with lilting pressure, but often no pressure, and a term perhaps last heard on whaling ships: furling.
Furling, really? Yeppers-peppers.
Sometimes a pain complaint from a client is the ghost of the past. An imprint still there long after the trauma is gone. If lucky, the massage therapist may feel it in the easiest structure to touch and modify, the skin.
Once in a while I find one of these morphed patches of skin, right at the beginning of a massage when I am scanning and feeling the area of complaint. It might be over a stuck infraspinatus, a wedged down trapezius, or a plastered temporalis.
When I find these spots, I gently- heed that word – gently try to pick up the skin between thumb and forefinger, skin only, and see if the pain disperses. Sometimes the planets align, and the pain goes whoosh! The client may think it was magic (not a bad way thought when it comes time to re-book) and it certainly can seem that way. Of course it is not, just another expression of starting at the beginning and checking layer by layer of the structures involved in a pattern of pain or tension.
If the skin won’t open to lifting touch, it is time to go on to gentle rocking, range of motion, itsy-bitsy circles, anything to remind the skin that it is supposed to move moderately independent of the structures below. Sometimes that is the key, and the skin releases.furlingsail
If it does not let go, it puts the massage therapist on the ship deck with the whaling sailors. We probably all furl, but perhaps don’t call it that because we drop words unique to the 19th century. But I like antiques, and this antique tells the story best. To furl, we pick up all of the portion of a sail, bunch it up and smooth our bunch before we seek to add more.
Massage furling is picking up a bit of skin, with a bit of adipose, and possibly a bit of connective tissue and muscle, and gently rolling it to smooth and open the adhesions.
Reminder time, this is a gentle technique. One of my buddies did this as a pinch, a locking pliers kind of pinch, which made me levitate, and wouldn’t let go until I came back down to the table. Fun amongst therapist friends, but zooming across the pain threshold will lose you most clients. Gentle takes the day.
It’s a cool way to begin a massage with first relieving the pain, then following with a Swedish or mixed technique massage to address the entire body.
Well, call me Ishmael. Skin massage has some purpose too!

Therapeutic Massage?

My massage client had gone to a fancy resort spa with an extraordinary view of the ocean. The spa was world-class. The services were expensive, the atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of a place where Roman emperors might have gone for a holiday.
How was your massage? I asked him when the holiday was over.
I had the guy they said was the best there, my client said, and I probably had the worst massage of my life.
Okay, I was not-so-secretly delighted that the fancy place didn’t measure up. But what was wrong with the massage? Shouldn’t it be pretty good if not better than average?
My client thought so. His masseuse didn’t ask any questions and spent 80 minutes gliding his hands and forearms over his body, impersonal and disconnected. I asked him afterwards why he didn’t work more on my bad spots, my client said. The guy told me oh, you wanted a therapeutic massage. Remind me next time.
Yowza. Great moments in customer service. Of course there would be no next time. I felt bad for my client, worse for my profession. What had gone wrong here? Why would a supposed deep-tissue massage turn into an oil basting? Even more important, why would there be a difference if my client had spoken up and asked for a “therapeutic” massage?
Unimpressed, yes, but it gave us both a moment to consider what a therapeutic massage means. I have been doing massage for 21 years. My client is a connoisseur, having had two to three massages a week for a good 40-plus years.
The person we couldn’t quiz was the spa therapist. Don’t know if he was hung over, injured, overworked or just uncaring. Maybe he didn’t like working on old guys. Maybe he was a Johnny-one-note with a recipe for conserving energy. The great unknown.
Either way, he had insured that my client would never get a massage from this guy ever again. And my client was soured on the resort, too.
To my way of thinking, all massages are therapeutic, he said.
I could not agree with him more. I’ve had great massages from experts to the humble, self-taught therapists. The names of the massages did not matter. The caring connection matters most.

Massage Clients Need Training, Too

Most massage therapists charge by their time spent in a session, so dealing with client cancellations and no-shows is a particularly dear subject.
Big massage businesses just put their policies out there: 24-hour cancellation or full charge for the missed session. No appointment without a credit card to “guarantee a reservation.” It is a survival tactic that keeps the bills paid.
But what happens when the massage is not part of a big edifice of business complete with a receptionist to state the policy? Massage is a client-based business, after all. Can you afford to alienate a client for a missed appointment? Can you nicely charge folks for services not rendered? Is a cancellation policy a must or a risk for the small massage practice or clinic?
Those questions are an excellent place to start when considering your practice and its future. But keep in mind that massage therapists tend to be quiet, healing people who do not like confrontations, especially with those people seeking relief from stress. If you don’t have any policy stated up front, you may be in the position none of us healing people like: broke and behind in the bills.doormat
Aaargh. Yes, boundaries. Those darn things hopefully they talked about a lot in massage school. Is there a middle ground? Can a therapist walk the fine line between impersonal business policy and caring personal service? And still pay the bills?
This is a tough subject. Why? Because out there in the universe, most people are honest and upfront and understand that you need to be paid for your time. Then there are others who feel every nickel saved on a cancel fee is a personal victory attesting to their ability to avoid paying for anything. Yes, these are the legendary “cheap clients” who will turn your book into a sea of red ink if you are not careful.
Airlines and other big shops generally don’t give money back or reverse charges. They have found out the hard way that when a big biz is involved, many people perceive lying to not be charged or to get your money back is okay fibbing. Hey, the airlines can afford it, right? Well, not really. Big shops have to defend themselves.
The most important thing here is that if you have a “cheap client” with a great excuse is to get rid of them. A cancellation policy will do that. Otherwise these folks will suck your energy dry with no regrets.
Sometimes, yes it happens, the client is actually using the no-show as a way of firing you. It says in a big way that the client does not value the service. It means “cya.” Whatever is going on, this is the client you will be relieved to remove from your book. If that client ever calls again, they pay the no-show fee before getting a massage for their “emergency.”
In the big and small picture of customer service, I think it is important to respect your skills enough to have a firm cancellation policy. It can be full charge, half charge, whatever you want, but have it. And when a regular client who appreciates your work has a true emergency, it is okay to say “no charge.” That will be appreciated. After all, small business is personal, eh?

Trigger Me Mine

Massage therapists often enjoy showing clients something they can do on their own to relieve a chronic trigger point.
I do it too: “Here, try an old tennis ball and lean up against the wall. Just a little pressure, not your whole weight. Keep gentle pressure on the point for 10 to 15 seconds and then gradually lift.”
Most massage clients are surprised by what they can do one their own. But I am mindful of human nature. Like most therapists, I emphasize caution. “Avoid the urge to push too hard. You will be tempted. But too much pressure for too long can make the point come back much worse later. Always do this easy.”trp
But humanity has its nature. And unfortunately, the numerous videos and self-treatment trigger point therapy books can be the road to perdition.
In the last two years I have had two clients pop in with Olympian trigger points that don’t respond to usual treatment. These trigger points want to stay and drive the clients crazy. What do these two clients have in common? They learned from a book or video how to do their own trigger points.
I had the advantage of learning trigger point therapy in school. The instructors and the books all cautioned students not to go crazy doing trigger points. One by one, every student in my class learned the hard way why trigger point therapy rules are good to follow. I found an especially precious trigger point in my temporalis. I worked it like crazy. Sure that when I erased it I would get relief. Within a few days, I had blinding migraines.
Clients don’t have that experience to help them believe in under-treating trigger points. I am so much more cautious about giving out old tennis balls now.
So what do you do with runaway trigger points? With these clients I tried a few different tactics. The first responded to active release techniques, but the monolith trigger point tended to return after a week or two. The second came around with dedicated, repetitious Swedish massage. I had to get the relaxation system back up and running in the nervous system. Funny, huh?

Finding and Keeping a Massage Office

Many therapists could benefit from the use of a massage office. Your own spot saves your back from wrangling tables at house calls. Your own spot also offers a great learning experience – how to develop skills to negotiate and keep an office, handle bills and make more income.
At some point in every massage therapist’s career the question comes up: Would you rather work for yourself or someone else? Would you rather handle the details to enjoy the freedom? Does it suit your style and your abilities? If it does not, are you interested in developing those skills?
Being able to answer those questions thoughtfully is just the start. I’ve pulled together some tips from a long career; some of it spent working for others and some for me.
Find the Time: Lots of therapists I worked with at spas and medical offices talked about getting their own place, but most never took their first steps. You have to plot out your time. Will you spend every Monday and Tuesday looking at places? What about collecting equipment and décor on the second-hand market? Will you be spending full retail for what you need?doorsign
Study up: There are lots of online resources, most free, where therapists share their stories and advice. Tap in. I also looked at consumer columns on such things as commercial leases, tax advantages of an office and how to use your noggin to determine if potential officemates and/or landlords will be a good fit.
Work up you own agreement. If you find a place to share or rent full-time, you will get your best deal from your own hand. Sure, lots of landlords have their own agreements, but those agreements often turn back on themselves and nullify the very things you want or need. If you can use a one-page, simple agreement of your own design, you are better off.
Know your noise: Massage needs peace and quiet. The most common complaint I have heard from people is that they didn’t know the neighbors would be noisy. Or their landlord rented to a noisy neighbor just to fill space. You need some quiet neighbors, like accountants, other wellness offices, etc. Restaurants, machine shops and daycare are going to drive you crazy. Get it in writing that you won’t be subject to excessive noise incompatible with your business.
Have one-year’s rent in the bank before you leap. If your office is going to cost $500 a month or $5,000, you need to know you can pay for it while you figure out your business. Don’t rely on your hands to make paying clients magically appear.
Have more than one income stream available: If you run ads on Google, have a good website and your cousin the chiropractor sends you clients, you might make it. Most people forget to figure in the cost of marketing and keeping good referral sources in place.
It is also a frequent and fatal mistake to assume that if you leave your employer, your clients will follow. Most won’t. And your employer has paid money to get those clients in the door and the clients may just like it there just fine. How do you handle that? Trust me, it will take about 5 minutes for your employer to find out you are telling clients about your new venture. Ethics applies in business and in massage. Read up on how to leave gracefully. You don’t want to be one of those therapists who have to go to work for someone else a year later because you venture failed or created a lawsuit.

Massage and the Full Sixty…

When I was new to doing massage therapy, I had a habit of getting lost. Lost in the neck, lost on the back, lost in the space-time continuum. I’d glance up at my clock and see that I had spent 40 minutes massaging the back and I had 20 minutes to do the rest of the body. Or worse yet, 40 minutes just on the headache, and had 20 minutes to get hands on everything else!
And, learning point, most massage clients will be unhappy with that schedule. People will rarely complain, but they may decide not to come back. All my enthusiasm to erase that headache would cost me the opportunity to gain a client. Drat!
It happened often enough that I found a couple of solutions, which I will gladly share, and I timedeveloped some hacks – ways to get the client to forget that I had just given an uneven massage.
Fasten your seat belts.
Ask – Let the client decide – “Would you like me to spend all of our time today on your headache or do you also want a full-body massage?” Guess what the answer is 90 percent of the time…Full-body.
The clock – I drew a circle on an index card. The first 30 minutes was blocked in red, the next 10 in blue, the next 8 in yellow, etc. I hid the card behind my oil bottle, right next to my clock. The red zone was for the back and posterior arms. The next 10 minutes for posterior legs and feet. Eight minutes for anterior legs, eight for anterior arms. Four minutes for head and scalp.
Keep the card in view and practice, and you will run on time.
Okay, so what to do when space aliens have stolen your brain and you don’t have enough time to finish a full massage? When fudgsicles happen, make fudge!
Swoop – Big, long, slow, wasting Swedish effleurages. Three swoops to a limb will still trigger the parasympathetic nervous system. A timeless coma will result.
Hide – Stay in the room at the end of the massage and hold up the client’s robe in front of your face and conveniently stand in front of the clock. Offer to assist by holding the robe while they slip in arms and stumble out. “Let me help you with your robe.” It works.
I don’t recommend what one therapist did to me one day at an otherwise nice day spa. She carefully pointed out the clock to me to show that we were running on time. At the end of the session I got up and looked over at an empty space. She had removed the clock!

Wrangling the Walk-In Massage Client

Sometimes a client just appears looking for a massage. Literally a walk-in. What can a therapist do to turn a lookie-loo into a booking?

These potential clients may be trying to size up you and your spa. Offer a quick tour.

If they like you and your spa, but are reluctant to make an appointment, offer a special. What’s a special?

  • I can do a half-hour massage for the regular price and if you like it you can extend it to a full hour at a discount of $10.
  • I can offer you a half-hour massage for a $10 discount and if you want to extend to an hour the discount will be $15.

If you are already booked and waiting on a client, offer a specific toe-in-waterappointment option:

  • I can schedule you today at 3 p.m. for a deep tissue session. We can do an hour or 90 minutes…?

Are you way too busy today? Offer advice on getting an appointment at another time.

  • I can usually get people in with a few days notice. What about this time later this week?

Showing potential clients around, answering a few questions and being friendly can turn the walk-in prospect into a client. Try it. It works!

After all, the walk-in client is there because they want a massage.

Massage Hygiene and the Return Visit

People who give massages hopefully like receiving massages. I know I do. When my therapist friends are out of town or otherwise engaged, I have a few places I will slip into to try their hands.

I found one therapist purely by chance who really knows how to do meridian and nerve-based massages, something my low back appreciates greatly. So I was surprised when I got into the shower one day a few hours after my massage and found large, red welts on my back, suggesting that I had teenage cystic acne.

In the mirror I saw big, red and itchy bumps all over my back, especially on the lines of the sideline meridians. I had either had a reaction to the massage oil or somehow some sort of bacteria had been introduced into the skin during the massage.dirtybottle

I thought, probably like many clients, that I should simply not visit this therapist again. Something had been dirty, the oil, the bottle, the hands, something. I had showered just before the massage, so I did not think it was my skin. Oh well.

Then perhaps, like some clients, I though about the affection I had developed for this particular therapist. I liked her style and her results. I decided to see her again and tell her about my reaction.

Once we were alone in the massage room, I explained that I had some sort of reaction to the massage and had been nursing the bumps with arnica and witch hazel. I showed her the pattern on my back. She looked stunned.

“But I always wash my hands, and I make sure the linens are clean and fresh.” she said. I pointed at the oil bottle. “Do you wash it? Wipe it? Does anyone else use it?”

Hmm. That was possible, she said.

As massage therapists we see a lot of people and often use the same bottles and oils on each client. Can someone have sensitive skin? Sure. But what if it was the oil layer on the outside of the bottle? What if the oil itself was contaminated with bacteria?

No sure answers there. But here are the basics of keeping clean between massages and during successive massages in a busy practice or clinic.

 

  • Always wash hands after and before a session. Washing hands at the end of a session is a half-measure. You will handle materials, perhaps dirty linens, doorknobs, credit card machines, etc. before your next massage. Wash hands again before you start.
  • Wash the exterior of your oil bottle as well, especially if someone else is using your room and supplies on your days off. Slick bottles can transfer bacteria to all of your clients that day and beyond. I wash oil bottle every day and use anti-bacterial wet wipes to clean bottles between clients.
  • Never stack linens for more than one client. Some therapists think they have found a great way to avoid scrambling for linens by putting five or six settings on the table. Well, no certain infections, such as scabies, can be passed from one sheet to another. You don’t want to be explaining your timesaving system to an inspector from the health department.
  • Hand washing is done with warm to hot water and soap and requires rubbing both hands together for at least 15 seconds. Rinsing, one-handed washings, or other half-measures don’t count. Over the years I have learned to follow-up my hand washing with a cold-water rinse. Good for my poor paws.
  • When using a jar or tub of massage cream, use a clean or disposable spatula to scoop from the jar. If you stick your fingers in the jar, you are cross-contaminating any bacteria to your whole client book for that day and as long as you use that jar. Cover the jar in between scoops. Better yet, use oil with a pump or flip-top.
  • Use cleaning cloths with hot water and a cleanser or anti-bacterial wet wipes on common surfaces such as towel warmers, crock pots, essential oil bottles, anything in the room that might be touched by oily hands. If you only clean when it is slow, or you rely on a cleaning crew for these details, you may be spreading bacteria and other germs.
    • Some massages start with a foot massage, either because of the client’s symptoms, wishes or the therapist’s training. Tell your client as you finish their feet you are going to wash your hands and will be back in a moment. Some people have fungal infections, bacteria, etc., or go barefoot, and your foot massage can spread skin infections to other areas of the body.

 

Better safe than sorry. By the way, I decided to stick with my therapist, largely because she was concerned and eager to learn how to prevent more skin reactions. Just like a client, I appreciated her attitude and its promise for future reaction-free massages. Cleanliness fills your book.

 

Real Practice for Real Massage

On a massage therapist’s first day at work, the training starts with how to say hello to a client. Easy?

Oh heavens. I have had massage trainees stare at the floor. Roll eyes in a complete circle looking everywhere but at the client. Worst, a brief nanosecond of eye contact followed by staring over the head.

How would you feel to be greeted these ways? Would you go into a room, take your clothes off and figure everything is going to be fine?

Yes, sometime before massage therapists become overnight successes because of their fabulous hands, they need to learn the art of eye contact. Yet for many of the massage community, we’re introverts, looking for a quiet place to work in harmony. We didn’t think about developing eye contact because we are not social divas, by and large.eyes

That first day of looking a stranger in the eye can bring out insecurity for a walk right across your face.

Here is the really bad news. When you cannot look someone in the eye they don’t see shy and humble. They see sneaky, dishonest, and even incompetent. Fear or loathing. Aloofness. Distance. Not the first impression anyone would want to make with a client, ever. The last impression a therapist wants is a wrong one.

With two or more trainees, it is fairly easy to practice greetings with each other. You do not know each other, but you are in this life raft together. We will go over it about a dozen times, and toss out those little things in our expressions and eyes that say the opposite of the greeting we speak.

It takes some doing especially when the new trainee is solo. One of my solo newbies was getting great feedback on her massage, but her surveys indicated that her greetings were getting in the way. The telling question – would you request this person again – was not going her way. If the survey says the massage was great, what to do?

We had a talk over mocha bobas, a drink invented by people who want to make me feel old.

It went something like this:

How are things going?

Great! I love my job!

Fantastic. How are you doing with building your client list?

I’m getting some people back. Not as many as I thought I would. It seems to take time.

Is there anything that you think would help you?

The dreaded open-ended question. A pause. This is the most uncomfortable time. But this new therapist was intelligent and gifted. She knew what I was asking.

I think I need more help with greetings.

Let’s practice now. Go up to the barista and ask for something more. Look her in the eye. Greet her like a client. See if you can connect with just your eye contact.

She tried it, and came back.

That was tough. I felt like I was staring at her, invading her space. It was very uncomfortable. I don’t like it.

Suppose that is the only way to get your coffee, or anything else in your life that you want. Can you make eye contact? Can you practice enough in the next week to get comfortable with it?

Yes, it was an assignment. When we met for coffee the next week, her discomfort was less, her confidence more. We can still both be shy, I said, we just have to learn how to connect with our eyes and our hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heavy Hearts, Light Touch

A massage therapist’s toolbox is crowd with all kinds of fancy techniques to address troubles in the body.

Yet one of the most effective techniques one can use to release tension is to say something. Just a little something to put the client at ease.

A small joke is letting clients know your empathy for their stress. Yes, the inmates are running the asylum. The Red Queen has lost her head. Welcome to the “e.r. for p.r.” Some people drive like they think –not. It is part of life to acknowledge the crazy and nonsensical.

Life teaches us that the way to release tension is to laugh, and sometimes it is the best solution to release thoracic tension during a massage.Transversus_thoracis

For people who have recently been through the wringer, and back again, it is good to remind ourselves that we can laugh at the strange things in life.

It gets clients ready to relax. It says you understand, that you have been there, and no matter what else transpires in the next hour, you have met a friend who gets it.

Not a bad way to start? It will not work for everyone, but it often is a great opening to healing energy. If the body can laugh, it can raise and lower the rib cage, it can expand and contract the diaphragm. It can liberate itself from the heavy weights of life.