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
As mysterious as the workings of the human body is, we massage therapists have learned a few tricks to bring errant, dysfunctional muscles back to working order. I continue to be impressed by the methods of active release, also known as myofascial release, in reviving elements of structure and function to certain muscles. I recently … Continue reading Tips for Bringing Muscles Back to Life
Recently I walked into a raging discussion among massage therapists over discount pricing. To discount or not to discount is a huge bugaboo for massage therapists. Prices are subjective, of course, and one can only wonder why people ask for a discount from a single massage therapist when they wouldn’t dream of asking at a … Continue reading The Price of Comfort
Massage therapists will often have clients ask about foot or finger pain, or a strip of tightness around the knees or hips, but when is this a symptom of something gone wrong? As we rub away with our talented hands, we may have an opportunity to assess if a nerve root or disc has been … Continue reading Massage Finger Maps Helps Reduce Numbness
In the early days of a massage therapist’s career, discovering which techniques work well in a treatment session can be baffling. Is it deep tissue? Soothing strokes? Is it short sessions? Long sessions? Is it movement? Breath? Is it the clients’ mindset? Perceived value? Desire? Somehow fumbling about in our dim-lit treatment rooms we establish … Continue reading Knowing Your Client – What Works For One Person Doesn’t Work For All
My massage therapy client has been working very hard to lose weight. She is going to the gym four times a week, training under the watch of two very good kiniesiology trainers, and eating a diabetic diet. She has lost more than 70 pounds in the past year. That is a little fast to lose … Continue reading Providing Quadriceps Massage
Massage therapists know that when a client has been pulling something – wire or cable, storage boxes, dogs, etc. that they will find a host of sore and overstretched muscles. Ergonomically, it is not good to pull, but to push. Push we can do much more easily and with much less fatigue. Somehow the design … Continue reading The Push
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…