We massage therapists love our helpers, be they oils, warm stones or essential oils. Lately I’ve come to totally enjoy something I at first thought would be a bust. Massage on silk is a method of gliding the hands across skin or clothes without the use of oil. Silks provide glide, like oil, but without … Continue reading Have you tried giving a massage using silk instead of oil?
Debates roar among massage therapists about which are the best oils, the best draping, and the most effective techniques. Yet never have so many argued so passionately about this question: whether to start clients in the supine or prone position. O the polarity! So many have crusaded with passionate arguments about breath patterns, face-cradle wrinkles, … Continue reading A Massage Therapist’s Top Ten
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
I love the rag-mags when they have a page of psychic predictions, from the end of the world to when some celebrity will be married. But do we in massage therapy really need psychics to make spot-on predictions? I’ve been working up my own list of the future of massage therapy – wink, wink. Here’s my … Continue reading Predictions on Massage Therapy
Massage therapists learn many ways to push on trigger points and stuck areas. I’ve often wanted to see if pulling on these spots would help open them up. Yet, of course, we are taught that pulling is bad body mechanics. Massage therapists who pull rather than push don’t last long on the job. They … Continue reading Negative Pressure Massage
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
Perhaps you have seen the ads in the massage therapist trade publications: What would happen if you could see four clients in an hour? Folks in the massage biz are not often associated with great math skills. Four clients in a single hour? As a private practice therapist, heck, I figure could make a lot … Continue reading Massage Therapists Do the Math
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