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Advice for new Massage Therapists

Use slower strokes - This is the biggest mistake I see new Massage Therapists make.  If you go slowly into a tender point and release slowly, you'll get much better results than trying to DIG the knot out.  And, of course, slower strokes are much more relaxing.  

Keep the massage room warm - It is impossible to relax if you're cold.  As you get more and more relaxed, your metabolism decreases.  It's your metabolism that keeps you warm.  In order to keep your client warm, without you being too warm, do the following.  Get a heating pad for your table and use a hydrocollator (moist heat) machine.  Moist heat is much more penetrating than dry heat.

Don't time your massage - If you watch the clock, your massage suffers.  When I'm getting a massage, I can tell when the therapist is thinking about going out to dinner with friends after the massage, etc.  Relax and enjoy giving the massage, as if there's nothing you'd rather be doing.  This will also cause your strokes to slow down.  If you don't time your massage and you go over 5 minutes, your client will appreciate it.  Also, your massage will feel less like factory work to your client.

Don't offer partial massages - If your client just wants a 30 minute massage because it's only his shoulders that are bothering him, fine.  But let him know that the tension in the rest of his body will likely cause his shoulders to start bothering him again, soon after the massage.  The entire body needs to be in balance to get the best, longest lasting results.

Trade massages as often as you can - you learn so much from getting massages. It may not be an entirely new technique, but a subtle difference in a technique you already use.  Also, the more massages you give, the better you will get.  Where you went to massage school is irrelevant, compared to experience.

 

Suggestions for new Massage Therapists
 
Getting business in this profession can be quite a struggle. I've been a Massage Therapist for 19 years and I'd like to share what I have learned about promoting my business.
 
Most likely you will spend much more money on advertising, than you will earn. If you've had a lot of experience as a Massage Therapist and have had time to refine your skills, those new clients you get from advertising may come back, for many years.  If not, those new clients you get may never come back. So, until you've gotten somewhat experienced, it probably doesn't pay to advertise.
 
The best way to improve your skills is by doing massages, even if you're not getting paid for them.  Give them as gifts for Christmas, trade massage for other services and last, but certainly not least, donate your massage gift certificates to charities. The gift certificates may be used for a charity auctions, raffles or given to the volunteers who work for the charities. This will give you more experience giving massages, you may get a client from it, you can get a tax deduction (just be sure you get a thank you letter, stating the value of the gift), and you can feel good about helping a worthy cause.  Even though doing free massages will improve your skills, you should never offer free massages to the general public. You also shouldn't offer large discounts, for new clients. It took me most of my career to learn this. I used to offer new clients 50% off their first appointment, to try my massage. I got slightly more clients by doing this, but the same clients who would have paid 100%, never came back once they paid 50%. It devalues the service, in their mind. There are companies who will offer to sell your gift certificates and keep all the money. Some companies even want to charge you a service fee, in addition to keeping all the money. This may sound strange, but if you give a new client a free massage, they are much less likely to come back to you, then they are if they buy the massage from someone else. In other words, it's ok to give free massages to get new clients, just don't let the client know you're doing it for free.
 
Another great way to improve your skills is by trading massages with other therapists.  After 14 years, I'm still learning from my trades. It may not always be an entirely new technique, but a subtly different way of doing a technique that you already do.  I was once doing on site massages with a friend and he saw me jostling a client and said, "oh, you do tragger work" and I said, "what's tragger work?"  Apparently, somewhere along the way, I traded with someone who jostled me, while working on a tender point.  After getting the massage I didn't think, "I should start jostling my clients", I just did it. My hands knew to do it, even though I didn't.  So much of massage is subconscious.
 
If you're struggling now have heart.  If you're dedicated to the profession, you will continue to improve. There is such an incredible difference in the quality of a massage from one Massage Therapist to the next.  The majority of that difference is experience.