Going too deep?!?

[Brad S.]

I've found that when people feel a massage has been painful & left bruises, it's the specific work they found uncomfortable. (Trigger point therapy, muscle stripping -- anything with thumbs.) In a swedish massage, I leave all of those techniques out of the mix. If people really just want to relax, then my goal is to soothe with the strokes instead of work out specific areas of tension. That means I get very creative with varieties of effleurage. : If I ever do use my thumbs in a stroke, I hold way back on the pressure, so really, it's just thumb effleurage. I don't try to work out knots at all. I also don't use my forearms at all on swedish massages, since it's too easy to use strong pressure with the forearms. This means there's a lot of repetition of strokes, which can be a little boring for the therapist, but clients who like relaxation massage love that repetition.

 

[Max S]

A lot of us, through our upbringing, think it's wrong to ask for what we want, or we find it difficult to do.

The other side of this is getting through whatever blocks are in the way, finally asking for what you want, and still not getting it! How many of us have asked for what we want from a massage therapist, only to not get it?

 

[Pompal 09.]

Learning to Lighten Up?

On Monday the spa owner & spa manager called me in for a meeting and told me that in the past month or so they'd had 3 complaints about my swedish massage, twice even refunding the cost of the client's massage)....The spa where I work really wants all of us to be carbon copies of each other when it comes to the massage. So I've been trying to figure out how my swedish massage is different than theirs.

Maestra, are the people who complained one-time customers or are they regaulars at the spa? If they are regulars, is there another therapist on staff who gives them a swedish massage they like? If so, maybe you could receive a massage from this person to discern the difference between their style and yours.

 

[Seraphin Falls]

They are one time customers, Blisss. It's their first time to the spa... or they are tourists. The spa doesn't try to keep a client with any one therapist unless the client Requests they have the same therapist they had last time.
I have given massages to the spa owner & spa manager, as well as one of the other massage therapists on staff. Actually, the later MT and I trade at least once or twice a month.
In addition, there is a MT who drives about an hour every couple of months to see me for a 1.5 hr DT massage.
I don't know whether to chalk it down to picky people... or whether I really need to work out some way to "get the lead out" of my touch. And if so, how. :roll:
Honestly Blisss, I rarely even use my forearm in a deep tissue massage, let alone my swedish. I don't really feel like I do a lot of thumb work during a swedish, though I suppose I've used a couple of fingertips to do some nice relaxing (to me at least) circles between the shoulder blades for a client who reported that's where they held their stress, to break up the monotony of the effluerage.
I guess my point is, as far as pressure goes, I can only pull back so far... before it's going to start to tickle. :roll: :

 

[Tofu]

This thread has been especially helpful to me this week! I'm three weeks into my new job at a health spa. Yesterday I had a client who not only is world-famous, but was one of my idols when I was younger. :shock: The massage was booked as a deep tissue and the client was very specific in telling me that they wanted "as deep as I could go." Now I'm 6'2", and built like a brick house (but not 'letting it all hang out,' thank you very much) so I was worried about going too deep.

During the massage, I took this piece of advice:

Instead of saying "is that too deep," try saying, "would you like more pressure, less pressure or just the same?"

and a while later, I used this pearl of wisdom:

"Hey ____, if I massage this adh. any more, I think you may be sore tomorrow, but I feel like it's responding to the massage, should we leave more for next time, or do you want me to keep working on this area?"

In the end, this client was very pleased with the massage, asked for my name at the front desk and told the spa manager that they would be back to see me very soon! :

I really do think it was an example of what Noel stated... the client just wanted a firmer Swedish massage in order to relax, not a therapeutic deep tissue session that might lead to soreness the following day. And I didn't forget to push the water!

I learn so much on this board! Thank you so much!!!

sji