Online Massage Education
I got an email from a subscriber who was going to unsubscribe. She wasn’t using the prerecorded video in our vault and we were currently doing a multicamera livestream, a new offering in my teaching. I’m working with her to give her the value she needs to stay and continue learning but many Lmt have been told the following lie, “you can’t learn massage online.”
I think about this often as I used to believe the same thing.
I’m a bodyworker and yogi first. I work with flesh.
Making workbooks dvds then social media videos for youtube began to shift my mentality as I noticed that I kept getting messages about how much xyz helped someone online. This person had never been in my physical presence but found benefit from what I was doing. If they can how far can this go?
I decided that even With online disadvantages (we all agree that in person 5 year long apprenticeships will be better 🙂 ) online was something I needed to improve. I’ve done that.
When we released a subscription our #1 question was, “what’s a subscription?” Students didn’t understand how we were putting together information for people and they mostly still don’t. I had to tell people, “it’s a video subscription. We’re the netflix of massage education.”
Multicamera livestreams are more groundbreaking more innovative and it will take years for our industry to understand what’s happening right now. It will be dismissed for now. Long term our world will have to contend with what I’m sharing and with nearly inifinite capacity to reduce class costs and scale information worldwide I will find those students willing to go the distance.
I can offer real solid education for pennies on the dollar and at nearly 20 years in my industry I’m excited to see what the next 20 holds. In 2040 I will be 63. 🙂 I look forward to what technology will allow me to do then.
For now, subscribe if you have not and see what the future of online bodywork education looks like.
Contraindication or Caution?
I get emails from time to time or messages from students who are wondering what they can deal with or warnings about various conditions. Here’s an example from last night:
Hey Robert,
I have a new client that wants a Thai massage today (just noticed it’s midnight). She completed her intake form yesterday and stated she had suffered cerebral hemorrhage 38 yrs ago, left side got paralyzed and stiff. She exercises but limitations due to the stiffness.
One part of the intake form and how she responded:Please describe your pain and if it is always present or just when you do a certain activity. Please describe the activity. (is it stabbing? aching? burning?) my left arm joint (shoulder) when I stretch. My left leg around hip joint when I bend.
I obviously need to discuss with her about her limitations and keeping an open dialogue throughout the session. Should I keep away from some stretches or ultimately leave up to the client and what she can handle?
Thank you, Dedicated Student
I think that stretching has very limited therapeutic benefit in most situations. Stretching in my experience is more about end range and that’s fine for healthy people. Mobilization is what I most often use and in cases of caution I’d say communicate verbally More with the client as you go.
Explore with them and understand that many contraindications are just cautions. Thai massage is no more harmful than any other form of massage when done within a range of pressure and mobility that a receiver can easily receive.
Go slow. Communicate. 🙂
Back Pain Relief
As a massage therapist and yoga teacher I’ve had my own share of back pain over the years and a steadfast passion in helping people learn how to work on themselves and others. Much back pain seems to be rooted in a keyed up nervous system that’s told a muscle to contract and hang on for dear life. Most of my work involves helping you and others say hello to that muscle hang out in it using pressure or stretch and allowing your body time to relax release and unwind.
You can access a Free Back Pain Relief course here. You’ll get an idea of how to work on yourself and others whether you’re a pro or just an amateur who wants to help your friends and loved ones.
Most back pain goes away on its own. If you have searing pain that lasts for longer than a week I’d suggest seeking out a medical professional.
Upper Back Pain Relief
Upper back pain and neck issues are a constant that massage therapists see in their offices. In addition to the soft tissue work I do I assist clients by giving them information on how to work on themselves. This means that their back pain goes away longer and if it recurs they have a way to work on themselves.
The trick is to go slow and at your own pace that your breathing allows. Don’t just roll up and down aggressively. Hang out on a spot. If you need to prop yourself with pillows or bolsters feel free. Also keep in mind that a little goes a long way. Much upper back pain could be helped in as little as 5 minutes a day. Feel your way through this and if the foam roll itself is too firm or feels sharp then put a towel over it possibly folding it several times. This will dampen make it less sharp and cushion you a bit.
Enjoy and I hope your upper back feel more open.
Be sure to check out the neck blog post and video as well. The two areas are interrelated.
Lomilomi Massage in Austin Texas
Jason Bratcher is a colleague and friend that I wanted to interview and talk shop with. He’s had a practice for many years and works in a polar opposite form of table based work called Lomilomi. It’s originally from Hawaii and the pacific islands. It typically involves lots of oil on a table and tons of glide.
Jason can be contacted via his website.
I really enjoyed this series of talks. After he did his wonderful demonstration of the long fluid strokes involved in his work he had a conversation about business where we went over some the details of social media marketing. I’m a huge fan of video production and this is where Jason’s work really shines. I’d no idea before our get together that it was so visual.
Therapists like Jason and I are committed to helping the massage community diversify and offer niche services like Thai massage and Lomilomi. I’m very happy to have him as a colleague and hopefully we’ll shoot more content over time. It’s a good excuse to get together and chat.
Why Reboot™
I had a phone conversation with a colleague and he insisted that I’m driving away part of my target market by insisting that what I do isn’t massage. Legally massage is the manipulation of soft tissue. Legally massage therapists are the ones who can perform this work but to someone who’s already bought and sold the culturally hegemonic kool aid Reboot™ is less massage anything they’ve ever seen. Where’s the table?
My colleague wanted me to focus on the benefits, the features. When you sell it to massage therapists what are they looking for? What problems are they trying to solve?
Massage therapists get the following benefits by using what I teach:
Save your hands
Help clients in chronic pain rapidly
Deep compressions effortlessly
Do propped yoga while you work
Offer a truly unique service clients cannot get elsewhere
More effective next level 21st century work
Make more income offering an amazing service no facility comes close to
Have more fun in session!!
Engage full mobility for your clients and yourself
No hunching over a table
Increased range of motion and capacity to engage more intimately with clients
Help clients with severe menstrual cramps and debilitating low back pain by using advanced abdominal massage
Create a niche service that allows you to film and create tons of social media content
Spend less on cream and oils
Save on laundry since you only need a flat sheet on top of your mat
Make use of your full body including legs and feet to deliver pressure
Accelerate your business growth by having a service you can demonstrate easily
Create a space where you’re breathing fully and exploring your own range of motion while helping people
Work for yourself more easily
A clothed service helps with clients who may not want to undress
Male therapists may be able to open up new markets to clients who don’t want to undress
Meditate while you work
Did I mention that it’s more fun? 🙂
Tim McCoy and Robert Gardner Talk Thai Massage
Tim McCoy and I have been colleagues and friends in and around Austin for over 7 years at this point. Tim was looking for something and apparently part of it coalesced into the Thai massage I was teaching years ago in central Texas. Tim loves table based work but as a Brazilian JiuJitsu practitioner he kept commenting on the fact that I put clients in soft joint locks and worked tissue in a therapeutic way that looked awfully similar to the martial art he’d come to know and love.
As Tim and I continued to grow and teach he often was a teaching assistant for classes while working at Massage Harmony an Austin original spa that was one of the first facilities to add Thai massage to its menu of services. He’s got his own educational challenges now as a teacher and it’s great to see how far we’ve both come over the years while mentoring massage therapists in our area.
Reboot™ and the State of Massage Education
I give talks periodically at the Lauterstein Conway Massage School here in Austin, TX. As a continuing education provider and entrepreneur it’s always interesting to walk into a class full of students and see where they’re at mentally. 15 years in my industry and I’m now 40 years old with a solid grasp of what’s going on in the massage world.
Some talks make me inordinately angry, others hopeful. Talking to students full of enthusiasm is one of the things that keeps me going. Wondering if I’m connecting when discussing branding for massage therapists who are taught to dole out a commodity is something I’ll continue to do. There are usually a handful of students who come up after a talk with questions knowing innately that there’s more going on that we just don’t have time to discuss in a 30 minute talk.
The state of our industry is that Massage Envy helped create inexpensive low priced massage for the masses. For that I sincerely thank them. My suggestion to students is to now go artisanal and sell services no facility can match. If students wonder what Reboot™ is it’s because no one does it no one teaches it and the bulk of the public doesn’t look at what I do as massage.
What I do is help those in chronic pain put their lives back together when soft tissue and muscle is the cause.
How to Find Good Massage on a Budget
I don’t think anyone wants a cheap massage so much as they want an inexpensive high quality session. As a massage therapist who has worked in various facilities in my fifteen years I’m going to give you insider information on how to get the most for your massage dollar.
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If you have insurance you need to check with your insurance company and see if they cover massage as part of a wellness plan with a chiropractors office. If your insurance does this is absolutely the cheapest way to get regular work.
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Find a local massage school and go to their student clinic.
Most schools like Lauterstein Conway Massage School here in Austin have a student clinic where current students are practicing towards getting their license. Currently they charge $40 for an hour and that’s some of the least expensive in town. When you go you’re free to ask for a student who may be near the end of their clinical hours. That means that they have the skills just no license as of yet.
Pick the therapist whose work you really like and give them a business card with your name and contact info on it. Tell them to contact you as soon as they get their license because you’d like to hire them for regular sessions.
Most therapists who are starting out would die for a few regular clients to pad their practice and it’s a great way to pitch to the therapist that you’d like regular work at such and such a rate however regularly you prefer. This is the sweet spot because a seasoned professional is usually busy enough that they’re less inclined to give discounts.
If you check your local schools you can find classes that are usually for massage therapists. In many cases you can take these classes and receive some work while you learn. If you’re open to taking classes with your partner it’s inexpensive to find a used table on craigslist and practice on each other. In fact, if you find a therapist who’s willing you can get someone to visit and teach you to work on each other.
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I personally run an event in Austin called Thai massage jam® where I teach people how to work on each other for nearly free. You can get information on those events as they come up. Join us on Meetup and on Facebook.
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Beyond that I’m amazed at how few people use youtube as a resource. Youtube videos go all over the map in their audio and video quality but there are many therapists like myself who put out quality videos showing you how to work on a table or off a table.
As in all professions, you do get “what you pay for”. If you want an expert with years of experience or with a specific advanced training, you will no doubt be paying $75 or more per hour – and many advanced practitioners are certainly worth it.
I hope you find the massage you’re looking for. Ask around. Talk to people and keep searching. Your therapist will be happy you did.
Why Study Thai Massage with Robert Gardner?
Occasionally I get phone calls or emails from potential students who want to know why they should study with me. This is always a loaded question because they presume that they already know what I’m teaching if they’ve studied some Thai massage with other teachers. They already know what I do right?
Usually I find this to not be the case. I’m mixing and blending Thai massage, yoga, yoga therapy, advanced abdominal work, pain science, trigger point therapy and myofascial release into sessions that are 3 hours long. This isn’t massage. It isn’t Thai massage. It’s a Reboot™.
I’m happy to talk with students and place them in class where they can pick up what I do but I’m just as much a yoga teacher as I am a massage therapist. I’m not going to use a table, cream, glide or nudity in my sessions. What that means in the larger culture is that though what I do is bound by massage law it’s not really considered massage by the population who’s been sold massage as an hour long cream and glide session on a table.
If you want to study with me you want to break all of the rules and help people while doing so. You’re an iconoclast and you’re ready to subvert the dominant paradigm.
Getting Clients to Try New Services
Gael Wood is a friend and colleague and wanted space for a guest post. Working in the mainstream of the massage industry she touches on some of the issues I see with Thai massage and getting clients to try a new service. She recommends what I usually recommend. The slow incremental take over. 🙂
Go here for more Lmt resources.
Enjoy her post:
We’ve all been there, we take a CEU class, learn some great new techniques, that we know will help our clients, and we don’t end up using them as much as we would like.
Why is this? I think it’s because we just don’t know how to seamlessly incorporate new techniques into our massage and we worry about our clients’ expectations. We know most people get a little concerned about change and our clients like what we do already, it’s hard to rock that boat!
Try some of the following ideas to work your new skills into your massages:
- Keep practicing at home and reviewing your class resources. This will increase your confidence level and your skills.
- Challenge yourself to use 1-3 new techniques every massage for a month. Before you know it, you won’t even have to think about it.
- Watch your wording, it’s all in how you say it! Asking a client to book a full Thai massage is asking them to take a risk with their money on something they may have never even heard of. Instead ask if they would like to try some new “stretching techniques” and explain the benefits. For example: “Susan, I would love to incorporate some of the stretching that I learned recently, I think it will help your neck and tight shoulders, does that sound ok?” After the session, you can explain that you have a new service with even more of that good stuff!
- Offer a free upgrade, like 15 minutes of Thai stretching with every hour booked for a few weeks.
- Create a new service and a great special. For example, Thai Herbal Fusion, you could incorporate Thai techniques, massage, and some herbal healing balms.
- Do a giveaway for a full session of your new service, and everyone who enters but doesn’t win gets a 25% off coupon to try your new service. I wouldn’t announce the coupon, just send it out after the giveaway is over. And, as a bonus you can grow your Facebook page and mailing list.
A big part of your job as a therapist is to make recommendations to clients, whether it’s how often to come back in or which services will give them the most benefit, you are the expert. Proceed with confidence and grow your business!
Free Thai Massage Workbook
