Category Archives: Ashiatsu barefoot massage

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Tuition Class Prices Increasing

On March 17th, 2022, the Center for Barefoot Massage turns 5 years old!

Happy Birthday to us!

The size of the footprint that our Myofascial Ashiatsu and Fijian Barefoot Massage classes have left on the massage industry since we stepped on the scene back in 2017 is growing – and so are the life-changing foot-shaped impressions that our alumni are leaving on their clients across the nation.

We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, and we have our instructor team, our students, our amazing business sponsors/buddies like NCBTMB, AFMTE, Pure Pro Massage, Books of Discovery, Mother Earth Pillows, Bodywork Buddy, Lolita Knight, Ruth Werner, and Massage Blueprint, as well as our fans to thank. (Thank you all!!!)

As our birthday gift to YOU, we are now including more detailed, narrated study videos in the Alumni video vaults, with new “Footage” recorded throughout the year.

If you’ve trained with us already, go log in and watch! 

After reassessing where we’ve been and where we’re going, this 5-year mark brings the need for us to raise tuition prices. Just like we encourage our alumni to price their specialty barefoot massage sessions to fit their business needs and market, we want to lead by example and do the same.

5-year birthday class prices will be increasing for the Center for Barefoot Massage

An 11% increase in our class prices will help us to:

  • continue bringing the best live-class environments to the adult learners in our classes 
  • allow the company to push forward with new opportunities for growth
  • support our amazing team of instructors!

All the while still keeping tuition costs at a comparable rate for the massage industry.

Our new prices go into effect on our birthday, March 17th, 2022:

…but if you sign up for a 2022 class by March 16, 2022, you’ll be locked into the original class prices, good towards classes completed by 12/31/2022!

Fundamentals is now $750

Fijian will be $500  

Intermediate goes to $500  

ROM is also $500

Advanced will be $500  

Hot Ashi is now $250

Any travel class held offsite from our training campuses will be +$100

As a young 5-year-old company that survived and thrived through so much in such a condensed period of time, we are so happy to continue to spread the love of Barefoot Massage, and help to flex or extend the careers of so many Massage Therapists out there! (It feels as good as a nice toe-spread foot stretch!)

Thank y’all!

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Anatomy Based Barefoot Massage for every BODY

When we say that we are “anatomy based”, it’s not JUST that classes from the Center for Barefoot Massage will focus on your palpation skills, or that each stroke we teach has an intention aimed to achieve specific structural goals: it’s also because our instructors focus on making Barefoot Massage work for YOUR anatomy, so that you can specialize based on YOUR strengths.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

The Center for Barefoot Massage opened in February 2017, but the technique was in creation long before that. While teaching for the original westernized Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage continuing education company, our founders, Jeni Spring and Mary-Claire Fredette, saw that 22 years of the same routine of strokes wasn’t doing any of us any favors.

Mary-Claire saw it in herself: although teaching a routine for such a stylized technique does really help create consistency in the massage approach, allowing clients the ability to know what to expect when they got that type of massage anywhere across the nation – the predictability was causing mental burnout.

Jeni had been seeing it already for years in her team of Barefoot Massage Therapists that worked with her at the nation’s first “all Barefoot” specialty clinic, Heeling Sole… The same stroke didn’t work for all the folks underfoot and caused repetitive strain injury on the LMTs when they tried to do that routine of strokes all day, every day.

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3 Reasons to Learn Barefoot Massage

1. Lengthen your massage career.

How long did it take you to discover that the average career span of a massage therapist is 3-5 years (or 5-7, depending on the source)?

They certainly didn’t tell me (Mary-Claire) about that in massage school.

I think I found out somewhere along the way. Maybe it was when I started having tendonitis in my right elbow and pain in my left pisiform.

After a while, I would drive home from work and grasp my steering wheel at a traffic stop, stretching my forearm flexors and pounding on my extensors.

Had I not learned barefoot massage in 2002, my career would have been over. I might have lasted until 2003, but I certainly wouldn’t be going for 22+ years.

If you do barefoot massage correctly (yes, you can do it wrong and injure yourself!), you’ll have unlimited years to work in your field

One of Mary-Claire’s classes. (pre-pandemic)

2. Clients love it

I have never had a client ask me to get off the table and switch to hands-on the 1st time I’ve given them barefoot massage.

But you have to have the right client on the table.

First, there are people who hate feet. It’s not your feet, but everyone’s. Don’t try to convince them to try barefoot massage. It’s a lost cause.

Next, you have the client who needs the work, but they’re reluctant, because it’s “weird”. BUT they’re desperate for results and are afraid that surgery will come next. So they’ll try it.

Sara Newberry is using our strap for excellent body mechanics, heat and joint movement.

Lastly, you have the people who think barefoot massage is going to be the most amazing thing ever. They walked on their parent’s back, they have their kids walk on their back, or maybe they’ve gotten another form of barefoot massage somewhere else.

I have found that clients who try ashiatsu barefoot massage NEVER go back to “regular” hands-on massage if they can help it.

(Of course, you need to practice and be good at your barefoot massage craft.)

Most of my clients have also reported that the results of barefoot massage last longer than traditional deep tissue.

PLUS ashiatsu barefoot feels wwwwaaaaayyyy better than pointy thumbs and pokey elbows!

3. You’ll differentiate yourself from other massage therapists

Once you try barefoot massage, you’ll never go back to “regular” massage. Shirt design by Jeni Spring.

✔️How many massage therapists are there in your city?
✔️How many do deep tissue?
✔️What percentage do barefoot massage?

I am one of the few in a large city (Cincinnati) who specializes in barefoot massage. I have trained others, but they have moved or didn’t get comfortable with it or closed their business (or whatever).

Regular clients drive up to 45 minutes to see me.

In fact, I drive 45 minutes to see MY barefoot massage therapist. Why? Because there’s no one else around, and it’s what I want.

What are 3 reasons massage therapists learn barefoot massage?

  1. Lengthen / save your career
  2. Clients love it
  3. You’ll differentiate yourself from other massage therapists

What’s stopping you from learning?

Or if you’ve already learned, do you specialize! Let us know.


Interested in learning more about barefoot massage?

Visit us at www.barefootmassagecenter.com

We have tons of Tip and Tricks on YouTube!

And check out our Facebook page

Don’t forget Instagram!

Mary-Claire Fredette has been licensed as a massage therapist in Ohio since the last century.

Seriously.

She learned barefoot massage in 2002 and hasn’t looked back, beginning teaching in 2004.

You can find her classes in her natural light studio in Cincinnati.

She co-founded the Center for Barefoot Massage with husband Paul and the barefoot massage idea-preneur Jeni Spring in 2017..

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Are you working to your detriment?

Most of us went into the field of massage because we wanted to help people.

Maybe we already were giving out shoulder rubs on everyone we could get our hands-on. Perhaps we just knew that we weren’t meant to be a counselor (ahem, Mary-Claire here, speaking from experience).

But we had the heart to serve, to help others, to make them leave our offices happier than they were when they came in.

Into massage school we ran, eager to have the license to practice.

Did they tell you that the average career span of a massage therapist is 3-5 years (or 5-7 years, depending on the source)?

Or did you find out later?

Why do you think that is?

While there are a number of factors in play, one of the big reason is injury, pain, and burnout.

Simply stated, we work to our detriment.

What does that mean, exactly?

Most of us do/did our best to provide the massage experience that the legit client wanted.

More pressure? Sure!

Deeper in that spot! No problem.

Can you hang out here for a while? My pleasure.

In the meantime, our backs started to act up. Or maybe we discovered a little tendonitis or tenosynovitis.

We start cracking our knuckles a little more, pounding on our forearms while we sit at a traffic stop, gripping the steering wheel so we can have the added stretch of a bent wrist.

I have a client who was a massage therapist for many years, longer than I have been (and it’s 22+ years for me).

While she had learned barefoot massage years ago, she never got really comfortable with it, was clunky, and the clients didn’t love it.

So she continued to do what she’d been doing-providing her clients with awesome deep tissue massage via her hands.

Until she couldn’t.

She couldn’t push past the pain anymore. Actually, she had to see a doctor because she couldn’t grip things anymore and was starting to drop the items she held in her hands.

Permanent damage, friends.

Permanent damage was caused by overworking herself to make her clients happy.

This is preventable.

If you’re going to offer deep tissue massage as a career, please get good at barefoot massage.

And it’s not going to happen if you take an online class. It may not happen if you only take 1 live class.

You may need to retake your 1st class (especially if it takes a while to get the bars up).

And you will certainly be better with each continuing ed class you take.

Is there anything preventing you from a long lasting deep tissue massage career?

The ball’s in your court.


Interested in learning more about barefoot massage?

Visit us at www.barefootmassagecenter.com

We have tons of Tip and Tricks on YouTube!

And check out our Facebook page

Don’t forget Instagram!

Mary-Claire Fredette has been licensed as a massage therapist in Ohio since the last century.

Seriously.

She learned barefoot massage in 2002 and hasn’t looked back, beginning teaching in 2004.

You can find her classes in her natural light studio in Cincinnati.

She co-founded the Center for Barefoot Massage with husband Paul and the barefoot massage idea-preneur Jeni Spring in 2017.

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Knowing your ideal client

Whether you’ve learned barefoot massage already or are pondering your possibilities, it’s important to decide who your ideal client is for barefoot massage.

Really, you should know this even if you haven’t even considered the possibility of taking our classes!

1st consideration

You can’t serve everyone.

Think of big chains.

While it may seem like they serve everyone, they’ve probably narrowed it down something like this-the person

  1. wants the convenience of a membership
  2. doesn’t mind seeing a wide variety of therapists
  3. wants a less expensive massage
  4. is willing to buy products

2nd thought

In trying to have everyone as your client, you are missing out on those who want to find someone who specializes in XYZ.

This brings us to specializing in a modality.

You don’t have to be a barefoot nerd like we are. Some massage therapists love taking a wide variety of CE classes, and we’re into that as well.

But when you offer 37 items on your massage menu, it:

  • creates confusion with your potential clients
  • it makes it harder for them to make a decision
  • ultimately, they’ll probably leave your site
  • you aren’t seen as an expert in any one field-you look more like a dabbler in modalities.
  • Just pick a couple of things and get really good at them.

Be known for something specific.

3rd idea

Now that you’ve chosen a thing or 2 to specialize in, who do you want to work with?

My ideal client used to be someone like me (Mary-Claire)-a parent who didn’t have a whole lot of money but wanted to take care of themselves. As a result, I didn’t charge a whole lot.

While noble, that’s not a great idea if you actually want to make a living doing massage therapy.

When deciding your ideal client (also known as an “avatar”), get super specific.

Do you want to work with:

  • men or women
  • athletes or wanna be’s
  • someone who’s working from home and is stressed out
  • car accident rehab patients
  • oncology patients (not for barefoot massage, though)
  • etc. (you catch my drift, right?)

What’s their name?
Do they have kids? How many? Ages?
Pets?
What are their hobbies?
What kind of work do they do?

Be specific as you can. For instance, mine looks something like this:

Bob is a 54-year-old married dad of 2 whose kids are out of the house. He has a Labradoodle named Sals who he takes on walks twice a day. He is an upper-level executive of marketing with Procter and Gamble and likes to hike on his days off. He loves deep tissue massage and is a foodie.

What 3 important facts does this tell me?
1. He has a reasonable amount of disposable income with his job and his kids being out of the house.
2. Bob likes being outdoors and getting exercise.
3. Being a foodie, he is open to new experiences.

Therefore:
1. He would probably like stretching added into his barefoot massages (which I want to do)
2. Bob has enough money and time to take care of himself with regular massage.
3. As a matter of fact, Bob is an ideal client who can afford to come 2x a month to receive massage.
4. He is willing to try new-to-him techniques such as side-lying,

Knowing your ideal client will help you target your social media and marketing to the right potential client.

Interested in learning more about barefoot massage?

Visit us at www.barefootmassagecenter.com

We have tons of Tip and Tricks on YouTube!

And check out our Facebook page

Don’t forget Instagram!

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2021 reSOLEution #BarefootMassageChallenge

Join the challenge!

reSOLEution 2021 #BarefootMassageChallenge

GOAL: Create NEW content that educates YOUR community

Who needs help creating new content for your Barefoot Massage social media accounts?! Over the next 3 months, we will be providing you with coaching prompts and we want to see you adapt it to fit YOUR business. We want to see you create content on your social media account that is unique, engaging, and accurate. We want you to think about creating content that would bring your clients in and connect with them. We want to see you use our examples as inspiration, but not use them as verbatim – change up the idea to fit your voice and branding. THIS CHALLENGE IS FREE and is meant for Center for Barefoot Massage alumni. You can do it live with us and win prizes, and/or you can pick up this challenge anytime and use the prompts as content starting points just to have a fresh take on how you talk about your work. Our goal is to help you create 9 pieces of new, focused content that you can reuse over time in your rotation of posts. In fact, these 9 posts – just 3 a month – can easily become 18 different items thru the bonus challenges! WHO COULDN’T USE 18 NEW THINGS TO POST?!

What you’ll get
  • 3 months worth of focused topics to create NEW social media content, with guidance from the Center for Barefoot Massage Instructors & their local businesses
  • 3 specific assignments each month
  • End up with 9-18 new pieces of content that are true to your brand AND uses updated Barefoot Massage information: no more re-using outdated, overused lingo or old posts.
  • Earn points as you post and you can win a free Center for Barefoot Massage shirt, collectible stickers from our instructors across the nation AND an upgraded directory listing on our website to boost your SEO rankings and help more potential clients find you.

CLICK HERE to have your posts counted into the challenge!

SCROLL DOWN TO FIND THE CONTENT YOU NEED TO CREATE EACH MONTH ON YOUR OWN. >>>

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Finding our footing during the COVID19 pandemic

We hope that you and your household, your family, your friends, your work family as well as your communities, are all safe, healthy and happy.

During 2020 and 2021, the Center for Barefoot Massage as a company did not make many, if any, public announcements regarding COVID19 because we didn’t want to spread myths or misinformation: so we took a step back to assess the situation and come forward with an informed, calmer presence.

A lot has changed since March 2020. As of March 2022, we are now watching each county’s Community Levels where we teach, as recorded by the CDC. Read below to better understand our precautions and policies in place during the pandemic.

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Barbicide, Lysol, Beach, oh my!

The world is going through the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

It’s typically spread by people who come in close contact (within 6′) of an infected person or through respiratory droplets from sneezing or coughing.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention):

It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

To protect yourself, (at the time of this blogs posting) the CDC recommends:
1. To clean your hands often-wash with soap and water for at least 20 seconds (especially after you’ve been in a public place, have blown your nose, coughed or sneezed).
2. Use at least 60% alcohol hand sanitizer if soap and water aren’t available.
3. Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unclean hands.

And now, onto our GUEST POST, written by a past Center for Barefoot Massage instructor who taught with us for a very short time, but is no longer with the company.

So, this photo is probably my most least Instagram/Facebook worthy. 😆 It may, however, be one of my most important posts to date.
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My sanitation practices have not changed since the outbreak. I leave an hour in between each guest so I can clean and disinfect.

I do this *FOR EVERY* client.

I wash my hands
✔︎for 20 seconds before I know you’re arriving
✔︎ for 20 seconds before I begin your treatment
✔︎ again if I need to step away and
✔︎ post-treatment.

Between every client
✔︎I clean the bathroom with disinfectant
✔︎I wipe down my computer, cell phone, iPad, hot towel caddies with Barbicide wipes
✔︎ I spray soft surfaces and door knobs with Lysol
✔︎ I use a fresh Ashi strap for each client and soak them at night

✔︎ I wash my feet and sanitize them with wintergreen alcohol for barefoot massage

✔︎I wear rubber flip flops that are sanitized if I step off the table
✔︎I wash with soap and soak all coffee mugs in bleach water
✔︎I wipe my bars with disinfectant
✔︎ I wash and disinfect any and all tools used during facials and body rituals
✔︎I clean the floor (even though y’all wear slippers to move around in the space)

I have an air purifier to clean the air of viruses, bacteria and impurities.

All linens are washed on a sanitary cycle every night. All whites are bleached. (Pro tip, splashless bleach is not a disinfectant!!! Read the label!)

All blankets, towels and sheets are fresh and are used only on you. I have fresh towels, blankets and sheets for my other guests, there’s no cooties passing around here. 😷
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I’m also asking each client to wash their hands before their treatment begins.
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I know many of you are afraid and many are not.

I will tell you that I do have geriatric clients, I have clients with autoimmune disease, diabetes and some clients who are smokers. People falling in this particular demographic are being hit the hardest, just because you don’t fall in those categories doesn’t mean you’re not susceptible to spread the disease.

Please, I beg you…if you are ill, if a family member or someone in your inner circle is sick…please stay home. I will turn you away if I feel you’re contagious.
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All this being said, the biggest thing you can do to make an impact is by practicing good hygiene by washing your hands.

Also, please be kind 🙏🏻♥️✨ to others while in public spaces. I’ve been reading article after article about rampant xenophobia. We are in this mess together y’all. A little kindness, compassion for others and plain old common decency goes a long, long way.
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I also want to encourage other Massage Therapists, Estheticians, Stylists & Nail Artists to share their sanitation practices here on social media so we can all put our clients’ minds at ease.

We are, have and always will be doing our part to protect you and your health.


The author of this guest post was K r i s t y P o u x

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Using a small pillow for Sidelying barefoot massage bolstering

The benefits of side-lying barefoot massage are plentiful. Once you get past the “my client only wants to lie face down to receive the massage” mentality, you’ll find that you can access a number of muscles more easily when they lie on their side.

Why side-lying barefoot massage?

Providing side-lying barefoot massage allows you as a therapist to have better access and angles to work on shoulders, hips, quadratus lumborum, IT band, adductors, and abductors, to name but a few.

(You can learn side-body barefoot massage in our Intermediate class. We also teach side-lying barefoot work in our Fijian barefoot mat class.)

Sometimes you’ll find that your client (typically women, who are more curvy than men) may have trouble lying on their side as their 11th or 12th rib feels like it’s close to or hitting their iliac crest.

This makes it tricky for even the most skilled barefoot therapist to find the QL, as there’s often not enough space for even the heel. Resorting to the lateral edge of the foot may be a solution, but there’s something super simple you can try instead.

Bolstering with a small pillow

It’s easy fix- small toddler or travel pillow placed under their waist in between their body and the table.

Watch the video to see how Mary-Claire uses the pillow and how it flattens out the client’s torso. This makes barefoot side-lying massage much easier (and more comfortable for both the LMT and the client).

The client simply rolls over when you’re ready to work the 2nd side-the pillow should stay pretty well in place.

If you’re going to use the pillow under their stomach for prone work, they simply roll onto their stomach and adjust as needed. (See this video on how to do that.)

Are they rolling on their back next? Just have them lift up a little, grab the pillow and hand it to you or toss it onto the floor-whatever’s easiest.

Let us know what other bolstering techniques are in your grab bag (or you’d like to see!) in the comments.

Where you can find more info…

Visit our main website to find out more about all our classes at the Center for Barefoot Massage.

Or visit us on Facebook and Instagram!

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Ashiatsu Massage Near Me

Doing a Google Search for “Ashiatsu Massage near Me” doesn’t always bring back the results you need.

More and more Massage Therapists across the nation are learning barefoot massage. There is a wonderful surge of trained ashiatsu practitioners in the industry… but not all are actually trained in our “FasciAshi” myofascial ashiatsu barefoot massage technique, or held to our standards.

You can CLICK HERE to find a myofascial ashiatsu barefoot massage therapist near you.

We know that you can easily do a search for “Ashiatsu Massage Near Me” or “barefoot massage near me”… even “ashiatsu 78209” (or insert your zip code here!) What you’ll get is anyone who’s website or SEO content uses the word(s) Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage near where you are geographically located at that moment. Anyone can enter those words into the coding and content of their website. They can do that regardless of the level (if any) training in the technique. On the flip side, not all local massage websites contain the words necessary for this kind of Google search to even work.

So how do you find trained myofascial ashiatsu barefoot massage therapists?

We at the Center for Barefoot Massage are slowly growing our base of students across the nation. We offer a locator service that helps you find a local massage professional associated with our FasciAshi technique. True to our pun-filled form, we called this the “Sole-Provider Directory“.

You can CLICK HERE to get step-by-step visual instructions on how to best “Find a Barefoot Massage Therapist”

Not every LMT that we train wants to be found, so not everyone will choose to list in this directory. To protect the privacy of our students, we do not give out contact information unless it is listed on this directory.

We DO vet every listing to make sure that the business listed has our students providing the service. We make sure that the barefoot massage therapists are legit. The Center for Barefoot Massage only trains Licensed Massage Therapists, so you can rest easy knowing that our providers are held to the standards of the profession and the massage laws of your state.

If it’s a business that employs multiple massage therapists, we’ll make sure that the business is actually providing the service. (Not just listing it on a menu without a trained pro on staff.)

Your Google search for “ashiatsu near me” can sometimes turn up disappointing results. We want our locator service to be the resource that helps you find the massage you are actually looking for.

Find a barefoot massage therapist

Step your search up a notch. Don’t just look to find any ashiatsu massage near you – find YOUR barefoot massage therapist!

How do you “Find an Ashiatsu Massage Near me?” We have a Sole-Provider directory available to help you find a local myofascial ashiatsu barefoot massage therapist.

Our Sole-Provider Directory offers “feet-ures” that help you choose a practitioner when you have multiple options.

  • Search a radius around a zip code, AND get Google directions to them!
  • Read a review, leave a review. If you’ve been underfoot with this provider, tell us how it went so others can feel the vibe.
  • Search by their level of training. Beginner to advanced, on the table or the floor, we can help you find what you are looking for!
  • Search by state, country, and even find the expert instructors all in easy to navigate categories
Click here to find a Barefoot Massage Therapist near you

Are YOU FasciAshi trained?

HERE’S WHY YOU SHOULD LIST YOUR BUSINESS AS A “SOLE PROVIDER”

  • We have a great network of Barefoot Massage Therapists across the nation – and their clients travel! We all know that once you try Myofascial Ashiatsu, you won’t want to go back to normal massage, so let us help these fans of our work find their favorite bodywork in the town they are relocating to, or visiting!
  • Every SOLE Provider is verified. Although not every FasciAshi or Fijian Barefoot Massage trained Massage Therapist will choose to list here, those that DO can have peace of mind that every pair of feet represented in our directory has been trained by the Center for Barefoot Massage.
  • Reviews from real clients are available!!! No expensive scamming from Yelp, just pure barefoot massage fans leaving their feedback on their experience at your business.
  • Google Maps integrated: clients can search within a radius of any zip code. If you don’t live in a city with an often-searched name, you can still show up in searches for the nearest searched area!
  • Upgrades available for your listing. You can give it an extra little BOOST with a 6 month “FEETured” listing when you need it!
  • Every listed business gets FREE DOWNLOADABLE LOGO’S! You’ll get to choose from a variety of the Sole Provider graphics. Post them on your website as a reciprocal link back to us. (That’s the thing that hyper-boosts your SEO!)
  • Each level of Certification completed will add the associated seal of Certification to your profile for free. Regardless of what level listing you pay for and code the images to help boost your local exposure. You’ll also be searchable by your level of training/Certification. More credibility, clout and bragging rights!

Attention Ashiatsu Massage Therapists: Watch this!