Category Archives: Ashiatsu barefoot massage

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Recap from the 2018 World Massage Festival

Last month at the 2018 World Massage Festival in Las Vegas, we taught the biggest ashiatsu class on record!

We had almost 100 massage therapists (93, to be exact) sign up for a full day of training in our HandsFree Ashiatsu class at the World Massage Festival. Five of our FasciAshi instructors traveled from across the country to meet up for a feet-up just off the Vegas Strip. Jeni Spring, Mary-Claire Fredette, Julie Marciniak, Dawn Dotsonand Sara Newberry joined forces and shared little samples of what it takes to be a Barefoot Massage Therapist.

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The importance of communication in charging for additional services

I personally charge the same for everything I do at my office. I’ve never thought that anyone should have to pay more because their body needed a different kind of work (ie. charging more for deep tissue massage). I add on aromatherapy sometimes, and sometimes there’s…whatever I come up with. That’s my gig.

Adding on services or a modality to your massage is totally fine, but if you charge, you better let your client know ahead of time it will cost more.

(Heck yeah, I’d pay extra for an Aroma-nap after a massage. As long as I knew there was a fee first. Putting on your menu or online would be a fab idea.)

I worked on a client today who had just come back from vacation. As I work on him every week, he got a massage while he was gone. It was hands-on, but that was all that was available.

The therapist told him that it wouldn’t be as deep as barefoot massage, and he was ok with that. Because he told her he sees someone who’s been a massage therapist for 20 years and has been teaching for ages, she got a little worried about what he was expecting.

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You can ditch the fingerless gloves

If you are a barefoot therapist who wears fingerless gloves to work in, I have a suggestion for you. Ditch them. If you need to wear gloves while you are doing one-footed strokes, you’re working too hard.

In fact, you really don’t need them for 2-footed strokes either. The truth is that if you need to protect your hands from blisters or calluses, you’re working too hard.

Some of you don’t use a strap-maybe you never learned with it, or maybe you never got into it.

I thought it got in the way a lot when I first started using it, so I understand not wanting to use it. But honestly, when I actually trusted the strap to hold me as I leaned back, I could let go of the bars. Those of you with short arms know what it’s like to try to lean back and hang on for dear life.

Using the strap is like having a new boyfriend. You have to learn to trust him.

There’s no doubt that fingerless gloves are better than they used to be. Back in the day (like 15 years ago!) you had 2 options–leather weightlifting gloves and cheapo dollar store knit gloves. The leather on the weightlifting gloves would get all crunchy if you got any cream or oil on them, which would blister your palms fast.

You’d cut the finger off the knit gloves so you’d have a little grip. But my hands would get so stinking sweaty so fast. And I’m not even a person who sweats much. I ditched the gloves.

How do you protect your hands, then?

 

Let go! Let go of your tight grip. If you are doing one footed strokes on someone who thinks your pressure is too heavy, you are either working on the wrong type of client OR you are holding your weight up in the bar.

Do the “How Do My Biceps Look” test. If they look great when you’re doing a one footed stroke, you are working too hard. Unless you’ve got awesome biceps all the time, your arms should look soft and squishyish. 

That means you’ve actually relaxed.

2 ways to protect your hands

  1. Relax and shift your weight onto your stationary foot.
  2. Lean back with your strap (that you’ll learn to love if you haven’t already) and loosen your grip on the bars.

If you currently wear gloves to do barefoot massage, try shifting your weight onto your non-working foot or leaning back into the strap. It may take a little practice to break the habit, but it’s worth it!

Share with anyone you know who needs to ditch the gloves!

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the Princess and the Pea (Feet)

Do you remember the Hans Christen Anderson story the Princess and the Pea? This story is, some would say, about the dangers of jumping to conclusions without all the facts. Others believe that it’s about presenting yourself honestly despite how you may appear.

In the tale, the old queen, upon seeing the bedraggled girl, needed to prove that she was a real princess. Placing a pea under a mattress, she laid a total of 20 mattresses and eider-down covers upon the pea. (She was strong, apparently, and had good balance while standing on something tall. 😉 .)

The princess tossed and turned all night because she felt something hard under her body. Yes, it was the pea, under 20 mattresses. Because she was so delicate, she was able to feel the pea as if it were a rock.

Our feet are rather like that princess, delicate and trustworthy. We can feel grains of sand or hair on a client’s body. Those are small–think about how we are able to palpate knots, ropy muscles, bony prominences.

People ask us about our ability to palpate all the time. Yes, we can feel with our feet. A lot.

Wikipedia even tells us: the soles of the feet are extremely sensitive to touch due to a high concentration of nerve endings, with as many as 200,000 per sole. This makes them sensitive to surfaces that are walked on.

The feet have a very high concentration of nerve endings, mostly because the information coming from your feet is used to make all the constant, tiny muscular adjustments necessary to maintain balance.

Is there a need to tell the public about this? Apparently, yes.

Can the hands to things that the feet cannot? Absolutely. We love our feet, but we don’t want them on someone’s face. That’s just weird.

It’s unlikely that anyone wants our toes in their orbital sockets or maneuvering their hyoid. We’ll leave that to hands.

Tiny little moves may be best suited for the fingers.

This does not, however, mean that your hands are far better tools than your feet for massage-based services.

How about broad, deep pressure? The feet are a clear winner here.

Some people may like “twisty fists” in their bums. I can tell you from experience that the foot feels better to the client.

The forearm and fists are often not the quadriceps’ friends.

Now, we are not saying that there’s no place for hands-on massage. That would be silly. Many different types of massage are valuable, and most of them are done with hands.

But to say that the hands are “a far better tool” than feet is also incorrect.

We have many 1000s of clients who believe that the “feet can’t be beat” when it comes to massage.

Plus, there’s this: 😉

 

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Why doing barefoot massage all day doesn’t wipe me out anymore

Pretty much everyone knows that the career-span of a massage therapist is not great. Some sources say 3-5 years, others say 4-6. We burn out and/or hurt ourselves. Then we typically do one of 5 things:

  1. quit

  2. do massage part time and another job full time

  3. specialize in “lighter” work

  4. teach

  5. learn barefoot massage so we can do deeper work.

3.5 years into doing traditional hands-on massage, I had the usual complaints-mine were pain in my left wrist and tendonitis in my right elbow.

Years earlier, I had actually climbed up onto a table and placed my knees in a client’s bum and proceeded to actually massage with my hands all over her back. Yup. That’s not a “thing”. That’s a bit weird. (She did love it, though!)

When I found a barefoot massage, that was my “aha!” moment.

So barefoot massage was my gig for a very long time. Because I tend to be a rule follower, I did the moves I was taught. If I couldn’t work a muscle a way that I needed to, I’d invent something else.

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How barefoot massage training is like Star Wars

Happy Star Wars Day! Today Mary-Claire is going to tell you about how your barefoot massage training is like Star Wars. Seriously.

(Don’t miss todays Foot Note Quote on Instagram from Jeni, and her take on Star Wars and FasciAshi!)

Going back to the good old days of young Luke Skywalker, you know from the beginning that his life is about to change when he discovers his family murdered by Storm Troopers. ::Spoiler Alert!!:: He doesn’t know he has talents that lie within him, that he may be the one who will bring balance to the Force, yet when he meets Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda, that all changes.

Both Obi-Wan and Yoda are  wise (if not enigmatic) souls, and they guide young Luke to discover his latent talent. Yoda’s plan is for Luke to delve deep in his mind and body to morph him into a new, stronger man.

Through practice and sage advice, Luke discovers that he has strength in body and spirit.

But Luke wants to give up–it’s hard work to learn to be a Jedi. He’s not going through the old ways of learning at the Jedi Temple, he’s on a streamlined path of training, he’s travelling the Galaxy to find the lost guru. He’s merging the old with the new. Darth Vader challenges him to take action, which Luke must accept because he needs to save the galaxy and balance the forces of evil with good.

Along the way, there are many challenges. He learns that the dark lord Vader IS HIS FATHER! ::GASP! Big spoiler there: he loses a hand. His mentors disappear. He must convince the evil crime lord Jabba the Hutt to demand the beast release his friends. Luke’s challenges are beyond what he could have imagined a short time earlier, but he transforms himself into an amazing, knowledgeable, resourceful Jedi.

Imagine now that you are Luke, and your massage life is good until you discover that that you have aches and pains more frequently. And you realize that one day, massage life as you know it may be over. The pain accompanied by giving your clients the deep tissue work they want feels like it may kill you.

But then you discover your wise Jedi masters, our instructors at Center for Barefoot Massage. These women have years of knowledge and experience, and they are willing to guide you into a new path to resist the light and the dark forces within (your broken body).

In just 3 days, your instructor teaches you skills that will change your life. Over the course of four (and more to come!) classes, you will hone your skills and become one with the force. (The forces of gravity, that is!)

But you must be willing to go on that journey, to practice and receive feedback.

You may complain that it’s too hard-your body hurts because you’ve learned to move it in new ways. Perhaps you whine because you’re not as good as you want to be immediately after class. (“But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!” says Luke.)

Or maybe you get aggravated because your instructor makes the massage look so easy.

The membership site and our private FB FasciAshi Tribe group, along with your instructor, are there to support you in your challenge of learning a new way of life.

You may encounter problems along the way-maybe clients think feet are weird. It’s too hard. There’s so much to learn.

“Fear is the path to the dark side…”

Don’t be afraid. Like young Luke Skywalker, you’ll persevere and will become the best Jedi barefoot therapist there is.

May the force (of gravity) be with you today in your massages, and may the Foot be with you, always.

May the 4th be with us all.

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What’s the difference between us and other barefoot massage training?

This is a question we’ve been getting a lot lately–not only from people wanting to learn barefoot massage, but also from those who are interested in teaching. What’s the difference between FasciAshi from the Center for Barefoot Massage and Ashiatsu massage from other programs?

Intuitive versus a routine

There are many differences such as how we teach educated, intuitive myofascial work with the feet versus a routine. Through many years of our own busy barefoot massage practices and teaching, we have found that massage therapists find routines to be lackluster and not as effective as intuitive massage. They want to be able to use their skills they already have and translate that into using their feet, and we offer that in our program.

The Center for Barefoot Massage is working to change the caliber of barefoot massage therapists. Our technique differs in that we focus on a myofascial approach to ashiatsu barefoot massage, which is where the “FasciAshi” name comes in – do you see the “fascia” in our name? That was punny, but deliberate.

Anatomy driven

We are challenging our alumni to refine their palpation skills and recognition of anatomical structures, to consider theory into the application of strokes, to understand why each stroke exists, so that they develop critical thinking skills and creativity in their work- rather than applying a prescribed, memorized protocol of luxurious barefoot effleurage strokes.

Each of our classes builds upon the last, progressively moving into more detail as the dexterity, strength and focus of the practitioner deepens. We are developing specialized tracks of classes, to help our alumni funnel their ashiatsu barefoot massage training into a niche within a niche – such as sports and clinical barefoot massage.

No online teaching of ashiatsu

Another huge difference is that we do not offer, support or endorse online/video/e-learning courses in any technique.

We, and a large population of barefoot massage therapists, do not believe that the quality, understanding or safety of the application would be maintained through anything other than live, in person, “feet on” training.

If you ask any of our alumni, they all respond with a vehement, “NO!” on the subject of learning online.  

“1st Time, no way. I need to see it, give it and receive it to understand what the client is experiencing. I also want to have an experienced instructor to make sure I’m not hurting myself or my client with improper technique.”

“I WAS JUST GOING TO MESSAGE YOU ABOUT THIS!!!!! THIS IS THE WORST IDEA EVERRRRR!!!! Grad corner vids~great and helpful idea. I love the idea of having access to a visual reminder of the strokes and the aspects of ABC muscle(s) I’m working on. BUT… An e-learning course for newbs?!? All I can say is that I’m 5 years deep into barefoot massage, about to take my seventh training, and I STILL feel like I need in person guidance and foot refreshers (haha…I’m obsessed…?). Online learning for newbs=injuries. Thumbs down. TWO THUMBS DOWN! Allll the thumbs down!!!”

For Massage Therapists only

Our mission is to teach our courses only to massage therapists, not to people outside the profession. We disagree with training those who do not professionally work within the massage therapy scope of practice (acupuncturists, movement workers, yoga teachers, chiropractors, etc.)

Moving barefoot massage techniques into a respected position within the field of massage therapy, and for the massage industry itself to be recognized for higher standards in live continuing education for massage professionals, is super important to our barefoot massage team.

We disagree with certifying therapists who have never felt or physically demonstrated the work on an instructor. Other providers in the barefoot massage field will provide CE hours, certification, training, and even grant instructor status, to someone who has never stepped foot in an ashiatsu classroom. 

We won’t, because we believe in the gift of learning through hands-on (feet-on!) practice and continually working to improve our skills in not just massage but in teaching as well.

Our post-class support

A lot of massage therapists struggle with marketing their new technique, feeling confused about how to work with someone’s unusual contraindication, and feel like they don’t have anyone to talk to about it-especially if they live in a town or city with no other barefoot therapist.

Our private Facebook group has got you covered–it’s super interactive and has amazing community support with quick responses from instructors. We have a membership site with downloadable forms, marketing tools, and perhaps most importantly, videos to recap what you learned in class. The post-class support is phenomenal.

Because our goal is to enrich the massage community as a whole, we blog and post videos on a regular basis. This takes a lot of time and effort on our part.

But we do it because we are here to help therapists grow to have long and profitable careers. We know that people need your skills.

Our past experience

Mary-Claire and Jeni have both been not only instructors, but also instructor trainers, loyal supporters, and practitioners of another brand’s technique for many years. Along with MC’s husband Paul, the three of us have worked in positions ranging from upper management, social media directors, ad design and implementation, graduate services and assistants to the founder of that other company over the years. 

We know the other company’s strokes from every class inside and out – Mary-Claire and Jeni were the instructor trainers – we used to teach other skilled ashiatsu therapists how to teach that work. Although that founder has a wonderful legacy and is the founding lineage of westernized barefoot massage, it was developed and has always been presented with the intention that it is a deep luxurious massage, a barefoot effleurage routine aimed at the spa industry, marketed as “the deepest most luxurious massage on the planet”.

We left that company due to many of the reasons stated above and formed the Center for Barefoot Massage to move forward with our passion to maintain a safe, strong and progressive form of modernized, researched and educated technique.

We feel that the FasciAshi technique offered through the Center for Barefoot Massage is a strong new addition to the barefoot massage education.

Our team specializes in barefoot massage

We are proud to have formed a collective consciousness of barefoot massage specialists. Our instructor team is full of entrepreneurs who have used ashiatsu and other barefoot massage techniques in their own businesses, and have seen success with it through their clients, through their staff, and through themselves. In fact, on our blog and YouTube channel, we post weekly at a minimum with helpful tips we’ve learned through our years of practice so that new barefoot therapists can excel even faster.

The strokes we teach have been tried and tested and are continually put into practice by the FasciAshi instructors and their staff of massage therapists. This isn’t the same material developed 20 something years ago. We’ve come together and combined our experience, knowledge and research into something that we’ve seen to adapt to a variety of practitioners in all shapes and sizes, while showing excellent outcomes with our clients – and it’s still evolving! 

We invite you to follow our social media pages (YouTube, Twitter, Facebookand Insta) and read our blog posts to catch up on the point of views, tips, and bits of knowledge we’ve been sharing.

We’d LOVE for you to see and feel the difference in our approach, our technique, our support and our educational materials by attending a live course.

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How to make more room for your feet during barefoot massage

Have you ever gotten really excited to see a new client walk into your massage office because they’re so big that they are going to be an AWESOME barefoot massage client? But then you have a moment of dismay because they are so big that you don’t have room for your feet on the table?

I’ve tried hanging on for dear life with little space for my toes. Why not do this?

  1. Because my gastrocs were screaming at me
  2. my feet were more prone to cramping (try working out a cramp with one foot while massaging with the other. I don’t recommend it.)
  3. and my hands, forearms, shoulders said an unpleasant hello to me the following day.

Today, we’re going to show you a super quick fix for how to make more room for your feet during barefoot massage when your client takes up most of the table.

Best of all, you already have the equipment you need: your short stool.

Your table is usually around 23″-24″ high, and your short stool is 24″. This is a perfect height to shimmy right up flush to your massage table.

I like to place it somewhere around my client’s hip / waist area so that I can easily access the legs, hips, and torso. Sometimes it takes a little finagling to figure out what’s the best place.

Do NOT compromise your body mechanics! If something feels “off” then change positions.

Because your pressure will be shifted into your client, your stool should be stable and not be wobbly at all.

Make sure you put your strap behind your back for safety, and if your stool feels unstable, get down and put it in a more stable position.

Remember that safety and good body mechanics are priorities.

Once you finish working on one side, simply step down, pick up your stool and replace it on the other side to rinse and repeat.

Sliding your feet into flip flops or stepping on a clean towel / yoga mat will keep your feet clean and free of debris so you don’t have to reclean them.

While all this rigamarole may feel like a huge gap in your massage, remember that your client hasn’t any other ashiatsu experience from you, so it will seem completely normal. And it really only takes a few moments to move you and your stool from one side of the table to the other.

Just make sure you smoothly get up and down off the stool and don’t jostle it about or, heaven forbid, whack him on the body with it. 😉

Let us know if you have any other scenarios you need help with by leaving a comment below!

And if you know of someone who could use this tip, make sure you pass it along.

Until next time, keep those toenails short and your feet nice and soft. 😀
And as usual, our class schedule can be found here.

 

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Barefoot Massage Open: Ashi-Challenge 1.5

It’s finally WEEK 5 of the Barefoot Massage Open ashi-challenge!  You’ve started a massage at the clients feet. You’ve used your non-dominant foot for 20 minutes straight. You’ve began a massage with them face up. You’ve done an ENTIRE MASSAGE APPOINTMENT in the side-lying position.  What now? What game changing difference can you POSSIBLY add to your barefoot massages?

Patience, Padawan. Read on to find out.

I think you’ve shown yourself to be tough enough to challenge the way you massage over the last 4 weeks. I’m sure asking yourself “but why?” in every move you make is becoming more second nature.  Just you wait…. there’s SO.MUCH.MORE.

The goal all along has been for you to get out of your little shell and try something NEW. Our main focus with FasciAshi is for you to make this ashiatsu intuitive, but also educated. Your inner wisdom shines through when you are able to contemplate WHY or HOW your massage strokes work, and then put that $#!+ into action!

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Barefoot massage practice is the vehicle

“In 3 days, we’ll teach you to intuitively use your feet like you do your hands.”  This is true, but there’s more to learning barefoot massage than that.

Sometimes we get therapists who look ridiculously amazing when they are in their barefoot massage training  class for the first time. Sometimes they have a dance or ice skating background, and other times they just look fluid because that’s how they move.

Sadly, I’ve often seen that those who look super graceful on day 1 look pretty much the same when they come back for an advanced class 6 months or a year later.

On the other hand, some therapists really struggle. They get frustrated because their feet don’t cooperate or perhaps because they can’t palpate yet. Or maybe they have a hard time because they can’t regulate their pressure.

If they stop there at day 3 in our student clinic and give up, their class was pretty much pointless (other than at least they got their massage CE’s).

It’s the therapists who sometimes struggle in class but are determined to be amazing who realize that the class is an event, but practicing is a VEHICLE to get them to where they need to go.

We aren’t all beautiful when we learn barefoot massage. I was one of those people who truly wanted to be amazing, who NEEDED to be excellent, because I knew my career was on the line. After 3.5 years of hands on massage, I knew I was hitting the end of my massage lifespan.

And yet, I’m the person who still hits my head while closing the door of the car I’ve had 8 years and missteps on stairs I’ve been treading for almost 18.

So it’s not like I’m graceful in real life.

What makes the difference between those who really want to be good and those who are naturally good is that the former is more invested in being better. It’s easy to become complacent if you’re doing well. And unless your clients have gotten barefoot massage from someone else, they probably think you’re doing ok.

As long as you don’t clock them on the head or step on any bones, they think it’s a nice massage.

But it can be so much better if you take that vehicle, the words of wisdom, and travel a path you’ve not yet been.

If you’ve been following our blog, you know that we’ve been giving Ashi Challenges. Why?

Because sometimes we all need to mix something up. The challenge recently was to massage with your “Goofy Foot” for 20 minutes. (That’s your non-dominant foot.)

Other than when I was using 2 feet, I did an entire 90-minute session with my left foot.

What I learned:

  • I got more creative with my moves
  • some things worked just fine when I tried something new
  • some things were terrible for my body mechanics
  • I discovered new ways to access muscles in a different way
  • it was a good reminder of why we teach body mechanics that work for the therapist

You see, this challenge was an incentive for me to take another ride into creativity. And that’s what we ask of all of you. The more you practice and get inventive / creative, the more your vehicle gets its oil change.

Once you have a good concept of your pressure and the moves, practice getting more fluid.

  • How can you glide off with one foot and on with another?
  • If you start with the “wrong” foot, can you transition it into another stroke?
  • Try something new and check in with your client and see how they like it.
  • Hold and sink (“weight and wait”) and see how that affects the tissue as well as the amount of relaxation the client has.
  • Try moving more gracefully on the table with fewer steps.

Your vehicle can be a Mercedes, which is a comfortable and smooth ride, or it can be a Kia–perfectly fine for the job at hand but not the most comfortable or fun.

Which do you want to be?

Know anyone who may find this useful? Share away!