Category Archives: Online Vs. In Person

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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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The subtle art of giving a F*ck

When we started the Center for Barefoot Massage, we set out with some high expectations for ourselves.

the-subtle-art-of-giving-a-fuck

We had the vision to teach our style of ashiatsu to massage therapists, and we wanted to back it with not just quality content in classes, but more importantly, high quality substance to every aspect of the company.

We wanted to make sure that our faculty is in touch with their students, the community, and the massage industry so that we keep it real.

high-standards-in-barefoot-massage

We want you to learn FasciAshi from someone who uses the technique every week. We want you to study under someone who leads their practice and massage business by example. We want to train therapists in person, look them in the eyes, touch them with our SOLES, and pass our knowledge onto the next generation of barefoot massage therapists. We feel that a person shouldn’t own a massage continuing education company if they aren’t teaching and practicing the work themselves – so we continue to do “all the things” for you every day.

The integrity level of every member on our sometimes overwhelmed, busy team shows through in their passion for the work they each present. You’ll feel it embedded within FasciAshi as you personally grow with the technique. We hope to raise the standard on barefoot massage education, and to help support the massage industry rise to great heights. (And I’m not just being ‘punny’ and talking about stepping up onto a massage table here, folks!)

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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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Massage classes online?

Where I live in Ohio, massage therapists are not required to acquire continuing education at all, unless you belong to a professional membership, like AMTA or ABMP. The State of Ohio Medical Board, through whom I’m licensed, does not require CE hours.

While there are currently efforts for the Medical Board to require 24 hours of massage continuing education every two years with renewals, I’ve seen some interesting reasons why we “shouldn’t” have to do continuing ed:

  • The human body doesn’t change, so why should we learn more?
  • Classes are too expensive.
  • Massage therapists don’t make enough money-the cost is unjustified.
  • 24 hours is a ridiculous amount. 12 would be – well, okay.
  • I don’t want to waste time on classes that don’t interest me.
  • It’s too hard to leave my business to take classes.
  • Therapists who have been licensed for 10 years + should be exempt.

This, friends, is frightening to me. Not only do some massage therapists not want live classes, but they don’t want classes at all.

For some time, there has been a push for online learning for massage therapists. On the surface, it seems like a good idea. Therapists can take classes at their leisure, in their own time frame, can save money by not having to take off time and work due to live class time and travel.

Online continuing education classes for massage therapists are typically significantly less expensive too. Don’t therapists may feel like they get their best bang for their buck when fulfilling their continuing education requirements online? Probably.

Is this best for the massage industry or for massage therapists, though?

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Training: Barefoot Ashiatsu Classes – In Person – Not online

We believe that barefoot ashiatsu classes require direct personal instruction with a live, qualified, caring instructor.  Not a cold – one size fits all approach to learning found in an online course or dvd.

Some companies are offering barefoot ashiatsu massage training via online classes or online streaming.  How foolish.  Some things are not to be removed from that personal person to person experience.  Barefoot massage training is one of them.

In this video Simon Sinek, known the world over as having codified certain aspects of the business to person relationship,  illustrates why some things will always be better when done live – in person – in the same room – touchable.  Not some vague, cold approach to learning a skill which requires human touch as the final product.

I would suggest, for those that don’t wish to watch the entire video (I would strongly recommend doing so however) to go to one of the many main points. (timestamp 9:38 to 11:00 –  great example of how the person to person relationship is unavoidably the best way to truly connect)

Our Barefoot classes will never be based online for the sake of safety and because we wish to have a personal connection with our attending therapists that will last beyond the training.

Join us for exceptional learning that you can bring back to your practice.  After all, you don’t give your clients online massages – do you?

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Everything is connected – but unplug for your Ashiatsu training.

Why did we break free and create FasciAshi classes? Our first wave of instructors have been team members for quite a while. The dedication to our craft and passion for the work, along with the intricate skills that our faculty possesses for teaching quality Ashiatsu is strong. We’ve wanted room for growth for years, but we were in a space that wasn’t expanding in ways that we felt supported the integrity and core principals of touch-based massage therapy education. Mainly: focus on high quality live, in person training, for the betterment of massage therapists careers.

Why did we Break Free?

Sometimes you have to separate yourself to produce what is needed

We honor the original barefoot massage innovators and would never ever copy-cat their material. We literally stand on the shoulders of greatness to bring you the new generation and the future of barefoot massage.  There has been a need for new ashiatsu material for a while. We’ve been eagerly awaiting the day when we would be valued and supported enough to be encouraged to share our innovative discoveries in the art of our favorite massage modality. The time was overdue for us to release this plethora of knowledge from our varied approaches and backgrounds – so in February 2017, FasciAshi and the Center for Barefoot Massage were born!

The years of experience that our company’s creative forces and instructor team at the Center for Barefoot Massage have under their feet validate the direction, focus and carefully cultivated content that this new company presents and promotes. We support the growing barefoot massage field as a whole and support massage therapists who work through their feet, whether they happen to use overhead support like us, underhand support, or practice on a massage table or on a floor mat. It’s not a competition, it’s education, and we’re here to raise your expectations on how barefoot massage is presented, practiced and performed. Read more about our point of view on the value of live training for massage therapists below.