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.
The Center for Barefoot Massage’s 6-feet TOEgether plan!
We support your choices as a professional massage therapist. As the profession navigates this new territory for the first time, we aren’t given easy options with easy answers. If there is a grey area that you and your massage business, or your position as a massage therapist, find yourself in, we will not judge, bully or shame you for whatever stance you feel is right for your career. We have a list of resources available here to help you make business/professional/career decisions that stay safely within your scope of practice and are based on science.
Some phases of this pandemic have offered optional pathways for massage therapists. To massage or not massage? Follow the law and maintain the ethical standards of your profession: we won’t get on your heels about it otherwise.
How our policies have adjusted:
During any state-mandated closures, whether that be the state you live in or the state where your class is happening, we are lifting our 2-week cancellation policy, and waiving rollover fees. This mainly was between March-June 2020, but should it ever happen again, we are now better prepared because of those lockdowns. If you want to cancel out of a class due to COVID-19 concerns, we support your choice with no judgment. Please contact your instructor to arrange this.
If the class you are enrolled in, and/or the state you live in are NOT impacted by any state-mandated closures at the time of the class in question, then refunds will not be available, but you can utilize the roll-over option to move into another class/location/time. (The roll-over fee would not be waived in this scenario, however.)
If you need to cancel/reschedule because you or someone in your household are showing COVID19 symptoms, then you will need to cancel your spot in class so that you can properly isolate and prevent the spread of any variant of the virus. Whether you let us know 6 days before class or 6 hours, your safety and well-being (as well as that of our students and staff at the training centers) are the priority. We will default to the free roll-over option if you’d like to reschedule, or go with the tuition refund option: all available with proof of a positive COVID19 test provided ASAP. (Negative COVID19 tests will waive your roll-over fee, but are not eligible for refunded tuition.)
We are extending our rollover/reschedule window from the usual 365 days from when you signed up, way out to 18 months after the date class would have started: so you have an entire year and a half to find your own footing and make it back to class.
If extenuating circumstances are even deeper complicating your ability to attend a class, we can accommodate further on a case by case basis: just stay in touch with your instructor. We are here to help.
We have implemented Air Quality monitoring in each classroom to help our instructors maintain sufficient fresh airflow and have an effective number of HEPA Air Purifiers and Humidifiers to clean/exchange the air proportionate to the space and occupancy.
Some of our training centers have relocated entirely or remodeled the space to ensure better ventilation.
The 6-foot physical distancing suggestion is still a valuable prevention measure, so our class arrangements may change based on current CDC Guidelines. We have done our best to space out the massage tables and allow room to spread out during discussions and presentations throughout each day. We’re even taking portions of classes outside when available.
As of 3/17/2022, Face Masks are required in all of our classes and locations if the county the class is held within is considered “Red” or “High” according to CDC Community Levels – otherwise, masks are optional at select locations.
Classes in San Antonio, St Louis, and Decatur will continue to require masking 100% of the time.
Surgical or K95 masks are recommended, cloth masks with at least 2 layers and a good seal are acceptable.
Check your Instructors Page, or the Location Page to see what their classroom masking policy is and what the current CDC Community Level is for their county so that you know if you are required to wear a mask indoors or not. Instructors & training locations may change their masking requirements at any time – if this occurs, you will be notified prior to class by the instructor.
How our classes will adjust:
Our instructor team has been assessing what we do during the course of each day in class, and we are finding ways to continue to stay compliant with the CDC’s and OSHA’s suggestions.
We are allowing more time between practice rounds for more thorough cleaning of each massage station, and evaluating our training sites to make sure that sufficient foot-cleansing options – not just foot spray downs – are available.
We will be following the FSMTB’s “Massage and Bodywork Guidelines for Practice” modeling our classroom practices after the precautions set forth on pages 28-33.
One thing that the Center for Barefoot Massage is standing strong on is our firm belief in live training with real human interaction and physical touch. Now more than ever, the world is going to need a safe, educated approach to touch, and massage therapists are built for that “knead.” (Pun intended!) We are not dropping our values or kicking our business vision to the curb, we will not be converting our classes to online training: we still do not support learning massage techniques online or by video.
How we supported our alumni during 2020:
We’ve always promised not to teach massage techniques online, but we do promise to have other topics to learn with supportive opportunities available for you in our Facebook groups and membership websites.
Throughout the year we’ll all never forget: our community came together to get information, bounce ideas off each other, try new scary things, keep in touch with the industry, and help each other out through conversations, virtual high fives, helpful links, or maybe even a t-shirt purchase from a fellow Barefoot Massage Therapists fundraisers.
Our Pro-Members dove into their anatomy studies and marketing plans with relevant content that they can share with their clients. Many of our students pivoted their businesses to include online interaction with clients who would normally be underfoot. Together we helped support eachother with creative content inspiration.
If you have attended our classes in the past, make sure you join our Facebook group and make sure that your free membership profile is active to get the most of these benefits. If you can’t hang out in your bars at work, then strap in and hang out with us online while you are finding your way through this Covid19 season of life.
Bonus content!
To even further support our alumni, we launched a free 2-week sample of our upgraded study videos on our membership website. At the end of April, 2020, anyone who was not already a member of our Pro-Membership got access to the narrated videos. While we were all semi-quarantined at home, we took advantage of this opportunity to study along with Jeni Spring’s step-by-step review. Re-read your journals and take more notes in your class workbooks. We wanted to give you the opportunity to refresh your mind and renew your excitement to get back to work with a little more pep in your step!
As of December 2021, we permanently saved the narrated videos to the free section of the membership website, and as of March 2022 new, more detailed and narrated videos for the Fundamentals class were released on the free membership website, as well.
As our instructors developed cleaning+disinfecting routines that are specific to their classroom environments (but still in line with FSMTB guidelines) we posted cleaning routines, and supply lists for our alumni in 2020.
We planned to release the 2nd season of our Pro-Membership plan during 2021, but it is still on hold. – The intention is to provide monthly/weekly content to help you grow a deeper intention behind your barefoot massage strokes. We originally had it scheduled to be starting Spring of 2020, but due to the financial crisis our profession was facing, we delayed its release to avoid putting any added pressure or stress on our alumni. When we do find the right time to open enrollment access to the Pro-Membership, that’s when any of our already-trained alumni will have the option to upgrade from the free plan and become #BarefootLikeABoss.
The future of massage IS STILL afoot…
Although things seem better as of 2022, it’s not over yet. We will get through this. You’ve smoothed the edges of your rough feet before, we can do it again. While the world wants us to stay 6 feet apart, we want barefoot massage therapists to stay 6 feet together. As SO many things are changing for our futures, maybe it’s worth considering taking the FasciAshi theories we teach you in class and apply them to your real-life: give it weight and wait, don’t force it, just go with the flow.
From the bottom of our soles, we wish you all the best.
To keep your toes on the Center for Barefoot Massage pulse and stay in (virtual) touch with us, watch our class schedule page to see when and where, and if, we are safely offering live training.