Resources for you to use to educate your immediate circles on the benefits of Massage AND ways to help YOU be more aware within your Barefoot Massage sessions.
First off, welcome to this years National Massage Therapy Awareness Week! This long holiday is our professions chance to spend an ENTIRE DEDICATED WEEK to promote the health benefits of massage therapy and their practices.
If you need some facts to share with your local community, follow these links for great resources to pull from:
- Free Client Education Resources from AMTA
- Public education website on the benefits of massage from ABMP
- Massage Therapy in integrative care & pain management from AMTA
- Meta-Analysis on Massage Therapy and Pain Database from the Massage Therapy Foundation
OK, now lets get to the juicy part:
Our tips to tune into your own awareness while giving a Barefoot Massage session.
Pulling from the resources listed above, we noticed that according to the national consumer survey from the AMTA, ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐จ๐ช๐ข๐๐ง๐จ ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฆ๐ช๐๐๐ ๐ก๐ฎ ๐ก๐๐๐ง๐ฃ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ก๐ช๐ & ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฎ ๐ค๐ ๐ข๐๐จ๐จ๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ฎ ๐๐จ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ค๐ง๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ง๐ค๐๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐๐๐๐ก๐ฉ๐ & ๐ข๐๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐จ. It’s important to recognize here that a well-informed Barefoot Massage COULD be perfect for many elements of injury treatment & pain management – depending on the person & situation …both client & therapist.โฃ
This doesn’t just automatically happen when you put a foot on someone. ๐ช๐ต๐ & ๐ต๐ผ๐ ๐๐ผ strategically ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐น๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ธ ๐บ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐น๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ด ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฐ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐น๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐. FasciAshi is Myofascial, Neuromuscular & Stretch Therapy techniques meant to be individually sequenced as needed for each person underfoot. No two appointments are the same. The more you learn, the more barefoot technique vocabulary & reasoning skills you’ll have to customize for these clients: it just needs to be put into practice to elevate the outcomes.
SO how can you pull details out of your massage education resources from the Center for Barefoot Massage and work with more attention on your intention?
If you’ve attended any of our Center for Barefoot Massage classes already, review your manuals & check out some of the “Why’s” & the anatomical focus points to help pick strokes that work for each client individually this week. Don’t do every stroke you’ve ever learned: just do the ones they “knead!” Next, โฃcheck into the mindfulness lists from our Intermediate, ROM and Advanced class manuals to hone in on the intent of your stroke as needed for the person.
Here’s an example for you to try this week in practice:
How can you make your movements/strokes more effortless on your body, but still have the same intent and focus of intensity and effectiveness for your client? Now, this isn’t an excuse to massage lazily: we are asking you to reevaluate all the physical effort you are putting into each stroke, and check yourself to see if it’s needed.
- Can you relax your grip on the bar?
- Can your foot on the table be aimed in better alignment with it’s same side knee and hip in a way to better distribute pressure through the working foot?
- Are you moving with breath – and how are your movements impacting the breath of you and your client?
- Can you just give it weight, and wait?
โฃThere you go!
Take that much of a new perspective to try this week in your massage appointments: our experience has shown that it definitely helps!
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