Massage Professionals Article Archive

by Linda Fehrs, LMT

One of the fastest growing segments of the consumer services industry is that of spas. According to the most recent survey released in 2007 by the International Spa Association (ISPA) and Pricewaterhouse Cooper, the current growth rate of the spa industry is 16% per year. There are approximately 14,600 spas in the United States alone, and over 11,000 of them are day spas. The rest are in locations such as wellness centers, resorts, hotels or country clubs. The spa industry in the U.S. currently serves over 111 million people and brings in annual gross revenue of $9.4 billion.

However, many people either don’t want to travel to a distant spa or prefer a more intimate setting with a massage therapist whose techniques they are familiar with. By looking at what spas are doing to attract clients, and learning how to implement similar features into your own practice, will help you stand out from others.

6 Ways to Integrate Spa Success
It is easy to incorporate what spas are doing into your own practice, whether you work alone or with others in a small private practice. Keep in mind though, creating a spa-like setting, along with a client-centered philosophy doesn’t have to cut into your bottom line. Most of the suggestions cost little or nothing to implement and your clients will return for more.

1. Offer Excellent Customer Service – This is perhaps the most important of all. Whether your focus is medical rehabilitation, stress reduction or an afternoon of pampering, your client needs to feel that your focus is completely on them. From the time you set up a new appointment, until and beyond the time they leave your office, make your client feel welcome and important. Always remember to be polite and patient, whether your client is new or a longtime patron.

2. Selling Massage-Related Products – The addition of product sales to your business will not only please your clients and keep them coming back, but may also increase your income. Clients often ask about the music you are playing during a session, an oil or cream you are using or a candle you are burning. Being able to offer these items for sale will enable you to offer them a kind of body, mind, spirit service. You may even want to expand further and carry health related books, massage tools or instructional videos.

3. Themed Settings – Clients are often influenced not only by the therapist, but also by the atmosphere of the office. Spas often have some kind of themed décor, sometimes depending on where they are located or what kind of services they specialize in. A spa in the Arizona, for example, might have a southwestern motif, and a spa specializing in Shiatsu, Thai and Lomi Lomi massage might use an Asian theme. Your interior design can be achieved through the simple use of color, framed posters and music. You can get more elaborate with furnishings or even fountains.

4. Special Signature Treatments – Along with a beautiful themed setting, offering unique signature treatments will set you apart from those doing only basic traditional massage. Many large spas offer either a unique massage routine or technique they have developed and even patented, like Esalen. Others offer sessions based on location themes, like the Hershey Park Spa. Their packaged treatments often sound more like soda fountain treats – Chocolate Fondue, Strawberry Parfait and Cocoa Massage. The sessions may offer combinations of treatments such as a massage, a pedicure and a facial or body wrap. You don’t need to get very elaborate, just creative. This might include networking with other professionals, such as licensed aestheticians to complement your massage.

5. Classes or Seminars – Depending on the size of your office, you might also consider conducting classes or seminars on topics that would be of interest to your clients. You may know someone who teaches Yoga or Tai Chi, or who can teach a course in aromatherapy. You may be able to teach infant massage to new mothers or a class in stretching.

6. Comfortable Setting – Your setting should be not only beautiful and relaxing, but also keep the comfort of the client in mind. Consider using warming pads on your massage table or scented eye pillows. Soft flannel sheets or even light blankets will help to keep your clients warm. Offering some herbal tea in a nice private setting after the massage helps to extend the relaxation, and the client needn’t have to run out immediately after a session.

Some of these suggestions will be easier to integrate into your practice than others. Choose what is right for you and appropriate for your practice. Sometimes it is necessary to be creative with your ideas. A unique idea is what will make you stand out from your competition and bring new clients to your practice.

“Remember,” writes Monica Roseberry, in her book Marketing Massage, “What makes you different makes you memorable, and if you want to expand on your additions to draw a clientele that wants more than just a rubdown, creating an aura or atmosphere that is unlike your client’s regular environment or unlike a typical clinical setting may hold a strong appeal.”

Recommended Study:
Developing a Wellness Center

Resources:

Allen, Laura, Use Spas’ Success to Build Success, Massage Magazine, March 2008.

Cutler, N. L.Ac. (February 2007). Benefits and Challenges of Working in a Spa. Retrieved from www.integrative-healthcare.org/mt.

Roseberry, Monica, Marketing Massage, Milady Publishing, 2002.

2007 Spa Industry Study, fifth edition, International Spa Association (ISPA) and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

by Nicole Cutler, L.Ac.

Largely propelled by the burgeoning spa industry, hot stone massage is practiced by an increasing number of massage therapists around the world. Although many hot stone massage therapists purchase a set of stones from a distributor, it is possible to find them in the natural environment. Whether buying the stones or searching for them on your own, therapists practicing this specialty should know about the different properties rocks can have – and the desired characteristics for a therapeutic hot stone massage.

About Hot Stone Massage
A variation of bodywork, hot stone massage involves the use of warm, smooth, flat stones during a session. There are two primary uses for the stones:

1. When carefully positioned on top of or underneath a client, stones exert pressure while transmitting heat for an extended period of time.

2. When used as a tool by the therapist, stones can reduce demand on the practitioner’s body by transmitting force to tissue-specific locations.

There are many variations in hot stone techniques, including recruitment of the stones for stimulation or relaxation of the body’s:

· Meridians
· Chakras
· Lymphatic system
· Central nervous system
· Muscular system

Regardless of these different uses, specific geological properties are desired in each rock when being used for hot stone massage.

Types of Stones
Geologists explain that rock is a naturally occurring compound of minerals. Since they are classified by their composition and texture, the three general types of rocks include:

1. Igneous – Igneous rocks are formed when molten magma cools. Basalt stones are an example of igneous rocks.

2. Sedimentary – Sedimentary rocks are formed by little pieces of earth that have been eroded over time. As eroded earth layers on top of each other, the pressure slowly turns the earth into rock.

3. Metamorphic – Originally igneous or sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks are rocks that have morphed into another kind of rock. When rocks are under tons of pressure, heat builds up which causes them to change. Under close examination, metamorphic rock contains flattened grains.

In general, the types of rocks most desired for hot stone massage are igneous or metamorphic. This is because igneous and metamorphic rocks are generally rich in iron ore, allowing them to absorb and retain heat for a longer period of time than stones with little iron. Of these two categories, basalt stones (igneous) are the most highly regarded due to their smooth texture and unparalleled iron content.

Besides choosing igneous or metamorphic stones, instructor of the Institute’s Stone Massage home study course, Carollanne Crichton, advises the following four criteria to help select massage stones:

1. Stone Composition – Look and feel for stone density to determine how much mineral ore is present. Since ore is a heat and geomagnetic conductor, choose heavier stones for better heat conductivity.

2. Stone Shape – Keep in mind your needs for the shape of each stone you select. When placing stones underneath a person in a layout foundation or resting on top of them, those stones must fit the body’s natural contours comfortably. In general, smooth edges and a relatively flat dimension help keep the stones in place without discomfort.

3. Stone Texture – Although smooth and polished stones might be assumed best for hot stone massage, this is not always the case. Besides avoiding jagged edges, stones with some texture can be beneficial for exerting stimulation to lymphatic fluid during stone-assisted massage strokes.

4. Stone Size – Differently sized stones will have different levels of weight, traction and heat retention. Since larger stones have a greater capacity for these three properties, seek the largest rocks that will comfortably and securely fit the intended location.

One of the few branches of bodywork that requires an additional set of tools, hot stone massage is growing in popularity. Since they are a product of our natural environment, rocks can have so many different properties. Being able to differentiate between the three types of rock and evaluating stones based on Crichton’s selection criteria equips therapists to choose their tools for the best possible therapeutic outcome.

Recommended Study:
Stone Massage

References:

http://altmedicine.about.com, Hot Stone Massage, Cathy Wong, About, Inc., 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org, Rock (geology), Wikimedia Foundation Inc., 2008.

http://ezinearticles.com, Making Your Own Hot Stone Massage Kit, Fiona Bryland, March 2008.

www.fi.edu, How Igneus Rock is Formed, Rock Hounds, 2008.

www.fi.edu, How Metamorphic Rock is Formed, Rock Hounds, 2008.

www.fi.edu, How Sedimentary Rock is Formed, Rock Hounds, 2008.

www.healingstonemassage.com, About Our Stones, Stone Temple Institute, 2008.

www.stoneandspa.com, Why Hot Stone Massage?, stoneandspa.com, 2008.

by Nicole Cutler, L.Ac.

Professionals who interact with people daily are vulnerable to airborne bacteria and viruses every time they go to work. Due to the increased likelihood of pathogen communicability in school-age children, anyone in elementary education can attest to the overwhelming amount of time spent recovering from a cold or flu. Fortunately, schoolteachers have the luxury of paid sick days as one of their benefits. Because of the physically intimate nature of their work, massage therapists are especially prone to bacterial and viral exposure. An unfortunate result of most bodyworkers being self-employed, the lack of benefits translates into a financial loss each time a sick day must be taken. On top of the loss of productivity and misery accompanying being sick, it is in a massage therapist’s best monetary interest to stay healthy.

Often counseling their own clients on making healthy lifestyle changes, a majority of massage therapists are aware of how important it is to support the immune system. By eliminating factors that can weaken the body’s ability to deflect illness, a person’s immune system has more strength to defeat the hundreds of daily pathogens it encounters. According to Lauriann Greene, author of Save Your Hands, staying healthy as a massage therapist requires four basic commitments:

· Paying rigorous attention to your body
· Adopting a positive attitude
· Living a healthy lifestyle
· Using a technique that is not harmful to your body

Maintaining optimal conditions for your immune system to work its best, paying attention to your body and living a healthy lifestyle ranks highest among efforts to deflect illness. In addition to getting adequate nutrition and sleep, four commonly overlooked ways bodyworkers can achieve this goal include:

1. Cleanliness – The easiest way to help the immune system combat the daily onslaught of microorganisms it encounters is to reduce the quantity it must defeat. Since restricting access to clients with a sniffle is not always realistic, the next best choice for minimizing germ contact is to remove as many pathogens as possible from the environment. Changing linens between clients, periodically cleaning doorknobs and having tissues available for those who need them all contribute to removing potential infectious agents. In addition to these approaches, frequent hand washing is the best defense against microscopic germs. Especially important before and after each client, frequent hand washing not only protects the therapist, but also prevents spreading germs to subsequent clients.

2. Exercise Breaks – Massage therapists know the value that circulation plays in maintaining health. Whether accomplished through movement or massage, the circulation of blood, energy and lymphatic fluid prevent pathogens from accumulating and overpowering the immune system. A realistic way to maintain free flowing circulation is to exercise and stretch throughout the day. Since high levels of stress wear down the immune system, the natural stress relief resulting from movement can increase a person’s resistance to illness. People are amazed at how much of an impact squeezing in a couple of 5-10 minute walks has on their overall health and stress levels.

3. Optimize Digestive Health – Most healthcare advocates agree that the heart of immunity lies in the digestive system. In addition to good nutrition, supplementing with beneficial bacteria helps ward off infection. Taking probiotics can help maintain a preponderance of good gut bacteria over the bad gut bacteria. These beneficial bacteria aid in:

· Immune system development
· Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease
· The digestion of food and absorption of nutrients
· Waste elimination

In fact, a study published in the February 2008 edition of the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that in athletes, supplementing with probiotic supplements reduced the number and length of infections.

4. Reduce Immune System Drag – The more toxins your body must process and eliminate, the less attention it can focus on pathogen defense. This becomes obvious after a night of drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, when it is much easier to come down with a cold or flu. However, toxicity from many sources can be a factor in weakening immunity. In addition to alcohol, any kind of drug, processed and artificial foods, cuisine high in saturated fat, cigarettes, toxic fumes or other types of chemicals can put a drag on your body’s ability to purify. There are several ways to reduce this toxicity burden:

· Pay close attention to what you eat and drink, being sure to eliminate obviously toxic items

· Periodically cleanse your body with a detoxification fast or supplement formulated for detoxification

· Drink plenty of water to decrease the concentration of poisons and enhance their elimination

· Especially after indulging in toxic fare, supplement with a high quality milk thistle to protect your liver cells from the damage excessive poisons inflict

Regardless of the reasons, nobody likes putting life on hold by staying in bed with an illness. Getting the most out of our bacteria- and virus-filled world requires a commitment to immune health. As professionals invested in natural healthcare who have close, physical contact with the public, this is especially important for massage therapists. In addition to the abundance of healthy lifestyle choices that better enable a person to deflect pathogens, those in-the-know can take advantage of specific approaches to immune strengthening. By emphasizing cleanliness, scheduling movement into each day, consuming probiotics and reducing toxic drag on the immune system, therapists have a better chance of deflecting the germs clients bring into their practice. With this stronger immune system, bodyworkers will spend less time canceling appointments and more time building and thriving in their chosen profession.

References:

Cox, AJ, et al., Oral administration of the probiotic Lactobacillus fermentum VRI-003 and mucosal immunity in endurance athletes, British Journal of Sports Medicine, February 2008.

http://articles.mercola.com, Probiotics Protect Top Athletes, Dr. Joseph Mercola, 2008.

http://coldflu.about.com, Tips for Staying Healthy at Work, Kristina Duda, RN, About.com, 2008.

https://healthlibrary.epnet.com, Immune Support, EBSCO Publishing, 2008.

www.massagemag.com, Helping the Healers, Lauriann Greene, Massage Magazine, July/August 2000.