Blog & Resources

We therapists aren’t always marketing geniuses. Be that as it may, one of the major questions you have to ask yourself as a massage practitioner or center is: what do we specialize in? It is only then that you can find the right place—and the right customer—to market to.

To help you with this, here are a couple of things to consider as you think about your specialty. ...

One of the biggest obstacles that comes up when you’re trying to build a client base—whether working for someone else, or in your own private practice—is building the habit of simply asking clients to come back to see you. Just about every therapist knows that it is supposed to be good business practice, but the average therapist isn’t comfortable even asking a client to reschedule. They state that ...

When I finished massage school, back in the early 2000’s, my classmates and I shared a lot of enthusiasm to graduate, start working, and build a successful practice. Similarly, today, a lot of people graduate hoping to build a private practice—for many obvious reasons. Let’s compare the realities of the pros and cons of private practice. On the plus side:

• Individuality: Private practice allows you to create ...

As a massage therapist, one of the most important considerations is to keep your client comfortable and relaxed. An integral part of that is the temperature of the room. In the Pacific Northwest, I would venture to say that the majority of temperature issues are not that your client is too warm, but rather that they’d like to be warmer. Being warm, of course, has the ...

Our field of massage lives between two worlds. Historically, or at least over the last hundred years, massage was supposedly something that affluent people, primarily of the female gender, would allow themselves as a way of destressing and ‘getting away from it all. But massage is also increasingly recommended by doctors in situations where there is muscle injury, perhaps after a car accident or if there’s ...

Telling clients that they should drink more water is almost so universal and ubiquitous that it feels like it shouldn’t even need to be said anymore, and yet it should—over and over again.

When we have sufficient water in our body this will help all the toxins that have been released during the massage to get comfortably flushed out rather than reabsorbed into the tissues.

Even though water is one ...

There are some really great therapists who are super-effective at resolving the most complicated muscle conditions, and yet, they have trouble making a living. They struggle to keep their private practice going, or they end up going to work for an employer—possibly one who doesn’t pay them very well. So, how come that happens when their technique is so good?

In my experience, most massage therapists are ...

One of the best pieces of advice that I’ve heard many times over the years is that if you want to excel at something, you need to find someone who’s already succeeding at it, connect with them, and try to learn from them. In other words, you need to find a mentor—someone who can help you see what in your practice or technique you might not ...

So, here’s an interesting conundrum: we all know to keep our conversation with clients to a minimum so they can have the most relaxing session, and yet, reports from those on the table abound of overly talkative therapists. No one wants to be a “Chatty Kathy,” but it happens.

Years ago, before I even went to massage school, I had a pretty good massage therapist who happened ...

Like so many of my peers, I used to regard chair massage as nothing but an “introductory” technique that would allow clients to experience a bit of massage, after which they’d want to come to a spa or clinic where they’d get a longer “real” session.  That was, until one day when I joined a group providing massage on-site at a large retail chain for ...