Massage therapy can be a very fulfilling career, but it can unfortunately end up being a short one for many of us. That’s because certain energetic self-care is absolutely indispensable, but often overlooked. Most of us who practice massage find a way to mind our body dynamics, but do we take care to maintain good hygiene needed to keep our ‘energetic field’ clean?
The same openness and sensitivity that allows us to feel pain points on a client’s body also make us vulnerable to what is called energy transference, where we take on aspects of the pain body of the client we are working on. Massage therapists can develop soreness in their arms or wrists after a day of massage, which they think is just normal fatigue from the work done. Sometimes, though, it can come from this energy transference. Without having a way to clear that, it’ll wear us down.
The best suggestion I have is to make a routine of rinsing your hands all the way up to the elbows in super-cold, ideally ice-cold, water after each client session, with the explicit intent of releasing and shaking off any energy that you have taken on that is not yours. If cold water is not available, you can also briskly wipe each arm from the elbow down and off past the fingers several times as if you were brushing off dust or crumbs.
Whichever method you use, it’s most important to do it with the intention of clearing out anything that’s not yours. Afterward, you could even put your hands together and take a few deep breaths, feeling your own warmth and energy coming back up to the surface.