massage therapy expectations

Client expectations have been popping up for me to write about more and more recently. What results should you expect after your service?

I believe that in conjuction with your service that reflection and work on your own outside of the treatment room must happen for you to be realistic with the benefits and results of your individual experience. Do you have a specific goal such as decreasing facial puffiness or jaw pain? Consultation must happen for specific goals so that I can offer you a realistic timeline in conjunction with what is possible for you, your time and finances.

How are you feeling before your service? How about after your service and into the next day? Is there tension? Is there sinus pressure? What does the rest of your life look like? Is stress high? Are you sleeping? Are you staying hunched over your computer without rest? How is your nutrition, hydration, movement? There are so many layers to life and expecting a 90 minute massage to 'fix' you for the month is not realistic.

Fix and heal are two words that I will never use in my practice by the way.

Lets look at 90 minutes of massage in your 1440 minute day, or even bigger picture, 90 minutes of massage in your 10,080 minute month. Would you really expect 90 minutes vs all of this time and life to fix everything for you? Does this mean I am saying you need to come more frequently for work? Not at all, it means that having reflection on how the work makes you feel and move is also a necessary component to the big picture.

My lived experience with receiving massage and wellness services as a part of my wellness journey is currently receiving monthly 60 or 90 min massage sessions in conjunction with infrared sauna. I strive for a facial every 4 - 8 weeks, which promotes deep relaxation for my mind and body. Glowing skin is a wonderful perk of facials, but i seek out the work for my nervous system primarily. I have had seasons where I have gone over a year without receiving massage or facials because of life - finances, injury etc. But my current regimine feels aligned with my needs and I am grateful for every service I am able to receive.

I recently had a sore wrist and wrist flexors after a weekend of golf, pilates and too much weeding. It was bad enough that I had to cancel two clients on a Tuesday after the weekend of overuse to give my wrist the rest it needed. I had a massage coming up at the end of the week of the onset of the soreness. My forearm and wrist pain were not my primary goal for the session because I knew that my body needed TIME after I overworked it with too many activites.

The massage brought awareness to me that I also had mid back tightness and some neck tension on that same side. Two areas that were not screaming at me like the wrist and forearm, but that also needed attention. I had a nice balanced 60 min massage that helped me feel deeply relaxed and brought new awareness to regions of my body that needed continued attention by me outside of their treatment room.

Through the next week I got into some stretching, foam rolling and myofascial work on my own with movement. My wrist and forearm feel normal now. I approached the flare up realistically. I didn't attach a "I need this fixed by saturday" into the goals of my service because I knew I needed rest, range of motion, modalites, deep relaxation and to put in actual work on my own outside of this 60 min service. Did my therapist tell me what I should do outside of the treatment room? No. I explored this on my own, because as massage therapists we are not a combo life and health coach offering you guidance with every step to manage in between appointments. I will offer a few suggestions at the end of the session, but the way you move through life and the care you offer yourself is still up to you.

I will talk a lot about receiving for relaxation vs. again something to 'fix'. Not because of the technique of the therapist but because the body is always seeking out homeostasis. Does this mean I am living a stressed out life? No. In fact my stress levels are and have been very low. I love getting into parasympathetic becuase that is where all of the magic happens for the body! Rest and digest, lowers heart rate, waste removal, etc. Stress plays a huge role in disease in this country; obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, depression, gastrointestinal problems. You don't have to have something sore to receive massage, the body and mind benefit from the work as a whole.

Too much weight is being attached to the fix it mentality in my practice. Lets be realistic with the many benefits of massage and your experience in my treatment room and reflection on how it impacts you individually to facilitate those benefits and bring awareness to you and your body and mind. Remember that massage is only one part of the big picture of wellness in your life.