Massage Therapy in a Down Economy

Given the fact that there is an update in the news every single day about the steps the government is taking to address the current financial meltdown, I thought it was appropriate to talk about how the general economy affects massage therapy.

It’s not as simple as saying business hurts during a recession. There is a letter from a massage therapist in the current issue of Massage & Bodywork that says their practice is thriving in spite of the economy. So what gives? Why are some MTs continuing to see success ad others going bust when the economy takes a downturn?

So What Happens?

There is some good news these days. Massage isn’t seen as solely a luxury anymore. The MTs and massage businesses that cater to clientele in this category can experience some belt tightening, but this isn’t the only market segment. Many more people see massage as therapy and health care these days than in the past. Before you get out of the massage-for-luxury market though, there are still people out there spending money on these things, so it isn’t as if the jobs are going to vanish. Hiring may slow down, MTs may not see as many clients these days, but the world isn’t going to end.

The simple fact is that when times are hard economically, people cut down on their spending and some of that spending may be massage. Usually people cut out what they see as dispensable first. So whether your massage business suffers greatly depends on how your clients value our work.

Building Value

Value is a perception. It is a perception of how much something is worth. Yes, there are some universal qualities to value, but it is mostly subjective. When you go to the ballpark and get charged $4 for a soda, you may feel like it is overpriced, but it is worth more to you there at the time than leaving the park to go somewhere else to get it more cheaply. So really the value is in the convenience.

If you sell your services as relaxation, people associate a certain value with that. People will associate a different value with pain-reduction; with athletic performance; with restored function, etc… You need to know what it is that you provide to your clients. Find out what makes you indispensible.

So What Can You Do When The Economy Isn’t Working In Your Favor?

1. Diversify
2. Refine (or Learn) Your Mission
3. Target Your Market
4. Be Proactive
5. Roll With the Punches

Diversify

Branch out a little. Don’t be afraid to explore new markets, new niches, for some extra income. Be creative in some of the ways you can do massage. You aren’t necessarily tied to your office. Do some chair massage, supplement your private practice with a job at a chiropractor or some independent contracting. Find some local sports events and call up the coordinators to see if you can come down to work on the athletes. Work a charity event and split the proceeds with the charity. Use your imagination.

Another option is to take a look at your books and your schedule and figure out when your down time is. At our spa, we found that M-Th before 3:00pm was our dead time. Then figure out what you want to do with that time, you can offer a discounted rate to book during that time, we closed our doors during that time without prior appointment, or you could even use that time to hold down another job.

Refine (or Learn) Your Mission

When things become challenging, it is a good time to make sure that your message is on target. What are you trying to accomplish with your work? Of course for you, but more importantly to your clients, what does it do for them? Really home in on that benefit and make sure that is the message you’re sending. If you have never really sat down and thought about it, start. And keep reading this blog because I’ll keep building on this topic.

Target Your Market

Once you have a really good message you have to make sure it is getting to the right people. Who benefits from what you do? And don’t say everybody. A mission that is too broad has little appeal to most people. Try to hone your message so that it really appeals to precisely the people you want to come into your practice. A jack of all trades is a master of none they say, so try to become a master of your chosen niche. Since I’m speaking in clichés – you can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, and some people none of the time. You don’t want to try to appeal to everybody all of the time – focus on the some people you can please most of the time.

Be Proactive

When in doubt about what to do, do something. One thing is for sure, sitting around and whining about how things aren’t going well isn’t going to make them better. Massage is a business that little just falls in your lap. You may be the best MT in the world, but if nobody knows about you, you’ll have no business. The only way they’ll know is if you tell them.

Being proactive isn’t about just doing anything though, it’s about working smart. Take the time to identify the things that are in your control, that you can control, and focus on them. Try to break it down into small, actionable steps, preferably into steps that you can do in a short period of time, like an afternoon or a couple of days. That way you don’t have to wait too long until there is some kind of payoff. Set some attainable goals that allow you to taste some success and keep you moving in the right direction.

If you aren’t already, call up those clients who haven’t been in for a while and check up on them. You’ll find that a good number of them will be happy that you care about them and you’ll get some appointments out of it. Send a letter or email to all of your friends and family and ask for their help (more on this technique in another post). Nothing beats referrals.

Roll With the Punches

It can be hard on your attitude when times are tough, but you have to maintain your outlook. Don’t waste your time dwelling on the obstacles, but look for the silver lining and the paths around those obstacles. I know it sounds trite, but there really is an opportunity in every problem, so try to look for the bright spot and how this can benefit you in the long run.

Conclusion

Above all, realize that things will turn out alright. I speak from experience. When we opened our spa in the Westin in Silicon Valley, we did our very first appointment the night before the 9/11 attack and the bottom fell out of the travel to our region. We rolled with it although it certainly changed our business plan. Do what you can do, try to minimize your risks, and don’t worry about the things you can’t control.

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More Thoughts on Muscle Energy Technique

In the latest (Nov/Dec 2008) issue of Massage & Bodywork Magazine, there is an article entitled “Sports Injuries: Breakthrough Methods in Treatment” by Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa. There is a lot of great information in this article, but something strikingly lacking is the use of MET (Muscle Energy Technique) in treating these injuries. I can see great value in the manual techniques that Mr. Khalsa describes, but have to argue that those should come after MET has been employed.

As my work has grown, I have moved away from a purely manual approach – in the sense that I used to do it all myself. Teamwork is key, and in this case your teammate is your client; more specifically, their brain. If their brain is holding tension or inhibiting a muscle, it can take quite a bit of work to get it to normalize, and often the effects are short-lived. You can be much more successful when you engage the client from within, instead of simply inflicting
a fix upon them.

In addition, MET reduces the irritability of the tissue so that the subsequent work is less uncomfortable. And it creates conditions in which I don’t have to work so hard. I prefer to work from the inside out on a client instead of the outside in.

There is no “I” in TEAM, but there is “A MET”!

This also helps to start the process of rebalancing the joint. Sherrington’s Law of the Reciprocal Inhibition of Muscles…

“When one set of muscles is stimulated (our agonist, or target muscle), muscles opposing the action of the first (antagonists) are simultaneously inhibited.”

…is important to understand. Many novice therapists make the mistake of only working the sore muscles. Often the soreness is caused by excess eccentric load caused by hypertonic muscles on the other side of the joint. In simple terms, they are sore because they are exhausted from resisting the tension of the opposing muscles. They are also weak (inhibited) because of the hypertonicity of their antagonists. Relax that tension and the load on the sore muscles is decreased. MET is great because that is exactly how it works – by balancing the muscles on both sides of the joint.

Incidentally, MET improves the communication between the brain and the muscles and clears dysfunctions such as the negative feedback loop created by a trigger point (TrP). I always use MET to reduce TrP activity prior to more aggressive and painful techniques such as cross-fiber friction or sustained (ischemic) compression. Sometimes MET alone is enough all by itself, but even when it isn’t, almost every time the irritability is reduced so that the other techniques cause much less discomfort to the client.

Yet another effect is that MET retrains the brain as to what the state of the tissue is and how it should be. It allows the brain to do a reset of the proprioceptors. Ultimately, it will be the new and healthier movement patterns that allow the work to endure.

So I will close with the immortal words of Snoopy.

“Get MET, it pays!”

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Muscle Memory

We’ve all heard somewhere along the line that muscles have memory. So do they? Yes and no. What does that really mean?

The Muscles Themselves

Muscles themselves only have a little “memory”. Myofascia is designed for movement, and it molds itself to the stress that it experiences. In that capacity, if the myofascia has been shaped by habitual movement, the muscles will only be used to, or even able, to move within that range. So in that sense, muscles do have a memory.

The Bigger Picture

More to the point, it has more to do with the nervous system’s relation to the muscles. When the nervous system generates an impulse, neurons talk to each other – a line of communication is opened, potentially where none existed before. But once that line of communication is established, every time those neurons speak to each other it reinforces the connection. Of course this is why practice makes perfect – every time we do a particular action, our brain gets better and better at coordinating the muscles to do it. incidentally, when we start resistance training, the initial gains in strength are more due to improved communication between the brain and the muscle than any physical increases in the muscle itself.

This is what we’re really talking about when we say muscle memory – these habitual patterns of movement. When we learn how to do something a particular way, it can become very hard to undo it. For instance, you know how you can identify many people by the sound of their footsteps? This is because when we learn to walk we develop a unique gait. It takes over a hundred muscles working in coordination to walk and we all learn how to do it in a slightly different way. These patterns become ingrained and the connected neurons prefer the familiar. This is also why we massage instructors harp on our students to use proper body mechanics all the time – if you start by learning it the wrong way, it will be much harder for you to learn it the right way.

These connections, once learned, go on autopilot. And a good thing too. Who would want to have to constantly think about putting one foot in front of the other, or the position of your tongue while you are speaking? But once they become unconscious, we also lose some awareness about what we are doing. This is fine if things are working the way that they should, but when things are off we need to bring the awareness back.

When we get injured, we can develop bad habits, maybe habits that were necessary while we were hurt (limping), but no longer serve a purpose once we’re better (continuing to limp after healing). Our bodies adapt wonderfully to remain functional in response to these things. But once your body has found a way it likes to do things it can be hard to get it to go back to do it the right way, the optimal way.

Can it be done? Of course, but it may not be easy. Stroke victims can relearn to do things that they lost because of the neurons that knew how to do it dying. It is a matter of re-patterning.

So What Does This Mean?

For our clients, this means we need to understand how these patterns affect them. What factors were in place when developing these movement patterns? Did they break their leg as a child, or have something disrupt their development? Was there an injury? Athletic training? How long has it been there? The old saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is somewhat valid – It’s a lot harder to break a habit that has been there a long time because to break a habit, you are really creating a new one to replace it.

Progress will be slow with long-term patterns. I have found that often, clients will feel some relief after massage, but it is short lived. This is because although massage is great, once they leave my office their old patterns begin to dominate again. I always tell my students that even if they come and see me once a week, there are 168 hours in a week – leaving 167 hours for them to undo everything that we worked on in that session. It is vital to educate your clients about what they need to change and think about in between sessions to let the work take hold.

Another implication is that as much as we work on the soft-tissue, it will have little to no long-term effect if we don’t address the neurological functions that maintain the pattern. It’s akin to eating one healthy, nutritious meal (your massage) amidst a sea of junk food (their bad habits). It won’t have much of a lasting effect. It is a process, and one that the client must be on board for. They won’t change until they are willing and ready to.

Reboot

I love Muscle Energy Techniques (MET), PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation), and Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT). I will focus on MET here, but use a variety of NMT techniques. They are all techniques that reboot the system by resetting the lines of communication. MET uses the higher thinking of the conscious brain to reprogram the lower order unconscious functions.

In every case you come across, resetting the interface between the brain and the muscles will make your job easier. You recruit the most powerful force in your client’s body, their brain, as an ally. If you neglect to address the neurological dysfunction, those old habits will be actively working against you. Most often this also clears the way to reveal the problems as well. MET will reduce hypertonicity (excess tension in the muscles) so the knots really stand out in the tissue.

Re-educate

Once you’ve done your part as a massage therapist, then you have to recruit the client to do their part. Do your best every session to give them something to go home with that they can do to take some ownership of their healing. An exercise, a stretch, a new movement pattern, a breathing exercise, or just some homework to take note of their posture once or twice a day. These things will help to begin the process of creating new movement patterns. Awareness is key.

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The Challenges of Being a Male Massage Therapist 4

In part 4 here, we will conclude our look at these challenges with the idea that women are more nurturing and better healers than men. You can look at the original three posts here (1,2,3).

Are women more nurturing than men?

The answer to this one is hard to pin down. Certainly there is a lot of variation depending on a persons personality. I’m not a psychologist, so I won’t delve into the inner workings of the gender-based mind. What I can say is that a most people, male or female, must have some kind of nurturing bent to enter this profession. Sure, I have seen some that just don’t seem to get it, but they don’t last long. Ideally someone should have clued them in before they spent a lot of money in education for a career that won’t work for them. However, opening oneself can be a process, so we can’t just write people off.

I would venture to generalize that the men who enter the field of massage therapy really do have a desire to help. Men have a different kind of energy about them. It is easy to think that males tend to have a more yang healing energy about them, but I have known incredibly nurturing male therapists before. I also know plenty of clients that once they have experienced a truly good male therapist don’t want to go back because they prefer the uniquely male energy.

Culture can have a huge impact on this as well. Traditional gender roles paint women with the nurturing, motherly brush, which certainly works in their favor in this profession. It isn’t to say that men can’t be nurturing in Western culture, they just aren’t seen that way most of the time. Ironically, there is still a lingering perception that men are better than women in the more power-healer roles such as doctors. These attitudes are changing, but the impression can seem like women are making more headway in the medical professions than men are in the nurturing ones.

Since the public perception persists that women are better healers, what can men do about it in a profession like massage therapy?

Diligent attention to professionalism is a must. I know I’ve belabored this point in this series, but it is so important. Often, people are really looking for any excuse not to buy your services, so why give them a reason on a platter? Professionalism is a skilled way of being welcoming, caring, and appearing competent in what you do. Make sure this is always on. Communicate and present that you do care and you are a healer. Walk the walk and talk the talk.

Recognize that not everyone has to like you. Not everyone will warm up to you as a male massage therapist, but they don’t have to. All massage therapy is a construct of trust, respect, and safety – a framework in which the healing happens. Some people just don’t click. As much as we are working to create standards so that a person can go to any therapist and receive the same level of care, it’s the relationships that make it work. Do your best to make everybody comfortable with you. Ask for the honest opinions of those closest to you. “Do I inspire trust?” “Do you feel safe around me?” Et cetera…

Put yourself out there. Realize that the business won’t just come to you. You need to take the first (and sometimes second and third) step in building relationships with your clients. A good first step is to get out there and get your hands on your clients. It’s harder to say a guy isn’t a good healer when you’ve felt the healing power of his hands.

Cultivate references and testimonials. Develop a body of evidence that you are a healer. Don’t be afraid to ask your clients for their opinion.

In Conclusion

So yes, male massage therapists do face challenges, but not insurmountable ones. With a little thought, a little preparation, professional skills, and the right attitude men can find the success they desire in this field.

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The Challenges of Being a Male Massage Therapist 3

Part 3 of 4 (1,2,4)

Homophobia and Thinking Sex in Massage Therapy

Sexuality has no place in massage therapy. Or so we’d like it to be. We can no more leave our gender, sexuality, or identity at the door than we can leave our endocrine system. We are sexual beings and even when it isn’t sexual, it still is in part.

What I mean by that is that we have a lot more tied up in our sexuality than we realize. It falls into a much larger category of gender identity, which includes the roles we identify with men and women and ourselves in relation to them. It encompasses the culture we are part of, religion, and past experience. It colors our attitudes, beliefs, and morals. It is such an integral part of who we each are that it is a little ludicrous to think we can do any kind of holistic treatment without taking it into account.

We need to accept that it is there instead of denying it. Then we can do something about it and make sure that it isn’t the central issue in our sessions. practices, and careers.

Homophobia

In this series, we are talking about this from the perspective of men not wanting massage from other men, as that is much more the issue in our profession.

In practice, you can break this into two categories. At the extreme, you have men who will never get a massage from another man under any circumstances. Don’t waste your time trying to convince these guys, but talk to them anyway. Remember that no man is an island and they have friends and family that they talk to. They may never feel comfortable with getting a massage from you (it’s their issue, not yours), but that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending someone else to you.

The other category is men who aren’t so adamant about it. They may never have had a massage from a man before, but this is often due to inexperience. Unfortunately, sometimes it is due to a bad prior experience with a male therapist as well. The key with these men is to pay extra attention to their comfort zone and don’t push their limits too much. I’ve had plenty of past clients (male and female) who commented after that I had completely changed their mind about getting massage from a man. Often men in this group will feel more comfortable receiving massage in a more clinical and less of a leisure capacity. Speak to them in terms of functional outcomes to make them feel more comfortable.

Make it easy and safe for your clients (and this goes for working with women as well). For massage rookies, usually disrobing is a point of distress. Tell them that they should only disrobe as far as they’re comfortable or that you can even work on them clothed (the Magic Massager works great for this). Mind your professionalism with a microscope and make sure that there is nothing in your speech, demeanor, or presentation that implies anything sexual about what you do.

Thinking About Sex

This is another common perception about men – that they are constantly thinking about sex. I’m not about to debate here whether this is true or not. I suppose it could be on a subconscious level that affects behavior, but it’s not really all that important.

What is important is that actions speak louder than words. The words are certainly important. Make sure that none of your words give any room for misinterpretation. However, you need to focus all of your attention on making sure that your actions scream professionalism, trust, respect, safety, and client-centeredness while leaving sex out of the equation.

Some women choose not to work with a male therapist simply because they don’t want sex to even be a possible issue, some because they may have experienced abuse in the past, some because they have body image issues and fear that a male will judge them, some because they don’t feel comfortable “letting it all hang out” in front of a man. There can be many legitimate reasons that a woman doesn’t wish to receive massage from a man. Of course, almost all of those reasons could make a person prefer a male as well. Although we strive to reduce gender preference, we will never eliminate it entirely. Understand it, reduce it, and work with it.

How do your friends talk about what you do?

An important thing that I see many MTs overlook is non-client communication. If you let your friends get away with joking around about what you do, you are tacitly condoning their inappropriate attitude. Make sure that you discuss with your friends some of these issues or they will be talking about the same inappropriate things about you to their friends. You have to emphasize and embody what you want your friends to say.

One of the main things I want to get across here is that an MT does not have to appeal to everybody. There are plenty of clients out there and the way the business is trending, there are many more to come. Find your niche and stop trying to be everything to everybody.

In part 4, we’ll take a look at the idea that women are more nurturing and better healers than men…

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The Challenges of Being a Male Massage Therapist 2

Part 2 of 4 (1,3,4)

The Problems

In the previous post, I mentioned four specific problems that impact male MTs. Job discrimination, homophobia, the impression that men are always interested in sex, and the impression that women are more nurturing and better healers.

Job Discrimination

As I mention before, I got passed over in at least one instance for a job because I am male. I’m sure every other male therapist has and will encounter this particular problem at some point. Many of the male students that graduate from my program get disheartened when they experience this – I have come to see it as an opportunity.

It’s not OK for massage businesses to perpetuate this gender gap. They see it as catering to their clients, but really it is just reinforcing a major problem in our field.

When I was fresh out of school, I went to work for a massage business called Equilibrium in San Francisco that was opened by two of my classmates, one of them male. As I would listen to them on the phone booking appointments I learned something – it is really up to the business the impression they give to their clients. When a client would call asking for a female, they would start in pointing out out all of my virtues and almost every time the session would be booked. And then out of those sessions, almost every time the client was very happy with the experience. How do I know? Because of all of the “I never thought I would get such a great massage from a guy” comments I received.

We need to work to change the lopsided preferences in our field, while accepting that some legitimate concerns do and will always exist (abuse, religion…)

So what can a guy do about this?

First of all, don’t be afraid to say something. I used to just let it go and move on, but I’ve learned over time that it is important to speak up. There seems to be a prevailing attitude out there that “that’s how it is” and the businesses go with the flow. Never pass up this opportunity to educate. It may not help you personally, but it will help all of the men out there in the profession. In this respect, we certainly all must work together to address this issue. We’ll all benefit in the end.

Secondly, accept that things won’t change overnight and some won’t ever change. Move on and look for a place to work where it won’t be as much of a struggle. Look for places that are more male-friendly; establishments that are more sports, clinical/medical, or deep tissue oriented. In this respect, sometimes men even have an advantage. Men still dominate in sports massage (Benny Vaughn mentions it in his Olympic massage blog) and the perception remains that men can perform better deep tissue work.

Almost all spas want to have at least one man on staff because they will get some male requests. Be aware that at some spas, those requests might not be enough to keep you busy.

Once you’re working, one of the best things you can do as a male is to make sure that whoever books the appointments is on your side and trained to promote you well. Believe it or not, I’ve seen places where they almost talk down about their male therapists! The scheduler is the person who can help you the most so get them on your side! Make sure that they have experienced the wonders of your work. Make sure that they understand the challenges you face as a male MT and that they know to steer more non-gender-specific appointments your way. Make sure that they know how to sing your praises because when a person calls to book their appointment, the scheduler becomes a testimonial. They get asked often “who’s good” and ideally you want them to say your name. Train them how to say, “Yes, I had the same fear about seeing a male at first, but after one session with Mike I don’t go to anybody else.” If you an get the scheduler to say that on your behalf, great! Now the ball is in your court to deliver!

Part 3: Homophobia and Thinking Sex in Massage Therapy

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The Challenges of Being a Male Massage Therapist 1

Several years ago, I responded to an ad calling for massage therapists at a small day spa. The woman on the phone was very polite when she told me that they had already filled the position. Out of curiosity, I had my wife call about the same position only ten minutes later. They wanted her to come down for an interview.

Men can sure face a lot of challenges in the massage business – job discrimination like I just mentioned is only one. Homophobia, the impression that men are always interested in sex, and the impression that women are more nurturing and better healers are other obstacles that men can face.

Am I advocating that this isn’t a profession for men?

Of course not.

All of these challenges can be dealt with, overcome, and sometimes even made into a non-issue. There are even some factors that work in men’s favor.

According to the latest surveys at ABMP and others, around 80-83% of the MTs out there are female. The good news is that in my experience far fewer than 80% of massage clients out there will only have work performed by a female therapist.

The Politics of Gender

As much as all of us would love to change massage into a gender-neutral profession (and of course need to endeavor to do so) the reality is that it is not. Massage by its very nature is an intimate experience, so attitudes about intimacy will always be a factor. For some people this is more of an issue than others and there is a large part of this that is based on past experience, culture, and learned attitudes. These attitudes can be changed, however, and it is important for male MTs to be pro-active about educating their clients about this.

I intend to write an entire post on the complexities involved in touch and communication since it has such a big impact on what we do.

The spa I mentioned above actually did something illegal. At the time I chose not to bother doing anything about it (I might do differently now). My school’s career services department fields many calls about externship sites where they only want female therapists as well. Although I could wish otherwise, that all massage businesses would take the high road and educate their clients that males aren’t evil, the truth is that many cave to the requests of their clients without even an attempt to steer their preferences. As a learning institution, we weed out extern sites and clients for our clinic that attempt to perpetuate the gender gap in our profession.

There is an interesting article from Massage & Bodywork Magazine on this subject, even though I have to disagree with some of the expert opinion expressed in it. (more on that later)

What’s Next…

These problems are not insurmountable and we’ll take a look at some strategies for male massage therapists to use to deal with them in part 2…

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Hybrid Education in Massage Therapy

Right now, we’re standing on the cusp of a new era in education. With the advent of Learning Management System Software (LMS), there is a lot more power at the fingertips of teachers in delivering course material. Some material works fantastically well in an online environment delivered via LMS. Courses that are heavy in theory, reading, or lecture work very well. Of course, massage therapy does require a substantial hands-on component so online delivery isn’t a complete option for most courses. A hybrid model is to combine part in-class training with part online. This solution is ideal for massage therapy because the online component can replace or reinforce the lecture components of a class, leaving potentially more hands on time with the teacher.

What can LMS Software do?

An LMS is a system for the delivery, tracking, and management of training (wikipedia). It can include everything from online test-taking, grade-reporting, lecture & powerpoint components, video and multimedia presentations, online forums and class discussions, wiki’s, and more. One of the advantages is that the LMS can be either a guided, structured process or more free-form and self-paced.

I've been interested in using LMS ever since I found out it existed in a few online classes I’ve taken and trainings at work. As a teacher, I’m always looking for better ways to implement learning objectives. Technology isn’t always better, but it is a tool. Most of the students I see in the classroom are increasingly tech-savvy (text messaging anyone?), so moving some of the learning online isn’t that much of a leap. The added bonus is that after some work to set it up, some of the process is automated.

I’m planning on bringing LMS into my classroom in stages and I’ll keep you posted here about how the implementation is working. The first step is to take the testing online. LMS software includes the ability to import/create a testbank and administer the tests online. The nice thing about it is that the test is automatically scored and their grade entered in the LMS. Our program is spending too much time on tests and retests and grading and I’m hoping that after the initial testbank entry that this process will be much more streamlined.

As a parent, my daughter’s middle school just implemented an LMS called School Loop. It’s great to be able to log on and see your childs progress any time you like and check how they’re doing. She’s on there every day making sure she’s completed all her assignments. It’s great. So much for the old “I forgot my assignment at school” excuse.

What Are The LMS Options?

There are quite a few options out there, from the very expensive to the free. Commercial vendors include Blackboard, eCollege, and others. The two big free players are Moodle and the Sakai Project; both are open-source and have similar functionality. I have chosen Moodle, primarily because there is a larger user base and to the uninitiated I thought Moodle seemed easier to get into. I’m not a big advocate for one or the other, but from here on out I’ll be talking about Moodle, since that is what I’m using. Here is a good place to take a look at some of the eLearning options.

Hosting

Once you decide on your LMS, you’ll need to host it. There are packages that you can download to host a server on your own, but I elected to go with a free (ad-supported) off-site server called NineHub, but there are other free hosting solutions available. If you choose to go commercial, you’ll probably want to set up a vendor-hosted solution that can provide enterprise support. Setting up NineHub was a breeze though and I was off and running.

A Sample Test

Once I got into the system, it took a couple of hours to learn my way around. Give yourself some time to get acquainted, especially if you aren’t at all familiar with the online classroom environment. You can get some help from a downloadable guide from Moodle. In short order I was able to figure out how to import some of the questions from an existing testbank and set up a small quiz. It worked! Based on that test, I’ve decided that we will try a pilot test in a few weeks in an actual class to see how it goes. We’ll gauge student response and see if it has the desired results in reducing teacher overhead. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Closing Thoughts

I’ve been in classes using online learning before and can definitely see the potential. I’m excited to try some of these solutions in my class now. As learning continues to evolve, as teachers we need to use the best tools available to ensure the best learning. While technology can’t guarantee more effective learning, it has a place, and in it’s place it excels over anything that has come before.

You can read more about eLearning here and here.

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Killer Introductions for Massage Therapists pt3

This is the final entry in the “Killer Introductions for Massage Therapists” series. See parts 1 and 2 here (1 & 2)

Putting It Together

Once you know what you deliver and who you deliver it to, you are ready to design your killer introduction. Now you are equipped to frame what you do for your potential client instead of letting them put you in a box. Try these introductions on for size:

“Hi, my name is Mike Wolnick and I’m a Massage Therapist.”

“Hi, my name is Mike Wolnick and I use massage therapy to help athletes overcome chronic pain and injury to maximize their performance.”

Which introduction do you think is better? This kind of introduction is very powerful. Let’s look at why:

1. It describes your work specifically. It’s hard for anyone to frame #2 as a sex worker or a spa therapist.
2. It appeals to your niche. If you are really good at dealing with certain client issues, or just really enjoy working with some types of clients, why try to appeal to everybody? This introduction is going to appeal to athletes.
3. It plants a seed. If you just introduce yourself as an MT, if they personally don’t need massage right then, they’ll forget about you. But if you frame it right, you’ve made a connection in their mind. In this case, if the client experiences an athletic injury, that is tied in their mind to you now. Even better, if they have a friend in a month complaining of some nagging sports injury, you’ve made that connection for them too! Otherwise they might never have associated massage with their friend’s pain.
4. Sounds more professional. Which introduction would you take more seriously?
5. Changes Your Competition. Do you think introduction #2 is competing with the spa down the street? Of course not, now your competition is other things that help with athletic injury. You even set yourself up in a better position to work with other professionals in that new area – sports medicine, orthopedic surgeons… Now it’s a matter of the client thinking about what very different method they can use to deal with their injury. Would you rather have surgery or get a massage…?

I’m just using sports massage as an example here, so adapt the idea to your own work. One other thing to note is the tone of the introduction. Use action words (overcome, maximize) and address the partnership involved in massage (help). And finally, make sure you don’t promise on anything you aren’t positive that you can deliver!

Using this process will help you to better build your business with the kinds of clients you want to work with. I guess you could say my introduction is:

“Hi, my name is Mike Wolnick and I help people change their lives and develop exciting, successful careers in massage therapy!”

Let me know how it works for you!

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Benefits vs. Features in Massage Therapy (Killer Intros pt2)

This is a continuation of a series entitled “Killer Introductions for Massage Therapists”, see part 1 here.

Benefits vs. Features

Simply defined, a feature describes what it is and a benefit describes what it does. This is a very important distinction. Features are things like the style of massage, techniques, and anything that describes your work. Benefits are what the client actually gets out of it; how their life is affected by the bodywork.

One of the biggest problems is that most of the things described in textbooks as benefits are really features. Do you think your clients really care about better circulation? Endorphin release? Decreased secondary edema? Any of the other things that are commonly described as benefits? Of course not.

What they really care about are the benefits they receive from these effects.

1. Better circulation = More energy, less pain (from stagnant irritating chemicals)
2. Endorphin Release = Less Pain so maybe they can sleep better at night
3. Decreased Secondary Edema = faster recovery from injury

It is vitally important that you translate what you do into something meaningful to your clients. They care about what your work will do for them, not about what it is you do. So make a list (write it down!) of the benefits you deliver to your clients.

Taking The Next Step

The next step is to figure out who you give these benefits to. You deliver different results to stressed out executives, pregnant women, and athletes, so why would you say the same thing to each of these clients?

Massage has a great many effects and benefits on the human body, pick the ones that are going to have the most effect for your target market. Going with these examples:

1. Executives: Stress-reduction, better job performance, increased energy, reduced headaches…
2. Pregnant Women: Decreased sciatic pain, Reduced discomfort from side-lying positions…
3. Athletes: Increased performance, reduced risk of injury, more playing time…

Think about what is important to your target market. Once again, write it down!

Back to Part 1 On to Part 3

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Killer Introductions for Massage Therapists pt1

When Massage Therapists are taught how to be professional and build their business, they are often taught to introduce themselves with the good old “Hi, my name is Mike Wolnick and I’m a Massage Therapist.”

Although this isn’t really a bad thing, it’s just not quite good enough. Why, you might ask? I mean it gives your name and it lets the client know what you do. So what’s the problem? Let’s dig into this a little deeper.

The Problem

Every person out there is going to have a different body of experience with massage therapy – shaped by the media, past personal experience, the past experiences of the people they know, etc… In other words, they already have some kind of opinion about what massage therapy is. When you tell that person you are a massage therapists, you are now whatever they think that means. If they think that MTs are prostitutes, that is what you are to them now. If they think of spa massage, you are now a spa MT, if they think of clinical massage, now you’re a clinical MT. So what do you do about this?

The problem is that you allowed them to define what you do for you.

So What Do You Do About It?

You want to turn the tables and frame what you do for them, as it should be. The key to this is a thorough understanding of what it is that you really do. Your first thought is “I do massage”, but this isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. What is your focus? What is it you really bring to your clients? Start to think in terms of benefits.

Part 2

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Making a Living with Massage Therapy pt4

This job pays x (insert rate here). Is that good?

I don’t know, is it? Asking this question is putting the cart before the horse. There are a couple of things that must be considered before this question is asked.

1. How much do you need?
2. How much work can you do?
3. How busy will you be?
4. What do comparable establishments with comparable clientele pay?

How much do you need?

The first and foremost item that needs to be considered is what you need to live. If you are young, single, and living at home with mom and dad, your expenses may only be a few hundred dollars a month. On the other hand, I had a student that had over $9000 a month in expenses by paying 2 mortgages and the like. Obviously their needs would be very different.

Start by figuring out your bills and obligations on a monthly basis. Rent, car payment, gas, insurance, cable, phone, memberships, etc... add it all up. Don't forget to include annualized costs as well like car registration, magazine subscriptions, or that annual family trip you take (just divide by 12 for a monthly cost). Also, estimate what you spend irregularly on things like clothes, new shoes, and the like. Try to average it out into a monthly cost. The important thing here is to put a number on your lifestyle, NOT to give yourself a bare minimum budget that you can just barely survive on. It is good to know the bare minimum that you can scrape by one, but you don't want to live that way all the time. You can even plan for the future by adding in the things that you aspire to - new car, starting a family, starting a business.

How much work can you do?

Because we work directly with our clients, and generally we can only work with one client at a time, we MTs are inherently limited in the quantity of work we can do. There are also physical limits as well. Although I've done 10 massages in a day before, I certainly wouldn't and couldn't keep up that pace on a regular basis. Personally, I found my comfort zone to be about 15-20 massages a week. What is your number? It may be higher or lower, but how many appointments a week works for you? Without putting your body, your health, or your family/social life at risk? There are 4.33 weeks in an average month, but using 4 will help you to play it safe and estimate higher.

How busy will you be?

Before you can determine if you will be able to live off of the income from your practice or that job you applied for, you need to know how much work you will be getting. This isn't as important if you are making a set hourly wage, but it is vital if you are paid by commission or per client. This is so important that you should never leave an interview without finding out how many appointments a typical MT at a business does a week. Why? Because it may sound great that a spa will pay you $60 an hour, but if you're on-call (or worse, sitting around) and only getting 3 appointments a week, you're making a lot less than $30/hr at 10 appointments per week. Also find out the cycles of the business. Some places are relatively steady, others are feast or famine. Make sure you see the big picture.

What do comparable establishments with comparable clientele pay?

If everything is working for you in these other questions, this one isn't so important. If you ain't broke, don't fix it! But it is good practice to know what comparably experienced MTs, in comparable establishments, working with comparable clientele, and in comparable locations are paying their MTs. Minimize comparisons between massage businesses that seem similar but are not. A small day spa that caters to locals in a ritzy resort town won't be comparable to the huge, posh spa at the resort up the hill. Compare apples to apples. Still, the difference isn't as much as you might think. Cost structures in massage businesses can vary widely - how the business is run and the cost of overhead can be very different from place to place. Spas are expensive to run, so don't expect the lion's share of what the client pays.

Another common mistake is to compare what the business charges the clients. Sure the sticker price of the services can give you a good idea about the clientele, but it isn't necessarily an indication of how they pay their MTs. My wife and I took a look at working at the Ritz-Carlton Spa in Half Moon Bay when it first opened. We were shocked to see that they only paid their MTs what amounted to $10-15/hr in commissions (on a service price of $100+). The 10% they were paying wouldn't have been bad if they were charging $300+/hr, but they weren't. They claimed they had interest from MTs as far away as Utah, and my immediate thought was they would have to be from out of state and have no idea about the cost of living here! Needless to say, we passed on it. They wanted their MTs to rely on tip income, which in my experience, no matter the setting, is unreliable at best.

Summing it up

Once you have answered these questions, then you'll be equipped to determine whether the pay is good or not. If a job isn't going to make enough for you, then you either should pass on it or you'll need to supplement it. If it will keep you busy but the pay is low, how will you have time to supplement it? Or if you are already doing your limit in appointments per week, how can you add more to make more money? These questions will allow you to figure out if a job or practice will allow you to live the way you'd like. A good job or practice will balance all of these elements.

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Making a Living with Massage Therapy pt3

Will people pay $xx?

Maybe. There are a lot of factors that go into a purchasing decision. It’s really all about value. If the perceived value is equal to or higher than the price, a person will buy it. The trick is to find the right balance.

A frequent concern is that a MT down the street charges a different rate. It is absolutely OK for you to charge something different – as long as you can justify it! It’s called differential (competitive) advantage. What sets your service apart from theirs? Although you do have to account for the price levels in your area, it isn’t the most important factor. Sometimes it can even work in your favor!

A MT I knew had an office on Union St. in San Francisco, a posh little shopping district. She was charging $60/hr and couldn’t seem to get clients to save her life. She looked at what the other massage businesses in the area were doing and realized that she was by far, the cheapest place around. Seems like it would be a good thing, right? Nope! It turned out that her low price was giving her potential clients the idea that she offered a sub-standard service. Believe it or not, when she raised her rates to $85/hr the clients started coming in!

Build the value of what you do, tailor it to your specific clients’ needs and you are on your way to finding the success you want.

Differential Advantage

Simply put, this is what makes you different than your competition. Just like you never see a business advertising "we have the same prices as everybody else!", you need to talk about what makes you better as well.

A differential advantage (DA) could be anything, but it's important that you find out what yours are. Pricing is an obvious one, but others can be location, convenience, specialty techniques, parking, outstanding customer service, testimonials, education, experience, etc...

A little less obvious can be some of the intangible DAs, things like a warm and welcoming personality, inspiring trust, creating security, excellent communication skills, personality, sense of humor. These things can be harder to pin down and you can't really advertise most of them ("Come on down for the funniest massage in town!"), but they have an important impact on the value that people perceive in your service - and on client retention.

Most people are willing to pay more for something that they see more value in. Differential Advantage is a topic that warrants its own post, so keep an eye out for more on setting you and your business apart.

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Making a Living with Massage Therapy pt2

Should I charge while I am in school?

In my opinion, yes. I always think it is a great idea to set up your clients’ expectations to the fact that you offer a valuable service that is worth paying for. Bear in mind that you may need a license to legitimately charge money for your services. I generally suggest that you charge about half of what you would once you are out of school and a practicing professional. I tell my students that they need to build the expectation with their “practice clients” that there when they finish school that the rates will change. Even if you choose not to charge while in school, you still need to build this expectation from the very beginning.

I used to work with a MT years back who was struggling in her practice. She had enough clients, but was still having trouble making ends meet. It turned out that she had quite a number of clients who were still paying her student-rate of $20-25 for an hour session! Her normal rates were $60/hr or 2 sessions for $100. She had been scared to raise her rates with these people for fear of losing the clients. After some convincing, she decided to raise her rates in compromise, to about $40-45. So did she lose clients? A few. But she also had a few comments of wonderment that she hadn’t done it sooner. And she earned more from the clients that stayed than she did in total from all of her clients at the lower rate.

It’s OK to give your loyal customers a preferential rate, just make sure it’s not hurting you more than helping! Think about the business and practice you are trying to build and work from there. It is a common mistake for MTs to chase down the bargain hunters, dropping their prices to where they can hardly sustain themselves. Bargain hunters will come to you for the low rates and will just as quickly go to someone else offering a special deal. These clients are hard to retain and you have to ask yourself, how hard do you want to work to keep them?

The other thing to bear in mind is what the massage laws are in your area. California thankfully just passed a state certification law SB731, but it is voluntary, and until then all of the old piecemeal laws remain in effect. Right now, in San Jose, you only need to be certified for 100 hours to get your license. Palo Alto is 72 hours! Once you have a license, I believe you should be charging as a professional (based on your abilities), not as a student.

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Making a Living with Massage Therapy pt1

What to Charge for Massage

As a teacher, this is one of the most frequent questions that I get asked. The answer is $75. ;)

I wish it was that simple. The truth is that there a number of factors that go into deciding both how much to charge and also in determining if a job is going to pay you enough. As I began writing this, I realized that it is too large a topic to cover in one post, so welcome to the introduction for a series on Making a Living with Massage Therapy!

In this series of posts I’ll examine some of the factors that go into setting prices and taking jobs. There are no cut-and-dried answers to these questions. As much as my students would love me to be able to just hand them a number, it is different for everybody. Each part of this series will pick apart a FAQ (frequently asked question).

I’m sure I’ll come back later and edit this list, but here are some of the questions I’ll take on in this series:

1. Should I charge while I am in school (and how much)?
2. Will people pay $xx?
3. This job pays $xx (insert rate here). Is that good?

Your comments and questions will help to make this post and series more illuminating, so please, fire away!

EDIT: By the way, this does seem to be a hot-button topic, as described in this blog "Do Massage Therapists Work As Slaves?

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Traveling with the Team: Sports Massage

Although this isn't what I would probably write about for my first real post, it did just happen this past weekend, so I thought the timing is right.

My sister plays Ultimate Frisbee. Passionately. This past weekend she had a tournament in Denver, CO. Fortunately for her, she has a brother who is a massage therapist and has thoroughly indoctrinated her into the benefits of massage therapy for the past 10 years. The cool thing is, she took it upon herself to arrange it so that 10 of her teammates all pitched in to fly my wife (who is also an MT) and I to Colorado and put us up in a hotel for 3 days for us to work on them. Granted, we didn't make any money on top of that, but my wife and I had been hankering to go to Colorado anyway. There were a couple of things that I'd like to point out about this trip.

First, massage can be a great tool to use to travel. This is one example, but traveling to take a Thai Massage class in Thailand can be another example. If you look for the opportunity, massage can really take you places. Incidentally, I laid the groundwork for this trip last year simply by proposing to the team that I could do sportsmassage and coming down to one of their local tournaments.

Second, massage is one of those things that is almost infinitely barter-able. I have traded massage for merchandise, discounts, services fees, business advice, and even paid for more than half of our $20K wedding that way. You can use your skills to trade for most anything you can think of (if only the DMV took backrubs...). Use your imagination.

Thirdly, this trip also emphasized the dynamic educational relationship that MTs have with their clients. Most of the people that pitched in to pay for us to go had some appreciation for massage, but had no idea that sports massage was something different. Most of them had the impression that it was just about feeling better afterwards. As my wife and I started to educate them about the value of pre-event massage and how it was different than your typical spa massage, I could see how their viewpoint changed. Some of the best comments that we received were "After that massage, I had the best warmup ever", "I felt so much looser. It was great", and "My calf didn't cramp up on me at all today". I could see their level of respect rising.

Finally, this leads me to my last point. It is vital that we Massage Therapists really know how to speak to our clients. Speak to them in their language and in terms of what they care about. Carry it a step further and use words and terms that they can remember and talk about themselves. It is great for your business when your clients can describe what your work has done for them to their friends - the way you'd like it to be described! You create an evangelical client that will spout your praises to everybody they know.

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What is the Massage Continuum?

We all know that to be the best you can be you need to keep on learning. This blog is dedicated to the idea that the more we learn, the better we can achieve our potential. The massage profession is constantly evolving as well, never static, and as massage professionals we must evolve along with it.

So why blog?
I’ve been a massage therapist for 10 years now, and a massage instructor for 4. It’s very gratifying to help a student grow into becoming a wonderful, effective, and successful massage professional. As a teacher, I get bombarded with questions all the time about where to learn more, for more detail about a particular subject, or for my opinions about some aspect of the profession. I decided to start this blog to answer some of those questions and to extend what I do beyond the walls of the classroom to help the greater massage community. If you want to know a little more about me click here.

I love to teach. I have found that there is great variety of often conflicting information out there – some of which is very difficult to even find. I hope to provide some of those resources here. I’ve never written a blog before, so please bear with me as I get the hang of it.

Who is this blog for?
Practicing and aspiring massage therapists. In my experience, many practicing massage therapists have as many or more questions than massage students do. What can I do to be more successful? What do you do? What techniques work best for what conditions? Where are the best places to work? How much do I charge?... The list just goes on. If you work in massage therapy, you should find this blog helpful. I won’t make any claims about being the final authority, but I do have experience as a massage therapist and a spa owner, a consultant and a teacher. My hope is that my experience can help your career flourish.

Topics
While I already have pages of ideas to write about, this blog is more about you, the reader, than about me, the writer. I want to know what you want to know. If you have any topic that you’d like me to write about, send it along and I’ll do what I can to help. Here are some sample topics I already have in the works:

1. Professionalism in massage massage therapy
2. Building a career vs. finding a job
3. Two-tier licensing
4. What state certification means in California
5. The magic of M.E.T. (muscle energy technique)
6. Why doesn’t everybody know about Trigger Points?
7. The insidious (and much farther reaching than you think) effects of stress
8. Massage CEUs and DVDs: Which one should I buy?
9. Massage DVD and book reviews
10. Creating opportunities to grow your massage business

Like I said, this is just a sample. My intent is to build a body of work here in relatively short order. Let me know what you think!

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