Top Ten Tips to get a Great Massage, Every Time

Top Ten things to getting a great massage:

(Updated 2/24/21)

1. Remember your therapist wants to give you a great massage.
2. Your therapist is not psychic (at least I believe most are not, truly, psychic, and would you want them to be? to be able to read your every thought? I don’t know about that. 🙂
3. Your therapist’s nerves end at their skin, so they cannot feel what you’re feeling, and (repeat #1) they want to give you a great massage.
4. Even if you’ve never had a massage, you’re the expert in your own body – you’ve had it your whole life, you know what feels good and doesn’t. Even after 25 years of doing bodywork, that does not make me an expert in your body or any other client’s body. The therapist will not know what feels good for you unless you tell them.
5. Tell the therapist what feels good and what doesn’t.
6. It should never hurt, ever. (This is a philosophical point, but I believe it empirically as I have seen so much benefit over the years of gentle, yet deep, work. I’ve never found I needed to hurt someone to help them. Anyway, it seems like a contraindication. We’re trying to relieve pain, stress, and tension, not create it. If a therapist says to you, “This will help you in the long run” and you want a certain level of pain, you may accept it. I don’t and I won’t say that to my clients. If you don’t want to feel more pain from your therapist, you have the right to tell the therapist, “I want to feel good now. I’m not here for that.” And make sure that they adjust to Your comfort level.
7. You have the right to stop the session at any time. It’s your body. Your time. Your money. If the therapist does not adjust pressure (lighter or deeper) to your satisfaction, especially after several requests, you may say, “I think I’m done now.” and end the session.
8. You have the right to ask for your money back if you don’t get what you need, especially after several requests.
9. If you communicate with your therapist about what feels good and what doesn’t and ask them to adjust until it feels better for you, you won’t ever have to regret booking a massage and have to ask for your money back or request the session to stop.
10. If you’re not sure what’s going to feel good, ask the therapist to go slowly so you can let them know when it feels good.