No Hands Massage

[Red Head]

Hi

Im just wondering whether any of our members practice no hands massage?

I am thinking of learning this and would like more information.

Thanks

Donna

 

[noiniusiapire]

Yes, for mei think it is a wonderful tool to use when you need to apply more pressure,go deeper as it were without breaking a sweat and crippling your self.i use it throughout my massage when needed although i know practitioners and i am sure some of them are here who conduct a whole treatment this way. I actually trained with Darian Pritchard an Australian body worker with an immense amount of talent and intuition.His form is "hands free". He also does a course called rythmobilty which is rocking the body back to a state of balance ......wonderful. hth JANE X

 

[TurLanuuua]

I am an Advanced Practitioner of "No Hands Massage" and I love it! It has really changed my massage soo much. But more importantly, my clients tell me how much they love the massage.

I could ramble on for hours about No Hands, but it will probably be best if you ask what you would like to know and I'll do my best to answer them - either here or in a PM.

Mat xxx

 

[webbster]

Hi Mat

I've read a little more about it. Now I'm just wondering how one goes about training? Are there training centres? Or can one be trained by an existing practitioner?

I would also like to know the approximate cost as I can't seem to find this anywhere .

Also, what do you feel it is that makes it more effective, enjoyable for clients than a regular massage? Is it the increased pressure that can be applied?

Many thanks
Donna

 

[chhcztsb]

Hi Donna

I first started researching No Hands when I started getting symptoms such as painful thumbs, sore wrists etc. Thanks to good advice from Fozzyo, I discovered IPM (Injury Prevention Massage) and went on one of their courses as soon as I could. I think IPM is run by a former No Hands trainer. I have been using No Hands techniques as much as possible since and found that my poor old thumbs etc. are improving (at least, not getting worse.). Wish I'd known about these courses sooner. IPM and No Hands are both on the internet. No Hands have a scheme where you can book a year in advance for one of their starter courses and pay a much reduced cost. (The standard price of their courses seems quite high to me.) IPM courses are generally cheaper.
However, if you are wanting to keep practising and look after yourself and your own joints and body, I think these courses are really important and health and mobility concerns outweigh cost worries.
What I really enjoy about all No Hands methods is that I feel as though I can enjoy and be more creative with my massage and clients seem to enjoy their treatments.

Freddie (female despite the name!)

 

[10-T3]

Hey Freddie - thankyou for sharing your experiences, its so great to know others are benefiting from this technique.

Yes there are two training organisations that you can use, the No Hands Company run by Gerry Pyves, the founder and inventor of No Hands Massage and Injury Prevention Massage (IPM) run by a very cool American. I have done all my training with No Hands, and have had discussions with IPM but not been on any of their courses so can't comment on the style or quality of them. Though I have heard positive things.

If you checkout www.nohandsmassage.com and www.injuryprevention.org.uk you can get all the information you want from the websites, or both will be more then happy to discuss them with you on the phone.

Mat xxx

 

[yrrej_ie]

Hi Freddie and Mat

Thanks for your replies. As fate would have it, I joined up with a temp agency to get a some work for a couple of weeks and they sent me on a job to .... no hands massage in hebden bridge, just down the road from me.

I have been working there all this week and have learned a lot more about it now. I really want to take the courses and am planning to do so next year now as this years are more or less fully booked. I do think the courses are rather expensive, but I am not going to let that put me off as I am really interested in it. I will also look into ipm.

Thanks for your help.

Donna.xx.

 

[EngingurO]

OMG! You are the Donna I have been speaking to on the phone! I am the pain in the neck with the Scottish accent that changed her mind about the course and then changed it back

I have just done the firstcourse and loved it, and now (as you know lol!) am going on the Parctitioner course in 6 weeks time.

If there is one thing I would fault about the Transforming Touch seminar it would be the sales pitch at the end - it felt like hard sell and I walked away from having had an amazing course, thinking 'do I have mug written on my forehead' - personally I think the course sells itself, and all we need are the details of where, when, how much and what we learn. We don't need the 'not only do you save this, but then we think you should save a bit more and so we do this' type sales pitch.

Apart from that - I can thoroughly recommend it. Wonderful experience with wonderful people.

Regards

Trow

 

[Gathering Dust]

Hi Trow

I remember you!!! I thought it was rather funny that you changed your mind, you gave us all a smile in the office .

I know what you mean about the hard sell, I've not been on any of the courses yet myself but I get the overall feel for it. I think it just stems from Gerry's absolute enthusiasm for the No Hands courses and in general. Maybe he was a salesman before he was a therapist? There are some decent discounts though.

I really hope you enjoy your course, let us know how you get on.

See you around the boards.
Take Care
Donna.xx.

 

[darpan]

Hi there,
You may be interested in checking out IPM's introductory no-hands training DVD, before committing yourself to a particular training course. I reviewed it for my site and was very impressed. You can learn the strokes by practicising with another therapist if you can't afford the full cost of attending their course (see the Swap Directory on my site). IPM do an advanced training course, but as yet, don't seem to have published a DVD.
Hope this is of help.
All the best,
Tracey

 

[Proffesor Jelskraft]

Transforming Touch is a gruelling 3 day seminar, loads of massage, loads of doing, loads of seeing, loads of learning. I've never worked so hard. It is well under £150 and on a per hour basis you're laughing, you can be working in excess of ten hours.. they make sure there's something to see each evening too pretty much, there's a very special mastery coming up in the Northern seminar too this Autumn - one you definitely would not want to miss! The Practitioner courses are up to about £700 and are not cheap, however you can learn a back of the body massage during the TT which is enough to give you a solid No Hands treatment.

Since learning NO HANDS I've had amazing results from clients, ones which I just didn't expect.. the eradication of toxins alone is accelerated beyond belief in even a short massage session. It's deeply moving.

Trow - are you going to the advanced course after all??

I do agree however about the sales pitch - after the Northern TT we were invited into another room to talk over lunch - most of us did go - however, you got the feeling it was planned that lunch would be a little longer so they could do this - fair play to them though, it worked.

Gerry says he's no salesman, and as I've said to his team, he's done enough psychotherapy and other related things, you can see NLP littered through what he says- thing is- I don't mind it cause it is true, they are selling a viable product - more viable to me than any other technique I've learnt to date for massage.. One day I hope I'll refine the technique so I can do even formal remedial no hands treatments. At the moment I do rely on my fingers and thumbs for the more intricate bits.. trust will come with experience.

 

[DierWriftex]

Hi guys,

Quick question... how do you position No-Hands alongside other types of massage? If in a clinic you're offering swedish, deep tissue, remedial, sports, hawaiianetc, how do you position it with clients... I mean saying that you don't use your hands but the fleshy parts of your forearms won't mean a lot to most clients. How do you market it against the other styles? For instance, hawaiian is done with mainly forearms too... any thoughts?

Hope the question makes sense.

Cheers

Henry

 

[Scarlett Byrd]

Since becoming a NHM practitioner I only offer "Massage" as a treatment, sometimes I may describe it as Therapeautic or No Hands Massage in some of my promotional literature, but that is because I need to describe it somehow.

When a client comes for a treatment I discuss their needs, their requirements, their desired outcome - I establish my contract for the treatment. I then give them the appropriate treatment, sometimes its a really slow and gentle massage, sometimes its really deep and powerful, sometimes really fast and energising. I use all of my skills and knowledge from all my training courses to offer the treatment that is most appropriate.

I have had clients come and they walk in and ask for a some deep muscle work as they are so tense and that is the only thing that will help them. After discussion with them the contract may be to release that tension for them, and the treatment they actually require is a slow gentle replenishing treatment that gives them some time to themselves, to slow down, to breath and to relax.

This is my own opinion, but within the massage world we have become very obsessed with boxing up treatments - swedish, aromatherapy, deep tissue, remedial, thai etc. Quite often a client doesn't actually know what they need or what is best for them, so I think it is best to offer a treatment that is "Massage (this can incorporate x, y and z techniques)".

Mat xxx

 

[caramel2308]

I agree with Matt. Since I've started using a few techniques from Injury Prevention Massage's DVD, I done this by simply incorporating them into my usual massage set of skills and applied them as appropriate. At the end of the massage and often during, I always get feedback from my clients on the treatment, so if they took a dislike to me using my forearm/elbow, I'm sure they would say!

Tracey

 

[Nanami]

Thank you both. I really appreciate your responses but I'm not sure they answer my question. I agree... if a client wants X, we deliver X. If client wants Y... and so on. Mat, you have chosen not to pidgeon-hole the massages that you give and I think that's great. If no-hands positioned itself as an adjunct to one's standard way of massaging then fine. But no-hands does seem to present itself as a separate style of massage, so it follows that we should be able to articulate - against other massage styles - no-hands to clients. I'm asking how one does present it in marketing material and contains other styles?

Again I hope I'm making sense.
x
H

 

[Carl]

Hi Happyfingers.

I am a No Hands massage Master Practitioner with my own therapy business, and I use the No Hands techniques almost exclusively.

However, on my advertising and marketing material I do not promote my massage as No Hands, although somewhere in the small print where I list my qualifications and professional affiliations etc., I do say I am a No Hands Master.

When people book for a massage and we discuss their requirements, I do talk to them about the style of massage I use and have had no problems in getting clients that way.

In my opinion, No Hands is not yet a widely recognised brand name amongst non-therapists, and so advertising it as a big thing is ineffective (I have found). What I am selling is ME - my time, my expertise, my skill, my professionalism. That is easy to market and it seems to me that although I may think No Hands is the best thing since sliced bread, all my clients are interested in is getting a good massage where they can enjoy the time on the couch and get their desired outcome when it is finished. If I give them that, they don't care how I did it.

Hope this goes some way to answering your original question.

Derek.

 

[Ante]

Thanks Derek (and Mat and Tracey),
I've been trying to get my head around the concept of marketing no-hands to clients as a separate style and it just wasn't making sense. In my mind, it would be like putting "injury prevention massage" on your treatment list.

Thank you all.
x
Henry

 

[e-Z-e]

You're welcome Henry. Have just had a thought that you'd have a problem advertising 'No Hands' at the 'Pur Hands Clinic', anyway

 

[yhfcvosx]

If you look at the No Hands site www'nohandsmassage.com you will see how they word their treatments. I agree you can't really market it as the tool that prevents you from getting RSI - it's a tad too selfish and therapist focussed however the sheer power in the massage strokes takes it a level beyond anything else I have ever experienced - this is your selling point to clients.

 

[Pompal 09.]

Ha ha. Good point Derek.

Justine, thanks for your input. I confess that the no-hands massages that I've had have fallen far short of what you have experienced. And I've sampled 3 different practitioners. I trained in Australia where we had specific modules dedicated to using forearms and elbows. The forearm techniques used by thesepractitioners were very basic. Can you recommend anyone in central or east london who can give me the experience that you have had? Thanks a bunch.
x
H