What do you look for in a massage

[J e Taylor]

It depends...if i'm just feeling a little stressed I look for a completely relaxing massage so that when I leave I am feeling a bit refreshed and relaxed. If there are some specific areas that are bothering me I hope they can be removed or reduced. My therapist seems to sense if I want to talk a bit or not at all. The room is not brightly lit, there is music playing and it is clean. The worst part is when it is over and you know yo have to get up off of the table - it is so calming and relaxing I could just fall to sleep there!!

 

[Cyrano08]

Ok, howoften dopeople go for massage's for well being? stress reflief? Muscle Tension Relief? Lymphatic Drainage?
Im training for the VTCT Swedish Massage at my local college, i have to say it is an excellent course and the tutor is outstanding.

What i would expect from my massage at a clinic or any establishmentis the usual, low lighting, some music on in the background, warmish temperature, but i think these things should be a given.

I would expect the therapist to never take thier hands of! Unless moving from one part of the body to the other when toweling and untoweling parts of the body, a proffessional massage therapist surelyshould not be taking thier hands of there clienthalf way through, say a back massage,unless there is a fire or the roof fell in, i thought this was rule No.1 of No No's.

I agree with the people who said they would want a massage therapist to be interested in the client and change the routine for each person, after all, who's the massage for, its your job!

Up until recently i alwaysviewed massage as being mainly for Muscle Tension Relief, Stress Relief andnot 'well being' on its own, though well being is feeling relaxed, becoming destressed and getting the feeling ofhaving atreatment and feeling good about yourself. Then, I had a massagefrom one of my class mates and half way through the massagei started to get tingly spine and a real sense of 'well being', a kind of overwhelming sensation of feeling good. Ive been to about 4 massage therapist's in Beauty Salons and id never felt this before, it was always agood massagebut never special, the massages always seemed clinical and robotic.

Now, whenever i go for a massage or when i give a massage, i will always look for this feeling of 'well being' first and the muscle tension relief second.
But how is the 'sense of wellbeing' acheived, is it a number of all the above reason's or is the quality of touch by the therapist?

I would expect a therapist to be able to adapt there routine, if i went into a therapist and said 'im on a business trip for a few days and i would like a massage but i want to feel refreshed when i leave the treatment room' i would hope they could use less of the slow flat movements for the quicker choppier ones.

How many therapist's have regular massage's from other therapist's so that they dont forget what its like to be a client?

Sorry, there are probably more questions in here than what i would want from a massage, but the questions are really what i would want from my therapist and massage.

 

[Pompal 09.]

Hi all, Im new to this site although ive been on the other threads,and im amazed,i am doing swedish massage at the moment,through college,vtct,and enjoying it only 3 weeks to go.
its a basic course and stay with the routine stuff,but i had a feeling that this was not all it was.i have an ifr in reflexology and vtct in ihm, but like the massage more than the other courses,dont ask why,this one i feel that i can go further with.when i am doing a massage the clients always say that it was nice and that they felt relaxed,and this is nice but i always felt that there was more that they should have had by way of treatment other than the 'routine'.
Also if i were having a massage which is not that often now,i would like to be greeted with only me in mind,warm room ambient music,*which prompts me to tell you i purchased a cd today,natural stress relief from the solitudes range(purely because im doing a case study on my next door n and he suffers from stress and has tabs for it,and im trying to get him to relax totally and let go of it all)anyway has anyone else used this music,i listened to it and felt really calm,,it helps bring your heart beat down to a relaxed pace..*explains what she will do after consultation and then ask me if im happy with the plan and to work on the bits that ache the most.i agree i dont want a single noise to disturb my time,if i apply that to my clients, do you think that they would enjoy the massage as much i would.Its nice to know that you are all out there as i was feeling a bit over whelmed with 'what am i going to do with this experience at the end of the course other than expand it and then what.thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[Dana]

Hi
I'll be commencing a VTCT Swedish massage course in September. Could any1 advise me on the set text bk or other invaluable reading2 give me a head start please?

Many thanx