what to call it

[Cat]

I trained in Swedish Massage two years ago and have been promoting it as such since then. However, I am now thinking do I just call it Massage rather than Swedish Massage. Do I have to call it that? When trained we didn't include the head or the face or even the glutes really but having done various courses and read books etc, I find that I am now incorporating other parts of the body. For example, some people don't want their abdomen touching (ticklish) and so I do their face. Does it matter if I just say massage? Any advice much appreciated. Thanks

 

[a-z]

There was an interesting discussion on the earlier thread [link=http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=263603]SWEDISH MASSAGE?[/link]. As I indicated there, I think that the title ‘Swedish massage’ is not really appropriate, particularly for the ‘watered-down’ version of massage which many ITEC/VTCT tutors teach.
The danger with just stating ‘massage’ is that so many women advertise ‘massage’ when they are actually offering sexual services. As I mentioned on the earlier thread [link=http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=255093]Attracting new clients[/link], my personal advice would be that the word 'massage' is so frequently used by women who are actually offering sexual services that it is unwise for any legitimate therapist who works from home to simply advertise 'massage'. If your interest is in deep tissue and remedial massage, then go on a sports massage course and advertise yourself as 'sports massage'. If your interest is in gentle relaxing massage, then go on an aromatherapy course and advertise yourself as 'aromatherapy/massage'. But to simply advertise oneself as offering 'massage' runs the risk of attracting the wrong type of 'client'. Perhaps ‘holistic massage’ or ‘therapeutic massage’ might be a more suitable title.

Alan

 

[In a silent way]

On my business cards I put it down as Therapeutic Massage. I shyed away from saying Swedish Massage because I don't tend to do hacking and cupping and think most people expect this with Swedish. In terms of areas massaged the lay man wouldn't know what bits are or not included.

I'm now toying with renaming it Fusion Massage or Massage Fusion. I qualified in ITEC massage about 6 plus years ago and what I do now incorporates Swedish, Lomi Lomi, No Hands, Myofascial, & trigger point massage - a combination of all these techniques are used depending on what the client needs.

I agree with Alan D - don't just say massage.

 

[RedNinja]

Yes to both statements about massage = sexual favours.

I too wondered about Swedish massage, and now call it body massage. I always state that I am a holistic or complementary therapist. I think I would be about confused if I was offered a fusion massage, I think that an explanation would be needed to state what it is as it sounds like a new type of massage.

I offer body/swedish, aromatherapy, Indonesian, ayurvedic, Indian, thai, etc but I state them as individual treatments. I think most therapists add little bits from all of their learning to enhance their treatments. I intuitively add what is needed or feels right at the time, but I don't go in with any pre-conceived ideas of what I'm going to do.

 

[nefsInfusigue]

Thanks for the advice. I like the wording of Body Massage as this is non-specific isn't it and means that I can incorporate what I want into that. I suppose Massage could be linked with sexual favours. I live in a relatively small community and suppose that I hadn't really thought about that. In many ways, people that I know have laughed more about the term Swedish rather than straightforward massage.

I don't really know what you mean AlanD about the 'watered down' version of Swedish Massage. I did the VTCT course and our tutor was excellent.I read a few massgebooks for the course and she didn't seem to 'water down' anything atall.

 

[neonjack]

Hi Bexx

Apologies to some of the ‘longer-serving’ readers of this forum, but I guess that I will have to repeat some of what has been stated on earlier threads. I began my massage career with an ITEC course. I was very disappointed with the quality of the tuition: we had much less practical massage than the 50 hours which ITEC recommend, and we weren’t taught the importance of basic body mechanics and of having the couch low enough to ensure that the massage is effective. And although I passed the course, I was so frustrated with the poor training that I felt the need to go on a short course at the LCM as a ‘top-up’ before proceeding to a BTEC sports massage course.

The training forum includes a long thread entitled


“[link=http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=280433]I hate my course ITEC- so disorganised- How can I complain? [/link]“

See [link=http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=280433]http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=280433[/link]

To quote ‘Jabba the Hut’ (who is a very experienced therapist)




As far as basic massage is concerned, ITEC don’t even require students to be able to massage the whole of the body. A recent post on the training forumstates





It is quite clear from various threads in this forum (see for example the threads ‘Swedish massage sequence’, ‘Swedish massage and buttocks’ and ‘full body massage’) that many ITEC tutors take advantage of this to cut corners and don’t bother to teach their students the specific techniques for pectoral, abdominal, gluteal or facial massage. To quote another contributor to this forum:




As I commented on that thread:




To quote from Leon Chaitow (a very experienced lecturer and writer) on
[font=ari

 

[Nickoooooooooo]

Hi Alan sorry I obviously ruffled your feathers there which I didn't really mean to do. I'm not disagreeing that the courses aren't up to standard but I have to say that my tutor really was excellent and showed us techniques that she said weren't on the syllabus. Plus since then I have attended other one day courses as a means of improving my knowledge about massage and have incorporated these in to my overall body massage as I said earlier.

I agree that there are tutors out there who are definitely not teaching up to the standard required. I have written this on another thread about the VTCT course that I did in reflexology which was definitely below standard and I couldn't believe that at the end of the course I could really call myself a qualified reflexologist. That's why I went on to do the AOR diploma.

I don't know what the ITEC course covers. I can only speak from the VTCT experience that I had with that particular tutor and she was really great. We learnt to massage the whole body. But I do know from reading other threads on here that there are people out there who do leave out some parts as they have never been taught what to do. Wasn't there somebody who didn't massage a man's quads?? I mean yes then that's not good enough but not all tutors should be brushed with the same stroke.

 

[S J S]

Hi Bexx

Sorry if I went on at too much length on the previous thread - and I would accept that there are clearly some very good VTCT tutors. But to quote from an earlier post by 'sportstherapy' (who is an experienced tutor):



I am in danger of taking this thread off at a tangent, but when I did two courses in Hawaiian massage, both my tutors had actually been taught in Hawaii. I would argue that anyone who wishes to teach 'Swedish massage' should logically have experience of receiving massage in Sweden (where my understanding is that massage generally includes the whole of the body and is applied with quite firm pressure).

Regards

Alan

 

[StaticCharge759]

Hi Alan I have to say that I totally agree with the quote from sportstherapy. How do I include quotes in here by the way?? Anyway, I am becoming slightly disillusioned with the various courses on offer to be honest.

I have been looking to add to my current treatments but the variation in courses available by different providers is a total joke to be honest. I know that this will hopefully be overcome with the proposed self-regulation but it seems to me that you can do any course and get it insured by various different companies.

I'm not just talking about VTCT here and yet it does hack me off that the courses that I have done with them over a year can be done with "intensive training" in a weekend - or perhaps two. At the Holistic Health show I noticed that VTCT have changed thier certificate level courses to Diplomas. The guy told me that they were essentially the same course with additional case studies.

I think finding suitable courses is like a minefield to be honest. You just don't know what you're going to get.

 

[oh, i see....]

type your reply: highlight the bit which is a quote: and then if you look to the right of the boxes saying 'font face' and 'size' you'll see a 'speech bubble' which says 'add quote tag' if you hover your mouse over it: click on that.

Alan

 

[shane o]

here goes if this works then thanks alot!!

 

[Leila L]

Mmmmm ... missed something out obviously think I need to practise that one!