Our editors are hard at work on our July/August issue, a double issue that will be mailed along with our first annual Special Trends Issue. This special issue will be filled with ideas and advice from experts in the massage profession.

During this time of economic challenge, I know this advice will benefit massage therapists in running their practices.

I just wanted to let you know what’s coming up, and to look for this double issue in your mailbox in late June.

Despite the less-than-positive news from around the world, there is so much to give thanks for.

I am grateful for my family and friends, for my health and the opportunities available to me as a member of a first-world society. I am thankful for my job, for the gift of working with, and for, the massage therapy profession.

I feel blessed by life itself; just to be here and make a positive difference in people’s lives.

The news tells us the U.S.  economy is shaky. But that means your gifts are needed by that many more Americans. According to the American Massage Therapy Association’s 12th annual consumer survey, stress relief and relaxation are the leading reasons clients turn to massage therapy.

Another study shows that nearly half of Americans report that their stress level has increased over the past year, with as many as 30 percent rating their average stress levels as extreme. Key factors in stress levels include the worsening economy and health concerns.

So, while fiscal frugality might be part of your holiday season this year, never doubt that your skills are needed. Keep the faith in your profession, continue to advertise and market your services, and know that healing touch is vital to the health of us all.

MASSAGE Magazine has run some articles on how to sell products within a massage practice, and we’ll run more on this topic in 2009. We’ve taken some flack from readers who think that offering products to clients is somehow unethical, or shouldn’t be part of a health-care practice. I’m writing now, from the perspective of an avid massage consumer, to tell you it’s not only ethical, but also desired.

Shopping for bodywork supplies is interesting for me, and fun. Using self-massage tools, lotions, heated buckwheat pillows and other products keeps me in touch with my body, relaxes me and helps me take a break from my overactive mind. The only problem I face in this regard is access to such products.

My local health-food store stocks a few things, and I can always shop online. But when I’m shopping for vegetables or surfing the Internet, I’m just not in a frame of mind to look for self-care products. Instead, I’m in “doing and thinking” mode - so I usually contain my massage-product purchasing to the national massage conventions I attend for MASSAGE Magazine. And let’s be real: Most massage clients don’t attend massage therapists’ professional conventions!

Maybe it’s just me (but I honestly don’t think so): I’d love it if my massage therapist carried some items I could buy to take home with me after a session. If such products were appropriate to a massage practice, within the therapist’s scope of practice, and offered in the spirit of self-care, then those products will be accepted, appreciated and, most importantly, used between sessions for health maintenance.

Isn’t that what really matters?

Until next time.

Study results released today show that acupressure calms children before surgery. This isn’t the first study to look at acupressure; but what I find interesting about it is that instead of applying acupressure as a hands-on technique, the researchers taped an “acupressure bead” to a specific point on each child.

Should masage-and-bodywork research utilize real practitioners? My first instinct is to say yes, but I also believe that good results from any research can only boost the use of hands-on therapies.

Read an article about this research here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080930/hl_nm/us_acupressure_children_1

There are so many holistic products on the market today—many of them featured in booths at prominent national conventions, and many advertised in MASSAGE Magazine. I’ve often wondered, do many massage therapists utilize tools whose purpose is outside the function of soft-tissue manipulation?

In states with scope-of-practice laws, massage therapists are limited to working within that scope. Yet, products including nutritional supplements, ear-candling supplies, orthotics and other retail items are marketed to therapists as practice add-ons.

What do you think of massage therapists expanding their practices to include retail sales and additional holistic therapies? Do you offer more than massage? I’d really love to get your feedback on this, one way or the other.

Until next time,

Karen

We in the massage field are so often confused or at odds with what to call legitimate therapies. (What, for example, is medical massage? It depends on who answers the question.) But I’ll posit that the more important clarification battle should be waged with spas, who in their race to add the latest and most unique treatments to their menus of services tend to marry such things with what is traditionally the most popular spa therapy, massage.

Hence, on msnbc.com we see, “Spa unleashes snakes for your pains: Massage offers reptilian relief,” above an article that describes “snake massage.” Meanwhile, a spa in Virginia offers Dr. Fish Massage, which involves dangling legs and feet in a tub of little fish—I’ve been trying to find out exactly what kind of fish these are, without success—that nibble away at the skin. “These fish have no teeth, uses their powerful sucking lips to suck away deadskin, which can stimulate acupuncture point and modulate nervous system to relax your body and releases your fatigue,” reads the convoluted text on the Dr. Fish website.

How, exactly, is this massage?

I’d like to call on spas to by all means continue to offer sessions that are therapeutic, natural and that cultivate interest in spa-goers.

But please, leave “massage” to the massage therapists—not to the snakes, the fish, or anything else that doesn’t possess human hands.

Until next time.

It’s always exciting to receive results from surveys of massage therapists; this information tells us what you are interested in, and what you need to be successful in life and in practice.

MASSAGE Magazine recently received results from our latest Reader Survey, and you’ve told us … drumroll … we’re the best massage publication in the field. (And the majority—more than 70 percent—of our readers receive a second massage publication, usually as a perk of association membership.) I feel humbled, and appreciative of the MASSAGE Magazine staff and all the industry experts who help create every issue of the magazine and who contribute to our website on a consistent basis.

Here is some of what you told us:

1. Compared with readers of other publications, readers of MASSAGE Magazine are most likely to say that MASSAGE Magazine:

· is the magazine they trust most for accurate information
· has the most relevance to their profession
· has the most editorial integrity
· is the most useful to them in their practice
· has the highest quality appearance, and
· helps identify products they want to buy

2. Compared with readers of other massage publications, MASSAGE Magazine readers are most likely, after reading an advertisement:

· to have purchased/ordered a product or service
· to have called an advertiser
· visited an advertiser’s Web Site
· contacted an advertiser in some other way
· recommended a product or service
· filed an ad for future reference, and
· discussed an ad with others

This survey is closed, but I’m always interested to know how we can best serve you in print and online. Contact me at kmenehan@massagemag.com anytime!

Until next time!

I’ve traveled to many countries, and what I’m always struck by is that people everywhere are pretty much the same. Despite cultural differences, no matter what language is spoken, we all want love, acceptance, health, good relationships and to feel like we’re making a contribution to life. So the older I get and the more traveling I do, the more cynical I get about politics and about the corporate takeover of global political systems.

Case in point: China is a communist country, yet the United States eagerly accepts cheap Chinese goods for commercial distribution here, and outsources labor to China. Isn’t that a bit hypocritical, to have profit motivate our government’s actions, rather than an ideal of a higher order, such as working to ensure safe and fair working conditions for Chinese people? Rhetoric aside, some collaboration between U.S. citizens and those of other countries—especially (perhaps always) when done outside the auspices of politics or commerce—are positive and noteworthy.

Take a recent decision on the part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to foster collaboration between Chinese and American scientists, into research on Traditional Chinese Medicine.

According to the HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt in an HHS news release, (www.hhs.gov/news/press/2008pres/06/20080616b.html), “This project will advance our understanding of when and how to appropriately integrate traditional Chinese medicine with Western medical approaches to improve the health of the American and Chinese people.”

Communicating on a human level—outside the realm of politics, of consumerism, of mine vs. yours—is what healing is all about. I’ve seen, via videotape, chi practitioners flowing energy to hospital patients in China, and the seemingly miraculous results that occurred.

I only hope that the Traditional Chinese Medicine doesn’t fall victim to bureaucracy, and instead is allowed to flower in its own right when used with allopathic medicine.

We’re hearing so much now about our country’s economic problems—and feeling the pinch at the gas pump and the checkout counter.

I drive a Honda Civic that gets almost 40 miles per gallon, so gas problems haven’t impacted me too much, thank goodness—but I’ve certainly noticed higher prices at the grocery store! Two dollars for an organic peach!?

Everything costs more—not just basics like food and gas, but anything you purchase for your practice as well. And clients might not be willing to drive, even across town, for a massage. Others are tightening the clasp on their wallets, and might think twice about booking sessions.

All the talk about a recession spurred the inclusion of the Guest Editorial topic, “You Can Thrive During an Economic Downturn,” running in our August issue, which will be out in mid July, But I don’t want the readers of this blog to have to wait for the valuable information that author Diana Moore provides in that editorial.

You can click the link below to read the editorial ahead of our print publication. But there’s a catch (sort of): I’d really appreciate your feedback, especially any additional advice you can provide about maintaining a thriving massage practice during tough economic times. Click on the “Leave a Reply” link at the end of this blog entry so we can get a helpful dialogue going.

First, click here to read the editorial: www.massagemag.com/thrive

I’d also like to suggest some additional resources that I’ve found inspiring in living a simpler, less consumer-oriented life. Living simply means lessening our impact on the planet while saving money and tempering the “more, more, more” lifestyle that corporations want us the engage in:

The Simple Living Network: www.simpleliving.net
The Good Human: www.thegoodhuman.com

Thanks for your feedback!

Karen

I recently received 10 minutes of the worst massage ever. This was at a local spa, which has been gradually raising its prices while not providing augmented amenities.
Case in point: This place, which shall remain nameless, now charges a base fee for a “relaxation massage.” If the client wants a “deep tissue” massage, an additional $10 is due at time of check-in.
The problem with this is that the receptionist who scheduled my session couldn’t tell me, when asked, exactly what the term “deep tissue” referred to. “Neuromuscular Therapy?” I asked, “Rolfing?” “Trigger-point therapy?” “Sports massage?” She didn’t know. In light of a lack of explanation, I decided to book my usual one-hour massage without adding on “deep tissue.”
Cut to the session room: I’m face down on the table, receiving something akin to butterfly wings flapping on either side of my neck.
Therapist: “I want to confirm that all you paid for was a relaxation massage. If you want deep tissue, we’ll have to take care of that [read: get more money from you] at the front desk.”
Me: “Can you work deeper? Say, on the far end of the relaxation-massage scale?”
Therapist: “We’re already there. This is all you paid for, a relaxation massage.”
Me: “I’m outta here.”
With that, I left the session room. First, being told that some sort of strange, light touch (not effleurage, not petrissage) session was all I would get for $80 was not exactly a form of “relaxation.” Second, I’ve received hundreds of massages. I know what average Swedish massage pressure feels like, and I know I don’t have particularly bulky or tight muscles that require strenuous exertion on the part of the therapist in order to effect relaxation. (Not to mention the fact that deep work can be performed without strenuous exertion; see Expert Advice in the July issue.)

I asked the front desk for my money back. The receptionist called the spa’s manager at home to tell him there was a dissatisfied customer requesting her money back. He said I should call back when he was at the spa. I haven’t yet; I wanted to first get some input from professionals in this field as to what the term “deep tissue” really means.

Can you tell me?

Until next time!