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.
