One of the joys of spending time in a new area as a skilled massage therapist is getting to build a new practice and meet different and interesting clients. And, one of the anxieties of touching new clients as a severe traumatic brain injury survivor is that my circulation is not good and my hands are cold.
One of the fun opportunities of providing deep outcall bodywork in the Tahoe area this time of year is the chance to work with Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) thru-hikers who stop over in Truckee or South Lake Tahoe for some rest and rejuvenation. The PCT is a classic thru-hike that starts at the Mexican Border
I first came to the Bay Area in 2003, from Phoenix, Arizona, living first in the Berkeley hills out of the back of a Toyota truck at the end of Panoramic Way. Almost 20 years of my life and massage career has taken place here.
In the first trimester of my massage school, Mark Caffarel, the former car mechanic turned massage therapy instructor, mentioned Esalen as a magical place full of long strokes intermingled with the sounds of waves. That sounded pretty good to me as I labored through the conservative, stifling and rigorous 1,000-hour syllabus at the Desert Institute of the Healing Arts.
Some of the simplest massage strokes feel the most complete. Christina Vasquez came to class excited to share a move she had formulated in her
The year was 2000. I kept my bodywork schedule in a paper calendar and took my calls for appointments over a Nokia flip phone. I was living on the top floor of a charming bungalow on a hill near the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado. My lifestyle was quite active: trail running up Mount Sanitas; lifting weights at Rally …
Feedback matters. One of the best ways to get a really good massage is to tell me what feels really good. I am so experienced, dedicated and in-tune that I rarely perceive that a client feels they did not get a good massage even if they didn’t get the session they expected, or don’t chose to rebook.
This week, I was working on a first-time client in San Rafael who had contacted me for a deep tissue massage. When I got to the part of the massage where I climb on the table and stand on the soles of a client’s feet, he was delighted and said, “No one has ever done that to me before.”