Massage

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. Anyone looking for a massage therapist should consider their needs and whether the therapist is willing and able to meet those needs. Massage is a very intimate experience, and the client should never feel uncomfortable, rushed or as though they aren't being respected in any way.

I would tell a customer to trust their own instincts about a therapist, as with any health care professional. If you can get a referral from a friend or trusted source, that's a good first step. If that isn't possible then look for indications that the potential therapist behaves professsionally and listens to your needs.

You deserve kindness and respect and patience when you visit a massage therapist. It should be a healing, calm and rejuvinating experience!

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. Interesting facts on touch:
- Touch is the first sense to develop in humans, and maybe be the last to fade.
- There are approximately 5 million touch receptors in our skin, 3,ooo in a finger tip.
- A touch of any kind can reduce the heart rate and lower blood pressure.
- Touch stimulates the release of endorphins, the body's natural pain killers.

Lacking energy? Fatigue is a symptom of chronic long-term stress often self imposed by modern work pressures, economic and social aspirations coupled with environmental stress of urban living - which creates an imbalance in the body.

Eliminate accumulated stress and aid in harmonizing your troubled body by calming the nervous system and ease tension through massage therapy.

Q. What questions should a consumer ask to hire the right service professional?

A. There are plenty of questions that a client can ask a massage therapist. I would suggest doing some homework on a therapist you might be interested in using. If the therapist has a website many questions can be answered at the site. These would be questions about licensing, experience, modalities used, special techniques, location, and pricing.

The other type of conversation that should go on between a client and therapist is about the client. With a new client/massage therapist relationship there should always be a discussion as to why the client is seeing the therapist, if there are any medical issues that should be disclosed and what that client hopes to gain from the session.

Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?

A. Sometimes it is important to think deeply about why you want a massage and sometimes a massage is just all about pampering you.

We live hectic lives and stress accumulates which needs to find a way out of our bodies - massage is a healthy outlet for stress and adds so much more than most people realize to a person's overall health.

If you are having pain or other medical issues and are considering massage, be sure to consult your traditional physician to be sure that massage will not aggrevate or is not contraindicated for massage. In such instances, if a medical condition prevents traditional massage, a client can consider alternate holistic techniques such as 'healing touch' or 'Reiki'.