What should I do to prepare for my massage?
A shower or bath is always highly recommended before your
massage, especially if you've been out in the sun. Clean bodies
are easier and more pleasant to work on. Unpleasant body odor
and/or dirt are very distracting and it makes giving 100% during
the massage more challenging. A strong dose of perfume is not a
substitute for a little washing up.
A hot bath with Epsom Salt is a wonderful way to prepare for a massage treatment. Add two cups of Epsom Salt to warm water in a standard-sized bathtub. Double the Epsom Salt for an oversized tub. Soak for at least 12 minutes. Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate) is inexpensive and can be obtained at any drug store.
Am I completely undressed? Even my underwear?
You are always free to undress to your comfort level. I want you
to feel totally comfortable, and I keep you covered with a sheet
and/or bath towel at all times. Some people feel more
comfortable wearing at least their underpants, and this is
totally acceptable. However, most people are completely nude,
and this is the best way to receive a massage. The reason for
this is because clothing interrupts the flow of the massage
treatment, and especially makes effective work on the hips more
challenging. You should feel comfortable with your therapist,
and their draping technique should keep you covered at all
times.
The treatments where you wear clothing are Table Thai Massage, Thai Yoga Massage, CranioSacral, Reflexology, and Reiki.
How do I get the most out of my massage?
This is a time for you to really relax into your body; a time of
healing and rejuvenation. You are making time just for you to
take care of yourself. This is how you honor your body.
Some talking in the beginning of the treatment is probably good just to establish a little rapport with your therapist. But, in general, you will receive more benefit from the massage treatment if there's not a lot of chatting. Instead of being focused outwardly on a conversation, you want to bring your awareness inward. When your attention is focused on the area that is being treated, and on what your therapist is doing, this awareness will feed back to the therapist. This will concentrate the therapist's energies and allow the massage treatment to be more effective.
As your therapist is working on your problem areas, you will want to bring your awareness to your breath, and consciously visualize your breath moving into those tight, tender, and sore areas. Where awareness goes, energy flows. This will help these areas to release, relax, and heal. The point is to be in your body and FEEL, instead of thinking, and being in your head. Do not try to "help" your therapist by anticipating what will come next, but allow yourself to simply be in your body. The more you can surrender yourself to the experience of simply receiving, the more you will relax, and the more benefit you will gain.
DO NOT HESITATE, HOWEVER, TO SPEAK UP IF THE PRESSURE IS TOO MUCH OR SOMETHING IS MAKING YOU UNCOMFORTABLE! The massage is for your benefit, and you are paying a lot of money, so it is your right to communicate your needs. Giving feedback to your therapist during the massage will only help you receive a better treatment.
What should I do after my massage?
Drink a lot of water. Ideally, you should continue drinking pure
water until your urine becomes totally clear. This will aid your
body in eliminating all the internal waste that was stirred up
during your treatment. Most people are not properly hydrated,
and this can intensify any potential achiness one might feel
after a good massage treatment.
It is best if you have nothing else planned after your massage treatment except to simply relax in solitude. A hot bath with Epsom Salt is a wonderful follow-up to a massage treatment. Add two cups of Epsom Salt to warm water in a standard-sized bathtub. Double the Epsom Salt for an oversized tub. Soak for at least 12 minutes. Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate) is inexpensive and can be obtained at any drug store.
Is tipping required?
When I am working for myself, I never expect a tip. My fee is my
fee.
However, any massage therapist working for someone else, or in someone else's establishment only gets a cut of the treatment price. In this situation a tip is expected, and generally 15-20% is appropriate. An 18% tip is automatically included at many resort spas.
This tipping arrangement is similar to eating out at a restaurant. The tip is part of the cost of the service. One may leave the restaurant without tipping, or with an inadequate tip, however, this is socially unacceptable. The food server and the restaurant relies on your tip for the food server's compensation. Massage establishments operate the same way. (Some more thoughts about tipping in a restaurant.)
How often should I receive a massage?
As often as possible! It's really only an issue of time and of
money. If you had the time and the money you could get a massage
everyday. I have people that see me once a week, others that see
me every other week, some every three weeks, and some that see
me once a month. You really can't over do it. Some people who
have received deep work, however, may benefit from taking a few
days to let their body really settle into the massage work, and
adapt to the changes, before receiving further massage.
If you can't find your answer on our website, please feel free to email us or call Robert at 602-334-1919. Thanks.
Margaret Mead made a study of two New Guinea tribes that throws some light on this influence of touch in such markedly different cultural circumstances. The members of the Arapesh tribe take great delight in children, and fondle them regularly; an infant is rarely out of someone's arms. The mother carries it in a sling around her body all day long, regardless of her activities, and if she is absent for any length of time she is careful to devote enough attention to the child upon her return to make up for the lost hours. Nursing continues three to four years, and mealtime is a happy affair to both mother and baby, with nuzzling, tickling, rocking, sucking, playful pats, and laughter being usual parts of the ritual.
The whole matter of nourishment is made into an occasion of high affectivity and becomes a means by which the child develops and maintains a sensitivity to caresses in every part of its body.
Nor is the mother the only source of affection; virtually every adult treats every child in the same fashion.
The result is an easy, gentle, receptive unaggressive adult personality, and a society in which competitive or aggressive games are unknown, and in which warfare, in the sense of organized expeditions to plunder, conquer, kill, or attain glory, is absent.
Living to the south of the Arapesh are the Mundugamors. To them, children are not a joy, and often before a child is born there is much discussion about whether or not to let it survive. If it is allowed to live, it is promptly placed in a hard, rough basket carried like a pack on the mother's back, or hung from the wall while she is working. Infants are suckled when their crying cannot be stopped by other means. The mother stands to nurse, and indulges in no fondling; as soon as suckling stops, the infant is put back in the basket on the wall. Thus the infant has to fight for its food, clamping the breast aggressively and frequently, choking, which infuriates the mother. The nursing experience is "one of anger and frustration, struggle and hostility, rather than one of affection, reassurances, and contentment."
It is time for weaning as soon as the child can walk, and this is done with abrupt harshness, as often as not by repeatedly slapping the child when it approaches the breast. The Mundugamors are "an aggressive, hostile people who live among themselves in a state of mutual distrust and uncomfortableness." They are cannibals.
From
Job's Body : A Handbook for Bodywork
by Deane Juhan
pp. 54-55
