Further thoughts on massage…

Underwear?

You are welcome to keep your underwear on, or to be fully nude under the blankets. You will always be sufficiently covered with a sheet and blanket, I will not expose your butt, breasts or the front of your pelvis. If you’d like me to work on the side of your hip area, you can go without or wear underwear with a high cut on the thigh.

Silence

I don’t play music or spa sounds, I prefer to work in quietude. With an air purifier, fan or AC going, there’s often some white noise in the background. I value a low-stimulation environment for massage. I’m happy to communicate or even chat a bit, otherwise, enjoy the silence in a loud world.

How often should I book an appointment?

Many of my regular clients come once a month. Sometimes, a more frequent cadence is helpful while rehabbing a body part or when going through stressful times.

So relaxed, I almost fell asleep!

Personally, I have never stayed awake for the duration of a massage, I often drift away for a few minutes. It’s a pretty natural outcome of becoming relaxed and internally-focused. There’s no drawback to a brief, light snooze. If you’re twitching, and I cannot tell if it’s from falling asleep or from pain, I may ask and awaken you so I’m certain my work is helpful.

Post-massage recap

I’m often asked what I felt during your massage. While I am happy to recap my observations, the best way to understand my treatment is to pay attention while it’s happening. I consider my massage to be a long conversation through my hands with you.

Is deeper pressure better, or more impactful?

Many clients assume that unless the pressure is quite deep, there’s no benefit. This assumption comes a misapprehension of how human tissue works. We tend to think of our pain as muscle that has locked up and requires a hard force to unlock it. Pain science is much more nuanced than that (and in it’s infancy as a research field). Deep pressure is a tool I can use, but it needs specificity to make it helpful. My first approach to any area of tension (a “knot,” or “trigger point”) is actually the lightest pressure that I can use to move and palpate. I add deeper pressure in order to elicit a response (a twitch in another area of the muscle, or a softening of the tense spot, or being able to mobilize it from surrounding tissue).

Some people appreciate a deep pressure because it feels better, their nervous system responds well to it. For others, it creates a feeling of bracing that is deeply prohibitive to being at ease. We have to communicate to figure it out for you. A simple “That’s great,” “A little softer,” or “More pressure, please” is always welcome. We’re all different, so please feel free to make a request at any point.

I don’t use the same amount of pressure on your entire body. You can imagine that the elbow in the glute could be similar to a knuckle in the upper back, but needs to be different from fingers on the jaw, or a thumb in the underarm.

Pfffft. I don’t want one of those relaxing massages.

Ok. Heaven forbid that your heart rate lowers, you breathe more deeply, and you get some mental space. Kidding, but your deepest pressure massage needs an element of relaxation so that I can actually access different layers of tissue. I’d even argue that the deeper the pressure you want, you should be pretty skilled at settling your nervous system.

Bodies!

Biology is a wondrous thing, and we’ve all got bodies. Here are a few things you can keep in mind.

Pronouns, gender: I ask for your pronouns because I make no assumptions and want to respect your preferences.

Bigger bodies: I have a wide massage table (35” wide, the standard table size is 28”) to make it comfy for all shapes and sizes.

Pain, illness, disability: Massage is for everyone, and I have many approaches to massage. Let’s talk if you have concerns that make a typical massage unhelpful.

Pregnancy: I’m happy to work on pregnant and post-natal people. We can do side-lying to keep you comfortable.

Stuffy noses: Ask for a tissue if you need to blow your nose. Being face down can cause congestion, and mouth breathing isn’t ideal.

Bathroom break: If you have to pee mid-massage, I can hand you a towel to wrap up. There’s a bathroom in my office.

Gurgling stomachs: It’s often a sign that you have relaxed enough to digest (or, it’s time to eat).

Body hair: You don’t have to shave for a massage.

Skin stuff: Unless the skin is infected, open or contagious, then don’t worry. I’ve seen it all.

Chests and breasts: For my trans and non-binary clients, please let me know your preferences with chest exposure. If you are larger-breasted, we can add support of the shoulders while face-down. If you are breast-feeding, you can wear leak-proof pads or we can use towels.

Cleanliness: A shower within 24 hours is great. Lots of folks walk or bike to my office, and a little sweat is not a problem.

Scents and body products: I’m not scent-sensitive. No need to be heavily moisturized, as I use a lotion. And, your make-up will likely smear off during our face-down work (you may want to remove it before your appointment)

My boundaries

You need to sign up and pay online for your appointment. This is not only a business practice, it’s a security practice. I need to know your name, contact info and have you commit to payment if I am going to be alone in a room with you.

I’ll end a session if there’s even a faint whisper of sexual innuendo or requests. I’m too jaded to be intimidated and I would delight in sharing your name broadly, including with authorities. It’s not all cisgender, heterosexual men, but it’s always a cis-het man.

I’ll decline to work with you if you seem incapacitated by any substance that would make communication or consent difficult.

I’ll decline to work with you if you are too mentally agitated to be still, if you have a transmissible illness or if your skin is not able to take pressure (infection, sunburn, etc).

What does massage actually do?

Massage is not a cure-all for musculoskeletal issues, though it’s pretty helpful. The different elements of massage (pressure, friction, shear, etc) are essentially inputs that you cannot create yourself internally. Massage can elicit hyperemia (increase in blood to tissues), which promotes circulation. It also loads mechanoreceptors in the connective tissues and muscle, which can prompt an endorphin release (which may be why it feels good). Moving tissues can also unstick them from each other. This all seems to contribute to pain relief and increased motion, even if temporary.

Overall, massage is part of an holistic wellness paradigm: it’s good to find your parasympathetic response, it’s good to increase circulation, it’s good to add stimulus to otherwise stiff areas. Scientific research doesn’t work as generally, so any paper you’ll find is aimed towards proving a specific outcome. I enjoy reading up on this, and am always intrigued by the work around pain science, biomechanics and rehab.

And…it’s also beneficial because it feels nice. Life is too short to exclude care, ease and down-regulation from how we attend to ourselves.