Fundamentals
Start here: Deep tissue massage doesn’t have to be hard … even on clients 2 times your size
This class will teach you how to use your feet to provide a full body deep tissue, myofascial focused ashiatsu barefoot massage session. This class focuses on techniques applied on posterior aspects of the client’s body, as your weight and natural gravitational forces are utilized to effortlessly maintain consistent pressure through your feet. While the work is focused primarily with the client prone, therapists will learn supine work as well.
Fundamentals is the starting point for those wanting to train in the Myofascial Ashiatsu “FasciAshi” style of Barefoot Massage – although it’s a “beginner” class, it is definitely a challenge for your mind, body and SOLE! Review your bony landmarks, endangerment sites, and muscle pathways – as well as the anatomical terminology that goes along with all that! FasciAshi sessions use overhead support bars as well as our proprietary Ashi-Strap to help regulate your pressure, flow and balance while the client lies on a massage table.
Scroll down to read more about the fascial research applicable to what you’ll learn in this class!
Licensed Massage Therapist with proof of professional liability insurance. If Licensing is not required in your state, we instead require completion of a 500 hour massage school. More info at this link.
Class Price
Tuition: $750
A non-refundable 50% retainer is required to hold your spot in class - the remaining balance is due before class starts. (You can choose to pay the full tuition upfront, or make two payments.)
Class is 3 days, and you’ll earn 24 Continuing Education credits. (NCBTMB and some select states)
Please plan your schedule to allow time to be present and punctual for the entire training experience. Partial attendance is not permitted. Any hours missed in class must be made up with the instructor, and will be charged at their hourly rate. No CE’s or access to Alumni resources are granted until the class is completed in full.
Slide & Glide: Where Science Meets Sustainability
Client Benefit #1 Highlight
Underfoot your clients will experience lasting relief for persistent pain: FasciAshi’s deep, therapeutic pressure gives weight and waits for tension and nervous system guarding responses to melt, reducing sensations of long held pain for long-lasting results.
Research & Science Resources
Pain is more than tissue damage—it’s a protective response from the nervous system. Education helps reframe persistent pain in clients.
🔗 Pain Revolution – Pain Facts
2. Fascia & Myofascial Release Study:
Fascia responds to slow, sustained pressure—ideal for barefoot techniques. This study explores how fascial layers adapt during manual therapy.
🔗 Fascial Manipulation Article: Somatic dysfunction and fascia’s gliding-potential. Chaitow, Leon, Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, Volume 18, Issue 1, 1 – 3
📸 See the Instagram post I made summarizing this research here
Ready to transform your practice and enhance client outcomes? Enroll today!
Therapists will learn:
- Theory of myofascial barefoot massage
- Structural benefits to every stroke
- Pedi-care
- Contraindications and indications for barefoot massage
- Appropriate biomechanics to save their body and get deep
- Safe bar and strap installation
- How to use their feet to provide a massage with emphasis on deep tissue, myofascial release and trigger point work
- Strokes with modifications to create a customized barefoot massage sequence for clients
- How to launch, market and incorporate barefoot massage into their practice
- Pro-Tip To Prepare: Try this exercise with our co-founder, Mary-Claire Fredette, to see how easily you can 4x your pressure!
- ALERT: If you are currently pregnant, trying to get pregnant, have recently had breast/gluteal/calf enhancement surgery and/or some select cardiovascular-related surgeries within the last 9 months, we regret that you cannot attend the seminar. Please wait until 6 months after childbirth, and 9 months post major surgeries. Refer to the Contraindications list here for students.
Therapists will practice on and receive feedback from:
- 3 other therapists in class
- An instructor
- A minimum of 2-3 student clinic clients
- In class, you will:
- Give 8.5 hours of massage during this class
- Receive 4 hours of massage from other students
- Spend a total of 2 hours observing the instructor and other LMT’s demonstrate the strokes
Attendees are provided with:
- Course Workbook
- Bar Installation Designs/Blueprints, hardware specifications
- 8oz jar of PurePro creme, and samples of other products
- Access to the free Alumni Membership website with videos of the strokes learned in class
Stop Scrolling: Start Enrolling!
When and where is class? (Click the button below, then you'll be able to see every Fundamentals class we currently have scheduled. Click on it to sign up, or scroll down to read more about this class!)
Make sure you use a laptop or desktop computer to register for classes, and do not use the Mindody App if the pop up screen asks you to, because the MindBodyOnline system and their app will not allow mobilie devices to select certain options (such as payment plans or waitlists.) You must register through the browser on a desktop-site view of the page to be offered these options.
What's next?
Retake this course for $125 / day!
Change is hard, learning is a process. Maybe you didn’t get your bars up right away, and you are forgetting the details… maybe it’s been a few years and you feel rusty. For best retention of the concepts, theories, strokes and adventures we experience in class, you are always welcome back to review everything all over again. No CE’s or course materials are provided, but we’ll partner you up with either a client or another #AshiatsuTherapist who is also reviewing the class, and you’ll get to give and receive FasciAshi all day long while being guided, and tweaked, by the instructor. (Get a two hour massage for $125?! Not bad!)
You can attend 1, 2 or all 3 days, for $125 each day.
Email your instructor to see if any space is available for you to take this class as a refresher course)
Continue your training:
Once you’ve completed this FasciAshi Fundamentals training, (or if you have your CE transcript from a previous LIVE beginner ashiatsu course that was at least 16 CEs) you are welcome to move onto either the FasciAshi Intermediate, or FasciAshi ROM courses.
There’s always Fijian Barefoot Massage, too, which will teach you a floor-based style of body mechanics, and new toe-skills!