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#of CEs taken in the past year?

I struggle with finding physical classes I want to take because I don’t think you can learn modalities well online. Mostly, I like to refine my barefoot massage skills and see how I can adapt hands-on into feet.

With that being said, I have a few modality classes on my radar for this year: Table Thai (20 hours), CBM Intermediate or Advanced (each 16 hours).

My classes have all been business in the past year: 42+ hours. I don’t keep track because Ohio doesn’t require CE’s.

Fave massage class you ever took?

Barefoot massage! I wouldn’t be a massage therapist today had I not learned to use my feet and gravity. I learned in 2002- I think it was the 2nd CE class I took. I’ve evolved my style a ton over the past 19 years, but this got the ball rolling.

Who are your massage/movement/bodywork mentors or inspiration?

This is a tough call, because I have been focusing more on business with CBM and in my own personal practice. I have a number of business mentors.

This sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Other massage therapists who inspire me the most are all on our instructor team!

✔️Julie Marciniak in Durham, NC, is an advanced certified Rolfer and is wicked smart and talented.
✔️My CBM co-founder, Jeni Spring, is always promoting barefoot massage and pushing LMTs to be better with anatomy.
✔️Erin Poovey (CO) has recently opened up a 2nd location-wow.
✔️ Sara Newberry (MO) and Hillary Arrieta (TX) constantly both learn and work to help our instructors improve our teaching methods.
✔️Sharon Bryant (AL) has helped mold the AMTA in AL for years and constantly learns new methods for using plants to heal.
✔️Our newer instructors: Missy Anderson-Fritch (CA), Ashley Shears (CA) have put in literally hundreds of hours on top of their own businesses to learn to teach myofascial barefoot massage. It was not easy, and they were up to the task.
✔️ Dawn Dotson (NY) created a new style of barefoot massage bars and sells blueprints to our grads-she saw a need and made it happen.

The furthest you’ve traveled for a massage class?

I taught a class in Ochos Rio, Jamaica! I’ve also been fortunate to teach in Alaska and in Canada.

To take a class, probably the furthest was to learn barefoot massage in Texas (traveled from Cincinnati). And the furthest for a business class is Washington state.

What’s the square footage of your massage room?

My training room doubles as my massage room. I use dividers to make the room cozier for my massage clients (and hide all my extra massage tables, stools, bolsters, posters, etc. that I don’t use when in session).

The training room “head wall” is 23′ but useable space is 19′ x 14.5′. So that’s 275.5 square feet. My space is a little unusual in that it’s a loft, so the 4th wall is actually a half wall open to the space downstairs. There’s a ton of natural light, which I LOVE.

I could toe-tally live in my space, because downstairs I have essentially a living area (where we do lecture, eat, and have breaks), a mini kitchen, and 2 bathrooms.

Best travel tip you’ve learned for any kind of trip?

Take food with you! I have a gluten intolerance and eat primarily whole foods, so it can be tricky to eat in an airport or even on road trips! I also bring my powdered greens and collagen along with my frother.

I always make sure in my backpack I include: chargers, a tennis ball for rolling anything, several small silicone cups, tissues, headphones, a paperback, hand lotion, essential oil, toothbrush and toothpaste.

Your go-to, must have foot care hack?

I love my crystal foot file. I find I have better luck when I file my feet dry rather than after I soak them. My feet have a tendency to be dry, but they’re better when I make sure to eat healthy fats like avocado and take Omega 3 supplements.

Oh, I have been loving using beef tallow on my feet recently too. You don’t need much, and it makes my feet super soft.

How would you describe your teaching style?

Patient, compassionate, and yet on point. Learning barefoot massage is harder than learning hands-on because you’re not only learning a new type of massage, but also using your body in a completely different way. Students can get frustrated when they realize that I make barefoot massage look easy and it’s not when you 1st learn.

I like to quiz students as they work. For instance,
✔️”What are the cautions and contraindications for the feet?”
✔️”Who can name the Deep 6 Rotators?”
✔️”Why do you think your stroke wasn’t even?”
✔️”How can you make that stroke deeper without working harder?”

I also use virtual gold stars for jobs well done, but I’m not afraid to take away those badges when they do something dumb (like hop on the table after I’ve told them not to) and put them in the Demerit Cave.

It’s funny how fake rewards motivate people

What’s your favorite muscle, and why?

Since the pandemic, I feel like I work a lot in the upper traps/rhomboids/levator scapulae a LOT. So I do love to work those, because it helps so many people.

But my favorite is probably psoas/iliacus. People have no idea it’s there. When you work it, the client hates it. But if that’s what causes their pain, they immediately feel better after you’re done.

What kind of self-care do you do?

Sauna for 15-20 minutes when I can, and the steam room when my sinuses are bad. I typically do stretches before I go to bed at night. They vary, but I’ll often work my adductors, back, shoulders.

Every now and again I take an Epsom salt bath, and I cup myself a few days a week.

I do a little dancing every day, because it makes me happy.

Most nights, I read from a physical book before I go to bed.

Every day I pray-that helps me focus and brings me peace.

I primarily eat whole foods because they make me feel better than junk food does. And I take lots of supplements.

What’s the strangest/most unique place you’ve given Ashi?

Eh, I don’t know that I’ve done it anyplace weird. I WILL plop people down on the floor and do what I can with my feet. I’ve done this at a convention in Toronto, in the grass at a barbeque, on my living room floor.

The most unusual circumstance was when I had offered to give a massage to a friend when he was flying down to Florida for a convention, but he took his massage therapist with him. She hurt her back, so he flew me out to Orlando the next day!

I had seen a video on how to release the cables on a massage table so it could lay flat, but I’d never done it. With the help of a wrench I brought along, I figured it out. It wasn’t the best body mechanics for sure-I held onto dining room chairs and a wall, but I did 3 2-hour massages that weekend. And got to hang out with friends, so that was fun.

What does your private practice look like?

I seem to work on close to 50/50 men and women. I see a lot of clients with repetitive use injuries and the after-effects of a trauma or car accident.

A lot of my clients have been with me for over 10 years, so they’re primarily in their 50’s and early 60’s. Most of my clients come in monthly. Some are more often and some wait until they’re broken.

Oh-I also work on a LOT of massage therapists. Some of them do barefoot massage, some don’t. I really enjoy that.

I love the natural light in my office-I couldn’t work in the dark all day.

I also have what some clients might think are a bit strange for a massage office, but it makes sense for me: anatomical models of an arm, a spinal column, a leg, and a full skeleton. Sometimes I use them to educate my clients, sometimes my students, but I just like seeing the muscles without the skin on top. LOL.

Mary-Claire teaches in Cincinnati, OH (just 25 minutes from northern KY and eastern IN). You can follow her on Insta at LearnBarefootMassage.