“Where can I find Fijian or Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage classes, training and continuing education workshops near me?”
Our classes are located where our Instructor’sbusinesses and regional training centers are.
The HandsFree and Fijian classes can come to you, if there is enough interest and a suitable training center available to use. All our myofascial ashiatsu “FasciAshi” classes must be held in our approved training campuses for safety, consistency and quality control purposes.
We are slowly but surely growing our company, and with time we will have more instructors and training locations across the nation.
Sometimes you may see our instructors teach at a massage school, national or state convention, or onsite at local massage clinics. These are usually one-time instances for special events, so don’t miss us if we are stopping by your town!
(If you are interested in becoming one of our instructors – read this!)
Visit this page to see all of our locations, or scroll down and click on any logo.
Each location has its own page on our website with the address, contact info, the upcoming class schedule, and any applicable info specific to that campus.
San Antonio, with Jeni Spring
Cincinnati, with Mary-Claire Fredette
Albany, New York, with Dawn Dotson
Durham, North Carolina with Julie Marciniak
Decatur, Alabama with Sharon Bryant
St Louis, Missouri with Sara Newberry
Dallas/Plano, Texas with Hillary Arrieta
Colorado Springs, Colorado with Erin Poovey
Orange County, California with Ashley Shears
San Luis Obispo, California with Missy Anderson-Fritch
Great question! Many insurance companies have additional waivers and education requirements to offer services such as Hot Stone therapy, Prenatal Massage, and even Cupping. While no mainstream massage insurance company is currently requiring extra waivers or testing through their own means for Barefoot Massage coverage, it is still something that you’ll want industry-approved training in before providing to the public. (Because after all, that insurance and your license are in place to protect the public as much as yourself!)
To our knowledge, every professional massage liability insurance company currently on the market covers Barefoot Massage techniques that stay within the scope of practice for LMT’s. We recommend that you call to verify with your specific insurance company if they cover ashiatsu, fijian and other barefoot massage styles in general. Our team of instructors have a variety of different coverages, ranging from ABMP to AMTA, MMIP and others – we have each been covered on our professional liability insurance after our initial training with no hassle.
You are essentially doing myofascial release, trigger point therapy, deep tissue, and various models of stretch therapy in the barefoot massage sessions you provide once we have you trained up: you just HAPPEN to be doing these techniques with your feet!
Work within your scope of practice and training.
Do you have the training and a paper trail of proof to show that you are providing the appropriate standard of care for the massage services you offer? That’s VERY important.
Most massage insurance companies will cover barefoot massage services, provided that your are working within your scope of practice and are providing the appropriate standard of care: So if you stick to what we teach you in class, you are set.
Here are questions to periodically ask yourself on how you stay protected throughout your long massage career:
Are you following ethical guidelines as set forth by your state license and professional massage associations you are a member of?
Are you practicing the techniques as taught in class, as referenced in the study guides provided by that instructor?
Was that instructor an approved CE provider with the state or NCBTMB?
Does that instructor have specialty training in that topic/technique, and have they gone the extra mile with Educator Certifications or affiliations with associations in the field?
IF IT’S A TRAVEL CLASS: meaning, if the instructor travelled to the location to teach there, then the tuition will be +$100 more than usual to help cover the costs of bringing an amazing guest instructor to town!
Alumni Membership Website access, which includes curated resources and materials to start your new barefoot massage practice.
Study videos demonstrating each stroke taught in class.
Online networking and support group with fellow practitioners and instructors.
A printed and bound class workbook, with:
anatomical references to each stroke
THe structural goal to each stroke
pro-tips from the founders,
your notes and journal entries from observation time in class.
Specific Cautions and Contraindications to the strokes learned- and each section of our Pathology and Contraindications were reviewed by Ruth Werner, BCBMT.
Strap installation instructions in each workbook,
Bar Installation instructions included in the Fundamentals class workbook.
Client evaluation forms to help gather feedback during your self-study practice sessions.
Any additional costs?
Optional Sole Provider boosted listing on our alumni locator map: ranging from FREE-$80-$150 (Basic listings are FREE!)
Optional Pro-Membership for upgraded study videos, with monthly anatomy and marketing challenges: Price TBA upon next release
Bar installation cost varies greatly depending on supplies, design and labor. Common costs range between $150-$400
Portable Bar designs available for $150! You’ll save on shipping and will be able to custom design your travel bars to your exact measurements for the best body mechanics. Contract a local welder to build the portable bars off our designs, and you’ll be supporting local businesses in your area.
~Eventually~ a level of Endorsement will be available after testing: price TBD.
We hope that you and your household, your family, your friends, your work family as well as your communities, are all safe, healthy and happy.
During 2020 and 2021, the Center for Barefoot Massage as a company did not make many, if any, public announcements regarding COVID19 because we didn’t want to spread myths or misinformation: so we took a step back to assess the situation and come forward with an informed, calmer presence.
A lot has changed since March 2020. As of March 2022, we are now watching each county’s Community Levels where we teach, as recorded by the CDC. Read below to better understand our precautions and policies in place during the pandemic.
The world is going through the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
It’s typically spread by people who come in close contact (within 6′) of an infected person or through respiratory droplets from sneezing or coughing.
According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention):
It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.
To protect yourself, (at the time of this blogs posting) the CDC recommends: 1. To clean your hands often-wash with soap and water for at least 20 seconds (especially after you’ve been in a public place, have blown your nose, coughed or sneezed). 2. Use at least 60% alcohol hand sanitizer if soap and water aren’t available. 3. Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unclean hands.
And now, onto our GUEST POST, written by a past Center for Barefoot Massage instructor who taught with us for a very short time, but is no longer with the company.
So, this photo is probably my most least Instagram/Facebook worthy. It may, however, be one of my most important posts to date. . My sanitation practices have not changed since the outbreak. I leave an hour in between each guest so I can clean and disinfect.
I do this *FOR EVERY* client.
I wash my hands ✔︎for 20 seconds before I know you’re arriving ✔︎ for 20 seconds before I begin your treatment ✔︎ again if I need to step away and ✔︎ post-treatment.
Between every client ✔︎I clean the bathroom with disinfectant ✔︎I wipe down my computer, cell phone, iPad, hot towel caddies with Barbicide wipes ✔︎ I spray soft surfaces and door knobs with Lysol ✔︎ I use a fresh Ashi strap for each client and soak them at night
✔︎ I wash my feet and sanitize them with wintergreen alcohol for barefoot massage
✔︎I wear rubber flip flops that are sanitized if I step off the table ✔︎I wash with soap and soak all coffee mugs in bleach water ✔︎I wipe my bars with disinfectant ✔︎ I wash and disinfect any and all tools used during facials and body rituals ✔︎I clean the floor (even though y’all wear slippers to move around in the space)
I have an air purifier to clean the air of viruses, bacteria and impurities.
All linens are washed on a sanitary cycle every night. All whites are bleached. (Pro tip, splashless bleach is not a disinfectant!!! Read the label!)
All blankets, towels and sheets are fresh and are used only on you. I have fresh towels, blankets and sheets for my other guests, there’s no cooties passing around here. . I’m also asking each client to wash their hands before their treatment begins. . I know many of you are afraid and many are not.
I will tell you that I do have geriatric clients, I have clients with autoimmune disease, diabetes and some clients who are smokers. People falling in this particular demographic are being hit the hardest, just because you don’t fall in those categories doesn’t mean you’re not susceptible to spread the disease.
Please, I beg you…if you are ill, if a family member or someone in your inner circle is sick…please stay home. I will turn you away if I feel you’re contagious. . All this being said, the biggest thing you can do to make an impact is by practicing good hygiene by washing your hands.
Also, please be kind ♥️✨ to others while in public spaces. I’ve been reading article after article about rampant xenophobia. We are in this mess together y’all. A little kindness, compassion for others and plain old common decency goes a long, long way. . I also want to encourage other Massage Therapists, Estheticians, Stylists & Nail Artists to share their sanitation practices here on social media so we can all put our clients’ minds at ease. We are, have and always will be doing our part to protect you and your health.
The author of this guest post was K r i s t y P o u x
The benefits of side-lying barefoot massage are plentiful. Once you get past the “my client only wants to lie face down to receive the massage” mentality, you’ll find that you can access a number of muscles more easily when they lie on their side.
Why side-lying barefoot massage?
Providing side-lying barefoot massage allows you as a therapist to have better access and angles to work on shoulders, hips, quadratus lumborum, IT band, adductors, and abductors, to name but a few.
Sometimes you’ll find that your client (typically women, who are more curvy than men) may have trouble lying on their side as their 11th or 12th rib feels like it’s close to or hitting their iliac crest.
This makes it tricky for even the most skilled barefoot therapist to find the QL, as there’s often not enough space for even the heel. Resorting to the lateral edge of the foot may be a solution, but there’s something super simple you can try instead.
Bolstering with a small pillow
It’s easy fix- small toddler or travel pillow placed under their waist in between their body and the table.
Watch the video to see how Mary-Claire uses the pillow and how it flattens out the client’s torso. This makes barefoot side-lying massage much easier (and more comfortable for both the LMT and the client).
The client simply rolls over when you’re ready to work the 2nd side-the pillow should stay pretty well in place.
If you’re going to use the pillow under their stomach for prone work, they simply roll onto their stomach and adjust as needed. (See this video on how to do that.)
Are they rolling on their back next? Just have them lift up a little, grab the pillow and hand it to you or toss it onto the floor-whatever’s easiest.
Let us know what other bolstering techniques are in your grab bag (or you’d like to see!) in the comments.
Doing a Google Search for “Ashiatsu Massage near Me” doesn’t always bring back the results you need.
More and more Massage Therapists across the nation are learning barefoot massage. There is a wonderful surge of trained ashiatsu practitioners in the industry… but not all are actually trained in our “FasciAshi” myofascial ashiatsu barefoot massage technique, or held to our standards.
We know that you can easily do a search for “Ashiatsu Massage Near Me” or “barefoot massage near me”… even “ashiatsu 78209” (or insert your zip code here!) What you’ll get is anyone who’s website or SEO content uses the word(s) Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage near where you are geographically located at that moment. Anyone can enter those words into the coding and content of their website. They can do that regardless of the level (if any) training in the technique. On the flip side, not all local massage websites contain the words necessary for this kind of Google search to even work.
So how do you find trained myofascial ashiatsu barefoot massage therapists?
We at the Center for Barefoot Massage are slowly growing our base of students across the nation. We offer a locator service that helps you find a local massage professional associated with our FasciAshi technique. True to our pun-filled form, we called this the “Sole-Provider Directory“.
Not every LMT that we train wants to be found, so not everyone will choose to list in this directory. To protect the privacy of our students, we do not give out contact information unless it is listed on this directory.
We DO vet every listing to make sure that the business listed has our students providing the service. We make sure that the barefoot massage therapists are legit. The Center for Barefoot Massage only trains Licensed Massage Therapists, so you can rest easy knowing that our providers are held to the standards of the profession and the massage laws of your state.
If it’s a business that employs multiple massage therapists, we’ll make sure that the business is actually providing the service. (Not just listing it on a menu without a trained pro on staff.)
Your Google search for “ashiatsu near me” can sometimes turn up disappointing results. We want our locator service to be the resource that helps you find the massage you are actually looking for.
Find a barefoot massage therapist
Step your search up a notch. Don’t just look to find any ashiatsu massage near you – find YOUR barefoot massage therapist!
How do you “Find an Ashiatsu Massage Near me?” We have a Sole-Provider directory available to help you find a local myofascial ashiatsu barefoot massage therapist.
Our Sole-Provider Directory offers “feet-ures” that help you choose a practitioner when you have multiple options.
Search a radius around a zip code, AND get Google directions to them!
Read a review, leave a review. If you’ve been underfoot with this provider, tell us how it went so others can feel the vibe.
Search by their level of training. Beginner to advanced, on the table or the floor, we can help you find what you are looking for!
Search by state, country, and even find the expert instructors all in easy to navigate categories
HERE’S WHY YOU SHOULD LIST YOUR BUSINESS AS A “SOLE PROVIDER”
We have a great network of Barefoot Massage Therapists across the nation – and their clients travel! We all know that once you try Myofascial Ashiatsu, you won’t want to go back to normal massage, so let us help these fans of our work find their favorite bodywork in the town they are relocating to, or visiting!
Every SOLE Provider is verified. Although not every FasciAshi or Fijian Barefoot Massage trained Massage Therapist will choose to list here, those that DO can have peace of mind that every pair of feet represented in our directory has been trained by the Center for Barefoot Massage.
Reviews from real clients are available!!! No expensive scamming from Yelp, just pure barefoot massage fans leaving their feedback on their experience at your business.
Google Maps integrated: clients can search within a radius of any zip code. If you don’t live in a city with an often-searched name, you can still show up in searches for the nearest searched area!
Upgrades available for your listing. You can give it an extra little BOOST with a 6 month “FEETured” listing when you need it!
Every listed business gets FREE DOWNLOADABLE LOGO’S! You’ll get to choose from a variety of the Sole Provider graphics. Post them on your website as a reciprocal link back to us. (That’s the thing that hyper-boosts your SEO!)
Each level of Certification completed will add the associated seal of Certification to your profile for free. Regardless of what level listing you pay for and code the images to help boost your local exposure. You’ll also be searchable by your level of training/Certification. More credibility, clout and bragging rights!
Have you ever had a client who has back pain while lying on their stomach to receive barefoot massage or even hand-on deep tissue massage?
This is often caused by hyperlordosis. An excessive curve in the lumbar (it’s sometimes seen in the cervical dish as well) can be caused by structural issues such as:
1. kyphosis AKA “dowager’s hump” 2. discitis 3. obesity (especially with a large stomach) 4. spondylolisthesis
Muscular imbalances: 1. weak glutes, hamstrings, and abdominal muscles 2. tight erector spinae, quadratus lumborum (QL), and hip flexors (especially iliopsoas)
If your client is not comfortable lying on their stomach, try using a small pillow between their pelvis and rib cage.
You can use a travel pillow (mine has feathers, which makes it squishy and moveable) or a toddler pillow (with cotton/polyester fill). The toddler pillow is a little smaller.
Check out our Tuesday Toesday Tip video to see how Mary-Claire uses a small pillow to make her clients more comfortable. (It’s just 3 minutes, 35 seconds.)
Next week will be another tip for when you need to bolster women for side-body massage (you do work on clients on your side, don’t you? )
If you haven’t learned sidelying massage, definitely look into our Intermediate class, where we’ll teach you amazing anterior barefoot massage (mmm..quads! pecs!) and super effective side-lying barefoot massage-you’ll reach muscles your clients may never knew they had.
We’ve found barefoot massage at high-end resorts, backstage at concerts, on the finish line of marathons, in medical clinics, at military bases across the world. They are on the beach at surfing competitions, onsite with professional sports teams and dance companies, and in private practices that work on a range of clientele. Ashiatsu has popped up with traveling Renaissance Faires, motorcycle rallies, art-walks, yoga festivals and even inside refurbished busses. We’ve even had clients whose lives have been changed by receiving barefoot massage so much that they went to massage school and got licensed just so that they could come back and learn our barefoot work. Many people have built their first, second, third and even ninth careers around that magic.
How can you build your dream job?
Just like what you learned in massage school is only the beginning, the material presented in any single barefoot massage class cannot address the infinite possibility of niches for massage. Massage publications show us how traditional hands-on massage therapists have successfully narrowed down to specialize in interesting demographics, modalities or tissue-issues. Barefoot Massage therapists can do that too! The Center for Barefoot Massage aims to push the growth of myofascial ashiatsu. We want LMT’s to expand into any market, specialize in barefoot massage, and work with their tool of choice: their feet!
Beyond training in our live classes, Certification is a big part of becoming a barefoot massage specialist. We have another page with that information available here, so I won’t talk much about that self-study process in today’s blog post 😉
We often get asked “Can I do a full massage after just one class?”
Of course you can, but you can do a much better and more informed massage session if you keep training.
Your 1st step
Take the FasciAshi Fundamentals course. That class alone will give you the information and tools to provide a massage that could be interpreted in a few ways. Use it to create a slow, focused myofascial session, and/or as a relaxing blissed-out deep tissue massage.
The 2nd step
We recommend everyone attend is the Intermediate Supine + Sidebody FasciAshi class. This is a prerequisite class for the Advanced course, and thereby the Clinical track of classes. This class has all the meat. This is where you learn the versatility of the strapwork and dive deeper into slower, more strategic and specific techniques. Learn to make ashiatsu effortless on your body (and yet still deeper than deep for your client!)
Here’s where you can really start to specialize in Barefoot Massage:
Relax Track:
If you have a spa, or trauma-informed safe space to provide massage with a focus on holistic healing, meditation, relaxation, self-care, “treat yo’self” and even escapism: follow our Relaxation track to fine-tune your box of tricks. We released the first track, Hot Ashi, in early 2019. This isn’t just hot pillows + barefoot massage. In a single day, this specialty class teaches you to change your direct downward pressure into a more shearing approach with heat (which magnifies pressure.) You’ll work with the mechanoreceptors and Ruffini nerve endings. (Relaxation CAN be nerdy!) We have more classes in the works for this track, but you’ll need to be Certified and trained at the Fundamentals level to gain access.
Sports Track:
Do you work with athletes and weekend warriors training to achieve certain mobility goals? How about people who are your size physically or don’t like/need deep pressure? Are your clients actively working to challenge their bodies?! Attend the ROM class. (It stands for Range of Motion.) This is more than just a table-thai massage, because we are teaching resisted and active movements with stretch theory to improve the quantity and quality of motion. You can get Certified at this level and gain access to our soon-to-be-released Sports Track of classes. That track is where we’ll focus on injury prevention, and activity-specific techniques to benefit your clients’ fitness gains. We are excited to introduce specialty tracks embedded with self-care that empowers your clients to take ownership of their own myofascial health. Of course, the Sports Track will address pre/post-event barefoot sports massage protocols, too.
Critical Thinking:
Need to get even deeper and more creative in your massages? Want to spice up any ashiatsu session you are already doing? Aim for the FasciAshi Advanced class. This is more than massaging with 2 feet. It’s all about how you really learn to go deep on a variety of body types using 1 or 2 of your feet. The Advanced class also works with the clients in side lying, supine and prone. (Plus some with unexpected in-between positions during the transitions!) You’ll get to distribute all or most of your weight safely while creatively sequencing together a unique series of strokes. We help your critical thinking skills come to the forefront so that you can cater this full body massage on the fly confidently.
Clinical Track:
Working with a client base who is fighting off chronic pain? Do you want to feel more confident in creating a treatment plan and work with assessments? After attending the Advanced class and passing your Certification there, you can dive into our more calculated classes that hone in on how to address specific conditions and past injuries. We’ll be using a very fascial, slow and direct approach to each region of the body. These upcoming Clinical Track classes will be heavily informed by Rolfing and myofascial release techniques. Your palpation skills and understanding of anatomy is crucial to the successful application of this specialty work.
Matwork:
Need to massage without limits? Learn Fijian Barefoot Massage – our matwork based class that doesn’t need a massage table or overhead bars. This stuff works so wonderfully with our FasciAshi Strap and/or a chair. Fijian is great to blend into existing matwork (take the compression work away from your aching wrists!) and easy to take on the road for events. If your client base is smaller than you, this massage will work better than our Myofascial Ashiatsu classes listed above. Why? You won’t have to hold up your weight in the bars. You can literally sit down on the job and give a great massage! Without using lubrication, this massage gets specific and trance-like. Fijian’s magic is in its clever use of toe-work. It finds a use for all the parts of your foot – not just the soles.
Additional Techniques:
We love to host classes from barefoot massage instructors outside of the FasciAshi universe. Watch for when our faculty hosts courses like Chavutti Thirumal and shiatsu or thai bodywork. Other complementary courses to help you niche down with your feet will show up at our training centers, too. Follow each instructor on our team to stay in the know.
To a certain extent, you can take these classes in any order to create the massage you need to give. (Heads up: some courses will have prerequisites.) This is a “choose your own adventure” style of learning. You don’t have to “do all the things” or take all the classes to give the best massage for your client. Just use what works from what you want to learn. Check out this flow chart to see how you can get to the class of your choice.
The owner of The Center for Barefoot Massage, Jeni Spring, has been massaging with her feet since 2003. At the beginning of westernized ashiatsu’s existence in the US – there was 1 class you could take. Just one. Any ashiatsu therapist who trained in the 1990’s learned what eventually became 2 classes later on in the early-mid ’00’s. Two more classes came out in the late 00’s, but that’s it. Just 4 classes. Us old-school ashi-folk ran out of options and were held back. We wanted to learn more, but there weren’t more classes available on the market.
The future of massage is afoot, and we are here for it!
The Center for Barefoot Massage stepped up in 2017 to stimulate the expansion of barefoot massage within the industry. We toil endlessly to support the growth of Barefoot Massage Therapists as they dig down and specialize in this work. We hope to increase barefoot massage awareness in the public so that there are more people looking for the massages we all love to give. And most of all, we don’t want you to get bored or burnt out on massaging!
If your state has NCBTMB reciprocity, meaning that they acknowledge and accept NCBTMB approved courses for your Continuing Education hour requirements, then our classes are automatically valid for you.
Our provider numbers for select states are available for your review below.
They may have automatic NCBTMB Reciprocity! We cannot help you determine if the CE’s are valid in your state: you will need to check directly with your state to ensure our NCBTMB approved course will be accepted.
If your state does not have NCBTMB Continuing Education Reciprocity, then we will only consider expanding into their network once we notice a high demand for the most popular class(es). Until then, we hope that your love for barefoot massage and your plans to learn this work are not detoured merely because your state doesn’t recognize the credits. You may be able to easily fulfill your state renewal requirements through inexpensive local and online classes in other topics, and utilize our myofascial ashiatsu “FasciAshi” classes for your own professional development and career focus that takes you above and beyond your states standard! The lack of our ease of access in your region may be discouraging other LMT’s, which just leaves more space for you to stand apart from the rest.
Some state massage boards have created their own guidelines or limits for content they are willing to accept, along with content they require to be completed. A few of these state boards overrule the industry-standard NCBTMB CE Provider approvals and are instead requiring Continuing Education providers like The Center for Barefoot Massage to apply for and register each individual instructor on their team for each individual class they each teach.
It’s unfortunate that not all states acknowledge the NCBTMB. State-by-state approval of CE courses in massage therapy can be time-consuming, costly, and inefficient – so the Center for Barefoot Massage may not apply for CE Approval in states with additional requirements until a higher demand is seen in that region.
If we were to maintain every state license/approval for each class and every instructor, above and beyond that of the NCBTMB, it could cause tuition rates to increase due to almost constant licensure renewals.
With 13 instructors on our team and a roster of over 14 versions of our classes on file with the NCBTMB – on top of the inconsistent requirements for what constitutes “a class” or an instructor between each state board – we (along with many other team-based nationally recognized CE Providers,) have chosen not to sign on with every individual state, and not for every single class, and to only apply where we physically teach, or where a good percentage of our learners come from.
Things are evolving in the continuing education accreditation sector in the field of massage, and the current situation may not always be the case – things can change, and we are hoping they will! We have our big toes on the pulse of the industry and are watching closely to where the NCBTMB, FSMTB CE Broker, AFMTE and others are taking us.
Notice: As the Center for Barefoot Massage is working to help keep Barefoot Massage techniques ethically and professionally represented within the scope of practice of Massage Therapy, we will ONLY train Licensed Massage Therapists. We will not seek out accreditation with other non-Massage Continuing Education Provider accrediting entities of other professions such as for Physical Therapists, Chiropractors, Yoga Therapists, Acupuncturists, etc.
We are not currently pursuing International Accreditation – but will still require proof of a regionally equivalent Massage Therapy License for any student who wishes to attend our courses. Our focus right now is presenting our courses to licensed massage therapists in the states before expanding internationally. If we can work together in the future to research your countries requirements for the massage profession, and how our continuing education classes could be set up for accreditation in that region, please contact us.
If your state/province is not listed above, contact your licensing or registration board directly to see if they will accept our course for CE credits toward licensure/registration renewal. If you have concerns or questions about your state CE requirements, please raise them with your board.
Do you have questions about what your states Continuing Education renewal requirements are? Google your state’s Massage Board!
How much are classes?
Licensed Massage Therapists. We will not seek out accreditation with other non-Massage Continuing Education Provider accrediting entities of other professions such as for Physical Therapists, Chiropractors, Yoga Therapists, Acupuncturists, etc.