(This article was originally published on 6/11/2024 by Jeni Spring here, and the social media recap from Julie Marciniak was posted 4/16/2025 here and here.) One of the questions that we Barefoot Massage therapists get asked VERY often is “Can you actually feel knots when you massage with your feet?” Yes, we can! OF COURSE we can feel things through our feet! It’s…
Is the Center for Barefoot Massage a Massage School? No, we are a Continuing Education and Professional Development company. Aspiring massage therapists entering the field looking for their foundational training to become licensed or certified massage therapists will need to look for accredited massage schools that meet your states massage licensure requirements. Programs are often 500-1000+ hours, depending on state…
Get ready for this years Barefoot Massage Open Challenge! This year’s topic for the “Open” is on common physical imbalances of Barefoot Massage Therapists that could result in injury. Our instructors have been talking behind the scenes A LOT about all the things that make up “body mechanics“… things like your alignment while working, as well as what movement possibilities and…
One step at a time with Barefoot Massage As massage therapists, we are intimately acquainted with the physical toll our profession can take on our bodies. Repetitive strain injuries, particularly in the upper extremities, are a pervasive challenge, affecting nearly 65% of therapists, with over 80% feeling vulnerability in their hands. Regardless of the injuries we treat, it’s inevitable that…
Resources for you to use to educate your immediate circles on the benefits of Massage AND ways to help YOU be more aware within your Barefoot Massage sessions. First off, welcome to this years National Massage Therapy Awareness Week! This long holiday is our professions chance to spend an ENTIRE DEDICATED WEEK to promote the health benefits of massage therapy and…
Hey, you! Yeah, YOU! I see you down there on your mat doing all those awesome Thai and Shiatsu moves. Do your wrists hurt? Are your knees and low back feeling a little battered? Let me turn you on to another mat-based modality, one where you can sit, YES SIT, in a chair while working on your client. Sounds weird?…
This is a frequently asked question – especially if you have low ceilings that may be difficult to build bars in, if you are very tall with low ceilings and are considering dropping your table to the floor, and/or if you are already offering Thai/Shiatsu/Breema/Rossiter Matwork on the ground and want more footwork. The style of Myofascial Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage…
Barefoot massage encompasses many techniques you may not be aware of, this post is here to help you discover the differences in Fijian Barefoot Massage & Hot Ashi. Barefoot Massage is the umbrella term that encompasses a type of therapeutic application using a foot (or feet) as the tool. Many Americans used to believe there was only one way. And…
Myself and four of our instructors just got back home after sharing Fijian Barefoot Massage in Phoenix at the AMTA national massage convention! We set up a booth in the exhibit hall, provided about 45 Barefoot Matwork sample sessions, and talked to many of the 1,500+ Massage Therapists in the conventions attendance that visted us!
Meet the feet: We had such a powerhouse of instructors present at this event – I’m not even sure if the visitors to our booth knew the extent of our team’s history and experience in the profession. Myself (Jeni Spring) from Central Texas, Sara from Missouri, Hillary from North Texas, Ashley from Southern California, and Dawn from upstate New York. (Click each name to be taken to their instructor profile pages!)
Each one of these Barefoot Massage Barbies have been using their feet as massage tools for ~at least~ 10 years – double that in some cases! Dawn Dotson is our FasciAshi Range Of Motion instructor who designed the portable bar system that you can strap into and use with a portable, electric, hydraulic table or a mat. Sara Newberry is an author of the 1st ever Hot-Ashi Barefoot Massage class and has been on many podcasts talking about our Barefoot work. Hillary Arrieta is a published author with her own massage book and is our lead Fijian/Matwork 1 class instructor trainer. Ashley Shears is a Fundamentals class instructor who is making waves with her approach to myofascial barefoot work on the table and on the mat. (Ashley also roadtripped to Phoenix with a knife that came in very handy in the booth all weekend because we forgot to pack scissors!) I was there, too, and I’ve also done cool things. 😉
It was great for this section of our instructor team to meet other leaders and forward thinkers in the industry, to find old friends, to share selfies with AMTA royalty and instructor buddies, to get our feet on the pulse of as many people as we could to share Barefoot Massage with, and to talk with the masses of LMTs in attendance to see what they have questions about. (There were so many people there!!!)
I want to tell y’all all about this experience, from beginning to end: read on and enjoy our journey to the desert!
When we talk about what we do, our instructor team at the Center for Barefoot Massage has been working very hard to deepen the use and understanding of the phrase “Barefoot Massage” rather than using the single A-word, ashiatsu. We see that word in play a lot, especially used alone on its own as a massage service across the nation…