When massage therapists are first learning ashiatsu barefoot massage, it can be like starting massage school all over again. It’s especially humbling for therapists that have been doing massage with their hands for many years.

But the same learning concepts for learning traditional massage in massage school can be applied when first learning to massage with your feet.

1. CLOSE YOUR EYES or LOOK UP!

It may feel strange at first but for the sake of proper body mechanics and improving your barefoot skills you have to learn to look up more. When you are first learning, once you get the stroke and go through the movements a couple of times, try closing your eyes or looking up as you massage with your feet. This will help develop the sensory pathways to the brain by taking the visual interpretation out and heightening the sensory awareness of the feet.

The brain can’t rely on what it SEES; it has to rely on what it FEELS. This concept is evident when training students to learn barefoot massage for the first time, and clients give feedback in our LIVE classes. It never fails that the client thinks a stroke feels better when the student isn’t directly looking at their feet. Of course, there’s always going be times when you need to look and make sure you’re in the right spot or avoiding areas that you need to avoid, but that’s where the next point comes into play.

2. KNOW YOUR ANATOMY/LANDMARKS

There are familiar landmarks and bony prominences that are easy to find and we, as massage therapists, frequently use to orient ourselves to where we are and the muscle attachments.

Some examples may be the sacrum, the trochanter, the iliac crest, and the scapula — many of these landmarks we use to begin and end strokes. Being able to palpate and orientate yourself with your feet USING these landmarks will go a long way in developing your barefoot skills and allow you to utilize appropriate body mechanics like looking up more.

3. SLOW DOWN!

When first learning barefoot massage you have to slow down. While your feet have the CAPACITY to feel and palpate knots and tightness they usually aren’t sensitive enough to do it in the beginning.

You want to be able to feel the different textures and muscle layers so you can gauge the appropriate pressure and strokes to use. The neural pathways from your feet to your brain have to develop. It’s a process that comes with time, and there’s a natural progression of adaptability and sensory input from your feet.

4. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

It never fails for a student to say in class, “Wow, you make that look so easy!” Or, “You’re so graceful!” Well, I’ve only been practicing it for 18 years. That’s eight years longer than with my hands! So with practice, it will come. You have to be consistent.

If we made it look hard, why would you want to learn it?

Consistency can be a problem for some Massage Therapists when they get back to their practice, and they feel limited or intimidated by the types of clients they have.

Barefoot massage isn’t always about finding the perfect kind of “body” to work with. There will be clients who have contraindications that may not allow for the use of your feet, but that doesn’t mean you can use them somewhere else.  99% of my client base receives some form of barefoot bodywork.

For that 1%, I may still do barefoot bodywork, but I restrict it to the appropriate areas. So every day that I’m working with clients, I’m using my feet. By using my SOLES every day, they are JUST as sensitive as my hands.

These are just a few of the ways you can increase your sole sensitivity in your barefoot massage sessions.

When your clients start saying, “Wow I didn’t even have to tell you what was going on today and you figured it out!”, That’s a huge accomplishment and a high five moment for barefoot massage. Our soles are just as capable of providing safe, therapeutic and EFFECTIVE pain relief to our clients as our hands. We only have to put in the time and effort to develop them.

Today’s guest post is brought to us by our fantastic Durham, NC instructor, Julie.

You can find her Rolfing with her feet, teaching at and running her multi-therapist barefoot biz, Bull City Soles.