(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…
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…
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…
Hi, I’m Jeni Spring feeling the need to chime in here about the Ashi-Strap! Have you seen something dangling from Ashiatsu Bars in pictures across the internet? Is someone you follow online leaning or sitting in a strap of some kind while massaging with their feet?
I started that trend. You’re welcome! Now the strap is integral to the Myofascial Ashiatsu technique taught at the Center for Barefoot Massage.
When we say that we are “anatomy based”, it’s not JUST that classes from the Center for Barefoot Massage will focus on your palpation skills, or that each stroke we teach has an intention aimed to achieve specific structural goals: it’s also because our instructors focus on making Barefoot Massage work for YOUR anatomy, so that you can specialize based on YOUR strengths.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
The Center for Barefoot Massage opened in February 2017, but the technique was in creation long before that. While teaching for the original westernized Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage continuing education company, our founders, Jeni Spring and Mary-Claire Fredette, saw that 22 years of the same routine of strokes wasn’t doing any of us any favors.
Mary-Claire saw it in herself: although teaching a routine for such a stylized technique does really help create consistency in the massage approach, allowing clients the ability to know what to expect when they got that type of massage anywhere across the nation – the predictability was causing mental burnout.
Jeni had been seeing it already for years in her team of Barefoot Massage Therapists that worked with her at the nation’s first “all Barefoot” specialty clinic, Heeling Sole… The same stroke didn’t work for all the folks underfoot and caused repetitive strain injury on the LMTs when they tried to do that routine of strokes all day, every day.
More and more massage therapists are wanting to ONLY massage with their feet and specialize in Barefoot Massage. A trend of retiring hands-on massage and sticking to feet-on work has echoed outwards from our instructor’s local studios. Barefoot Massage Specialists are reaching into a variety of environments within our industry, ranging from solo practitioners to multi-therapist massage businesses across the…
For those of you who know me – you know that I love the ashiatsu portable bars. I was originally trained in ashiatsu on a very old style of the portables, (that were new at the time) and they feel like home to me. Although I honestly couldn’t afford them back then, I put my first set on a credit card and made sure I got my money’s worth out of them ASAP. Ever since, I’ve used them regularly at local Farmers’ Markets, sporting/yoga events and massage conventions. I’ve taught on portable bars across the country and in Germany. I used ashiatsu portable bars daily for 6 months at one point because I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in that location long enough to justify building permanent bars.
I just spent 3 solid days working on a set of portable bars that I own. Now that *anyone* can go buy a set of portables, I wanted to fill you in on all the things I don’t think anyone will actually tell you about them. HERE WE GO!
At the Center for Barefoot Massage, all of our manuals are designed with space for notes. Note-taking moves you from a passive to an active learner and allows you to better absorb and retain the information you’ll be processing during class. NOTE TAKING + TIPS TO DO IT BETTER. 1. HOW IT WORKS: First off, note-taking requires effort so it…
In this Tuesday Toesday tip, we’ll show you how to add in a delightfully warm pillow to enhance your barefoot or hands-on massage. It’s perfect for the winter or even if you keep air conditioning running in your massage room year ’round. Items needed (in addition to your massage table and all that jazz): ❀ an inexpensive heating pad. I actually…
Our FasciAshi Range of Motion (ROM) class is where stretch therapy meets ashiatsu massage. There is a growing presence of ‘stretch providers’ in the massage therapy, yoga and personal trainer industries, possibly due to the evolving understanding of the properties of fascia. The public is noticing more and more that a movement practice of some kind is essential to a healthy body – and some are turning to their massage therapists for help.
The human population is becoming more and more sedentary.
The leading cause of disability is musculoskeletal pain, and over 80% of acute and chronic injuries are caused by the body not moving properly. (I should know, I just spent a day on the couch writing this blog post!!) One goal of stretch therapy and movement re-education is to make the client more aware of their habits of movement and more comfortable in his or her body with less compensation.
We all need varying movement to maintain healthy tissue hydration, regeneration, and repair. Motion is lotion, no matter what lifestyle you live. The smooth moves we teach in the FasciAshi ROM class could be just the thing that your clients are ACHING to try!