Footnotes by BossladyJeni 12/09/2024 0Comments

Is the Center for Barefoot Massage a Massage School?

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 licensing requirements, and are usually accredited through COMTA.

The Center for Barefoot Massage is set up as a Continuing Education company, and is for already-licensed massage therapists to maintain their licensure, expand skills, or specialize in advanced techniques. We specifically teach myofascial barefoot massage and barefoot matwork. Our courses range in 4-24 CE’s, or total hours, as approved by the NCBTMB.

Key Differences at a Glance

Feature	Massage School	CE Class
Purpose	Foundational training for licensure	Skills enhancement for professionals
Length	500-1000+ hours	Few hours to a few days
Accreditation	COMTA or similar	NCBTMB Approved Provider
Target Audience	Aspiring massage therapists	Licensed massage therapists

Attendees in our courses MUST be Licensed Massage Therapists who are legally eligible to provide paid, professional therapeutic massage therapy services to the public in accordance with the laws in their state. Read more here.

Ashiatsu barefoot massage by Mary-Claire 03/17/2022 0Comments

Tuition policy 3/17/22

One thing that’s really important to us at the Center for Barefoot Massage is taking care of our instructors. They work really hard to keep current on massage techniques & constantly perfect their own barefoot moves.

In fact, all of our instructors specialize in barefoot massage. In our 1st price increase in 5 years, raising our rates allows us to pay our instructors more, supporting them in their endeavors to provide YOU with the best education they can!

If you’re curious about the rates, just look at the blog post below this one. Here’s a reminder of our policy for the remainder of 2022 and into the following years.

Due to a tuition increase that takes effect on March 17th, 2022, if you registered for your training prior to that date, that price is only valid for classes completed by December 31st, 2022.

If you happen to reschedule your registration to another set of dates in 2023, the new tuition price will be applied to your training, and the difference in balance will be due before that class begins.

And thank you to the hundreds and hundreds of students we’ve taught all over the United States in the past 5 years.

We appreciate you allowing us to share our knowledge and love of barefoot massage & to help spread that in our local coummunities.

Thank you!

Ashiatsu barefoot massage by Jeni Spring, LMT, BCSI 01/20/2022 0Comments

Tuition Class Prices Increasing

On March 17th, 2022, the Center for Barefoot Massage turns 5 years old!

Happy Birthday to us!

The size of the footprint that our Myofascial Ashiatsu and Fijian Barefoot Massage classes have left on the massage industry since we stepped on the scene back in 2017 is growing – and so are the life-changing foot-shaped impressions that our alumni are leaving on their clients across the nation.

We’ve come a long way in a short period of time, and we have our instructor team, our students, our amazing business sponsors/buddies like NCBTMB, AFMTE, Pure Pro Massage, Books of Discovery, Mother Earth Pillows, Bodywork Buddy, Lolita Knight, Ruth Werner, and Massage Blueprint, as well as our fans to thank. (Thank you all!!!)

As our birthday gift to YOU, we are now including more detailed, narrated study videos in the Alumni video vaults, with new “Footage” recorded throughout the year.

If you’ve trained with us already, go log in and watch!

After reassessing where we’ve been and where we’re going, this 5-year mark brings the need for us to raise tuition prices. Just like we encourage our alumni to price their specialty barefoot massage sessions to fit their business needs and market, we want to lead by example and do the same.

5-year birthday class prices will be increasing for the Center for Barefoot Massage

An 11% increase in our class prices will help us to:

continue bringing the best live-class environments to the adult learners in our classes
allow the company to push forward with new opportunities for growth
support our amazing team of instructors!

All the while still keeping tuition costs at a comparable rate for the massage industry.

Our new prices go into effect on our birthday, March 17th, 2022:

…but if you sign up for a 2022 class by March 16, 2022, you’ll be locked into the original class prices, good towards classes completed by 12/31/2022!

Fundamentals is now $750
Fijian will be $500
Intermediate goes to $500
ROM is also $500
Advanced will be $500
Hot Ashi is now $250
Any travel class held offsite from our training campuses will be +$100

As a young 5-year-old company that survived and thrived through so much in such a condensed period of time, we are so happy to continue to spread the love of Barefoot Massage, and help to flex or extend the careers of so many Massage Therapists out there! (It feels as good as a nice toe-spread foot stretch!)

Thank y’all!

Ashiatsu barefoot massage by Mary-Claire 03/03/2020 0Comments

Using a small pillow for Sidelying barefoot massage bolstering

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.

(You can learn side-body barefoot massage in our Intermediate class. We also teach side-lying barefoot work in our Fijian barefoot mat class.)

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.

Where you can find more info…

Visit our main website to find out more about all our classes at the Center for Barefoot Massage.

Or visit us on Facebook and Instagram!

Why FasciAshi? by Jeni Spring, LMT, BCSI 02/08/2019 0Comments

Get the most out of your FasciAshi class with Note Taking

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 feels like something we just don’t want to do, but the very act of taking the notes helps to form new pathways in your brain which increases the likely hood it will be stored in your long-term memory.

Notes taken via words or pictures or even better, both, will be super beneficial for your long term memory of the material as well as giving you something in your own words to look back on after class.

2. DON’T SKIMP.

Don’t be tempted to shorthand your notes or get lazy with them. It’s better for your retention if you write as much as possible. Take it all in and write it all down. You never know what little tid-bit will stir your memory when you get back to your office ready to practice.

3. TAKING NOTES TAKES PRACTICE.

Note taking is a skill and I know you are pressed for time, so I will leave you with a video to check out, as well as a link to a frequently used system called Cornell Notes . I’ve also added a video that explains a technique called sketchnoting that includes adding images to your notes. Which brings us to our 4th and final tip:

4.DOODLE!

Adding images to your words helps to increase your retention.

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” data-provider-name=”YouTube”>

I hope this helps you to better retain all the info you learn in class to help you become the best barefoot massage therapist you can be!

See you in class!

Today’s guest post is brought to us by a past instructor on our team.

Massage, Why FasciAshi? by Jeni Spring, LMT, BCSI 10/13/2018 0Comments

Stretch Therapy meets Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage

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!

Ashiatsu barefoot massage, Massage, Why FasciAshi? by Jeni Spring, LMT, BCSI 09/14/2018 0Comments

5 Reasons to Learn FasciAshi Barefoot Massage

Why should you start to consider using your FEET to massage with? I can think of a million reasons, but I boiled it down to just enough to count on one foot. 5 reasons to learn FasciAshi Barefoot Massage. Just five. Read on to see if we can further romance you into learning our favorite way to do deep tissue, myofascial release and trigger point work with our FasciAshi style of barefoot massage therapy.

business, Online Vs. In Person, Why FasciAshi? by Jeni Spring, LMT, BCSI 05/20/2018 0Comments

The subtle art of giving a F*ck

When we started the Center for Barefoot Massage, we set out with some high expectations for ourselves.

the-subtle-art-of-giving-a-fuck

We had the vision to teach our style of ashiatsu to massage therapists, and we wanted to back it with not just quality content in classes, but more importantly, high quality substance to every aspect of the company.

We wanted to make sure that our faculty is in touch with their students, the community, and the massage industry so that we keep it real.

high-standards-in-barefoot-massage

We want you to learn FasciAshi from someone who uses the technique every week. We want you to study under someone who leads their practice and massage business by example. We want to train therapists in person, look them in the eyes, touch them with our SOLES, and pass our knowledge onto the next generation of barefoot massage therapists. We feel that a person shouldn’t own a massage continuing education company if they aren’t teaching and practicing the work themselves – so we continue to do “all the things” for you every day.

The integrity level of every member on our sometimes overwhelmed, busy team shows through in their passion for the work they each present. You’ll feel it embedded within FasciAshi as you personally grow with the technique. We hope to raise the standard on barefoot massage education, and to help support the massage industry rise to great heights. (And I’m not just being ‘punny’ and talking about stepping up onto a massage table here, folks!)

Ashiatsu barefoot massage, Online Vs. In Person, Why FasciAshi? by Mary-Claire 04/13/2018 0Comments

What’s the difference between us and other barefoot massage training?

This is a question we’ve been getting a lot lately–not only from people wanting to learn barefoot massage, but also from those who are interested in teaching. What’s the difference between FasciAshi from the Center for Barefoot Massage and Ashiatsu massage from other programs?

Intuitive versus a routine

There are many differences such as how we teach educated, intuitive myofascial work with the feet versus a routine. Through many years of our own busy barefoot massage practices and teaching, we have found that massage therapists find routines to be lackluster and not as effective as intuitive massage. They want to be able to use their skills they already have and translate that into using their feet, and we offer that in our program.

The Center for Barefoot Massage is working to change the caliber of barefoot massage therapists. Our technique differs in that we focus on a myofascial approach to ashiatsu barefoot massage, which is where the “FasciAshi” name comes in – do you see the “fascia” in our name? That was punny, but deliberate.

Anatomy driven

We are challenging our alumni to refine their palpation skills and recognition of anatomical structures, to consider theory into the application of strokes, to understand why each stroke exists, so that they develop critical thinking skills and creativity in their work- rather than applying a prescribed, memorized protocol of luxurious barefoot effleurage strokes.

Each of our classes builds upon the last, progressively moving into more detail as the dexterity, strength and focus of the practitioner deepens. We are developing specialized tracks of classes, to help our alumni funnel their ashiatsu barefoot massage training into a niche within a niche – such as sports and clinical barefoot massage.

No online teaching of ashiatsu

Another huge difference is that we do not offer, support or endorse online/video/e-learning courses in any technique.

We, and a large population of barefoot massage therapists, do not believe that the quality, understanding or safety of the application would be maintained through anything other than live, in person, “feet on” training.

If you ask any of our alumni, they all respond with a vehement, “NO!” on the subject of learning online.

“1st Time, no way. I need to see it, give it and receive it to understand what the client is experiencing. I also want to have an experienced instructor to make sure I’m not hurting myself or my client with improper technique.”

“I WAS JUST GOING TO MESSAGE YOU ABOUT THIS!!!!! THIS IS THE WORST IDEA EVERRRRR!!!! Grad corner vids~great and helpful idea. I love the idea of having access to a visual reminder of the strokes and the aspects of ABC muscle(s) I’m working on. BUT… An e-learning course for newbs?!? All I can say is that I’m 5 years deep into barefoot massage, about to take my seventh training, and I STILL feel like I need in person guidance and foot refreshers (haha…I’m obsessed…?). Online learning for newbs=injuries. Thumbs down. TWO THUMBS DOWN! Allll the thumbs down!!!”

For Massage Therapists only

Our mission is to teach our courses only to massage therapists, not to people outside the profession. We disagree with training those who do not professionally work within the massage therapy scope of practice (acupuncturists, movement workers, yoga teachers, chiropractors, etc.)

Moving barefoot massage techniques into a respected position within the field of massage therapy, and for the massage industry itself to be recognized for higher standards in live continuing education for massage professionals, is super important to our barefoot massage team.

We disagree with certifying therapists who have never felt or physically demonstrated the work on an instructor. Other providers in the barefoot massage field will provide CE hours, certification, training, and even grant instructor status, to someone who has never stepped foot in an ashiatsu classroom.

We won’t, because we believe in the gift of learning through hands-on (feet-on!) practice and continually working to improve our skills in not just massage but in teaching as well.

Our post-class support

A lot of massage therapists struggle with marketing their new technique, feeling confused about how to work with someone’s unusual contraindication, and feel like they don’t have anyone to talk to about it-especially if they live in a town or city with no other barefoot therapist.

Our private Facebook group has got you covered–it’s super interactive and has amazing community support with quick responses from instructors. We have a membership site with downloadable forms, marketing tools, and perhaps most importantly, videos to recap what you learned in class. The post-class support is phenomenal.

Because our goal is to enrich the massage community as a whole, we blog and post videos on a regular basis. This takes a lot of time and effort on our part.

But we do it because we are here to help therapists grow to have long and profitable careers. We know that people need your skills.

Our past experience

Mary-Claire and Jeni have both been not only instructors, but also instructor trainers, loyal supporters, and practitioners of another brand’s technique for many years. Along with MC’s husband Paul, the three of us have worked in positions ranging from upper management, social media directors, ad design and implementation, graduate services and assistants to the founder of that other company over the years.

We know the other company’s strokes from every class inside and out – Mary-Claire and Jeni were the instructor trainers – we used to teach other skilled ashiatsu therapists how to teach that work. Although that founder has a wonderful legacy and is the founding lineage of westernized barefoot massage, it was developed and has always been presented with the intention that it is a deep luxurious massage, a barefoot effleurage routine aimed at the spa industry, marketed as “the deepest most luxurious massage on the planet”.

We left that company due to many of the reasons stated above and formed the Center for Barefoot Massage to move forward with our passion to maintain a safe, strong and progressive form of modernized, researched and educated technique.

We feel that the FasciAshi technique offered through the Center for Barefoot Massage is a strong new addition to the barefoot massage education.

Our team specializes in barefoot massage

We are proud to have formed a collective consciousness of barefoot massage specialists. Our instructor team is full of entrepreneurs who have used ashiatsu and other barefoot massage techniques in their own businesses, and have seen success with it through their clients, through their staff, and through themselves. In fact, on our blog and YouTube channel, we post weekly at a minimum with helpful tips we’ve learned through our years of practice so that new barefoot therapists can excel even faster.

The strokes we teach have been tried and tested and are continually put into practice by the FasciAshi instructors and their staff of massage therapists. This isn’t the same material developed 20 something years ago. We’ve come together and combined our experience, knowledge and research into something that we’ve seen to adapt to a variety of practitioners in all shapes and sizes, while showing excellent outcomes with our clients – and it’s still evolving!

We invite you to follow our social media pages (YouTube, Twitter, Facebookand Insta) and read our blog posts to catch up on the point of views, tips, and bits of knowledge we’ve been sharing.

We’d LOVE for you to see and feel the difference in our approach, our technique, our support and our educational materials by attending a live course.

Ashiatsu barefoot massage, FAQ, Pro tips by Jeni Spring, LMT, BCSI 01/12/2018 0Comments

Is Ashiatsu the same as Barefoot Massage?

Is Ashiatsu the same as Barefoot Massage? What is the difference between a Barefoot Massage and a Foot Massage?

WOW! So many questions, and we get them often from our clients as well as from massage therapists. I’m sure you’ve either asked, or have been asked these questions, too. So lets break it down!

Barefoot Massage is a growing specialty in the massage therapy industry where the massage professional utilizes their FEET as tools to give the massage rather than hands. A foot massage is where the clients feet are being massaged through techniques such as Reflexology, Acupressure, Thai Foot Massage, or a general foot rub – like what you may receive from a Nail Technician during a pedicure. A Bear Foot massage is another thing entirely, ha!

Tag: learn barefoot massage