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Tag: massage therapy

3 Reasons to Learn Barefoot Massage

1. Lengthen your massage career.

How long did it take you to discover that the average career span of a massage therapist is 3-5 years (or 5-7, depending on the source)?

They certainly didn’t tell me (Mary-Claire) about that in massage school.

I think I found out somewhere along the way. Maybe it was when I started having tendonitis in my right elbow and pain in my left pisiform.

After a while, I would drive home from work and grasp my steering wheel at a traffic stop, stretching my forearm flexors and pounding on my extensors.

Had I not learned barefoot massage in 2002, my career would have been over. I might have lasted until 2003, but I certainly wouldn’t be going for 22+ years.

If you do barefoot massage correctly (yes, you can do it wrong and injure yourself!), you’ll have unlimited years to work in your field

One of Mary-Claire’s classes. (pre-pandemic)

2. Clients love it

I have never had a client ask me to get off the table and switch to hands-on the 1st time I’ve given them barefoot massage.

But you have to have the right client on the table.

First, there are people who hate feet. It’s not your feet, but everyone’s. Don’t try to convince them to try barefoot massage. It’s a lost cause.

Next, you have the client who needs the work, but they’re reluctant, because it’s “weird”. BUT they’re desperate for results and are afraid that surgery will come next. So they’ll try it.

Sara Newberry is using our strap for excellent body mechanics, heat and joint movement.

Lastly, you have the people who think barefoot massage is going to be the most amazing thing ever. They walked on their parent’s back, they have their kids walk on their back, or maybe they’ve gotten another form of barefoot massage somewhere else.

I have found that clients who try ashiatsu barefoot massage NEVER go back to “regular” hands-on massage if they can help it.

(Of course, you need to practice and be good at your barefoot massage craft.)

Most of my clients have also reported that the results of barefoot massage last longer than traditional deep tissue.

PLUS ashiatsu barefoot feels wwwwaaaaayyyy better than pointy thumbs and pokey elbows!

3. You’ll differentiate yourself from other massage therapists

Once you try barefoot massage, you’ll never go back to “regular” massage. Shirt design by Jeni Spring.

✔️How many massage therapists are there in your city?
✔️How many do deep tissue?
✔️What percentage do barefoot massage?

I am one of the few in a large city (Cincinnati) who specializes in barefoot massage. I have trained others, but they have moved or didn’t get comfortable with it or closed their business (or whatever).

Regular clients drive up to 45 minutes to see me.

In fact, I drive 45 minutes to see MY barefoot massage therapist. Why? Because there’s no one else around, and it’s what I want.

What are 3 reasons massage therapists learn barefoot massage?

  1. Lengthen / save your career
  2. Clients love it
  3. You’ll differentiate yourself from other massage therapists

What’s stopping you from learning?

Or if you’ve already learned, do you specialize! Let us know.



Interested in learning more about barefoot massage?

Visit us at www.barefootmassagecenter.com

We have tons of Tip and Tricks on YouTube!

And check out our Facebook page

Don’t forget Instagram!


Mary-Claire Fredette has been licensed as a massage therapist in Ohio since the last century.

Seriously.

She learned barefoot massage in 2002 and hasn’t looked back, beginning teaching in 2004.

You can find her classes in her natural light studio in Cincinnati.

She co-founded the Center for Barefoot Massage with husband Paul and the barefoot massage idea-preneur Jeni Spring in 2017..

Are you working to your detriment?

Most of us went into the field of massage because we wanted to help people.

Maybe we already were giving out shoulder rubs on everyone we could get our hands-on. Perhaps we just knew that we weren’t meant to be a counselor (ahem, Mary-Claire here, speaking from experience).

But we had the heart to serve, to help others, to make them leave our offices happier than they were when they came in.

Into massage school we ran, eager to have the license to practice.

Did they tell you that the average career span of a massage therapist is 3-5 years (or 5-7 years, depending on the source)?

Or did you find out later?

Why do you think that is?

While there are a number of factors in play, one of the big reason is injury, pain, and burnout.

Simply stated, we work to our detriment.

What does that mean, exactly?

Most of us do/did our best to provide the massage experience that the legit client wanted.

More pressure? Sure!

Deeper in that spot! No problem.

Can you hang out here for a while? My pleasure.

In the meantime, our backs started to act up. Or maybe we discovered a little tendonitis or tenosynovitis.

We start cracking our knuckles a little more, pounding on our forearms while we sit at a traffic stop, gripping the steering wheel so we can have the added stretch of a bent wrist.


I have a client who was a massage therapist for many years, longer than I have been (and it’s 22+ years for me).

While she had learned barefoot massage years ago, she never got really comfortable with it, was clunky, and the clients didn’t love it.

So she continued to do what she’d been doing-providing her clients with awesome deep tissue massage via her hands.

Until she couldn’t.

She couldn’t push past the pain anymore. Actually, she had to see a doctor because she couldn’t grip things anymore and was starting to drop the items she held in her hands.

Permanent damage, friends.

Permanent damage was caused by overworking herself to make her clients happy.

This is preventable.

If you’re going to offer deep tissue massage as a career, please get good at barefoot massage.

And it’s not going to happen if you take an online class. It may not happen if you only take 1 live class.

You may need to retake your 1st class (especially if it takes a while to get the bars up).

And you will certainly be better with each continuing ed class you take.

Is there anything preventing you from a long lasting deep tissue massage career?

The ball’s in your court.



Interested in learning more about barefoot massage?

Visit us at www.barefootmassagecenter.com

We have tons of Tip and Tricks on YouTube!

And check out our Facebook page

Don’t forget Instagram!


Mary-Claire Fredette has been licensed as a massage therapist in Ohio since the last century.

Seriously.

She learned barefoot massage in 2002 and hasn’t looked back, beginning teaching in 2004.

You can find her classes in her natural light studio in Cincinnati.

She co-founded the Center for Barefoot Massage with husband Paul and the barefoot massage idea-preneur Jeni Spring in 2017.

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!

What makes you a remarkable massage therapist?

Why would we ask you what makes you a remarkable massage therapist? The word “remarkable” comes from France in the early 17th century: remarquable, from remarquer means to “take note of”. In other words, what makes you different from other massage therapists?

If you are not remarkable in some way, why should clients pay to have you massage them?

Have you given it a thought?

From a marketing standpoint, we need to know what makes us different from another massage therapist. If we don’t know how we stand out above the competition, we have no inclination of why people would prefer our services.

Think you have to live with pain? Not if my foot has anything to say about it! (Part 1)

When people meet me and find out that I’m a manual therapist with a reputation for getting people out of pain very quickly, they want to know what it is I do and how do I do it. To keep it simple, I tell them that my work is nothing more than power stretching and that they should visit my website (DontFearTheFoot.com) to get the full picture on how it works.

This is Chuck. He does not fear the foot.

Here’s where the fun starts. They immediately want to know what does fearing a foot has to do with massage, stretching or getting out of pain?

I spent 20 years of my life professionally stretching, for  I was a professional Broadway dancer for twenty years. And during my professional career, I probably stretched more in a day than most people stretch in a year (or a lifetime for that matter).

My flexibility served me well throughout my dance years and now, with the addition of mobility and stability training, it continues to be my preferred weapon in maintaining a relatively” pain-free body. now help others in their quest to getting out of pain.

I now help others in their quest to getting out of pain.

FASCIAnate your Ashiatsu Massage: Part 3

Ashiatsu therapists want to learn more Ashiatsu.

If you are already an experienced Ashiatsu barefoot massage therapist and you share our passion for giving the best massage from your feet possible, then we already know that you know (deep down) that you want to know more!!!

(Did that make sense?!) It makes sense to us. We’ve felt the craving for more information, just like you are now.  We want you to continue to improve your effectiveness and mindfulness in barefoot massage to help give your clients the healing (and heeling) that they are looking for. #NeverStopLearning is one of our favorite hashtags, and we have FOUR ways for you to do just that!

Today we’ll discuss your opportunity to RETRAIN by attending courses in their entirety.

Extending your massage career-avoiding burnout

Learning Ashiatsu was, by far, the best choice I’ve made in learning how to extend my massage career. However, after making a big financial and time commitment is when most massage therapists discover that their career may only last 3-5 years. Massage burnout and injury are the 2 biggest reasons.

Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals has reported that the burn out rate within the industry has been estimated at 50% to 88% within the first 3 to 5 years after graduation.

Massage Therapy Schools Information reports that “enrollment statistics seem to support this with over 50,000 students enrolling per year with 45,000 that leave the field annually.”