Barefoot Massage Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Harvest Moon Massage Therapy

Falling Off The Table

I suppose it’s a natural question. I get it from almost all of my clients, if not the first time we work together, eventually.

Have You Ever Fallen Off The Table?

The short answer is no, I’ve never fallen off the table. The longer answer is yes, sort of.

When you ask me if I’ve fallen off the table a movie in my brain starts playing wherein I fall off the table head-first onto the inadequately padded, concrete floor. There is a lot of blood in my movie and I end up horribly injured, disfigured, and paralyzed. This has never happened to me, but suffice to say the prospect of truly falling off the massage table from a standing position scares the stuffing out of me.

I have however stepped off the table thinking my step stool was underneath my foot and missed. This is sort of like falling and the aftermath is not comfortable. I have also stepped onto the step stool and had it promptly turn over as I’m dismounting the table. This is almost worse than falling because I think I’m home free and then suddenly there’s danger. I’ve also just stepped straight down off the table onto the floor (on purpose) and jammed up my hip.

Usually my clients never know when this happens unless they hear the step stool thunk a bit. I have been fortunate in that I have never injured myself severely enough to have to stop a massage.

How Do You Keep From Falling Off The Table?

Hold on to the bars is the obvious answer, but sometimes I have to let go to change the drape as I move through the massage or adjust the position of an arm or leg or get off the table altogether. That’s when the safety training takes over. If I did something stupid and/or dangerous while I was learning Ashi (AOBT) or Ashi-Thai, my instructors counseled me. And by counseling I mean I was gently corrected, became the butt of a snarky comment or was downright yelled at if I was about to hurt myself or someone else. I was counseled several times during training. I also learned from my friends’ counseling sessions.

Now that I don’t have the luxury of an instructor scrutinizing my work, if I have a misstep during a massage I flag it in my memory and later come back to analyze it. My general philosophy on mistakes is that I should learn as much from them as possible so I never have to repeat them. Thus I try to learn from each misstep or mistake; then I design the massage around my equipment with an eye towards maximizing safety for me and for the client. That way it’s all fun and games and no one gets hurt. And by fun and games I mean the deepest, most luxurious massage on the planet.

Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Exclusive Provider of Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy, Ashi-Thai and Bamboo-Fusion Massage

Educational Overload

1 Comment / AMTA / October 22, 2012

Earlier this year a friend said to me, “I haven’t heard you talking about any new classes lately. What’s up with that?” To which I responded that I just hadn’t seen anything I wanted to take. Apparently I should have taken that question as an indicator that I needed to start saving up a lot of money. My educational plan for this year was to go very light on the CEUs because I spent more than I had planned on the Bamboo-Fusion class back in March.

But then the part of me that is a junkie for learning new things bit hard and I now have more CEUs scheduled between now and January than you can shake a monkey at.

I was trying to be fiscally responsible when I signed up for three, 2-hour educational opportunities at a local Pilates studio. They were relatively inexpensive and local (score!) The first of those three start the end of October with the first installment of a two-part Hamstring class.

Then, and I don’t even remember how it happened, I found a 5-day Thai Yoga Massage class happening in Hohenwald, TN at Gray Bear Lodge. The time frame worked. It was within driving distance and lodging and food was included in the cost. But oh, the cost… I agonized over whether I should do it or not. After consulting with said friend from above, I finally decided that the opportunity probably would not present itself again and that I should just tap the savings account to do it so I signed up.

Then the announcement for the AMTA-Alabama Chapter Fall Meeting and CEU came out. Originally the CEU was for Cold Stone and Migraine Therapy. I was seriously on the fence about that and when I made the decision to do the Gray Bear Lodge/Thai Yoga Massage class I decided not to do the Cold Stone. Then the Cold Stone fell through and they announced Hal Richardson would be doing 3-D Manual Therapy for Legs, Ankles, and Feet and well, I just couldn’t resist. Being a member, I get the discounted rate for 6 hours of CEUs and who could turn that down. And since there’s only three days between the Hamstring I class and the 3-D Manual Therapy class I should get even more bang for my buck in the retention and integration department.

I called it done. No more CEUs this year. This is it. Yeah, right… then I read on Facebook that an Ashi-acquaintance had taken the Fijian Barefoot class and I just sort of melted. I emailed her and she asked if I’d like to come take the Fijian Barefoot with Oil class in New Orleans. I said I’d think about it because, again, I was trying hard to be fiscally responsible while at the same time trying to figure out if skipping this opportunity would mean that to get it I would have to travel to Illinois at a later date.

Then I got to wondering about the schedule for Fijian in general, hit the website and SHAZAM! Lolita Knight is teaching Fijian Island Barefoot Massage and Soft Touch Island Massage in Nashville in the middle of November. Actually she is teaching about 4-days worth of all kinds of interesting things that I would love to take, but, alas, money.

I’ve been wanting to take the Fijian class for a couple of years. Once I finally felt like I was proficient in Ashi I started craving knowledge for different barefoot systems and this one seems to be a pretty well-developed course. Anyway, Lolita Knight developed the Fijian massage for the U.S. and she is planning on retiring next year. Who knows when I’d have the opportunity to take it this close to home and from the creator, herself. So I signed up. Sigh…

So, here’s how the next couple of months are going to shake out CEU-wise for me:

October 29 – Hamstring I

November 2 – 3 – AMTA – AL Fall Massage Mingle, Meeting & 3-D Manual Therapy: Legs, Ankles and Feet

November 16 – Fijian Island Barefoot Massage & Soft Touch Island Massage

November 28 – December 2 – Thai Yoga Massage

December 3 – Hamstring II

January 7 – Lordosis/Kyphosis Class

I’m tired just looking at this list, but on the upside I won’t need anymore CEUs for a long, long time and I won’t be able to afford them either.

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