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- Elementary Touch Education
- Feldenkrais and Hanna Somatics for Maintenance and Pain Management
- A new textbook about touch and children
- The “Death” of On-Site Massage
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- The History Channel Features the Massage Chair
- The Genetic Roots of Massage
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Category Archives: Bodywork
France recognizes seated massage as an occupational title
[Click to download a PDF of the press release version.] France recently became the first country in the world to recognize seated massage as an occupational category with a professional certification. On June 7, 2016, the National Professional Certification Commission … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Chair Massage
Tagged chair massage, David Palmer, France, regulation, TouchPro, Xavier Court
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New Categories of Corporate Seated Massage Clients
At 31 years, there is little doubt The Walt Disney Company is the oldest continuing corporate supporter of seated massage in the world. Michael Neal began taking a stool around the Disney campus in 1982, providing employee-paid massage. When he … Continue reading
Seated Massage Success in the Workplace
This article originally appeared in the May 2014 issue of MASSAGE Magazine. Seated, or chair, massage is alive, well and flourishing in the workplace, primarily because of two overarching trends: evolving public perception of massage therapy and the impact of the … Continue reading
Massage is Sensational
A recent article in The Atlantic about a phenomenon called ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) reminded me of how little we celebrate the purely sensational nature of massage. ASMR is a subjective sensory experience that typically includes highly pleasurable tingling … Continue reading
Interview with David Palmer
At the 2013 World Massage Conference (WMC) David debuted his first webinar entitled The Future of Professional Touch. After the presentation and discussion, they premiered a video interview that had been shot in April 2012. You can view it here. … Continue reading
Posted in Chair Massage, Politics, Videos
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Chair Practitioner as Wellness Coach
This article originally appeared in the May 2013 issue of Massage Magazine. The focus of the issue was on the business of massage and I was asked to respond to the question: “How can I best position myself as a … Continue reading
On the Side of Angels
There is a successful company in Australia, 3-Minute Angels, that started in 2002 providing 3-minute chair massages in pubs and clubs for free. Customers would pay whatever they thought the service was worth. Today the business has grown into a … Continue reading
How Culture Mediates Massage
Whenever customers sit in my massage chair, I know that their subjective experience of my touch will be the result of at least four factors: Their genetic profile (Are they male/female? Do they have biological disorders such as autism). Their … Continue reading
Viewing Massage Through a Holonic Lens
One of the critical topics in the massage community is how to define and label what we do. How we define massage influences how we market our services, how we regulate them and how we educate new people coming into … Continue reading
Posted in Bodywork, Business, Education, Politics, Touch
Tagged FSMTB, holarchical, holons, integral theory
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The Canyon Ranch Think Tank
Have you every wondered why the National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) has such an awkward name? What’s with that business of “Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork?” Couldn’t they have stopped after the word “Massage?” You can credit … Continue reading
Animate Your Support
A good way to add value to your services is by passing along useful information to your customers. YouTube is a great source of short, well-produced videos that are free for the linking. My colleague, Russ Borner, sent along one … Continue reading
The Travolta Clause
When John Doe #1 recently filed suit over John Travolta’s wandering hands in the massage room my immediate reaction was, “Well, there goes the first shoe.” Sure enough, over the next few weeks other massage practitioners came out of the … Continue reading
MTBOK: Missed Opportunity?
Reading the impressive 58-page paper entitled Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge (MTBOK) was both exhilarating and disappointing. Developed by a coalition of six national massage organizations, Version 1 of this effort was published in 2010 and is a landmark document … Continue reading
Posted in Bodywork, Politics, Touch
Tagged massage therapy, MTBOK, personal care massage
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An Outsider Analyzes Massage
I was a mama’s boy. The youngest of four males born to my parents within five years, I was the baby of the family and spoiled rotten. There are a number of family stories dramatizing that fact, my favorite of … Continue reading
The Realms of Massage
The first professional massage I ever received was around 1970 in an old Russian Banya on the near-North Side of Chicago called the Luxor Baths. The clientele was a mix of the old Jewish expats who had moved to the … Continue reading
Posted in Business
Tagged business, David Palmer, health care, massage, massage therapy, personal care, wellness
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Change-ability: Mastering the Inevitable
Note: This is the fourth and last of a series of articles called “C”-ing Your Way to Success about the value of Conviction, Clarity, Consistency and Change-ability in business. The first three “C”s discussed in this series (Conviction, Clarity, Consistency) … Continue reading
How Sticky is Massage?
In the world wide web, “stickiness” refers to how long you can keep a user on your website or how often you can get them to return. It is a measure of user engagement and loyalty. So how loyal and … Continue reading
Moving Massage from Acceptability to Accessibility
For as long as people have been paying for therapeutic massage services, practitioners have feared being mistaken for prostitutes. That fear was the primary driving force that, in 1983, led the American Massage Therapy Association to re-brand “massage” into “massage … Continue reading
Posted in Bodywork, Politics
Tagged business, David Palmer, massage, massage industry, massage schools, massage therapy, medical massage, personal care, wellness
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Thomas Alva Edison
The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease. (1903)
Posted in Quotes of Note
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Make Your Business Persistent with Consistence
Note: This is the third in a series of four articles called “C”-ing Your Way to Success about the value of Conviction, Clarity, Consistency and Change-ability in business. In a sense, consistency is the practical result of a commitment to … Continue reading
Posted in Business
Tagged business, consistency, David Palmer, edison, marketing, massage, persistence
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“How often should I get a massage?”
This is one of the most common questions I hear from customers. It’s an important question and the response needs to be considered carefully because the answer will set the character and tone of all future interactions with that customer. … Continue reading
The Commercial Viability of Massage Approaches
Laura Allen recently blogged about the reasons why some practitioners have a difficult time getting repeat customers. One section mentioned how some practitioners try to sell energy work or other non-massage techniques to people who think they are buying massage. … Continue reading
How Massage Became Therapy
The year was 1983 and the oldest national association of massage practitioners was about to change the face of an industry by turning “massage” into “massage therapy.” This is the story of what led up to that moment. The association … Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics
Tagged AMTA, David Palmer, history, massage, massage therapy
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Seeing Your Way Clearly to Success
Note: This is the second in a series of four articles called “C”-ing Your Way to Success about the value of Conviction, Clarity, Consistency and Change-ability in business. While having conviction about your work is fundamental to a successful value-based … Continue reading
Is it time for massage to embrace touch?
Which profession should hold the keys to the storehouse that contains all of the world’s knowledge about human touch? Besides bodyworkers, is there any other (legal) occupation with more practical and theoretical knowledge about touch? I don’t think so and … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Politics, Touch
Tagged AMTA, massage, massage school, massage therapy, touch
28 Comments