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- Soft Robotics Meets Traditional Acupressure Massage
- 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
- France recognizes seated massage as an occupational title
- What it is like to attend a TouchPro training
- The History Channel Features the Massage Chair
- The Genetic Roots of Massage
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Author Archives: David
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
12 Comments
The Leg Problem in Chair Massage
Steve Knobles called today from North Seattle Community Acupuncture clinic. He recently started seating patients in a massage chair because it allowed easy access to their necks, backs and arms for needling and was often more comfortable than lying on a … Continue reading
Posted in Chair Massage, Videos
Tagged chair massage, David Palmer, ergo pro, leg problem, retail chair massage, stronglite
2 Comments
Toys for Touch
Touch is far more important for childhood development than technology. I was reminded of that while reading an article in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle about innovative local toy companies.A number of them explicitly sing the praises and benefits of tactile … Continue reading
Posted in In the News, Touch
Tagged dolls, folkmanis, hugs, kimochi, muppets, play, plushy feely, puppets, san francisco chrolnicle, touch
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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
2 Comments
“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
11 Comments
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
Should hugs be banned?
Admittedly, since my oldest grandchild just entered second grade this year, I have been out of the loop regarding school board policies dealing with public displays of affection (PDA) between students. I guess, after watching Glee for three years, I … 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
Successful Businesses Start With Conviction
For an entrepreneur, conviction is where it all starts. An exciting idea enters your brain and gets your juices flowing. You can’t stop thinking about it so you start testing the idea out in conversations with friends. After that reality … Continue reading
How Steve Jobs Revolutionized the Massage Industry
The first time we nervously walked into Apple Computer’s Macintosh division in 1984 to provide seated massage with our matching grey slacks, white polo shirts and blue blazers, we felt overdressed. At a time when the largest computer company in … Continue reading
Posted in Chair Massage, History
13 Comments
584 People Receive Seated Massage on Thai Beach
Last week Phuket, Thailand, featured two of its most famous tourist attractions–beaches and massage–as the Ministry of Health hosted one of five preliminary events leading up to an official attempt in November to break the Guinness World Record for most simultaneous … Continue reading
Posted in Chair Massage, In the News
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Quality Control Through Katas
When I first began developing chair massage sequences in 1982, one of my students was also a student of Haruyoshi Ito, who had introduced a Japanese movement form called Shintaido to the United States and Europe during the mid 1970s. … Continue reading
Posted in Bodywork, Business, Chair Massage, Education
11 Comments
Why I Do Chair Massage – Part Two
When I was a kid, my Mom and I used to lie at opposite ends of the couch with our legs entwined. When I was a kid my Dad used to kiss me goodnight. Then, somewhere around ten or eleven, … Continue reading
Posted in Chair Massage, Touch
3 Comments
I Believe in Touch
In 2004, National Public Radio (NPR) began airing readings of brief essays entitled This I Believe written by youth and adults from all walks of life about the core values that guide their daily lives. It was based on a … Continue reading
Posted in Touch
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July 21, 1911 – Happy Hundredth Birthday, Marshal McLuhan
The author of The Medium is the Massage, Marshal McLuhan, deserves a space in the massage almanac for the positive PR impact he had on the early days of contemporary massage, not to mention my life. In 1967, the year of … Continue reading
Creating a Fitness Lifestyle
We all believe in the importance of fitness. Heck some of us are selling it. But what is fitness, and how do you achieve it? My idea of fitness is a broad one. It includes physical, intellectual, social and spiritual … Continue reading
Posted in Fitness
3 Comments
The Curious Disparity of Ambidexterity
After an operation in 1974 put my right shoulder out of commission for a couple of months, I realized how little dexterity I had in my left hand relative to my right. What’s that all about, I thought. Who made … Continue reading
Posted in Fitness
2 Comments
Globalize your website
“What do you call someone who speaks three languages?” Trilingual. “What do you call someone who speaks two languages?” Bilingual. “What do you call someone who speaks one language?” American. OK, OK. It is an old joke that is, fortunately, … Continue reading
Posted in Business
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“Sound is touch at a distance.”
That wonderfully rich quote comes from Anne Fernald, the head of Stanford Institute’s Center for Infant Studies during an interview on a RadioLab podcast, one of my favorite NPR science programs. The program segment was titled Sound as Touch and … Continue reading
Posted in Touch
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The Story of the First Massage Chair
My love affair with chair massage began in 1982, four years before the first professional massage chair came on the market. This is the story of what it took to get that first massage chair built. The problem The team … Continue reading
Posted in Chair Massage, History
30 Comments
The Best Technique for Chair Massage
Oils and lotions were out. That seemed obvious back in 1982 when I first began exploring the idea of massaging people in a seated position. Fortunately, because I had been trained in traditional Japanese massage (Amma), that was not a … Continue reading
Posted in Chair Massage
7 Comments