Why I want my clients to speak up.

By: Jeanette Rupar, LMT BCTMB

I start each of my client sessions telling each and every client (each and every time they come in) that they need to talk to me.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. But it’s my session, and I don’t want to talk just to keep you amzued. But that’s not what I’m saying at all……

Each person who comes to see me has different views on what massage can be. They have different pressure needs and sensitivities, different goals. Some people’s ideal massage is having the deepest pressure that the therapist can provide. Others can only handle the slightest of pressures. Most will vary somewhere in the middle of these two ideas.

And there are plenty of people who think they can’t be specific about what they are needing when they are on the massage table.

What I am encouraging you to do when I tell you to talk to me is to keep me informed as to how things are feeling in your skin. As a massage therapist, I need you to keep me informed as to how you feel. I know lots of things. Muscles, bones, nerves, different techniques to achieve a desired goal (from please help me relax to please get rid of this pain *right here*). There is an art to putting all of that together.

But I don’t know how you are feeling that pressure at any one moment.

Please read that again.

Yes, there are tell tale signs that I may be going to hard with my pressure. If your body is tensing up against what I am doing, I am going to be backing off. At that point, your body is fighting what I am trying to do, and negating everything we are working towards (which is not what we really want). I do not need a client crying on my table because it hurts too much. However, I do understand that there are times that a spot needs some pressure to get it to release.

Which of course, assumes a person knows the difference between good pain and bad pain. In the end, each of those is determined by each and every one of us separately.

Mind you, what a person can tolerate one day they may not be able to tolerate the next day. Our bodies change, our needs change. Which is why I tell even my regular clients to keep me informed each time they come to see me.

I am here to help your body find its way to rest, relaxation, and health. I can only do that with your input.