Communicating with your Massage Therapist

We all know that communication is the key for everything. From communicating with your loved ones to communicating with people you may only encounter once in your life. Everyday we communicate, though some days may be better then others on our communication skills. Now I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with massage. It actually has a lot to do with massage, actually more to do between you and the massage therapist then the actual massage. Just like any other area of your life, communication needs to be present between you and the therapist doing the bodywork. The first piece of communication would be relaying any pertinent information such as particular body parts that you might want more work on then others, any large bruises or sprains that we should be aware of, as well as any type of pain medications that you might be taking. In regards to the pain meds, the reason you would want to relay this information is because with certain strong pain meds such as doctor prescribed, they work so well that you may not feel how deep a massage you might be getting which would not be a benefit for you body and could be counterproductive. Another key time to communicate with your therapist is during the massage. This would be to let the massage therapist know if the pressure is too soft or too hard. Most of my clients are happy with my 'regular' pressure and style of massage. However, we are not all built the same. I have had clients that like a very soft massage as well as ones that have wanted the massage so deep that if it was me, I'd be screaming. Yet, this is what the client wants, not me. Mainly, if your not happy with the pressure, say something! When I massage a client I try to watch the body language to see if it's telling me if the pressure might be too hard. Most of the time the body will speak in ways that the client won't and I try to keep my eye out for it. However, if the body isn't giving me signs, I would not know. I try to always tell my clients to please let me know if the pressure is too hard or too soft. My philosophy is that they are paying me to make them feel wonderful and fantastic, not to feel all right and dissatisfied with there massage. Plus the fact that I just want them to feel wonderful and fantastic! So to reiterate all of this, please talk with your therapist about your massage. Let them know what pressure you like, whether it might be too hard or too soft. And if for some reason you are not feeling comfortable about communicating this during the massage, send them an email or maybe even a text to let them know. I know I won't please every single client, yet I would like to know what they did not like that I might be able to improve for the next time I massage them (hopefully there will be a next time) or for the next client.