Q: How do you feel about massaging women?
A: Most of my clients are women. I feel that I’m able to give a good, therapeutic, intuitive massage. I’m not judgmental of women’s bodies; I treat all of my clients with the respect they deserve. Q: And how about massaging men? A: In my experience, men who ask for a male therapist usually want deeper tissue massage, which is great for me because that’s what I like to do! Deep tissue focuses on the therapeutic aspect of massage. It’s a major part of what I do. Q: What are your feelings about being a gender minority in the massage world? A: I look at my job from the perspective of a massage therapist, not from that of a man. Unfortunately, massage therapy is still confused with intimacy, which it is not. It’s assessment, it’s treatment of soft tissue injuries. It’s an hour on the table working on your muscles. It’s therapy. Your therapists sex has nothing to do with it. Q: What would you say you focus on during treatments? A: Pain is often what brings clients in. I always address pain first – it’s a symptom that shouldn’t be ignored. Once the pain goes away, I focus on funct
Every April, I pull out my Slo-pitch ball bag. Curse at myself for not having done it in October… Curse some more because that’s where my shirt went, or my favorites socks…. and then….curse some more because I left everything in the bag wet…. OOOOPS! I start the process of airing out the equipment, oiling up the glove, make sure there is a ball for every league, 11 inch for ladies, 12 inch for mixed. My warmup balls, one heavy, one regular weight. My bats are all cleaned up. My cleats cleaned and sprayed to rid of the smell. That’s my routine. I am a full time athlete only part of the year, because I only play ball from May to October. But, during my season I go all-out. I play on 3-4 teams, leagues and tournaments…. then the rest of the year is for rehabbing nagging injuries that happened during ball season. BUT… this year has been a little different. This year, instead of worrying about old injuries or worrying about a tweak here or there, I have been very worried about a new injury. One that impacts my game so much, that I have pulled myself from my line ups, just so I can rehab it to play in the year end tournaments. One that prevents me from lifting heavy objects, or thinking about how might I move my body during a treatment so I don’t feel this discomfort I am constantly feeling. I am often asked “who takes care of you?” and jokingly I reply “I get
So you’ve gone and hurt yourself, huh? You’re a gung-ho weekend warrior with a twinge in your back and aren’t sure what to do about it. This isn’t unusual. We get all kinds of people coming through our doors who’ve injured themselves in brilliant and creative ways. As I sit here compiling this literary masterpiece, a client walks in with back spasms that are causing him visible discomfort. “How’d that happen?” I say. “I was choking on some long grain rice and coughed so violently that I threw my back out” he replies. Believe me when I say we’ve seen and heard it all. You may find yourself asking “What kind of treatment am I supposed to get?” With all the various types of sprains and strains you may be unlucky enough to receive, where to start can be an overwhelming decision. Here are a few things to consider: 1.What is your level of pain? If you’ve got a full-scale broken back, you’re going to want the emergency room and not deep tissue massage. An honest evaluation of the pain you are in/damage you have done is important at this stage. Open wound? Hospital. Arm dangling at a weird angle where you KNOW there isn’t a joint? Hospital. Tightness in the lower back after trying the caber toss for the first time? Whole Therapy!