I remember being a brand-new massage therapist—those first clients who are complete strangers, and all the feelings that suddenly come up. Am I good enough? Do I know enough? But actually, my inner voice was a lot less confident: You don’t know enough. They can tell you’re brand new. You don’t even remember what muscle you’re touching. Anxiety spread like wildfire. So I went down the path many therapists go: do more. Use all your tools. Push harder. Grind down the taut bands.

There’s a phenomenon in the human nervous system called co-regulation. This means that when a distressed and dysregulated nervous system is near a regulated one, it can learn how to regulate more quickly. Practically, this looks like the moment when you’re breaking down, and your calm friend simply holds space for you. This is the power behind talk therapy. Often, it’s less about the words and more about learning to discuss distressing events while finding safety within yours

It’s thrown around as THE answer for all injury, burnout, or bad days a massage therapist may experience. There are a lot of strong feelings when it comes to body mechanics: do you lower or raise your table, do you avoid thumbs or use them braced, and what about using bolsters? As in everything massage, it depends on your body and your client’s body. In truth, we would have the ability to raise or lower our tables with the push of a button, but those tables cost thousands of

It stimulates proprioceptors and can inhibit over activation in chronically tight muscles. I love the metaphor that massage is teaching your muscles how to be, how to get out of unhelpful cycles. By adding stretching, we can help that muscle find a better state. Add stretching before massage and see how much better the muscles respond. It feels good. Clients who are chronically “tight” get a huge dopamine release when that feeling gets relieved. It’s like finally scratching