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public perception

The profession needs your help

Kelli Wise · Nov 7, 2014 ·

Hey you! Yes you, reading my little blog in between massage clients. Can we talk?

You and I have so much in common, see, so I feel like I know all about you. For instance, it’s likely you are

  • mid 40’s or older
  • probably a sole practitioner
  • giving about 15 hours of massage a week
  • charging about $65 for an hour of massage
  • rely mostly on repeat customers
  • and FEMALE

Wow, we are a lot alike! How do I know this? Well, survey data from the AMTA bears those numbers out. Even looking at the demographic data from the Massage Therapy World Facebook page, the demographic data is almost all women and the average age is in the 35-44 range.

MTW Facebook demographics
If you’ve looked around at meetings, spas, or conventions, you’ve probably noticed this, too. And it’s a problem for all of us.

See, I come from the world of engineering. Electrical Engineering, to be exact. EE is almost the opposite of massage – the profession is dominated by men with about 11% of the profession being women. When I went to industry conferences and events, I was one of about 10%. It had it’s perk: I never waited in line to use the restroom during breaks since there were so few of us.

But it had its downsides. Subtle, if not overt, sexism. I made less money than my male peers. I advanced slower than my male peers. I actually had men tell me they didn’t want a woman (on their design team) (as a manager) (working in their lab). I was told, in those exact terms, all three of those by a man at least once.

It sucked. It was wrong. In some cases, it was illegal.

Here’s massage’s dirty little secret: the men in our profession are subject to the exact same sexism as I was in engineering.

This is what they hear: (I don’t want a male therapist) (He’s a male therapist, are you sure you’re comfortable with that) (I’m sorry, we aren’t looking to hire a male therapist, only female).

In only one of those examples was it a client. Almost always, the sexism comes from women in the industry.

Being a male massage therapist has it’s perk: there’s no line to the restrooms, but in every other respect, it mirrors women in engineering:

  • less pay
  • fewer job opportunities

Things can be tough for the odd man out, but not impossible. I had men in the corporate world who believed in me. They provided opportunities for me to demonstrate that a woman could do just as well as a man. I was promoted to Director of Engineering and the men who gave me the opportunity also worked as advocates to help convince the tougher nuts on my staff to ‘give the woman a chance’. Without that support, the opportunities would not have been as effective.

As a little shout out: Thank you Fred, Bill, Mike, Steve, Peter, Wes, and Jim.

This is where you come in.

See, the men in our profession need our help. They need the opportunities to demonstrate to the client base that a male massage therapist is just as good as a female therapist and they need us to advocate for them to the public.

We need to start educating the public that male therapists are just as safe and competent as female therapists.

As the majority in the profession, it’s up to us to help end the sexism. That needs to start inside the profession, but it also needs to include how we talk about male therapists to the public and our clients.

When clients call to book a massage:

  • Don’t go all “make sure the client knows there are male therapists available and that they are ok with that”
  • Do simply give them an option “You’d like an appointment at 6pm? We have Matt available or Beth available”. Let the client decide.

When someone you meet tells you they would never have a male massage therapist, ask them why and

  • Don’t confirm their bias
  • Do explain when you have had a male colleague massage you that was a great massage experience.

Example: when I refer people to my favorite massage therapist, who happens to be a male, my endorsement of him goes like this: “I want to refer you to Todd, because I’m sure he can help you. In fact, Todd is the therapist I go to for massage and I’m very picky.” It’s not about him being good despite or because of his gender, but simply that he’s good.

If you have a clinic with male therapists, start getting them some clients! Once your customer base starts to realize that a male therapist is awesome, they will rebook and tell their friends. Ending sexism begins by changing minds and you can change minds one client at a time.

And lastly, when a male MT applies for a job at your clinic or spa, unless there is a legitimate, legally defendable reason, do not turn him away because he’s male. That’s called discrimination and it’s illegal.

Why you should help

I know you’re probably wondering why you should help the men in this profession, since they tend to have advantages in society, so here are the reasons I think you should help end sexism in massage:

  1. The men in this profession give great massages!
  2. Diversity in any profession can increase the number of ideas to advance the profession and the people in it. With an industry that is predominantly female, white, and middle aged, we don’t have enough diversity in our ranks.
  3. In female dominated professions, average pay is lower. So, if we get more men in the profession, we might see pay increase.
  4. It’s the right thing to do. Discrimination sucks, regardless of who is being discriminated against.
How can we help the male therapists in our profession? Add your ideas and discussion in the comment section below.

Why I won’t sell skinny massage

Kelli Wise · Jul 29, 2014 ·

There’s nothing like a good, meaty ethical topic to sink your teeth into, is there? I love ethics and I’m fortunate that a lot of you send me emails or Facebook messages about interesting ethical topics. Every now and then, I am very lucky that one of you gets so passionate about an ethical issue that you offer to write a guest post.  Today is my lucky day. Today, I’m fortunate that Tracy Bradley has written a guest post on a very interesting subject – add ons.

Tracy Bradley - Comfort Zone MassageTracy Bradley has been practicing massage therapy in Paris, Arkansas since 2003. She works with headaches, shoulder/neck pain, and overall stress management at The Comfort Zone Massage. Tracy loves purple, peace signs, Coke Cherry, ethics discussions, sarcasm, internet cats, family life, naps, and all types of massage therapy discussions.

It’s not every day that I get to feature a writer from Paris!

Why I won’t sell skinny massage

Things you won’t find on my retail shelf or service menu:

  • Skinny massage
  • Anti-cellulite products
  • Skinny wraps
  • Weight loss supplements
  • Nutrition shakes/pills/juices

Disclaimer: This post isn’t about my personal opinion about these products. This isn’t about whether or not I think they work. My professional ethics and integrity regarding clients, body image, trust, and money is what this is about.

When someone brings up a “great new product” which makes them “tons” of money from clients I cringe. It’s either an “exclusive” essential oil brand or some kind of fat-hiding/burning product. Why? Why, as licensed/certified massage therapists would we want to sell products which highlight and shame perceived imperfections?

The fat-hiding products bother me on a professional level. Could offering fat-hiding products potentially cause a client to feel shame about his/her body? As professional massage therapists we bring people to a place of trust and understanding. Clients are asked to remove some or all of their clothing allegedly without fear of judgment or scrutiny. We touch people’s skin, massaging indiscriminately over cellulite, moles, scars, freckles, and other unique markings. Did you see those words? “We touch people.” Why would we want to line our walls with products which draw attention to bodily imperfections?

I work with clients of many different body shapes, sizes, and weights. Each person possesses a body image. Many people view different body parts as abnormal, imperfect, fat, or ugly. Often these beliefs are distorted. A person may see past his/her healthy muscle and only be able to see a layer of cellulite. Cellulite naturally occurs on every human body. It isn’t shameful to have it’s natural and probably necessary.

Body image is a fragile thing.

How we speak to clients stays with them. How we handle their little fat jokes about themselves is how they decide how much to trust us. I have a few clients who worked up courage for a year or more to book an appointment. They were afraid of what I might think of their body. If potential clients are that worried about what we think of what we see why would we want to display products that throw their insecurities in their faces? I believe displaying and selling these products can contribute to low self-esteem and poor body image. We could be losing massage clients by selling these products. Who wants to be semi-nude in front of someone who could be scrutinizing him/her? Even if we aren’t scrutinizing bodies the products do.

Scope of Practice

Promoting inch-reducing products also confuses the client/therapist relationship. If we sell skinny wraps the client could see us as weight loss experts. Even though the company provides information about use and lifestyle the client will want more from US. If a client has questions beyond the product literature where will I get the answers? I am not a medical doctor, dietician, or personal trainer. I am not qualified to give advice or develop a weight-loss plan. Clients view us as experts and authority figures. If we sell these products they will think we are weight-loss experts. Is potentially harming a client with possibly incorrect information worth a little money? We are licensed to administer massage therapy not to counsel weight-loss. Restating information from marketing materials is not the same as becoming certified to become a weight-loss counselor.

Is selling weight-loss products, vitamins, and wraps practicing within our scope? This probably varies state to state. In my state our Practice Act (Law) states: (4)(A) “Massage therapy” means the treatment of soft tissues, which may include skin, fascia, and muscles and their dysfunctions for therapeutic purposes of establishing and maintaining good physical condition, comfort, and relief of pain.” Selling wraps that clients take home to apply weekly doesn’t seem to fall into this category. Applying a skinny massage technique would be within this scope. Who knows about selling vitamins and supplements? My opinion? It crosses into the territory of prescribing things, which we are not supposed to do. It appears to be a gray area and I’m sure there will be a great discussion. Discussions are good. I can see things from other perspectives.

What do you think? I’m curious to hear what add on services or products you sell and which ones you won’t and why. 

Let’s discuss add ons in the comments below.

When to turn a client away

Kelli Wise · Aug 17, 2012 ·

This happened recently:

One of the tenants in my building had family visiting and wanted to treat them to massage. I was all set and ready to give their young, female relative a terrific first massage.

We went through her intake form and I noted that she was healthy, no medications and no obvious contraindications for massage. So I did my usual verbal intake which includes a verbal “so have you taken any over the counter meds today?”

That’s when it got interesting.

The verbal intake jogged her memory and she mentioned that she had a rash on her chest. Since she was visiting from another part of the country, I needed to figure out if it was allergy related or something else. Further questioning revealed she had swollen lymph nodes that began a few days previously, corresponding with the rash. She had no fever and no itching, but she was also taking Benadryl and ibuprofen, which would suppress fever and itching.

It seems she had been river rafting a few days prior and had worn a ‘gross’ life preserver and that her rash was located where the PFD touched her skin.

So here I am with an otherwise healthy 22 year old woman presenting with a rash and swollen lymph nodes but no other symptoms. I had to disappoint her and tell her that she shouldn’t have a massage. She was pretty cool about it, but I could tell she was disappointed and probably thought I was nuts.

In all honesty, I questioned my decision afterwards. Was I being overly conservative? Would Ruth Werner have approved of my decision? (really, I thought of Ruth Werner). This self doubt lasted about 20 minutes before I convinced myself that I wasn’t being a nervous nelly.

2 days ago I bumped into my fellow tenant who thanked me for turning her relative down. It seems that the day after our massage appointment, the young woman’s illness finally peaked and she spent the next day or so vomiting and running a high fever. She’s all better now, but everyone is more aware of why a massage therapist might send someone, who appears healthy, home rather than go ahead with the massage.

By the way, I don’t charge a client when this situation comes up.

Have you ever had this happen? How did you feel when you sent them home?

Using Google Alerts to monitor massage activity and the law in your state

Kelli Wise · Jun 27, 2011 ·

Today’s guest post is by Michael Reynolds. According to his bio:

Michael Reynolds is President/CEO of SpinWeb – a professional website design, development and online marketing firm.

Michael regularly publishes email articles, blogs, and e-books that teach his readers how to do business and communicate using digital tools. He also speaks at industry events around the country, including the Web 2.0 Expo in New York, the CMS Expo in Chicago, and Blog Indiana in Indianapolis.

Michael can be contacted via his speaking site at www.michaelreynolds.com or via SpinWeb’s website at www.spinweb.net.

I will also add that he’s very smart, very generous, and a great resource. So, without further ado ….

The massage profession is in an evolutionary state right now. There are hundreds of thousands of hardworking professional massage therapists working as health care providers throughout the country. Unfortunately, the regulation of massage therapy is still in flux and many state laws are still behind the times and offer little to no protection to the massage profession or to consumers. Some states have full licensure, some state have certification, and some have no regulation at all.

Along with this environment, comes the unfortunate problem of prostitution under the guise of legitimate massage. For this reason, many AMTA chapters are very active in monitoring local news reports covering “massage “parlor” busts. AMTA members are among the most vigilant in monitoring and reporting these unfortunate situations. Each time a story breaks that covers prostitution under the guise of massage, it’s a great opportunity to contact local legislators in order to lobby for stronger laws or an upgrade to state licensure.

Since it can be difficult to keep up with all the stories on this topic, I thought I would share a simple technique that can help AMTA members and chapter volunteers monitor these stories using Google Alerts.

Google Alerts is a free service that allows you to automatically monitor certain topics on the web and get automatic reports on a daily basis with links to the stories. To set up an alert to monitor massage-related issues in the news, first go to www.google.com/alerts. You will be asked to enter keywords that you want to get alerts on. Here is an example that AMTA volunteers or staff members may want to use to monitor issues related to illegal activities related to massage:

Setting up Google Keywords

This will set up an alert that emails you every day with any stories containing the keywords “massage,” “prostitution,” and “Indiana.” You can select other options, such as how often to send alerts and what types of content to monitor. I generally choose once a day and all content. Then, every day (if there are any matches), you will get an email that looks something like this:

Google Alerts results

As you can see, this will let you monitor news stories that cover “massage parlor” busts which gives you information to send to your local legislators. This can be valuable for AMTA chapter government relations chairs as they report issues to legislators and lobby for stronger regulation. GR chairs and other AMTA volunteers can also contact local members who can then contact their legislators.

Naturally, you can tweak the keywords to meet your needs but this example hopefully shows you how to use Google Alerts as an AMTA volunteer or staff member to stay in the know when it comes to issues that affect the massage profession.

I would love to hear feedback from those who are using Google Alerts for this purpose. Please comment below!

Weekly Wrap Up – Guest post tease edition

Kelli Wise · Jun 24, 2011 ·

It’s time for the weekly round up of good stuff I’ve found on the internet just for you. But it’s also a quick tease about a really terrific guest post coming on Monday! Get up 5 minutes early, get a nice hot cup of coffee and be sure to come right here – it will definitely be very useful.

Did you catch Allissa Haines from Writing a Blue Streak on the Massage Nerd show? If not, head over there and watch the replay. She proved that she’s as smart and articulate (and blue haired) in real time as she is in her blog. She followed up with a blog post on giving away free massage and what massage is worth. Hint – it’s not “Free”.

I’ve started reading a small business blog published in the NY Times. It features several small business owners who post on a regular basis. The articles range from very interesting, like this one on Whose Advice to Take and not very interesting, but since they publish rather often, I usually find one meaty thing a week.

Holy cow, I just read this post from Christopher S. Penn and I’m going to have to read it a few more times, because it looks like a Google’s last series of changes has made a huge impact on social media and search ranking. I recommend you read this and then rethink your objections to using Facebook or Twitter.

Peter Shallard, the Shrink for Entrepreneurs, talks about Willpower and Potential and wants you to look at how you are spending them.

I love Paul Ingraham’s Save Yourself site. You should too. ‘Nuff Said.

Weekly Seth Godin: “Anything more than Good Enough is stalling“. There are a couple of you reading this that are working on projects and not getting them finished. Go read this. I may have to get it carved in stone.

Laura Allen sure didn’t mellow out in Ireland! I could just kiss her for this post on knowledge and massage, but instead I’ll just quote her below:

The human body is an amazing thing, and the more I know about the way it works, the more competent and empowered I feel to do a good job as a massage therapist. Sadly, that sentiment isn’t shared by everybody.

And one of my favorite posts of the week from Dan at the Practitioners Journey, Are you waiting to be picked?

Well, that’s a lot more reading than normal, but it was a good week in the blogosphere. Dont’ forget to come back Monday for a special guest!

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