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During Your Massage Session
1. Going over your health history and what you want from your session:
Your therapist will show you to the treatment room, and will talk with you about what you would like from your session.
It is important to let your therapist know of any new injuries you have had, if you are or could be pregnant, and also how you would like to feel from the session.
You may want to simply feel relaxed, or you may want your therapist to work on sore muscles, or help rehabilitate an injury, for example.
2. Demystifying the undress code:
Your therapist will leave the room while you get ready for your massage.
Many therapists will say "undress to your level of comfort" and what they mean is truly that! You can indeed only take off as much clothing as feels comfortable to you. You can keep all of your clothes on if you choose, and receive a great massage with your therapist using sports style compressions through your clothing and gentle joint mobilizations.
If you want to experience massage that uses oil, you may want to first try only undressing your top half, and receive a back, neck and arm massage.
Most people choose to keep their underwear on and take everything else off
(including bras, watches and jewelry).
And, it is absolutely ok to undress completely, as your therapist will always keep you skillfully covered with the drape (sheet or blanket) for privacy coverage. Your therapist will only uncover the area of your body that they need access to to work on therapeutically, such as an arm, the back, a leg, feet.
3. Getting on the Table:
Your therapist will have let you know before they left the room whether they want you face up or face down to start, and talked through which areas will be worked on so you can give your consent.
Once you are ready to get on the table, you can position yourself between the sheets on the massage table, with your face resting in the face cradle if you are face down.
Our tables are electric adjustable tables, so if you need your table raised or lowered to support you in getting on or off the table easier, please let your therapist know.
Your therapist will knock on the door to make sure you are ready and covered before they re-enter the room.
When your therapist re-enters the room they can adjust the ankle pillow, and face cradle as needed.
4. During the session:
Your therapist will make sure you are settled and comfortable before beginning.
Like mentioned earlier, your therapist will only undrape areas that they need to access for working on the areas you have consented to. You may change or retract your consent at any time for any reason during your session. Your therapist will ALWAYS double check in with you before working on sensitive areas like the pecs (upper chest), abdomen, glute muscles, the anterior neck, or face.
Communication is key to you receiving the best session, so please do be honest when your therapist checks in about pressure, and comfort level throughout your session. Know that our therapists want to support you, so your feedback is always welcome.
A note about pressure: In a relaxation, hot stone, reflexology, facial cupping, or lomi lomi session, the depth of pressure applied during the massage will always be light, and flowing. If it is ever painful or uncomfortable in a relaxation session, let your therapist know, and they will find a depth that does feel good for you.
In a therapeutic, deep tissue, or myofascial cupping session, pressure applied may be a little bit more, to varying degrees, based on what level your body needs to release tight muscles or connective tissues. Pressure again should not be painful, although may have a good sort of discomfort to it, much like a good workout has a discomfort that also feels good and releasing.
One way to ask yourself if the pressure is too much, is to notice your body signals:
-are you holding your breath?
-are you clenching your jaw/fists/feet?
-are you feeling pain greater than 5/10 pain scale?
(0=no pain, 10=excruciating)
If any of these are a Yes, then the pressure being used is likely not the best therapeutically, and you may have reflexive tightening in your tissue the next day. To avoid this, let your therapist know to lighten up a little. They will thank you for your feedback!
Your therapist will continue to check in with you throughout the session about pressure, draping (how the coverage of the sheet feels), temperature, and general comfort.
Your therapist may apply various massage techniques during your session to the areas discussed to treat, such as:
Effleurage - long flowing strokes to relax and encourage circulation
Petrissage - therapeutic lifting and kneading of tight muscles
Trigger points - Directive pressure to a single muscle knot or tension for 30 sec -2 mins while you breathe to allow for release.
Cross fiber frictions - (in therapeutic sessions) releasing connective tissue tightness with transverse pressure across a pinned muscle, tendon or ligament, applied in a brisk motion to break up adhesions.
There are various other modalities we offer that you may receive from our therapists such as myofascial cupping, hot stone, ear reflexology, lomi lomi and reiki. You can look up more about their descriptions here:
Turning over:
When it is time to turn over in your session, your therapist will invite you to roll over, once they have the drape secured in a tented shape so you can turn without getting tangled in the sheet, and also while staying covered.
Therapist safety:
We keep our therapists safe
** Please do not ask our therapists to completely uncover you, or ask them to touch you in ways that are sexual. We do not offer body rub or escort services, and will end any session at any time if a therapist is uncomfortable with your behaviour and you may not be allowed to return to our clinic. Communication expectations of our clients consist of respecting our therapists physical boundaries, using respectful language ie. not asking them on dates, or speaking flirtatiously about their bodies, touching or hugging our therapists without consent, using abusive or bigoted language.
Homophobic, transphobic, racist, agist, sizeist, ableist, or otherwise hurtful language or behaviours are NOT welcome in our space. Period.
If individuals cross a line, they may be asked nicely first to adjust their behaviour, as we know many people are just learning to unlearn some of the programming we grew up with, however, if the individual(s) do not change their behaviours, they will be blocked from our online booking, and not be allowed to return to our clinic.
Thank you for understanding, and helping to create a safe place for our therapists to work!
5. End of the session
Your therapist will let you know when the session is complete and your time is finished. They will step out of the room, and allow you to get up off the table