In this ever increasing fast paced, information laden world, it is no wonder that people are reportedly experiencing high levels physical, emotion and social stress. A good massage is needed now more than ever. Just look around and you will see that there is no shortage of potential clients– whether it is to fix sore texting thumbs, frozen shoulders, address a sport injury, or to help a business person or parent to relax and let go of the days’ stress. However, you may be asking if the demand for massage therapy is so high, then why am I not attracting more clients or having a high rate of clients return?  These following are some reasons why, despite hard work and effort, you may want to re-evaluate your massage practice along with solutions on how to attract more massage clients and KEEP them.

1. A ROUTINE MASSAGE. In massage school, you were taught to perform a routine massage in a set amount of time. Start off the massage with a few gliding strokes on the back, do a few strokes here and there, then turn the client over and do a few more strokes and kneading until the time is up, etc. The problem with this is that people are different in body, ailments, contraindications, levels of physical fitness and pain tolerance, etc. and your clients should be treated as the individuals that they are. Routine massages are very limited in addressing certain problem areas. For example, if your client is an athlete and is experiencing a limited range of motion in their shoulder and wants your help with that, then the same routine massage that you just performed on a pregnant lady should be different.
2. NOT EFFECTIVE at reducing the amount of tension in their body. Even when you apply the techniques that you have learned from school properly, they just are not effective at getting rid of the long term tension in some of your clients.  Or worse, you injured your clients by applying too much force and it was an ineffective treatment. They become frustrated and try to find a different massage therapist.
3. INJURIES OR BURNOUT as a massage therapist. You are not using proper body mechanics during your massage treatments, injure your hands, wrist, and backs so you can no longer sustain your career.