By Pauline Baxter
Professional v Poorfessional: Where do you fit in?
Pre-Covid-19 pandemic, the massage industry as a whole was thriving, with corporate massage (Seated Acupressure – SAM, or On Site Massage) becoming very popular. There were many highly qualified and experienced practitioners offering a valuable service, with a lot of companies recognising the benefits of massage for the health and wellbeing of their employees. Then suddenly, the ‘rug was pulled from under our feet’ as Covid-19 arrived on the scene. Bang. Just like that, the world came to a grinding halt.
During the first lockdown in 2020, all hands on complementary therapy ceased, as did hands on training. Very quickly, there was an in?ux of online massage training courses. The nature of massage is that it is ‘hands on’ and so by definition, you cannot carry out hands on training over the internet. Whilst I agree that for massage, there is a certain amount of theory training that can be completed online via Zoom or similar, the physical, hands on, in-person training is absolutely essential.
Students need to understand and experience how SAM feels as a whole from a client’s perspective from start to finish. This includes the ‘meet and greet’, health consultation, chair set up, the massage itself (initial contact, individual techniques and their application, specific point locations, quality of touch, empathy with the client etc), post massage advice and aftercare.
From the perspective of giving massage, students need to learn the techniques individually first, in order to understand and experience the ‘how, where and why’, both from theirs and the client’s perspective. It does not make sense for a student to learn from only their own perspective if it is not going to be safe and effective for their client. Similarly, it does not make sense to only consider their client’s perspective if, in the process, they are going to cause themselves an injury.
Worryingly, others do not feel the same way and they offer online massage training/qualifications and in some cases, use only videos and pdf’s as their training medium. Yet somehow, the student can end up with a certificate that allows them to take up insurance and be let loose on the unsuspecting public.
This is a definite case of ‘Poorfessional’ rather than Professional, which is quite scary, and even potentially dangerous to both client and practitioner. Now, almost three years down the line, the world continues to adapt and emerge from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, only to find a number of other challenges growing rapidly. These challenges are having, or will have, considerable impact on the world as we knew it.
With regard to Seated Acupressure (SAM) or On Site Massage, let’s consider how changes in the corporate world over the last two to three years have affected the way in which we, as corporate massage practitioners, now work. SAM is generally used as a corporate massage service and provides welcome relief for tense necks, backs and shoulders; something of which there are plenty, and in particular as a result of the hybrid form of working between home and office.
How many people have the correct desk set up at home (if they even have a desk!) In the office, many companies have reduced the physical size of the office and have turned to hot-desking. Invariably, this means the desk set up is not assessed and set up specifically for individuals. Just as many businesses have had to learn to adapt the way in which they work, the same applies to the complementary therapy industry as a whole. But, there is a difference between adaptation and sacrifice.
Put very simply, being able to adapt means being able to adjust/ accommodate/modify. Having to sacrifice means having to surrender/relinquish/ give up. In both cases, the change has the potential to be good and/or bad, depending on the situation and interpretation. This brings me to the term, corporate RRP. You may think of RRP as an abbreviation for recommended retail price, though it can be an abbreviation of other terms e.g. roasted red pepper, remote radar post, runway reference point etc.
Without doubt, it makes sense to look at your corporate massage pricing, particularly as the cost of travel and supplies increases. But there is another meaning to RRP and that is; Review Refresh Professional In terms of SAM and your business, a review is something you would have done in-depth back in 2020 and are likely still doing now, though perhaps on a slightly smaller scale.
This would have included looking at the services you previously offered, what alternatives you may have considered, including retraining in something completely different, or adding additional skills and qualifications that do not depend on in-person contact, but which remain in the complementary therapy industry.
If you chose to return to SAM once the relevant regulatory bodies gave the go-ahead with their guidance, did you refresh your skills This could have been completed in more than one way but should definitely have included you giving and receiving SAM, whilst incorporating any adaptations to the massage you introduced and helping you provide a safe, efficient, hygienic, effective, and professional, corporate massage. Perhaps you attended a refresher training course to help fine tune your skills, once in-person training was allowed.
Having completed the first two points (RR), it brings us to the third point (P). This is very important and worryingly, for some massage practitioners (whether deliberate or not), their services have become tinged with a little lack of thought and preparation, poor techniques/quality of massage, inadequate training, all of which can contribute to a reduction in or lack of, professionalism. The practicalities of providing corporate massage need to be efficient, thorough, and hygienic at all times.
This includes cleaning equipment and room ventilation between all clients and carrying out a suitable consultation/health questionnaire. It has been suggested that some practitioners are ‘cutting corners’ and not completing these tasks as they should in an effort to get more clients through the door as quickly as possible. Exhibitions are returning and you will often see SAM offered on some of the stands. Having been to some exhibitions recently, one situation in particular comes to mind.
There appeared to be no health consultation, the chair was not adjusted to ensure the comfort of the client and as for the massage itself, the quality was poor. The practitioner seemed intent on providing strong, rapid, and unsympathetic contact, resulting in the client ‘bouncing’ backwards and forwards. I doubt it was particularly helpful to or pleasant for the client, the practitioner or even the chair.
This may well have been an extreme example, BUT it can have quite an impact on all three and it also doesn’t show the complementary therapy industry in the best light. Here at Academy of On Site Massage we decided to take a lengthy teaching break at the onset of Covid-19 in 2020. Although not yet back to teaching, we do practice what we preach and regularly apply our own RRP. With that in mind, we hope to be back to hands on training from April, albeit in a slightly different format.