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Dear Community,
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Does anyone else have a non-office job around here?
I'm a massage therapist and I don't feel like I have much advice to offer around this board cause I don't have to deal with a lot of the office issues most of you have.
Common complaints of therapists include weird stuff like...
What audible.com book can I get thats long enough to last me on my ipod through the day so I don't have to listen to one more second of "soothing music"?
How can I con a coworker into working on my knots without having to actually trade back? are cookies a form of payment?
Giving advice on handling creepy clients.
male clients who shave their backs. Its like massaging a brillo pad.
Why wearing "normal" clothes feels so weird when you get to wear yoga pants to work every day.
telling your bf "you try doing 6 deep tissues a day, then have the energy to clean!"
mastering the ability to eat in 5 minute increments between sessions so that you don't pass out by your last session of the day.
"cool scar, where'd you get it?" "Hot stones."
Common complaints of therapists include weird stuff like...
What audible.com book can I get thats long enough to last me on my ipod through the day so I don't have to listen to one more second of "soothing music"?
How can I con a coworker into working on my knots without having to actually trade back? are cookies a form of payment?
Giving advice on handling creepy clients.
male clients who shave their backs. Its like massaging a brillo pad.
Why wearing "normal" clothes feels so weird when you get to wear yoga pants to work every day.
telling your bf "you try doing 6 deep tissues a day, then have the energy to clean!"
mastering the ability to eat in 5 minute increments between sessions so that you don't pass out by your last session of the day.
"cool scar, where'd you get it?" "Hot stones."
Re: Does anyone else have a non-office job around here?
I don't!!! I actually work in a restaurant! I'm a waitress and have no clue how these office jobs work. Lol. That man back shave thing sounds pretty nasty...
So how do you handle some creepy client who is looking for a "happy ending"?
I have only had a few professional massages and one time I accidentally exposed my privates. The therapist quickly looked away and said she is not supposed to look.
She new it was unintentional and was nice about it.
Sometimes you get male clients who are just awkward and nervous, and they may say something stupid as a joke trying to make themselves more comfortable. That is understandable to a point, because depending on who you are, your first massage can be scary. Women mostly worry about some stranger seeing body parts they are self conscious about, and men mostly worry they're going to get aroused during the session and get embarrassed or get in trouble etc. Those you just try to but at ease, and its generally pretty easy to tell when they are nervous, not creepers.
In 7 years i've never been flat out asked for a happy ending. Its generally more like "oh, are you married?"
"You're too pretty to be 27" (wtf)
Those I handle by mentioning my boyfriend. Thats usually all I have to do to get them to hush. A couple guys don't get how inappropriate it is to hit on your therapist. If they're the kind of guy who will hit on their barista, they'll hit on you, i'm not sure they even realize what they're doing. Its generally the younger ones who are full of hormones and are used to just hitting on everyone.
Then you get into the creepier stuff.
"the way you touch me is just so sexy"
"i've had full release massage before, it was amazing. oh, i hope thats not inappropriate to say to you, you just remind me of it"
or leaving their number on a gratuity envelope. I've actually had 2 clients physically grab me. And older man who was trying to touch my chest, and a 20-something who actually grabbed my arms and tried to pull me down over him.
The way -I- handle that, is I end the session immediately. I said "this session is over. You can pay full price up front." I leave the room, I tell the front desk what happened, and they are put on my "no contact" list, which means they are never being put with me again, if not banned from the place entirely. Then I have a bunch of extra work because I have to write a report on WHY I ended the session and send it to my bosses. Then I usually have to have a meeting with one of my bosses and re-hash it all again. The first time it happened I was incredibly uncomfortable and almost quit because it really upset me. These days, I just get pissed off. I mean, c'mon, who does that??
Thankfully a very, very small percent of my clients are that stupid.
I did corporate for a few years, and saying that I despised it doesn't even begin to cover it. Sitting in a cube dealing with snarky coworkers who talk crap about each other and being expected to be glued to a computer literally sucked the life out of me. I was absolutely miserable, I gained so much weight sitting on my butt all day, and one time I was written up for going to a water fountain that was further from my desk than another water fountain. That's the day I basically said "screw you guys, i'm going home" and left. I swore i'd never work a desk job ever again, and I haven't since.
After the horrible corporate job I went back home and just relaxed for a few months. There was a job fair at a hotel that I went to to try to get some ideas, and a small massage school in another town was there taking sign ups. It was run by a married couple, and the husband was a friend of my old high school band director, so I felt better going to them knowing they weren't trying to scam me or something.
if you're thinking about it, do it! Or at least go get a massage and talk to your therapist about their experiences, they might have some insight on the schools in your area. The hours vary depending on the state you're in. Tx is 500 hours plus an internship, and you have to carry your own liability insurance and take continuing education every year.
A quick warning though, it isn't all fluff massage and relaxing. I had 18 months of anatomy/physiology jammed into my skull in 6 months. that was pretty brutal You have to learn a crap ton of medications and diseases that may be contraindicated and stuff like that. You can choose what specialties you want, but you need some cross over in a little bit of everything. Personally, I mostly do chronic pain cases and injuries, people with fake joints and broken bones that didn't heal or people who've had spine surgery or (ironically) people with repetitive stress injuries from sitting at desks.