It’s time to pop the kettle on again, get comfy and read on as Julie and Sarah share their thoughts on self-reflection as a massage therapist, why it’s important, how to put it into practice and best of all, how it can guide you in your personal development. If you remember in our last article, we talked about how amazing you already are, believing in the incredible skills you have as a holistic massage therapist and not to try and reinvent yourself but to deepen your existing skills and knowledge. We hope that reading through our latest musings you will see how you can use self-reflection to guide you.
When we were both training, with the Oxford School of Massage, self – reflection was a key element of our 18-month course. At the time it often felt laborious, time consuming and we remember thinking is this really necessary?
Looking back, absolutely it was, not only necessary but essential in our development growing into competent and confident massage therapists. These skills have embedded themselves within us, we use them, mostly subconsciously now, in, not only our clinics and day to day practice, but also in our teaching and personal lives. It no longer feels hard-work but has become second nature which enables a dynamic – developing environment in which we grow. Forever learning, forever deepening our skills and knowledge, not complacent but open to becoming the best version of ourselves.
How often have you finished massaging a client and felt that it didn’t seem to go as well as the last time? Did you just think that you were having a bad day? That you were tired? Maybe that you simply didn’t connect with your client? Or perhaps you just accept that it wasn’t your best and hope it will be better next time. Regardless of your thought process – or lack of – we are in no doubt that all the above will be accompanied by feelings of inadequacy, uselessness, feeling a failure, or worse…feelings of apathy.
Have you ever actually taken time to intentionally analyse specific areas of your treatments? This is where you have to be open and honest with yourself, we all know how easy it is to get stuck in a rut, in a comfort zone of what you do and how you do it. The question is though, is your comfort zone serving your clients’ needs, are you supporting them in their journey to feeling better, pain free, relaxed? Consider the points below:
- Are you remembering your own self-care? Are you ensuring your own posture is not slipping and starting to create stress within your joints and muscles?
- Are you remaining mindful throughout your massage or are you thinking about your shopping list, or what you need to do later?
- Are you meeting your clients’ needs, expectations?
- If not, why not? Knowledge or skill gaps, consultation skills, listening skills etc.
- What needs to change and how can you improve?
“That’s all well and good, but how do we start incorporating it into our daily clinic and our busy lives? We don’t have time to write paragraphs after each client!!”
We know you are busy, we get it, we are too, life has a habit of stealing our time. But we promise you; one thing is certain that if we stop looking at how we can improve, we may start to become a little complacent which may then lead us to feel out of our depth at times and lacking confidence, and ultimately our client base will suffer and start to drop off.
Just one thing.
So, you can start by focusing on just one area with each treatment, for example, for the first week, really focus on being mindful and present with every client. Use your breath to keep you focussed, close your eyes and tune in to the signals your hands are receiving. Imagine that, with every stroke, your client is receiving healing. This will not only feel incredible for your client, but energising for you. By the end of the session, your client will feel like they are deeply relaxed, even though you may not have found all the trigger points, or areas of fascial restrictions. That’s something to jot down in your client’s notes for next time. When you client has left, sit quietly for a couple of minutes and think back to the treatment. Were you connected througout? If not, why not? Was it your body mechanics making you uncomfortable and distracting you. Was the couch too high? Was the client too chatty?
Make a note in a self-reflection diary, or record your thoughts on a short video. Whatever way suits you. Perhaps the answer is a short meditation before each client arrives, or you might need to take a minute to centre yourself as you rest your hands on your client.
Once you feel you have rectified the problem area(s) you are ready to tune in to a different aspect of your treatment and you’ll find that you are automatically massaging in that beautifully focussed way, yet now you’ll have the capacity to, for example, notice the areas of exquisite pain and pay more attention to them. Before long, you will be naturally keeping a record of what went well and where you can improve in all your clients’ notes.
“But I don’t need to improve!”
What if you feel that you don’t need to reflect, you feel confident in your treatments, you nail it every time! We are pleased to hear that and we are sure you do because, as we said before, you are enough. But there is always, yes, always something that you could change, improve and learn from in every massage you do. I know that may smart a bit to hear but it’s the truth. It takes practice, time and being completely genuine and honest with yourself. Sometimes you have to dig deep and acknowledge you have gaps in your massage practice, your skills, understanding, techniques and approach. Areas where you could be EVEN BETTER than you are already. It really is ok to not be perfect! How boring the world would be if we were!
You are not on your own – there is always help
Being a massage therapist in your own practice, rather than a clinic or salon setting, can be quite isolating. Self reflection, in an isolated setting, can sometimes make us over-think, over-analyse and be over-critical. We have seen this happen occasionally; therapists come to us expressing their concerns and they’ve actually talked themselves into believing that they know nothing and are not good enough anymore (which was the reason we chose the topic of our last article). This can be devastating for the therapist who has given so much time and effort to their training and setting up their practice. All it takes is a bit of guidance, getting them to talk through their treatments with us so that we can identify the cause of their troubles and worry. We are fortunate that our students know they can come to us for a confidential, relaxed chat, a listening ear and some guidance and coaching. Some therapists no longer have that support network once they finish their training, or worse still, there is support but they feel ashamed to ask for help because everyone else in the group chat is saying that they’re doing really well.
I would question this….are they all really doing well? We can guarantee that if you take a deep breath, stick your chin out and say ‘actually guys, I’m not doing so well, I can’t seem to get many clients to re-book…or I’m just not getting results’. BOOM! The flood gates will open because your message will signal that it’s a safe place for honestly and reflection. Other therapists will start posting similar concerns and oodles of advice to help you. This, my friend, is self reflection at it’s best.
Your’e almost there
This is exciting, you’ve identified the area which needs improving, either with a specific client, or in general. Now you need to look for a solution. That might be research and reading because you have realised that you don’t know enough about a particular pathology. It might be training through CPD courses because, although you have done the reading and research, you need help with techniques. Or it might be reaching out to other therapists, those you may work with, or trained with, your local support group and, remember, you should always be able to reach out to the school, college, academy that you trained with. We love hearing from our graduates on how they are doing and offer ongoing support throughout their professional careers, whether that be an informal chat and advice to providing appropriate CPD training options. It may also be as simple is going back to your roots, digging out your original training manual and reminding yourself that you’ve got the answers already!
Get the watering can out
Continue being authentic to your roots, but never stop watering and feeding them, otherwise they will inevitably wither. Strength lies in having an awareness of what will sustain those roots, allow them to grow deeper and support you as you bloom and grow into the beautiful holistic massage therapist the world needs! But keep in mind that some days you will bloom and others you self nurture, feed your roots so that your next bloom will be even bigger!
We are not only here for our students and graduates, but for the massage community as a whole. We always love to chat to massage therapists about their work, their learning, their struggles and their successes. We are learning every single day through teaching, personal practice and talking, and believe us when we say….we learn the most from our students and our clients!
So, if you would like an informal chat or advice about your massage practice, please feel free to get in touch with us.
With Love
Sarah Toplis and Julie Masters
