July/August 2015

There is a lot of competition in the massage marketplace these days. Home-based practices compete with therapy clinics, which compete with medical spas, which compete with MTs working in franchise stores.

New clients find you in a variety of ways. Your website and other online options—like the ABMP referral directory and Massagetherapy.com—are also important paths you must build and nurture.

Though my solo massage business had been humming along just fine since the beginning of the year, I suddenly realized that most of the summer was looking really quiet. I needed ideas.

Isn’t this what technology is for—to make it faster and easier for us to communicate? Doesn’t it make you happy to know that a vast web of people are only a click away? Maybe. Maybe not.

Read Les and Kristin's thoughts on the latest consumer results survey—looking at the 2015 National Survey of Adults on Massage Therapy.

So far, it’s been a busy year for massage legislation and regulation. As several state legislative sessions wrap up for the year, let’s take a look at a few noteworthy bills.

This article is a bit of a departure from the typical column. It is focused on a phenomenon, not yet fully accepted disorder, called orthorexia: a pathologic obsession with eating healthfully. Because our clients see us as role models for wellness, it's worth taking a close look at our attitudes about food and health.

The subclavius is a small muscle located in the anterior shoulder girdle. Similar in function to the scalene muscles, the subclavius may assist with inhalation by elevating the first rib.

Pain is a common complaint with cancer patients due to the disease, the treatments, and the recovery, and is experienced by 40–90 percent of cancer patients. One treatment that may improve the symptoms of this pain is massage therapy.

This February was the first annual San Diego Pain Summit, which attracted leading manual therapists and premier experts on pain.

During times of stress, pain, or crisis, it’s especially important to be maintain positivity. As healers, we’re part of the team providing this necessary encouragement to our clients. So how do we handle their negative attitudes in a way to assist them?