a community of practitioners

Massage Draping: Do you touch butts?

In my capacity as the owner of a mobile massage service I interview a lot of MTs. It's pretty interesting to see the differences in draping techniques and philosophies. I think a lot of it is borne from the school the therapist attended. Some - especially newer therapists, are quite prude and won't uncover or touch anything practically past the knee (not like there are any important muscles under there!), while others are so bold you wonder if they are going to take your temperature the old fashioned way! I'm interested to get different views on this topic. I also wrote a short massage blog about it with a few of my own additional thoughts.

Looking forward to your replies!

D. Melmed

Body Well Therapy

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sarah DeRosier on September 9, 2014 at 10:35am

I personally agree with you on that....

I think a lot of things it just comes off as odd or awkward and 9 times out of 10 people make way bigger a deal of stuff then they nee to be.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jason M. Kretzer on September 22, 2014 at 10:42pm

In reality, a great massage can be given fully clothed. Not to say that this should always be the case. Point being, there really is no reason to undrape the glutes. For basic swedish massage, simple cat-pawing-like compressions are great for the feel good sensation of relaxation. For more medical based approach, trigger point therapy works great. Both can be done with great effectiveness through the sheet. Being a male, especially with all the sue happy people out there, I choose to be safe than sorry. It's not worth risking a bad reputation in my opinion.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on September 23, 2014 at 2:47pm

When I first started out, I was a Shiatsu Therapist. I massaged clients on a very thin mat that was on the floor. And the clients were fully clothed. So yea, you can give a good massage with the cleint fully clothed. I usually work on the Glutes. If they have underwear on, I work the glutes through the sheet. If they have no underwear on, I massage the glutes undraped. Thats basically what I do. Younger clients 16 or under, I basically dont massage above the knee unless they are coming in specifically for hip or low back pain. But I make sure the parent knows. And its still done through the sheet. I think that basically says it for me. Even though I comented on it earlier in the thread.