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Persistent Clients

Have you ever had that client that just wanted deep work. Who didn't care that you try to warm up the tissues first. No matter how much you try to educate them about how the proprioceptors in the muscle work, they just want an elbow and all your body weight now?

A while back I had a client come into our student client and request a Deep Tissue Massage. I put her with one of my better students and figured everything was fine. About ten minutes into the session the student came out and informed me the client wanted someone else, and that she wasn't deep enough. Through tears of frustration the student began to tell me how she started doing the warm up phase and the clients muscles were not giving in, even spasming. The client said she just wanted her to push harder and didn't care what her muscles were doing. The student then tried to explain how her nerves weren't allowing her to go in to the tissue any deeper and the client asked her to leave the room and find her someone who would.

I decided to take it upon myself to cater to this clients needs. I walked in the room explained that I was the instructor and would be finishing her massage. All she told me was "The student was very nice but wouldn't listen to me." I am 6'9'' tall and weigh about 240. She told me she wanted deep work. So I said to her "I shouldn't have a problem with that let me know if it gets too deep," and preceded to start with my elbow. I worked through the spasming back muscles,against my better judgement, and within a minute she cried uncle. She then stated "Now I see what she was talking about." The rest of the massage went smoothly without anymore complaints.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tracy Mason on July 21, 2009 at 9:29am

I have one client who EVERY time I work on, asks me to give more pressure when I'm warming the muscles. And EVERY time I explain why I'm doing this. UGH! I also had a client that tried to boss me around the entire session, telling me where to massage, even wanting me to massage endagerment sites...and this woman is a doctor!! She should have known better. And she wanted so much pressure an elephant could have stood on her and it wouldn't have been enough. This woman was a friend of the doctors I work for and she told me before the session that she has a steady massage therapist but she was told to come to me because I'm good. I told the doctors I won't work on her again, I'd refer out. I'm pretty sure she stayed with her usual therapist. I feel sorry for that MT!!

Permalink Reply by Cindy Veach on August 13, 2009 at 11:04pm

I have a deep appreciation for massage teachers, especially those who over see student clinics. As a student, I've dealt with a few clients who think I'm not worth listening to because I'm in school. It is so nice to have somebody there to back me up! I realize it's not an easy task to be the "buffer" and I give you lots of props!

Permalink Reply by Marilyn St.John on August 30, 2009 at 7:40pm

The flip-side of this discussion would address one of my pet peeves ~ Having been the unfortunate recipient of neck & shoulder massages while getting facials from two different estheticians in the last couple years, it alarms me that they are actually trained to ALWAYS do deep tissue work, the deeper the better, even over the bony structures. Both women were mystified (and one was even insulted) when I brought it to their attention (like--OUCH!) and told me it was how they were trained to do it ... the subsequent bruising was a gift, I guess. I hope my more subjective offering just provides another great reason for having a good understanding of the physiology involved in our work!

Permalink Reply by Ariana Vincent, LMT, MTI, BCTMB on September 9, 2009 at 8:45pm

Hi Nate - Are you 6'9" and weigh 240 or were you just seeing if anyone was paying attention? Warmly, Ariana

Permalink Reply by Bill Cahalan on September 13, 2009 at 8:55am

I had that happen to me as a student and I'm 310 lbs. No matter how much effort I put into the pressure it was not enough. She complained and complained till I finally got the instructor and he finished it and later said she just wanted pain. The client had no business coming to a school for a student massage.

Permalink Reply by Nate Ewert on September 14, 2009 at 8:07am

Yes I really am!

Ariana Vincent, LMT, MTI, NCTMB said:

Hi Nate - Are you 6'9" and weigh 240 or were you just seeing if anyone was paying attention? Warmly, Ariana