I was in town for a couple of days, and thought I'd get a massage while I was there. I know that independant LMTs are often times far better than the LMTs that you find in big corporate spas and chains, so I picked this place and crossed my fingers. The massage I got was okay overall. My massage therapist, Jessie, seemed somewhat inexperienced, though. Her hand strength was good for deep pressure, but her technique left much to be desired. She moved too quickly to be able to find the spots that needed more attention. Long, slow, fluid strokes are what make a swedish massage a swedish massage. This massage was fast, choppy, and disjointed. She got through the 90 minutes session too quickly and then went from my feet back to my neck/face to fill time. So, feet hands on my face... yeah, at least they were my feet, but this is a massage pro no, no. There were also several times throughout the session where the deep pressure wasn't adjusted when moving over boney prominences. Gliding over bones with firm pressure is very painful. It's hard to express to a therapist that they should be avoiding boney prominences and/or adjusting pressure when gliding over them. It's taught in school. The pressure was perfect in general, so asking for less pressure wasn't really going to get the result I wanted. Everything would be feeling fine and then suddenly I'd have an elbow in my spine. She also climbed atop the table and straddled my legs, which was unexpected. It would probably be appropriate to ask for consent from the client before doing this. Like another reviewer said, she made an intentional effort to crack my back. It wasn't overly forceful, but it wasn't within her scope of practice to do this, and she didn't ask for condent. Last but not least, the draping. Proper draping techniques are taught in every massage school. The lack of draping skills made me seriously question whether or not she had received training from an accredited school and was actually licensed as a massage therapist. She messed around with the draping constantly throughout the session, which was very distracting. She'd shove the sheet halfway down my back and massage under the sheet, dragging it back up with her as she moved, then pushing it down again. It should take one quick fold down to the sacrum and then you don't have to touch it again until you cover the client. It was the same with leg, arm draping... A lot of fiddling around with the sheets and massaging under them when she couldn't get them to stay put. Twice during the session, she exposed my breasts while attempting to drape. I was never able to fully relax into a meditative state with all of the fidgeting around.
It wasn't a great experience, but these are things she could improve upon, so I don't want to be overcritical. She seemed like a nice person, and she had good energy going for her. I was a massage therapist for many years and also worked as adjunct faculty for a massage school doing clinical massage assessments with students. I've had more massages than I could ever count. I may be more apt to notice some of these things than the general public. However, these are the things that will make or break the experience for anyone whether they're able to explain the reasons or not. read more