I’ll be one of a few volunteers giving free massage and bodywork to the survivors and firemen of the Santa Barbara Tea Fire at Santa Barbara Yoga Center.  Lais da Silva, owner and founder of Santa Barbara Yoga Center, has been generous enough to organize a clinic at her beautiful and peaceful yoga center in an effort to promote healing in our community in the wake of this tragedy.
Please help spread the word to other professional healers and victims alike.  Roll your mouse over the “Share/Save” graphic below and …

She massaged me for ten minutes before the game against Spain and it was the best game of the tournament
By Sophie Hardach
BEIJING (Reuters) – Happy elves, Viking rituals and a back rub from the first lady are powering Iceland’s handballers on their way to what could be a first Olympic gold for their frosty island.
Iceland’s handballers usually struggle to attract 500 spectators when they play at home. But their formidable performance has fired up the entire nation of 300,000 people — when they played against Spain in the semi-finals, …

By John Schumacher – jschumacher@sacbee.com | Photo: Paul Kitagaki Jr.
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A
Stephanie Brown Trafton, Galt’s gold medalist, believes it takes a village to make an Olympic athlete.
So she relied on an extensive support network to prepare for the Beijing Games: a trainer, a massage therapist, a biomechanist, two former Olympic throwers, an understanding husband and a flexible employer.

Written by Editor Choice | Thursday, 14 August 2008
- As an instructor at Cortiva Institute and Staff Massage Therapist for Rutgers University Swimming Team, one of the most memorable of many events for Brian was watching Jessica Botzum, an All-American swimmer from VA Tech, finish her qualifying event in a dead tie for the last spot in the finals to make the Olympic Team.

TIME | Thursday, Jul. 31, 2008
By CYNTHIA ROSENFELD

The American spa trainer shows her security guards and gardeners how to give massages
Eric Bergoend
Bali resident Susan Stein does one of the better things a person can do for their unskilled domestic staff: she teaches them to become something else.

Mobile massage studio delivers zen to your doorstep
Michelle Magnan, Calgary Herald
Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008
What’s eight metres long, has a built-in zen garden and a full-length massage table?
A mobile spa on wheels called Compassionately Kneaded Mobile Massage Studio.
Calgarian Rita Acharyya is the woman steering the studio, and she’s dedicated to bringing a little piece of spa-like heaven to people around the city.
Rita Acharyya and James Decker give Leslie Cummings a massage in Rita’s Massage Vehicle. Acharyya won the reality show DreamChasers with her idea to convert an RV into a …

Market Watch
Last update: 8:23 a.m. EDT July 15, 2008

SOUTHLAKE, Texas, Jul 15, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Like Johnny Appleseed of legend, “Dave Freerub” is on a mission, too. The mission: free massage for all!
In a time when deep economic woe, record foreclosures and bank failures, ridiculously high gas prices, global insecurity, an unpopular war and despair grips the nation, it may seem to some that a massage is a bit frivolous. To the contrary, a FREE 5 minute massage and neck rub from a professional, licensed massage therapist could …

YV&C News Desk

Denise Dobbs Launches Crew Agency to Place Massage Therapists and Yoga Instructors on Board Luxury Yachts Worldwide
By: YV&C News Desk
Jul. 11, 2008 07:45 AM
Hands Om Crew introduces an entirely new concept to the yacht crew placement market. By developing a next generation staffing agency committed to bringing the healing arts into the luxury yacht market and private homes, Hands Om Crew has sought out to fill an industry void.
Although there are several reputable crew placement agencies working with the mega yachts today, Hands Om Crew has …

by David Woodhouse (more info)
listed in massage, originally published in issue 32 – September 1998
That which has generically become known in the Western world as ‘On-Site Massage’ has its roots in the Orient, as indeed do many other therapies. These roots emanate from Anma (Lit: “Press and Rub”) which many thousands of practitioners perform every day throughout China and Japan and have origins going back many centuries. It is interesting to note that Shiatsu, regarded by many as an “ancient” Japanese treatment also has its roots in Anma, a …

There’s an interesting article on Bellasugar.com about buying spa and massage gift certificates.  The writer first points out the popularity of gift cards and gift certificates, telling us that her personal preference for gift certificates is spa gift certificates.
“Gift cards sell like crazy this time of year, but I’ve always preferred to give the gift of spa. Giving a spa gift certificate is a way to treat someone right…”
She then goes on to give us a few pointers and reminders:
Service or cash amount?
Personally, I like the idea of giving …

EmaxHealth
12/22/2007
Massage therapy intersects with two major consumer trends this holiday season making massage therapy gift certificates a holiday gift idea every adult appreciates.
National consumer research has shown a dramatic increase in acceptance of massage therapy by Americans over the past two decades, with 16 percent of Americans – one in six – having received a massage in 2006, up from 12 percent in 2004. First-time users reported overwhelmingly positive experiences in a January 2007 survey conducted by Harstad Strategic Research and sponsored by ABMP.

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Bay Area company hopes its chair massage businesses will be in storefronts everywhere
Ilana DeBare, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, January 20, 2008
The San Francisco man who is considered the father of chair massage has a new mission – building a chain of storefront businesses that he hopes will become the Starbucks of massage.
David Palmer brought the then-novel benefit of workplace massage to Apple Computer in 1984 and designed the first massage chair in 1986.
Now he’s started a company called Zubio that could change the business model of chair massage by creating …

By Whitney Lowe
© Massage & Bodywork magazine, January/February 2008

Someone once said, “Predictions are frequently inaccurate—especially those about the future.” It is likely that fifty years ago few in the profession could have guessed massage would grow in the ways and to the extent it has. Indeed, it is not possible to predict an absolute course for the future of massage therapy. Nevertheless, it is valuable to review the general trends in the profession to gauge its growth patterns and future possibilities.
In the last issue, which …

When 10-year veteran massage therapist Greg Polins, of PolTech, Inc., began to experience crippling pain in his thumbs and wrists from extensive deep tissue massage, he knew he had to do something to keep his job. So three years ago, he invented a Thumbsaving miracle for the global massage therapy industry. The rest is history.

Research by Drs. Janet Travell and David Simons, authors of “The Trigger Point Manual,” has shown that trigger points are the primary cause of pain at least 75 percent of the time and are a factor in nearly every painful condition.

Trigger points, a type of muscle stiffness, are the result of tiny contraction knots that develop in muscle and tissue when an area of the body is injured or overworked. Trigger points are something traditional doctors ignore, but they could be the one thing that has been overlooked in your case for years, if not decades.

Barefoot Deep Tissue Massage, Barefoot Sports Massage, Barefoot Compression Massage, Ashiatsu… These are some of the terms used to describe a modality of bodywork where the therapist uses his feet to apply pressure (usually the heel and sometimes the sesamoid bone) instead of his hands.

So you’ve taken the Barefoot Massage course, you’ve practiced on your friends, now what?

The first challenge you face when you’re ready to start giving barefoot sessions is that your clients may not necessarily be ready to receive barefoot sessions!

Ok. We’re getting there. So now, you’ve convinced some of your clients to try the Barefoot Deep Tissue Massage and they’ve even gone the whole 60 minutes without asking to switch to a table massage. In the follow-up call the next day, they reported that they slept well and woke up feeling refreshed. But…

So here you are, finally a certified massage therapist! Now you’re ready to start your practice! But where are all the clients?!?