The Science of Muscle Tone
Despite the fact that most clients see us for tension and stress, most massage therapists don’t really understand muscle tone and tension. In this post we take a deep dive into the science of tone.
Putting Therapy Back in aromatherapy
Essential Oils with Effects for the Musculoskeletal System. Anne Williams recently produced a webinar on “Putting Therapy Back in Aromatherapy” as part of Biotone’s Edu-Talk series and a replay is now available for you to enjoy. Click the video in this post to enjoy.
Essential Oils for Tension Headache
Tension headaches are the most common type of headache with mild to moderate pain described as a diffuse tight band around the head. The muscles of the head, neck, and shoulders may feel tender. The exact causes of tension headaches are unknown. Factors include stress, depression, anxiety, poor posture, working in awkward positions, and clenching
Helping English Language Learners Succeed in Your Massage Program
You have a new student, Mateo, and he speaks English at a low intermediate level. He moved to your community from Columbia about a year ago. He takes English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, but he is also sitting in your classroom every day to learn massage therapy as a way to support his
The Fantastic Foot Massage Guide
In a recent survey conducted by the American Podiatric Medical Association, 77 percent of the 1000 adults surveyed reported foot pain. Half of all adults say that foot pain restricts their activities – walking, exercising, working, or playing with children – in some way. In addition, people say they would exercise more (39 percent) and
There Are Only Three Ways to Increase Your Sales
This blog post is for massage therapists in private practice and clinic owners who want a more profitable practice. How do you get more profitable? It’s a simple process, really. You have to make a lot more money than you put out for expenses. The greater the difference between your sales and your expenses, the
National Online Learning Day
September 15th is National Online Learning Day! At Massage Mastery Online, we believe in lifelong learning. And as you can probably tell from our name, we’re big fans of online learning!! The pandemic forced schools and students into the online environment, much to the horror of many school directors and administrators. But massage students enjoyed
How to Set Sexual Boundaries in a Professional Massage Practice
Look at any massage group on Facebook and the issue of sexual impropriety comes up on a regular basis. How do we set boundaries to prevent these issues from recurring?
What’s there to love about a Massage Mastery Online textbook?
Renee Johnson, the Senior Instructor and Director of the Massage Therapy program at Chattanooga State Community College, dropped us a note about a spelling error in one of our textbooks. Because the book is digital, we could correct it immediately. She mentioned in passing that she loved the Massage Mastery textbook, so we had to
Spring Smellscapes for Self-Care
It’s Spring! Spring is a time of renewal, new beginnings, rejuvenation, hope, personal growth, and expanding energy. We feel this sense of emerging into the light as snow melts and trees come into bud and turn green. Baby animals are everywhere! Streams are full of running water, fields are flowering, gardens are sending up shoots,
Set Better Boundaries
Establishing boundaries for both our protection and our clients was likely a key takeaway from your ethics classes. But what exactly are we protecting with boundaries? We use boundaries to protect our personal space. And understanding our own boundaries also helps us respect the boundaries of others and allows them to feel safe. During a massage
What does chunky Peanut Butter have in common with our textbooks?
We all love chunks! Chunky peanut butter, chunky salsa, Chunky Monkey ice cream… …and now your students can enjoy chunked textbooks through Massage Mastery Online! Chunking refers to the process of breaking down information into bite-sized pieces to help the brain assimilate and apply new information. The reason the brain needs this assistance is because
A Luxurious Face Massage Routine
Read this article to discover how to perform a luxurious face massage that will keep clients coming back for more.
How to Position a Pregnant Client for Massage
One of the most challenging aspects of pregnancy massage is getting your client in a position that feels comfortable for the duration of the massage. Discover how to best position your pregnant client in today’s blog post.
Understanding Disease Terminology
Before you read this article, try this ten-question quiz to test your knowledge of disease. Select an answer and then click the “Check” button to see if you’re right and then move onto the next question. You’ll find the answers to these questions and more in the blog post below. Pathology is the study of
Are You a Massage Magician?
Which of these characters do you identify with? And how can knowing this improve your success in your personal and professional life?
Teaching Workshops and Doing Presentations to Build Your Practice
Getting a massage for the first time can be a scary experience for people. When they call you for an appointment for the first time, they don’t know who you are, what you look like, what you do during your massage, or what you are like as a person. They don’t know anything about you
When Your Positive Attitude is Bad for Clients
Massage therapists are caring people who want to provide the best possible support to clients. Sometimes, in a desire to be helpful, therapists inadvertently…
Personal Space: A Brief Overview
Can you recall a time when you got angry, upset, or irritated with a client? You were likely triggered by encroachment on your personal space.
4 Great Reasons to Mind Map
A mind map is a diagram that allows you to visualize concepts and their relationships. Usually, the mind map begins with a main subject, theme, question, or issue forming the central point of the diagram. Topics with primary associations branch off from the central Idea. Subtopics branch off from the topics. Lines might be drawn
Education: The Big Picture
In massage education, we often use teaching methods passed to us from our teachers who learned them from their teachers. Where did these methods originate? Since ancient times humans have sought to understand intelligence and how people learn. The earliest cultures, including the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Greeks, and Romans, understood learning as a critical ingredient
Study Effectively Using Your Digital Textbook
In this post we explore 10 key methods for using digital textbook features for effective study through a video presentation and the presenter’s notes. We’ll discuss ways to schedule study sessions, the structure of content, the fact that we should work through content in order, how to preview terminology, ways to commit to a topic,
A Student’s Guide to Learning Massage Terminology
There are about 2,500 terms that comprise the terminology of entry-level massage therapy. Learning the language of massage therapy is just like learning French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, or Arabic. In massage education, you must master a new language and you must master that language in a year! This video presentation and these presentation notes
Teaching with Stories
Since ancient times people have gathered to tell stories of their individual, family, and cultural experiences. Stories are part of our being, and the human brain is hard-wired to remember them. Jerome Bruner suggests that stories are how we map the boundaries of culture and signal the consequences of transgressions. Telling stories as life evolves
The Appealing and Persistent Myth of Learning Styles
Cognitivism is an educational paradigm based on the premise that the brain processes information. To learn, one must direct their attention, comprehend incoming information, sort and organize data for storage in memory, connect new information to previously known information, recall information, and use the information to solve problems. Cognitivists believe that people can improve their
Create Easy Entry-Points to Content
For all students, learning anything new is like landing on an alien planet. They step from their comfort zones into an unfamiliar world full of hidden dangers and do their best to keep their fear in check. Suddenly, new terms are coming at them with rapid-fire precision. They stumble and lose their balance over the
What Can Artificial Intelligence Teach Us About Lesson Planning?
A mountain of research gives us information about how the brain takes in, processes, connects, and stores information. There are more than 50 learning theories that drive our current educational strategies and teaching methods. Two decades of neuroscience and computer science are coming together to model human intelligence to develop artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Still,