As this digital textbook opens, we meet Kayla, a massage therapist, and Alice, a massage client. Alice has brought Kayla a gift – a very nice gift. When Kayla explains that she doesn't accept gifts as a professional massage therapist, Alice will not hear of taking the gift back. “Toss it in the street if you don’t want it!” she says. This is when Kayla realizes that Alice is walking all over her and that their therapeutic relationship is unhealthy.

As we get to know Kayla and Alice and other massage therapists and their clients, we learn that healthy therapeutic boundaries begin when massage therapists use specific methods to establish acceptable behavior during the initial massage session. Still, healthy professional boundaries require ongoing attention. We’ll come to understand the points where Kayla and other massage therapists allowed therapeutic massage relationships to become unhealthy.

PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE COMPLEX DYNAMICS OF THE SESSION ROOM

As educators, we know that therapeutic relationships are incredibly nuanced and driven by a complex dynamic interplay of psychological needs and wants.  For our graduates to be truly prepared for the unique energetics of the session room, they must hold a deep knowledge of their own boundaries and a high level of awareness related to client boundaries. This text helps students build their knowledge and boundary-setting skills step-by-step.

Developed on the unique learning platform at Massage Mastery Online, this engaging program is filled with video, images, digital learning activities, and plenty of real-world scenarios to ensure content is fresh, organized, and fun. Downloads provide important policy documents that help establish the professional boundaries of a massage business. 

Williams, A., Brown, E. Boundaries: The Foundation of Ethical Massage Practice. Sweet Orange Education LLC, 2021.

ISBN : 978-1-7923-9042-5 (eBook)

• Learn to recognize your personal boundaries, notice when they are crossed, and respond effectively to boundary violations.  
• Evolve your personal boundaries to improve your relationships with friends, family, work colleagues, and other health care professionals. 
• Set strong and appropriate professional boundaries to maintain healthy therapeutic relationships with clients.
• Develop the skills to establish and maintain boundaries through effective relating styles, attention to body language, active listening, and assertive communication.  
• Successfully manage the difficult client situations all massage therapists encounter during their careers while maintaining the highest level of professional ethics. 
• Enjoy your work more as your boundary-setting skills become second nature, and managing relationships, both personal and professional, takes less effort and causes less stress. 
• Learn on the go with this mobile-friendly product you can view on your desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone.

Video Content: Video content covers the key concepts in the text using vivid images, graphic elements, voice-over, and strong instructional design. Boundaries: The Foundation of Ethical Massage Practice includes 22 video presentations covering seven hours of content.

Listen Along Audio: The listen-along feature is included with topics that don’t have a video presentation. You can listen to these topics while you read along, commute, exercise, or relax.

Text Translation: So long as they use Chrome as their browser, students with English as a second language can instantly translate the text into their native language, so they never miss a concept.

Lesson & Topic Structure: The thoughtful instructional design of this textbook organizes contents into carefully sequenced learning chunks. Participants can finish topics in short study sessions (an average of 20 minutes). This sense of making regular progress improves learning motivation. 

Story & Scenario: The regular use of stories and client-therapist scenarios place important concepts in a real-world context and improve critical thinking skills.

Visually Appealing: Concepts come alive with striking imagery and appealing graphic design. Printed textbooks are limited by page number and keep visuals to a minimum. In the digital world, more is more when it comes to visual aids.

Easy Navigation: Cleaver web navigation puts an entire textbook just two clicks away and provides an ongoing outline to help students mentally frame the content they are learning. Students get a dose of satisfaction when they mark topics and lessons complete and see the progress bar advance.

Learning is a Swipe Away: Students can access their textbooks on a phone, laptop, desktop, or tablet. Students today live on their phones, and now their textbooks do too. When learning is just a swipe away, students are more likely to study in the margins of their lives; a practice essential for strong academic scores. 

Learning Games: Learning games are fun and strengthen concept comprehension, memory recall, and critical-thinking skills. Games give instant feedback, so students never reinforce incorrect information. This textbook includes 13 learning games.

Let’s Talk Boundaries Interviews: Video interviews with massage professionals connect students to unique voices in our massage community. This textbook features three Let’s Talk interviews with Allison Denney (the Massage Rebel), Diane Matkowski (the Massage Mentor), and Joshua Reyes.   

Downloadable Resources: Downloads for this textbook include the Zero Tolerance for Sexual Behavior policy document and the Informed Consent document.

Ready-to-Use-Curriculum: This textbook has so many features and is so complete that schools can use it as online curriculum.

Access: After Purchase, log in at massagemastery.online with your email and password. The textbook will be waiting on your dashboard. Click the textbook and follow the directions. 

Purchase textbooks at wholesale prices from your school dashboard and assign textbooks to students. Students can access their textbooks within minutes of purchase for an 18-month subscription period. Access is limited to use on two digital devices at the same time, and four devices total (e.g., students can access their textbook on a phone, laptop, desktop, and tablet). 

This textbook is so complete and offers so many online features that schools can use it, as it is, for online curriculum. 

Group students into cohorts and track their progress on reading assignments and quiz scores. You’ll always know which students have completed reading assignments and which need help to stay on track.

With a click, you can add more textbooks to cohorts when students enroll late.

If a student doesn’t work in a textbook and drops out, you can reassign the textbook to a new student. In addition, we’ll move unused textbooks to a new cohort for you upon request.

If you don't have a school account, ask your program manager or director of education to request review copies for your team. Then, we'll set you up with a school account so you can get started. 

Questions? Contact us from the link in the footer at the bottom of any webpage. 

TEXTBOOK INTRODUCTION AND ORIENTATION 

LESSON 1: PERSONAL SPACE AND PERSONAL BOUNDARIES

• Introduction, learning objectives, terminology
• Physical Space
• Sexual Space
• Sensory Space
• Psychological Space
• Emotional Space
• Privacy
• Autonomy
• Ownership
• Apply It!
• Quiz

LESSON 2: BOUNDARIES - CORE CONCEPTS

• Introduction, learning objectives, terminology
• Therapeutic Relationships
• Boundary Development
• Boundary Types and Forms
• Boundary Crossings
• Boundary Violations
• Apply It!
• Quiz

LESSON 3: ESSENTIAL BOUNDARY SKILLS

• Introduction, learning objectives, terminology
• Understand Relating Styles
• Attention to Body Language
• Active Listening
• Establish and Maintain Boundaries
• Respect Other’s Boundaries
• Apply It!
• Quiz

LESSON 4: HEALTHY PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIES

• Introduction, learning objectives, terminology
• Professionalism
• Physical Boundaries
• Sexual Boundaries
• Sensory Boundaries
• Psychological Boundaries
• Emotional Boundaries
• Privacy Boundaries
• Autonomy Boundaries
• Ownership Boundaries
• Dual Relationships
• Apply It!
• Quiz

SUMMARY, RESOURCES, AND FINAL EXAMINATION 

• Zero Tolerance for Sexual Behavior Policy Document
• Informed Consent Document
• Final Examination