Spa Bodywork: A Guide for Massage Therapists
A digital textbook (3rd edition) by Anne Williams
Spa Bodywork
Adding a spa program to your massage school is easier than you think. In Spa Bodywork's 16-year history, thousands of professional therapists and students have used the text to explore the exciting world of spa while staying true to their identities as massage therapists.
In this expanded digital edition, students learn 20 core treatments, including salt glows, body wraps, spa foot treatments, stone massage, ayurvedic bodywork, and more. Step-by-step directions, illustrated with photographs, show students how to position clients, apply and remove products, and transition between the phases of a session. In addition, video demonstrations of some body treatments bring these techniques to life.
Students learn to mix and match techniques through 28 sample sessions with directions for combining core treatments, enhancing treatments, specific products, and smellscapes. The promotional menu descriptions for each sample session make creating a spa bodywork menu a breeze.
When your school adopts Spa Bodywork: A Guide for Massage Therapists for your program, we'll give you access to a complete modular spa curriculum, including lesson plans, preparation guides, PowerPoint slides, and more.
Williams, Anne. Spa Bodywork: A Guide for Massage Therapists, 3rd Edition, Sweet Orange Education LLC, 2021.
ISBN : 978-1-7923-9040-1 (eBook)
Anne is the Director of Education and co-founder of Massage Mastery Online, specializing in digital textbooks that make learning more efficient, effective, and enjoyable. Anne is a licensed massage therapist (27 years), an aromatherapist, a certified reflexologist, a spa consultant, an author, and an educator (formally an esthetician and registered counselor). She is the former Director of Education for Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), where she pursued her passion for instructional design and developed support materials and resources for massage students, instructors, schools, and professional members from 2006 until 2019.
Before working with ABMP, Anne was a massage instructor for eight years, emphasizing curriculum development and program implementation for Ashmead College in Washington State, and in 2004 became their director of education at the Tacoma campus. She has offered several continuing education programs, including workshops on hot stone massage, aromatherapy, spa therapies, and reflexology.
Anne has served on the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) test writing committee and worked with the dynamic team at ABMP to develop ABMP's Student Life Program, ABMP Exam Coach, ABMP 5-Minute Muscles, and many other resources for schools and instructors. She also wrote the curriculum for the "Instructors on the Front Lines" massage teacher training program for ABMP from 2008 to 2019 and the content for the ABMP School Forum from 2007 to 2019. In addition, she is the author of Spa Bodywork: A Guide for Massage Therapists, 2nd Edition (2016), and Massage Mastery: From Student to Professional (2013), both previously published in print by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
Anne served as project leader for the Entry-Level Analysis Project (ELAP). This research project described what a person must know and be able to do to practice massage safely and competently at the entry level. The ELAP curriculum blueprint outlines the learning outcomes and objectives all schools should teach in foundational education and was published in 2013 by the Coalition of National Massage Therapy Organizations. In addition, Anne partnered with Eric Brown and the team at ABMP to produce the ABMP Business Summit, ABMP Back Pain Summit, Eric Dalton Online Workshop, and ABMP Head & Neck Summit, attracting more than 16,000 registrants and hosting more than 7,000 people online, live at one time.
Today, Anne lives in Louisville, Colorado, where she explores her passion for instructional design for adult learners, now in online formats, with her husband, Eric Brown, and a team of feline helpers (Indu, Minnie, Loki, and Delphi). When not writing, Anne loves rock climbing, ice climbing, hiking, biking, skiing, hanging out with friends, and anything that gets her out into Colorado's beautiful countryside. She is teaching Eric to enjoy camping.
Drape and position clients properly for spa treatments.
Use effective methods for applying and removing spa products like mud, seaweed, and others without expensive wet room equipment.
Learn 20 core spa treatments like salt glows, body wraps, spa foot treatments, mud and seaweed applications.
Discover stone massage, ayurvedic bodywork, Indonesian bodywork, and reflexology.
Explore spa hydrotherapy, aromatherapy, and enhancing treatments that improve any massage experience.
Plan a balanced spa menu for your massage business using 28 complete sessions with step-by-step directions for combining core treatments, enhancing treatments, specific products, and smellscapes into satisfying client sessions. Promotional menu descriptions for each sample session make creating a spa menu a breeze.
Create experiences for clients who are curious about spa but don’t want to give up their massages.
Learn to work with wet-room equipment like Swiss showers, Vichy showers, hydrotherapy tubs, and more should you wish to open a spa or work at a resort.
Video demonstrations of spa techniques and treatments guide massage students and professionals in learning these fun and artistic methods for the first time.
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.
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. This digital edition boasts 1,154 photos (compared to printed textbooks with around 350 images for the same content).
Cleaver web navigation puts an entire textbook a click 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.
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.
Resources for Spa Bodywork include spa health forms and treatment records, a treatment planning form, product suppliers contacts, and others.
After Purchase: Once you purchase this textbook, you’ll log into massagemastery.online with your email and password. The textbook will be waiting for you on your dashboard. Click the access button 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).
Adopting schools receive access to an ancillary package, including a complete modular 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 that 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.
Introduction to the 3rd Edition
Lesson 01: Spa from Past to Present
- A Brief History of Spa
- Basic Spa Categories
- The Spa Client
- Spa Into the Future
Lesson 02: Spa Equipment and Products
- Dry Room Equipment
- Wet Room Equipment
- Spa Products
- Your Spa Environment
Lesson 03: Spa Hygiene
- Diseases and Disease Transmission
- Standard Precautions
- Therapist Hygiene
- Cleaning Products
- Handling Linens Properly
- Cleaning Your Session Room
- Cleaning Your Wet Room and Special Equipment
- Cleaning Common Areas
Lesson 04: Spa Safety
- Cautions and Contraindication
- Working Safely with the Integumentary System
- Common Conditions that Require Caution
- Spa Documentation and Critical Thinking
- Creating a Safe Environment
Lesson 05: Foundational Spa Skills
- Spa Draping
- Positioning Methods
- Basic Application Techniques
- Dry Room Removal Techniques
- Wet Room Removal Techniques
- Your Spa Massage
- A Spa Face Massage Routine
Lesson 06: Water Therapies
- The Therapeutic Characteristics of Water
- Hydrotherapy and Homeostasis
- Hydrotherapy Benefits and Effects
- Effects from Specific Temperatures
- Effects from Dissolved Substances
- Hydrotherapy Specific Cautions and Contraindication
- Hydrotherapy Safety Guidelines
- Local Applications
- Therapeutic Baths
- Therapeutic Showers
Lesson 07: An Introduction to Aromatherapy for Spa
- Aromatherapy Overview
- Aromatic Plant Products
- Essential Oil Pathways Through the Body
- An Overview of Physiological Effects from Aromatherapy
- An Overview of Psychological Effects from Aromatherapy
- Safe Aromatherapy
- Basic Blending Techniques
- Aromatherapy Massage
- Reference: Physiological & Psychological Effects of Essential Oils
Lesson 08: Exfoliation Treatments
- Exfoliation Overview
- Skin Brushing
- Sample Session: The Roman Tonic
- The Salt or Sugar Glow
- Sample Session: The Dead Sea Salt Glow
- Sample Session: The Citrus Sugar Glow
- Sample Session: Wine and Roses
- The Body Polish and Body Scrub
- Sample Session: Sedona Twilight
- Sample Session: Botanical Body Bliss
Lesson 09: Body Wraps
- Introduction to Body Wraps
- The Sheet Wrap Overview
- Practice a Sheet Wrap
- Sample Session: The Herbal Detox Wrap
- Sample Session: Super Green Smoothy
- Sample Session: Café Americano
- The Cocoon Overview
- Practice a Cocoon
- Sample Session: European Honey Glaze
- Sample Session: Chocolate Decadence
- Sample Session: Athlete’s Muscle Recovery
- The Tension Wrap
Lesson 10: Spa Foot Treatments
- Foot Treatment Overview
- Soaking, Cleansing, and Exfoliation
- Foot Massage Routine
- Reflexology Overview
- Reflexology Wellness Routine
- Foot Treatment Products
- Practice a Spa Foot Treatment
- Sample Session: The Beach Feet Tingle
- Sample Session: Take a Hike!
- Sample Session: The Barefoot Rebel
Lesson 11: Fangotherapy
- Fangotherapy Overview
- Get to Know Fango
- Sample Session: Baltic Mud Wrap
- Sample Session: Less Back Pain is Moor!
- Sample Session: Parafango Body Boost
Lesson 12: Thalassotherapy
- Thalassotherapy Overview
- Get to Know Seaweed
- Sample Session: Seaweed Slimdown
- Sample Session: Mermaid Shimmer
- Sample Session: Seaweed Massage
Lesson 13: Stone Massage
- Stone Massage Overview
- Stone Massage Equipment
- Working with Placement Stones
- Stone Massage Table Skills
- Stone Massage Techniques
- Full-Body Stone Massage Procedure
- Sample Session: Aromatic Body Stone Therapy
- Sample Session: Zen Stone Glow
- Sample Session: Sea Stones Detox
Lesson 14: Ayurveda-Inspired Spa Treatments
- Ayurveda Overview
- Introduction to the Subtle Body
- The Vata Profile
- The Pitta Profile
- The Kapha Profile
- The Dosha Questionnaire
- Ayurveda Body Treatments Overview
- Indian Head Massage
- Abhyanga Overview
- Synchronized Abhyanga Routine
- Pinda
- Udvartana
- Shirodhara
- An Ayurveda-Inspired Bodywork Menu
Lesson 15: Indonesian-Inspired Spa Treatments
- Indonesian Spa Ingredients
- Indonesian Spa Treatments Overview
- Balinese Massage Techniques
- Sample Session: Balinese Massage
- Sample Session: Sumatra Spice Polish
- Sample Session: Balinese Boreh
- Sample Session: Javanese Lulur Ritual
Lesson 16: Your Spa Program
- Is Spa a Good Fit for Your Practice?
- Finding Inspiration and Exploring Possibilities
- Choosing Spa Treatments for Your Program
- Designing Individual Sessions
- Your Spa Menu
Resources