As professional massage therapists, we know that therapeutic relationships are incredibly nuanced and driven by a complex dynamic interplay of psychological needs and wants.  To master the unique energetics of the session room, we must hold a deep knowledge of our own boundaries and a high level of awareness related to client boundaries. This text helps us build or enhance our knowledge and skills.

We care about clients. We show up with our great hands and noble hearts to every session. So why do some client relationships feel unhealthy, and what can we do to get dysfunctional sessions back on track?

Together, we’ll deepen our understanding of personal space, therapeutic relationships, and professional boundaries. We’ll use simple but powerful communication skills that make it easier to maintain healthy massage relationships. We’ll learn to speak our truth and assert our boundaries clearly while respecting our clients and ensuring their wellbeing.  

Video presentations, interactive features, and learning activities keep this content fresh, fun, and enjoyable as we learn to respond effectively to client boundary crossings and stay grounded in our confidence as health care professionals.

Please note that this textbook is included in the purchase of the continuing education courses described later. If you want CE for your work on this topic, don’t purchase the textbook, purchase one of the boundaries courses or the Boundaries Bundle for significant discounts.

Williams, A., Brown, E. Boundaries: The Foundation of Ethical Massage Practice. Sweet Orange Education LLC, 2021. ISBN 1-7923-9042-4.

• 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 coving 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 you use Chrome as your browser, therapists 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 to 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 you mentally frame the content. You’ll get a dose of satisfaction when you mark topics and lessons complete and see the progress bar advance.

Learning is a Swipe Away: You can access your textbooks on a phone, laptop, desktop, or tablet. People today live on their phones, and now their textbooks do too. When learning is just a swipe away, you are more likely to study in the margins of your life.

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

Let’s Talk Boundaries Interviews: Video interviews with massage professionals connect us 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.

Subscription Period: Ongoing access.

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.

Personal Space and Personal Boundaries in an Ethical Massage Practice: This fascinating exploration helps us understand, establish, and maintain our personal space and personal boundaries to build healthy therapeutic relationships with massage clients. This course includes a copy of Boundaries: The Foundation of Ethical Massage Practice and offers 4 NCBTMB-approved ethics CE hours. 

Essential Boundary Skills in an Ethical Massage Practice: Together, we’ll deepen our understanding of boundary types, forms, and violations. We’ll use simple but powerful communication skills that make it easier to maintain healthy therapeutic relationships. This course includes a copy of Boundaries: The Foundation of Ethical Massage Practice and offers 4 NCBTMB-approved ethics CE hours. 

Healthy Professional Boundaries in an Ethical Massage Practice: Let’s get clear about our professional boundaries and work with the confidence that we can unravel complex client-therapist scenarios and keep sessions on track, even when clients misbehave.  This course includes a copy of Boundaries: The Foundation of Ethical Massage Practice and offers 4 NCBTMB-approved ethics CE hours. 

Boundaries Bundle: When you purchase the Boundaries Bundle, you get three high-quality online home study courses worth 12 hours of NCBTMB-approved ethics CE and ongoing access to our premier digital textbook titled, Boundaries: The Foundation of Ethical Massage Practice (regularly $39). With this bundle, you save more than $60 on these engaging courses, which never expire, so you can complete each course – 4 hours of CE each – in the CE reporting years that you choose.

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