This week I’m going to share one of my pet peeves about massage therapists when I’m receiving a massage and what I do about it when I’m giving a massage just in case it bothers my clients too.
So what bugs me during massage is the heavy breathing of the massage therapist. I know I’m not the only one because my client has told me “so and so is good but I don’t like his heavy breathing.” For me, especially when I’m facing up and the massage therapist is breathing onto my face through their nose. Not so much when I’m facing down. One time a therapist sneezed onto my back and that wasn’t nice but heavy breathing doesn’t bother me as much when I’m facing down.
In a spirit of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, when my client is facing up and I’m sitting by their face, I turn my head to breathe out. I only inhale facing their face. And I turn my head to breathe out. Or sometimes I look down deep so they won’t feel my nose breathing. It’s a good neck stretch for me. In this setting, I turn my head when I talk to my clients too so they won’t feel my breaths.
Not too long ago I found a section in a Shiatsu book that said “The therapist turns his face to the side so as not to breathe on the patient’s face” It may be a Japanese thing because one of the principles of the Japanese culture is “don’t be bothersome to others” but I think it’s a good practice to avoid breathing onto the client’s face.
Is there anything that bothers you when you receive a massage? I would love to know so please share in a comment below or send me a message if you don’t want to share it publicly. Any trivial thing is welcome because I can always learn from it.
Massage Monday #367 – Massage Therapist Pet Peeves http://bit.ly/mm-110617