I've been approached by my partner's firm to provide corporate massages. The money is fantastic, but it is very hard work for 1 or 2 days, so I'm really interested in it. However the only thing is I have never done these kind of massages. Does anyone do this and what exactly is it that you do. The firm want each person to have a 15 minute massage in a meeting room, is this right or is it normally quicker. They also want me to supply a couch which is going to be fun lugging my couch round London is this normal, I thought corporate massage was at the chair, but apparently they want it either sitting up or laying down. Has anyone got any advice for me? Many thanks x

I'd be very interested to hear any replies on this, as I turned down a job roughly 2 yrs ago doing this sort of thing.
I found the company that offered me the job to be a bit dodgy and I wasnt sure on how the situation would work with regards to going round to Firms around the London area and offering a ten minute massage.

You can get the chair massage couch, its a lot lighter than a standard couch but would still give a good massage. I would think that 15 minutes is about right, not that i know much about it!!!

Something like this

Massage & Health, Massage Chairs

Hi there

Try putting a thread on healthy pages you're bound to get a reply there.

Deb379

If its any help - I worked a tiny bit on Virgin providing massage to passengers and these were approx 15 mins long - a short version of indian head you can incorporate all upper body areas while they are sitting in a chair which had no back so all you need is a stool, they are not sitting there long enough as in a proper long IHM. You can always get them to rest in a more comfy chair with a back when you finish so they can come round more relaxed. Remember you will be on time limit so you don't want them too comfy and falling asleep ; )

good luck - you will enjoy it and look at it as an opportunity to show how good you are and maybe add to your client base?


OGT

Thanks so much for the replies. I was thinking on the similar line of performing IHM. I'd be very interested to hear if anyone does these.

Hi
Well done on your new contract - as you say it is indeed hard work, but very enjoyable.

I have been doing corporate massage for over 10 years.

The first thing I would recommend is to get properly trained. I trained with the Academy of On Site Massage, but Touchpro also do a very good course.

Lugging a chair around London is hard enough (I did it when I first started), lugging a couch around with all towels, pillows, couch roll etc, would be next to impossible I would think. If they do not have a couch (some companies do have a couch in a first aid room which you may be able to use, although be aware that if there is a first aid case, they may have to interrupt your treatments) I would try to sell them on the benefits of chair massage which is done through the clothes.

The other concern I would have is privacy. If you are doing couch massage, then I assume they will be taking their clothes off???? Not something I would be happy about asking clients to do in a meeting room - few meeting rooms offer the privacy of a room in a clinic or salon.

But do get properly qualified. There are many people out there who buy a chair and go and do corporate massage - believe me - I've massaged people who received massage from them and they always comment about the difference.

Of course, if you simply offer them IHM, then there is no need to get a massage chair as you can simply use a low back chair - typical of the sort that they will have in meeting rooms.

One other thing I will mention. Something that is only apparent when you start doing it, and something they never tell you in the training. When you do corporate work you will be working with a lot of people who have never had any sort of massage before. Unlike the clients who come to see you privately, they have not sought you out because they want a treatment, many will simply have a go because you are there. The upside of this is that you can convert many new people to therapies.... the downside is that you will find you have a much larger proportion of people with contraindications and those who are sceptical, and you need to have the experience and confidence to deal with them. I do employ therapists to go into companies for me too, and I usually expect them to have at least a year of clinical experience before going into the workplace.

Hope that helps and Good luck enjoy

The two training schools are AOSM | 'The Massage at Work Specialists' and Welcome to TouchPro UK.

It's well worth the training and the treatment is far better for the workplace than Indian Head massage ( I do IHM too, so am not biased).

Until you get qualified, then IHM would be better than table massage. If you go through the merits and disadvantages, then they are likely to take your advice about the most appropriate treatments for the workplace.

Good luck

Edited to add:

Sorry, forgot to say - if you are doing IHM to start with, then it can be done in a normal meeting room chair. You will need a massage chair for the onsite massage.

Hi there

This is a really timely post, as we had a visit this week from a company at work who do chair massages - so I went and had one (I should mention that I only do nails in the evenings at the moment - I have an office job the rest of the time). You sit in a sort of backwards chair where you face forwards and your head looks down through a hole - like a beauty couch. with armrests for your hands. You are massaged fully clothed but the chair enables the masseur to get to the whole of your back and arms.

The massage lasted 20 mins and cost 15 pounds, which I thought was quite expensive, although I do admit that the 20 mins seemed to go quite slowly.

The weird thing was that the woman actually massaged using the point of her elbow, which seemed to be enjoyed a lot by people who had no back or joint problems, but which was actually quite painful if you had any issues in this area (I do). I told her I get RSI in my arm and thumb and she commenced a very firm massage in these tissues which actually made my arms hurt for about 4 hours afterwards and actually made me very dizzy and feeling odd.

I do appreciate that not all masseurs are probably this firm, but the general consensus from people that had it done seemed to be that this was NOT a relaxing treatment if you had any sort of joint or spine problems. The people that enjoyed it were fit as fiddles.

It looked like hard work though - the woman had us all booked in from 11am to 4pm with only a 20 minute break - and she said that that was quite a quiet day! There was no issue with privacy as we had booked a meeting room for her to have her chair in, so noone could see you in there.

Hope this helps
Helen.

That's because it is an acupressure massage which works on pressure points.
It shouldn't be painful - at best is can feel like a 'good hurt', but should never be painful. Did the therapist not check that the pressure was ok throughout the treatment?

To be honest, I would either contact her/him of you can and let them know, or talk to the person within the company that organises this. You should not have that effect, and it does sound like did not consider your own health in the treatment.

Because of the large potential clientele, corporate work attracts a lot of practitioners, many barely qualified, and giving inadequate treatments. Also it has attracted business people acting as agencies, who have no personal knowledge of massage themselves, and therefore may not know what the best qualifications are.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with corporate massage, but please do take it further - if only so that the therapist is aware.

As I said in my previous post, it is more fraught than working in a clinic or salon where people come to you, and IMO requires a much more experienced practitioner. Sadly that is often not the case.

Hi Jc

Thanks for your reply.

I do appreciate that one bad massage doesn't reflect on every masseur out there - I've had some lovely massages in the past, so I hope I didn't imply that in my post.

The girl did ask if the pressure was ok, and although it hurt at the time, it was tolerable, and I'm used to things hurting because of my arthriticcy joints, so I didn't think much of it. It was only when I got back to my desk that the pain started to grow, and grow - and that's when I felt really dizzy and funny. Fortunately I do work in HR, so the people who had arranged the massages heard my comments and also those of some others who had found it painful.

I'm sure it probably DID do me some good, and maybe it just proved that my RSI is worse than I think it is. If I have one again I will definitely make a point of asking for them to be a lot softer on me.

The problem is, although you had to fill in a form beforehand and say if you wanted "gentle", "medium" or "firm" pressure, it's hard to say what "firm" feels like until you are in the seat!

I will try to contact the company and let them know about my reaction - I would hate to upset the girl who did the massage though, because its probably not her fault - I think I'm just a bit of an old crock!

Hi Helbels
You certainly didn't imply anything negative about massage in general in your post. I'm glad you posted though, because it does highlight how different massaging in a corporate setting is, and sadly the different standards that exist in massage therapy.

I think most therapists worth their salt will appreciate feedback, even if it is negative - the worst thing is not knowing.

I suspect that most employees wouldn't say anything unless specifically asked (although they will not doubt talk to colleagues) and because of this I regularly use feedback sheets at all my companies - both those where I provide the massage as well as those where I have other therapists going in. If you would like a copy please pm me and I will send a copy.

PS, I don't think asking to state the sort of pressue on a form is good practice. It is nothing to actually ask the client, and as you say it is difficult to know. You usually find that what one person considers 'firm' is 'medium'

Thats really interesting to hear from a client's point of view. I have spent lots of time and money on training for all my beauty training especially my nails, and would certainly not do any form of massage without specific training. I am fully trained in IHM and Swedish but now I know that there is a specific acupressure massage for corporate massage I would not do any form of this massage without training as without it I don't believe that clients should be worked on. I will definatly look into the training, and the firm that has contacted me I will tell them the qualifications that they should look for to ensure that they get a good therapist. Thanks so much for all of this help, it sounds absolutley fascinating. Although my one concern is that with the recession looming companies will stop using therapists in a bid to save money and I'll have spent a lot of money training on something that I will not use.