How to Offer Spa Techniques
Without a Wet Room
You can offer clients a greater variety of services and extend your career—all while increasing your profits. If this sounds good to you, then you should consider adding spa techniques to your massage sessions. From paraffin treatments and body wraps, salt scrubs and steam canopies, to Thai herbal compresses and mud packs there’s sure to be a spa therapy that appeals to your healing sensibilities and clientele. What’s more, you can get into the spa business with minimal investment.
by Laura Allen

Buy this Issue

Trigger Point Therapy for Myofascial Pain 
We all harbor areas of constricted muscle, contracted in varying degrees, that maintain holding patterns in tight, chronically utilized muscles. A contributing factor to muscle pain and dysfunction is the development of trigger points within it.
by Donna Finando, L.Ac, L.M.T., and Steven Finando, Ph.D., L.Ac.

ONLINE Exclusives

• Off to a Successful Start
• School Told to Use Translators
• Kinesthetic Awareness Self-Test
• The 8 Biggest Phone Errors to Avoid

Practice Building
Telephone Your Way to Prosperity
by Judith Koch

Online Exclusive: The 8 Biggest Phone Errors to Avoid

NEWS

• A Sanctuary of Healing
• New Online Training Course for Entrepreneurs
• World Massage Forum Lifts Off
• Depressed Women Use Complementary Methods
• Student Scholarship Launched

Positive Posturing:
Self-Care through Yoga  
You take care of clients all day long, but do you take good care of yourself? Yoga provides a means of relaxation, stretching and strength-training in a series of asanas, or poses, and will help you stay strong, flexible and available to your clients and yourself.
by Brandi Schlossberg

Mousing Shoulder:
A Case of Postural Distortion
As personal computers grow in popularity, the incidence of mousing shoulder will grow as well. The authors present treatment strategies to address this common postural distortion. 
by Paul St. John, Tracy Alan Jones and Randall Clark

Your Body Knows:
Kinesthetic Awareness
Kinesthetic receptors in your muscles, tendons and joints inform your brain about the position, shape, effort and direction of the movement of your body. When kinesthetic dysfunction occurs, awareness of the body is diminished. How does this affect a massage session?
by Craig Williamson
Click to read

Online Exclusive: Kinesthetic Awareness Self-Test

The Good Luck Plant
Bamboossage is a massage technique that uses bamboo and rattan sticks in different shapes, sizes and lengths. The resulting massage routine provides the client with a relaxing and therapeutic session, while the therapist conserves energy and avoids stress on her hands and arms.
by Michelle D. Mace-Lambert

EXPERT ADVICE
I see many results in my clients I haven't seen explained by research—things like releasing old emotions, resurfacing of memories, or even reporting the feeling of going into an altered state during the massage. I think these results can be as important as things like muscle relaxation and pain reduction. Why don't we see these nonphysical effects studied?

RESEARCH REPORTS

• Hydrotherapy Beneficial to Individuals with Osteoarthritis
• Naprapathic Manual Therapy vs. Evidence-based Care for Back and Neck Pain

Spa Massage News

• Green Spa Network Blossoms
• ISPA Foundation Creates Mary Tabacchi Scholarship
• Spa Launches Innovative Fundraising Program
• How can therapist-client rapport best be established quickly in a spa setting?
• Spas–They’re Not Just for Women Anymore

BE WELL

• Get Serious about Heart Health
• Naps May Reduce Coronary Mortality
• Lunchtime Makeover: How to Eat Healthy While On the Go

BODY & SPA
How to Offer Spa Techniques Without a Wet Room
by Laura Allen