Comments on Wall post by Araceli
I hope everyone has enjoyed the sun this weekend!
I had an interesting experience with a client on Friday, any suggestions for what to do with a client when there's a lot of miscommunication or misunderstandings?
This is what happened:
The client says that his lower back hurts when I’m starting the massage and I do some light petrissage from trapezius all the way down to his lower back. When I apologise he says that it’s ok and that massage normally hurts – which I disagreed with and told him it shouldn’t.
Still, I ask him if he’d like me to massage the area and he says yes as apparently “I’ve found a pressure point”. I do some massage on his lower back as it’s quite tense and then go to his upper back as he wanted initially. I cannot palpate the tension he mentioned in the consultation but I work on it for the rest of the massage.
After the massage his feedback was very positive at first: great progression of the massage and touch, the most relaxing massage he’s ever got!
However, when I ask if there’s anything he’d like differently next time he says that I’ve worked very slowly (contradicting the compliment about progression earlier?).
Then he says that I’ve also worked in a body part I didn’t write down in my notes and agreement – although I did ask for consent during the massage.
And that he felt like the massage came to an end when I was actually starting to massage the areas he had asked for so he didn’t feel any relief for his tension with the massage.
I was just a bit confused and didn't really know what to say...
Thanks guys! :)
Interesting situation...
there are two issues here: first his lower back. Clients have narratives of how the massage should help them. Some narratives are more parallel to our narrative, some are different. This part of our human experience is very interesting. It's how we explain problems and solutions in our bodies. Some people, for example, see pain as punishment from moral 'wrongly doing'. Some see pain as the responsibility of the doctor to get rid of.
In healing, it's the same. Sometimes you need to understand the context of the client in what they believe in healing. One example is 'no pain no gain'. Another one is 'energy is not flowing in my body. Another is ' even minimal pain is damaging my body. Park of our role is to explain to our clients 'what is going on' and do that in a way that integrates their belief is something positive, not to completely change it. It is a negotiation, education, listening and more...
About the consent: it will be interesting to know what was the different between what you thought was agreed and him. for him it might be 'we agree to work only on the lower back'. For you it was 'we agree to work on the back'. You can learn from every feedback, and you will probably learn how to communicate the consent in a better way, but don't start do major changes just from one client. Just noticed what you have learnt and see what comes next with future clients.
Please update with next treatment!