LOL Coolhandluke! You were turned over like a rotisserie chicken - fully basted too!
When I first graduated and started working, I relied heavily on the sequence I was taught, but at the same time, I talked to clients who were happy to talk, and got great feedback that way. With time, I used this feedback to experiment with changes to my routine, some which worked and others which didn't 🙂
Eventually, after about 6 months of being a full-time practitioner, I was at the stage where I started to really know what I was doing. About 3 years later, I'd had more training, attended more demonstrations, enjoyed regular massages from different theapists, and had gone completely intuitive. That routine was a great start, though.
Hi
I've been thinking about what constitutes an "intuitive" massage inbetween clients today. Even though we need at first a routine to be able to function, but there comes a point that a good massage therapist works in a way that they just "do" something and it works without understanding why, only later finding that other therapists have a similar technique and a rationale why, yet there was no previous knowledge (apart from feeling, doing and being with the client). It least that's my story, and I'm sure plenty of you will agree. So may be a factor in "intuitive" massage is that knowledge and technique may not be always cognitively understood in the head, but felt in the hands. Could also be understood as having a sense of the clients body and the ability to response to subtle feedback from palpation while massaging.
Best wishes
RP
What a lovely post, RP! You've summed it up beautifully, I think. Thank you.
Derek