I suppose it’s a natural question. I get it from almost all of my clients, if not the first time we work together, eventually.
Have You Ever Fallen Off The Table?
The short answer is no, I’ve never fallen off the table. The longer answer is yes, sort of.
When you ask me if I’ve fallen off the table a movie in my brain starts playing wherein I fall off the table head-first onto the inadequately padded, concrete floor. There is a lot of blood in my movie and I end up horribly injured, disfigured, and paralyzed. This has never happened to me, but suffice to say the prospect of truly falling off the massage table from a standing position scares the stuffing out of me.
I have however stepped off the table thinking my step stool was underneath my foot and missed. This is sort of like falling and the aftermath is not comfortable. I have also stepped onto the step stool and had it promptly turn over as I’m dismounting the table. This is almost worse than falling because I think I’m home free and then suddenly there’s danger. I’ve also just stepped straight down off the table onto the floor (on purpose) and jammed up my hip.
Usually my clients never know when this happens unless they hear the step stool thunk a bit. I have been fortunate in that I have never injured myself severely enough to have to stop a massage.
How Do You Keep From Falling Off The Table?
Hold on to the bars is the obvious answer, but sometimes I have to let go to change the drape as I move through the massage or adjust the position of an arm or leg or get off the table altogether. That’s when the safety training takes over. If I did something stupid and/or dangerous while I was learning Ashi (AOBT) or Ashi-Thai, my instructors counseled me. And by counseling I mean I was gently corrected, became the butt of a snarky comment or was downright yelled at if I was about to hurt myself or someone else. I was counseled several times during training. I also learned from my friends’ counseling sessions.
Now that I don’t have the luxury of an instructor scrutinizing my work, if I have a misstep during a massage I flag it in my memory and later come back to analyze it. Â My general philosophy on mistakes is that I should learn as much from them as possible so I never have to repeat them. Thus I try to learn from each misstep or mistake; then I design the massage around my equipment with an eye towards maximizing safety for me and for the client. That way it’s all fun and games and no one gets hurt. And by fun and games I mean the deepest, most luxurious massage on the planet.
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Exclusive Provider of Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy, Ashi-Thai and Bamboo-Fusion Massage