of clients

raiSe Magda Lorynska explains how making more of your strengths and improving on your weaknesses will make you a better therapist and help your business flourish… your IN order to improve, we need to understand what is working in our business and what needs improving. Take an hour when you can be free of distractions and create a simple pros and cons table for your business. Look at your business from the perspective of your client. Start by visiting your website and booking a session. Follow your customer’s journey from website visit to confirmation email and follow ups. If you spot anything such broken links, errors, things that are outdated, difficult to follow or badly GAME positioned or information that is missing,

Being the note it and make sure you change them after the exercise is completed. Also check your website stats and see which pages people are visiting most and best therapist how this matches up with your services. Now visit your social media pages. Check interactions that you have had with your clients. Are you happy you can be with how they look? Do you feel that your social media showcases your business well? If not, what could be done to improve it? Again, take time to note what works and what does not. Follow the same strategy when checking your newsletters and your billing information. Which services are most popular? What are you best at? Does your website and marketing material reflect that? If you are losing business or have local competitors, perform a similar exercise on their websites and social media. Do they seem to have more expertise? Does their site seem livelier or more welcoming? Do they make it easier for new clients to make appointments and feel sure they have made the right choice of therapist? Do they have lots of up to date information and testimonials from their clients?

You cannot improve your business until you know what is not working. Once you have a list of things that work well make sure you allocate time to maintain them. When it comes to the list of things that do not work, create a plan of repairing, replacing, or removing them from your business. Be realistic in the time scale. A broken link on the website can be corrected quickly, while creating a new website or adding new skills will take much longer.

communication

Sometimes we forget that our clients pay us for results – making them feel, move, or look better and healthier. Make sure that you communicate what is possible to the client well and in a timely manner, which means before they book their next session.

SMART goals really help here. They are specific, measurable, attainable, and accepted by the client and therapist, reasonable, and have a timescale associated with them. In massage therapy, goals go beyond pain reduction or relaxation. Client goals should be specific and should state clients’ needs or deficit in their assessment. You can later use this as a baseline to measure the success of the treatments. It is important to let clients know how many sessions they will need to see the benefits and let them know about a future progression plan. For example, you may say to your client that you will require 4 weekly sessions, followed by 2 bi-monthly sessions to achieve a particular goal. This would then be followed by monthly maintenance treatments. This way you are creating a realistic expectation and a plan which your client can agree to or ask for amendments to make it more achievable for them.

Technique

Improving your technique is the quickest way to improve your business, yet there are some relatively easy wins that most bodyworkers could benefit from:

USE YOUR BODY WEIGHT

I often hear from therapists that they cannot do deep tissue work because they are not strong enough. Using your body weight instead of your muscle strength helps even the slightest therapist perform massage deep tissue work more easily and help sustain a career for longer. Instead of pushing your way through layers of muscles, try dropping your body weight onto your client. This is best used with forearm work. Use this technique to penetrate layers of muscles without it being painful for your client or exhausting for you. Remember that if you are using hands-free techniques, you may need to lower the height of your table.

Once you have a list of things that work well make sure you allocate time to maintain them.

TOOLS

Remember that your hands and thumbs are not the only tool that you have in your tool kit. You can use your fingers to provide finger friction, which provides a nice warn feeling to the client. Your forearm is an amazing tool for working on larger areas, and your elbow (be mindful with it!) for working on particular points. There are also many tools including the Therapist Thumb which can help you get through trigger points work without straining your thumbs.

Consider using your hands for massaging delicate areas e.g. face and use other tools when working with larger body parts.

BODY MECHANICS

As a therapist you are using your body to provide a service for your clients. Make sure that you keep good body mechanics throughout the day. I like to check my reflection in the picture frames when I am massaging just to check if I am keeping upright. Adopt and maintain a good wide stance which activates your leg and glutes muscles. These are initially challenging but, with time, they do get easier. When you work on different parts of your client’s body remember to move your own body instead of staying in one place and just adjusting your back. This way you are keeping your back strength free. Whenever possible keep your chest open and drop your shoulders.

EMPLOY STRETCHING

Stretching your clients before working on their muscles is an amazing way of increasing the benefits of massage without increasing your workload. Since I qualified in table Thai massage, stretches are my new best friend during the treatments. If I have to work on a particularly tight area I always account for a couple of minutes of stretching. Since I started doing this, I have achieved better results and my clients are happy as they are getting a good stretch with their treatment.

BREATHING

Breathing is important to achieve a good level of relaxation. Remind your clients about the importance of gentle, relaxed breathing throughout the treatment.

At the same time, make sure you are breathing regularly and you are keeping your body loose and relaxed. This saves your body energy which means that you can work better for longer.

To raise your game, you need to work on improving your business and your performance. This does not mean that you will need to work harder, but it would help if you could work SMART-er. n

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MAGDALENA LORYNSKA is a

therapist and tutor in Cheltenham. Her passion is helping other therapists to get as much as possible out of their businesses. If you have any questions related to running a massage therapy business email her at magdalena@wellnessinmotion.co.uk.