Afternoon session: 3-4pm

15/11/18
Sports massage Clinic
1 hour

In today’s session I massaged my clients lower back in the clinic for 1 hour as they had been complaining of having a bad back recently.

What happened in today’s session:
In today’s session I massaged a client that I have massaged a few times previous to this session, who has been complaining of a bad back originating in the lower back. This is why in today’s massage I focused on the lower back to help relieve the tension and pain in this area.
At the beginning of the session, things got difficult as there were no towels in the clinic and I had not bought my own to help protect the privacy of the client. Luckily, my client today was someone who I knew well and was not bothered about protecting privacy and was happy to do the massage without towels else this could have meant that a client would not have got a massage.
Another problem was that the bed that I was given did not have mediums or cleansing wipes which meant I had to leave my client after they had been prepared on the couch to go and get massage lotion to use for the massage. This also meant that after I had done the massage I had to leave the client again to go find some cleansing wipes all of which could have been avoided if I had checked the trolly before the client had arrived.
However, although I had a few problems which could have been avoided had I been more organised, the massage went really well. My client stated how much better her back felt and how much more movement she could do now that the pain had eased.
Something that I found useful with my client today was that i’ve been massaging her for a while now and she felt comfortable enough to give me feedback upon how the massage went. In her feedback my client stated that I was good at communicating with her regarding pressure and that it was enjoyable for her. She mentioned that had the client been anyone else the no towels and lack of equipment would have been a problem and to make sure I was more organised for the next massage, which I will keep in mind for my areas for improvement.

Areas for improvement:

No towels:
Organisation today was not very good as there were no towels in the clinic and I did not bring my own down expecting them to be in the clinic. This meant that I could not protect my clients privacy as I did not bring my own to cover the client. To stop this from happening I will make sure that for every session in the massage clinic from now on I will bring my own towels to stop this from happening again. Luckily, my client was a friend who didn’t mind being massaged without a towel on.

No massage lotion:
Another point on organisation, there was no massage lotion in my cubicle had to leave the client in the cubical alone while I hunted for it. Be prepared and collect everything in advance. I will have to make sure that I have everything in the cubicle before preparing the client for the massage as then I will not have to leave while they are laying on the couch.