www.thebodyworker.com

This whole new craze about the “Law of Attraction” and the movie “The Secret” is a culmination of many years of thought and study. The people in the movie have studied most of them to get where they are today. They have all built programs that people pay a high fee to participate in but the bulk of the early writings can be found online.
The earliest writings on the “Law of Attraction” came from such writers as:

Wallace Wattles: The Science of Getting Rich, The Science of Being Well

Napoleon Hill - Think and Grow Rich, The Richest Man in Babylon

Joe Vitale - The think and grow rich workbook,

Spiritual Marketing

Attaining Your Desires by GENEVIEVE BEHREND as presented by Joe Vitale

Charles Haanel - Mental Chemistry, The Master Key System

There are many more out there because the copyrights have expired and the works have become public domain.

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One of the ways to build a website is to use the frame idea like this .

While the site looks really great and seems high tech, if you look at the title in the url bar it stays the same no matter what page you are on. That is frames. I may not be 100% sure on this one, but I think the idea of frames doesn’t work with search engines and search engine optimization. What a search engine looks for is content and the file name, title, description of the page. With frames you don’t generate different pages so you don’t get this opportunity to become indexed with the search engines.

You can see if your site is indexed with various search engines (which means that they have them listed - somewhere) by using this searchit! tool that SBI offers. Just click in the first step - under site statistics- indexed pages and in step 2 click on which search engine you want to check. The above example doesn’t show any listings but it may also be a new site. It takes time to get indexed but not long if you know what you are doing.

The other thing is using free hosting such as yahoo. Don’t get me wrong. I made my first site on a free webhost but the thing about these services is that there will be ads listed along the sides or where ever and they will most likely be ads for your competitors. You most likely don’t want that! Here is a sample on yahoo.
Both of these sites were just submitted to my free directory www.themassage-directory.com. You can just submit your site here. The idea is that search engines love links going to your site. It may or may not actually get people to click on to your site from this listing, but what it does do is let the search engines know you are popular and that looks good. ( I hope these two don’t mind me using them as an example. It will at least get them traffic and hopefully they can learn how to make a website that works which is also the name of my free ebook that I wrote that you can get by sending an email to : websitesthatwork@thebodyworker.com)
You can learn about creating links in the ebook Make Your Links work that is provided from Sitebuildit!

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Writing a regular newsletter is a great way to build a practice.

There are a few ways of creating newsletters:

• Using the Sitebuildit! Webhosting System that comes with the ability to collect names and create a mailing list and a block builder to create the newsletter. It will also tell you how many people have opened the email so you can at least get an idea if people are reading it.
• Send a newsletter by regular mail which will have the added fee of printing and postage but there are online services that will do all of that for you such as vistaprint.com and verticalresponse.com
• Find a newsletter service that will write and send it out for you.
• Use an email service such as constantcontact.com
• If you are an ABMP member, they have their own monthly newsletter you can format yourself

Writing a newsletter yourself has the advantage of you being able to add your own personal touch, but if you hate writing it won’t be fun for you. Hire someone to do it for your or find a service that does it. There are plenty of free articles online in ezine directories. Just do a search for free massage articles and I am sure you will find something.
Some of the things that you can write about are just the exact same things you tell your clients all the time.

• health tips
• stretching tips
• talk about different conditions and what massage can do for them
• the benefits of getting regular massage
• Strength and flexibility
• how muscles work

Sending a regular newsletter helps keep your clients and potential clients informed about what you do. It also builds trust as they begin to see just what an expert you are in your field. You can also offer specials and promote gift certificates for holidays.

You can collect the name of your clients but be sure to ask them whether or not they want to receive your newsletter or else it will be considered spam.

A client newsletter is one of the easiest ways to build a practice. Each and every one of your current clients should be referring their friends and family members to you. (Although I had a client who wouldn’t refer people to me because she feared me getting too booked and she thought she wouldn’t be able to get in!)

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I have been doing some research on how the state boards define massage and have been finding that a few of them talk about the therapeutic relationship and the law here in WA State even goes as far as making it illegal to date a client until 2 years have passed from them being a client.

What is interesting is that there isn’t any formal training in most schools on the therapeutic relationship and even the classes that there are in school don’t really help because being in practice is so much different than just practicing doing massage in school.

The therapeutic relationship is what is the basis for healing no matter what type of massage one practices. Elliot Greene in his book “The Psychology of the Body” says:

“The relationship between the therapist and the client, besides the work itself, is also part of the therapeutic process. To go one step further, the therapeutic relationship is a key to healing and the effectiveness of the therapeutic process”.

What ever massage therapist has in common is the ability to be a good listener. We listen with our hands and eyes as well as our ears. When someone comes to us in pain or stress, it is the bodies way of communicating with them. Everything begins with feeling. The pain is usually a feeling trying to get their attention.

I have often wondered as a massage therapist - What happens when we as work to take it away? ( It’s a rhetorical question - with no real answer)
What if we could be as effective if we just listened to the client and the story their body is telling?

Listening and acknowledging the message is often all that is needed to bring relief. In order to be a good listener, you need to have been listened too yourself before being able to do it effectively with a client. Being a good listener to yourself allows you to get in touch with your own feelings so that you can learn to be with your feelings and not in them. There is a big difference and being with your feelings is the key to being present with your clients (and in any relationship).

Getting people to feel their bodies is the first step in healing anything. We can do this by being an active listener with all of our senses and learn to stay present with what comes up for us - the feelings that you get just before you feel an urge to give advice.

When you are busy giving advice - you aren’t present.

I was just reading a letter to the editor in Massage Magazine where the writer was talking about that she thought it was our duty to tell someone who is grossly overweight that they might want to lose some weight. Could you image if someone told you that when you were just wanting a massage? You were just wanting to relax or get some relief from your back pain (which could be due to the fact that you are overweight- but it isn’t anyones business.) Byron Katie who wrote the book “Loving What is” says when ever you are in someone else’s business you aren’t present.

Presence is the ability to feel your feelings and not act on them but to acknowledge them. When you can stay present with a client and not give your advice it opens up an opportunity for the client to feel whatever it is that has been causing the pain which often is the only thing that is needed. Sometimes you just need to move through the pain to get to the other side.
This whole way of working is really different from what most massage schools teach.

I have to admit I don’t have this one down myself and it is always a challenge for me but I am always learning more each time I am able to just hold my hands on someone and not get caught up in their pain dramas.

For more on the theraputic relationship see www.thebodyworker.com

www.massagepracticebuilder.com

The Ethics of Touch by Cherie Sohnen Moe and Ben Benjamin excerpt

Heart Centered Therapy - Massage Today

www.presencingsource.com - Articles on Caretaking

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It just came to my attention that some states still require taking a practical exam to get your massage license. They used to require one here in WA but have long ago stopped requiring it. A practical exam is too subjective for the most part and often depends on the skill of the tester and also the mood that day.

The only practical exam that I think is necessary is the act of building a practice. It will tell you more about your skill level as a massage therapist than anything.

I have collected the information that was given for my practical exam in WA State back in 1987 and have posted it at www.thebodyworker.com

What can be asked during a practical exam from an onine forum

Department of State Health Services Professional Licensing and Certification Unit
Massage Therapy Practical Examination Training Handbook

New Brunswick Massotherapy Association ORAL - PRACTICAL EXAM

Exams - Coping on the day

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