One of the things that is often talked about among Thai Massage professionals is the treatment session time. How long should a Thai Massage treatment last? What is the optimal session duration?
To be honest, I find there’s no general rule to it, but there are some things to be considered. For instance, one can hardly do a thorough full body Thai Massage faster than about ninety minutes. There’s just too much work to do to have it shorter.
eBook | Click for details
But on the other hand, of course one can do a relaxing session, or a faster and more dynamic, energizing treatment, one that could take around sixty minutes. But in my opinion, an hour or so is a little too short to be able to do a full body Thai Massage treatment of a more therapeutic nature.
Nevertheless, there are always good “quickies,” so let’s not make a general rule of it. The massages I give would normally take about two hours. It’s not that I set my alarm. It’s just the experience I have had with my sessions. It’s of course also a matter of style. My style. My natural speed. Another therapist may well be having other time averages.
But then again, in the case of a regular client, I think you could more easily manage doing shorter sessions. Maybe more as a sort of “maintenance,” say, preventive work. Or perhaps sessions that are more detailed, being focused on specific health issues.
Well, that’s how I see it. But I know there are other opinions in the Thai Massage community. There are practitioners who claim you can do an excellent one-hour full body Thai Massage without skipping anything whatsoever. And they’re probably right.
Still, I can’t do it. It’s not my thing. I need time. I give time. I don’t work on time or with time. It’s just the way I go about. It’s definitely a problem I have with offering my Thai Massage sessions, because I have a hard time serving clients who just want a one-hour massage.
In fact, I typically work on what’s needed and can be handled by clients, so I would always tell them to reserve at least half a day, against a fixed price even if the session would take one or perhaps two or more hours.
eBook | More info here
But today in our society, people don’t have time; often don’t want to make time. They have too many obligations, too many things planned, and everything needs to be done in a predetermined amount of time.
It’s why you’ll see Thai Massage sessions offered in a myriad of variations: half an hour, one hour, one hour and a half, two hours, you name it. Offering sessions has become a very commercial enterprise, with a price attached to those sessions depending on the duration.
Times have changed. Our way of working changes with it. Perhaps not always for the best, because we would want to serve our clients in the best way possible, which would often mean to take much more time than simply giving an hour of Thai Massage pampering.
But things are what they are, of course, and we need to accept in one way or the other that we live in fast-food times. For many Thai Massage therapists there’s no other way than to fully accommodate the wellness market if they want to make a reasonable living out of being a masseur.
Receive occasional news about our new eBook and Video Workshop publications.
