In a Full Body Thai Massage session all parts of the body receive attention. This can be in the form of a preset Thai Massage sequence that “visits” the entire body, or rather in a freer format at the discretion of the Thai Massage therapist or by more deliberately taking the specific needs or abilities/disabilities of the receiver into account.
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However, it’s always common to spend more time on certain body parts than others, depending on what part of the body is thought to need more attention. Hence, this might be the face and head, but it may as well be any other body area, such as the abdomen, back, or shoulders, and so on.
Most Thai Massage practitioners will finish a Thai Massage session with a Facial and Head Massage, just to give a relaxing end to the treatment. During the facial treatment, the receiver will usually lie in the supine position (on their back) on the floor on a special Thai Massage floor mat.
Nevertheless, the Thai Face and Head Massage may also be given (partly) in the prone (lying on the belly) or side-lying position, or even entirely in the seated position, the latter — for instance — being the case in the official Wat Pho temple General Thai Massage curriculum. Moreover, the Wat Pho Thai Style Massage starts the treatment with manipulating the face and head, instead of finishing with it. Typically, a general Wat Pho Thai Massage session ends with treating the feet.
Some Thai Massage practitioners prefer to start with the face and head in order to avoid ending with it, that is, ending with it may render the receiver too relaxed even to the point of falling asleep. This sounds perhaps awkward, but out of commercial motives it may be that the client needs to quickly make place for the next client, and a drowsy, overly relaxed and sleepy person could jeopardize the masseur’s schedule.
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Another reason to not finish with the face and head is that the client needs to step in their car or go to work (thus, needs alertness), and that’s why some Thai Massage therapists prefer to rather end with energizing and vitalizing techniques in order to avoid unsafe situations for the client after the session.
At any rate, there are no specific rules as for when exactly to carry out the facial and head part during a Thai Massage session. It may be at the beginning, at the end, in-between, or by revisiting the face and head several times with the receiver being placed in different positions. In addition, the treatment of the face and head may be more acupressure based or more stroke/massage based.
The massage therapist will usually combine head and face work with plenty of neck and trapezius muscle stretches. These types of stretches relax the cranial area because they loosen-up the attachments of the often tensed neck and upper shoulder muscles to the skull, which by themselves could be causing headaches or other discomforts of the head.
Mind that a thorough massage and acupressure session of the face and head will take at least about fifteen minutes, but longer is certainly possible depending on what exactly is (repeatedly or therapeutically) worked on.
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