Male Massage Therapist
CHICAGO- In an effort to expand his practice, Chuck Dean has tried all kinds of marketing strategies from direct mail to print advertising like many massage therapists.
But nothing worked. The classified ad he placed recently also didn’t work.
In the ad, it says “Deep tissue massage by visually impaired man with fully utilized sense of touch. Reduce stress and muscle pain… “ He included his phone number and his address.
Colleen Currigan, a Chicago veterinarian, also one of his regular clients suggested Dean to mention his handicap in the ad. Dean has a Stargardt’s disease, a hereditary form of macular degeneration.
Currigan said that Dean does a good job of massage of maybe because he’s visually impaired; he has a good sense of feel. She also said that since “ a lot of women are maybe intimidated by having a male massage therapist, but once they find out he is visually impaired they might feel less uncomfortable, I thought. ‘ then let people know it ‘. “
“Because of the newspaper advertisement, I’ve never had any woman client come in here,” notes Dean, who also is in business with three others.
Tom Lembo, a massage therapist who works out of his home, says the majority of his clientele are male. His women clients are from through boyfriends, husbands and friends.
77% of the members of the American Massage Therapy Association are female. Women now make up 46% of the nation’s work force.
Male massage therapists seem to have a more difficult time starting in massage practices than their female counterparts. It tends to grow slowly.
Sara Corkery, an instructor at the Chicago School of Massage says“During the Swedish massage, you’re nude under a sheet alone with someone you’ve never met before and that probably has a fear of inappropriate touching. People can be hesitant about that.”
“Our society is so touch phobic and sensitive to who is touching or in this case massaging that it’s hard for people to change their pattern of thinking. For men, they sometimes are not comfortable when other men are touching them. And for women, they have a perception that a man might be too rough, and that a woman might have a gentler touch, which is not necessarily the case.”
“The male massage therapist gets the double whammy. In my opinion, you’re dealing with the heterophobes and the homophobes: the men who don’t want to be touched by a man and the women, for whatever reason, don’t want to be touched by a man.” Acknowledges Walter Miller, a Chicago massage therapist.
“Our society equates the nurturing touch with the feminine side of our population. That’s why most people would probably prefer being comfortable going to a female massage therapist.”
Still, Miller says male massage therapist also benefit from personal prejudice. He says “ when it comes to the gay population, a number of male massage therapist do very well because massage is about relaxation, and some gay men don’t find a female presence relaxing.”
Miller says that early on he began almost exclusively doing chair massages – stress-relieving treatments of shoulders, neck and upper back – in business settings, Partly because of the gender issue.
He says “ this way it is easy to introduce my hands to people, and I didn’t have to deal with the issues of disrobing.”
To weed out those looking for services other than therapeutic massage, both male and female have to deal with is screening potential clients.
Pamela Lightcap-Jones, who, with her massage-therapist husband Adam, owns Zenergy, a massage therapy center in Chicago says screening can be challenging sometimes. “Although it really takes experience and intuition, they talk to us about it in school. There are certain questions that a legitimate client is not going to ask you. Although a lot of people may prefer male or female therapists, a legitimate client is not going to be as uptight about it. He’s not going to ask a therapist what she’s going to wear.”
One of the most ancient healing arts, massage therapy requires clinical skills, manual dexterity, technical knowledge and sensitivity. Massage therapist still must contend with the lingering, shady image fostered by massage parlors even tough professional standards for both individuals and training programs have been increased in the last five years.
Ben Manalo of Chicago, who works with several chiropractors and in a health club in addition to his private practice providing massages in clients’ homes says male massage therapists are most likely to work in chiropractors’ offices or some setting outside their own business. He also said, “My house-call clients are (exclusively) men. I don’t think women feel comfortable inviting a male stranger into their homes.”
“Reservations about male therapists fade once the ice is broken.” Says Marilyn Kier, whose massage therapy business ‘Wellness At Work’ provides chair massages for workers.
“Once people realized that the (men) could be trusted in terms of pressure and confidentially, (those prejudices) went away. Because when I was injured, I had to send some of my employees to replace me, including some men.” Kier notes.
Some women believe that male massage therapist can do deeper massage work, because they are physically stronger.
Bob Yoder, immediate past president of the New York State chapter of the American Association of Massage Therapists says this goes back to the doctor-nurse scenario.
“ A lot of people believe that a male therapist is more educated, professional, more knowledgeable, more dedicated, and that a male therapist can work deeper, which might be true in the big picture, but I know female therapists that can make people sit up and say ‘Stop!”
Chuck Dean contends that “It’s more technique than it is a male-female (issue). When the table is low and you lunge, and when anybody puts 100 pounds or more into their thumb,
People are going to notice that really deep massage.
Massage therapists say another challenge they face is gaining acceptance by the mainstream medical community, even as evidence accumulates of the benefits of massage therapy for relaxation, repetitive stress injuries and back strain.
Yoder notes that a lot people don’t even tell their doctors about getting a massage therapy. He also said that its cutting down on hospital time and recovery time because they’re paying for it out of pocket due to uncovered insurance.
Hoeffel recounts, “We need to learn to talk to each other and value the work that each other does because until now some relationship between doctors, massage therapists and bodyworkers is changing.
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