Innovation and Early Adopters
People think that they love change. They don’t.
They fight resist and block it with every attempt including legislation because frankly impermanence is scary and it’s easier if things would just stop changing so fast.
Years ago I adopted a different stance. That stance was that since all things are impermanent why not just float around? Build dreams follow your bliss but why resist? Resistance is in fact futile and in business resistance is garbage. I’ve no desire to play defense. Offense is where it’s at.
I posted this and expected I’d get some flack. I’ve an uncanny knack at bumping into people’s sore spots physically and psychically. When I posted it I expected the response I got which was, “hey, why are you hating on swedish?”
I’m not. Swedish and deep tissue as massage styles aren’t going away. They exist on nearly every street corner of America. Why would I want to offer what everyone else is offering? It doesn’t make sense in business to offer what in essence is the same service everyone else offers.
In addition as someone with chronic pain if you apply lubricant on my skin I’m going to start getting angry. I know what’s coming. I know what you were taught in school. I completely and vehemently disagree.
I don’t want a massage. I want you to help my pain.
If I ask a therapist to work on me as I work on others I’ll get nowhere. Sliding over my skin is akin to having an itch asking you to scratch my back and then you scratch near where I want you to. I’m writhing and squirming hoping you’ll get to where I need attention. I feel that but worse when you give me swedish. It feels as if you’re gliding over my painful areas refusing to slow down hang out and traction skin where the real relief seems to come from.
I’ve had it from extremely deep compressions like the ones I deliver using suspension.
I’ve also felt it from extremely gentle skin traction like cranialsacral therapy. I can only go with what I have personally felt.
Repeatedly clients ask me, “why isn’t what you do available everywhere? This is amazing work for pain. I’ve never seen or felt anything like it.” I then have to hang my head low and announce that the community of people I’ve been trying to give it to don’t believe it to be “massage.”
Regulation is a huge thorn in my side. Stretch facilities are opening up and with each new clinic and every yoga teacher I see doing it I wonder why the yoga community hasn’t listened either. I’ve seen spa owners and directors clench their teeth as I teach students work that’s easier on their bodies helps them rebook clients effortlessly and reduces chronic pain to rubble. Do they see innovation and see $$$? Nah, they see problems since it’s not “massage.”
Does the yoga community see what I’m doing and say, “hey Robert can you train our staff and get us doing this?” Usually no because if the word massage is used they realize a law and legal issues are looming. It doesn’t matter that I can give their studio another revenue stream and innovate their industry since they don’t want the burden of facility licenses and hiring massage therapists.
At this stage in my career when I teach massage therapists I’m fully aware that I have to deprogram them. Leaders in our industry have been far too concerned with maintaining status quo and not rocking the boat. I will say that the more you block me the more you resist the more barriers you put in my way, I become more crafty.
I can deliver education worldwide bottom to top and bring you on my journey and teach you what I do for $7/month. People keep saying, “you work out of your garage?” I smile and say many small businesses started out of garages. My winning strategy is you don’t see me coming and don’t think it’s possible.
We’re still looking for those early adopters. We’re still putting out information seeing who will actually respond to wanting to help people quickly effectively without surgeries or medications. We don’t diagnose or treat any condition but as I tell my clients all the time, “what if your symptoms go away?”
The massage industries future is unknown to me. I see differentiation but with massage regulation that means virtually nothing I’m unsure who I can teach who will legally use the work or how I will continue to help people without your assistance.
Many therapists are content to have full practices. I started teaching because I saw so much suffering in my own industry and the untold horrors of the public’s pain forced me to continue going forward as rapidly as possible.
I will not stop. When I finally collapse and perish it will likely be in the middle of working on my next project trying to help people.
With each new stretch facility that opens I see massage regulation and more and more meaningless. If you can change the name it’s now legal? Time to rebrand and move on with life. We lost the Reboot™ trademark and I’m in the midst of what may be a legal debacle. I’ll have to go to a lawyer and go, “hey you know all that massage regulation we were concerned about? Stretch facilities have apparently figured out the loophole for us.”
How Do We Improve Yoga or Thai Massage?
I’ve been dealing with these concepts for years and I can speak on it extemporaneously for hours. I fell into two traditions. Traditions of which I mostly hold no direct lineage.
I love Iyengar and his yoga but I’ve only ever taken one specific class though many of the classes I’ve taken and teachers I’ve studied with have more knowledge of his alignment.
Thai massage has a lineage and my teacher studied with some teachers in Thailand but she never made a big deal out of it nor have I. Pichest Boonthumme is represented as is Chaiyuth Priyasith but I’ve never set foot in their country of origin.
To be able to study overseas you need lots of disposable income and the capacity to travel the bulk of which I’ve not been able to afford. I continue to study as I can with whoever comes near and ask questions the frazzle everyone’s brain.
Recently Jason Crandell came to Austin and I was fortunate enough to take a single class of vinyasa with him. In him I found what I’d been hoping his instagram posts would show me.
I’ve no wish to speak for him, which is why I link him here, but he said what I’ve been saying for years to students who actually listened. Yes we honor the foundation of the practice. We do that by updating it making it safer exploring it’s depth and giving it a modern twist that is uniquely our own.
You’d be surprised how controversial that idea is.
Jason ran me through vinyasa. It was hard to keep up. I mention in this video briefly how he tried to kill me. 🙂
I’ve gotten softer having a less fiery practice but in the middle of all that breathing moving sweating and trying to keep up I heard what I admire. He’s just trying to give his students his questions. He’s helping them move along and encouraging exploration. He’s actually asking questions about anatomy safety physiology and pain science.
In other words it’s a near mirror example of my path over the years except I approach it a bit more from a massage therapist’s perspective.
It’s hard to express what it felt like to have some weight taken off as usually I’m nearly alone in a community that doesn’t understand the larger discussion I’m having. Having some focus on Jason for a few hours while I could sweat and breathe and slowly feel like I was going to expire was actually psychically relieving.
His message isn’t revolutionary to me but with two distinct asian traditions people often associate with religion people get very testy very quickly if you try to remove the cultural background and figure out how to use those tools to help people in the west. I’ve done this myself on two fronts. Both communities the yoga community and the massage communities have left me a near pariah for 17 years.
I don’t fit anywhere.
I was glad that at least for a few hours I could still my mind and listen to another teacher that I respected. Jason if you read this I’d love to do an interview or podcast with you. I’d love to talk Thai massage and yoga and the connections between the two. I suspect we’ve come to very similar ideas from different paths and angles.
I Want To Take Your Class Then Teach Thai Massage
Messages come through my inbox regularly and we’ve worked hard in the last ten years providing Thai massage and education in the Austin area as well as many states in the U.S. As the practice grows what I increasingly hear is, “can I take your class then train others?”
I have students sign contracts specifically preventing them from using my materials or sequences to go and teach others using my curriculum. I cannot prevent anyone teaching Thai massage as Thai massage has no legal distinction in the U.S. Anyone with a massage license can legally watch a youtube video and put Thai massage on their menu of services.
Let the buyer beware.
One of the reasons I’m branding what I do and moving slowly away from Thai massage is the lack of quality control. What I teach is not traditional. What I teach includes pain science, yoga therapy, myofascial release, self care, marketing, packaging, suspension, advanced abdominal work, sales and client care. We will hopefully soon have a registered trademark and a succinct curriculum to put students through.
I’ve been teaching for well on ten years and I’ve not even come close to finding an end to what I’m offering. So you understand regularly licensed massage therapists get a session and completely freak out after receiving work from me. They announce, “what you do isn’t Thai massage!”
When I ask they always tell me that I don’t follow a sequence. I then laugh and say, “sequences are for beginners. I just work on you.”
Thai massage will continue to be in odd murky legal waters. Regulation is a regular consistent thorn in my side. Remember massage therapists will receive my work and declare that it is not massage. When I ask if I can legally go teach the yoga community they say, “oh shit. They don’t have licenses.” I smile and conclude the session.
It is unknown at this stage whether we will offer an XYZ™ certification for Thai massage or Table Thai. We will find out in time as we work on infrastructure. Just remember many can teach you Thai massage but spend a few hours watching my youtube videos. We’ve pushed far beyond tradition.
Do I Need A License To Do Thai Massage?
I get this email once a week and need a standardized template response. This blog post is likely to be edited and revised over time.
You want to do Thai massage without a license?
Here’s the problem. Each state in the U.S. has different laws and we’re increasingly teaching internationally. I can legally teach anyone for $7/month worldwide. You can start now. With a million sets of laws I’ve no idea what it and is not legal. You being in AZ I don’t know that states particular laws how they are written interpreted or even remotely enforced.
If you do a google search for Thai yoga therapy or stretch therapy in AZ or any other state you may see that many may or may not use the word massage in their marketing. From a brief glance it does not appear that they are licensed.
Here’s the deal. I can teach. I can share. I can perform massage in a state I am licensed in. I can also often travel to your state and teach anyone I choose. I cannot in any way shape or form encourage or promote someone working doing massage without a license in a state that requires licensure for that practice. I do this for my own legal protection and usually tell you what I tell all students.
I do not know the law in your state. Get a lawyer. #bettercallsaul
Happy to chat,
Robert
How Do I Get Started Studying Thai Massage?
Thai massage has a lot of background and complexity. Many will recommend going to Thailand and Chang Mai to study and I think that’s a great option for those who can afford it. As a long term 16 year practitioner massage therapist and yoga teacher I’ve my own thoughts on education and what I see in the western marketplace.
If you want quick and easy I’ve got a few options. Would you like a Free Thai massage workbook?
Would you like 250+ hours of video instruction you can access immediately?
I pride myself on the best of simple easy instruction for western students who want to get started whether they are licensed therapists, yoga teachers or amateurs who want to help friends and family.
What about a 10 day drip course on back pain? I show you a single technique each day for 10 days and walk you through a simple sequence for upper back and neck pain in addition to low back pain.
First I recommend if you’re a westerner that you possibly study with a western teacher to study and learn the basics. Mat based Thai massage clothes on includes lots of use of your legs and feet and you’ll need to be able to use your body in Thailand to be able to perform sessions and add nuance that Thai teachers can give you.
Second I think that western clients and therapists have different context than Thai practitioners and receivers. Thai teachers will never teach you how to sell your work and market it in a western marketplace. Most of what I’ve done as a western teacher and practitioner is help students translate the work in a different cultural context.
The bodywork itself is amazing. Western students are still confused about how to learn it how to practice it and even more how to sell and package it. I’ve gone through those same issues so it’s easier for me to translate that to an American mindset.
I’d like to point out that it’s also good to study with different teachers so you understand what you like and almost more importantly what you do not like. How does the teacher make you feel? How does the therapist make you feel? In the end I think those things are extremely important.
My social media is extremely active and you can learn on any of my channels. Follow me wherever you are for ongoing interaction. If you need to message me you can even do so in video on instagram if you would like.
Neck Pain Relief Techniques At Home
Many people I see have ongoing issues with their neck and I’ve developed easy to use stuff even I use at home to help myself between massage sessions. These in no way replace seeing a professional but I think they work best with regular massage as maintenance. If you have a foam roll at home try this.
Headache issues are also a constant complaint and tension headaches seem to have involvement from many posterior neck muscles including the suboccipitals. The top of the neck connects to the two top neck vertebrae from these muscles and this broad compression is an easy way to access a broad swathe of muscles that may be giving you challenges.
Go slow and breathe. Check out the blog post on upper back pain as well. Many issues through the neck and upper back are connected.
How Do I Get Started With Thai Massage
I get regular phone calls and social media contacts from students trying to figure out where to get started studying Thai massage. When you work with me I’ve done my best to distill 15 years of practice into a seamless experience. While many students will do best with in person classes I think they severely underestimate what can be done online with distance education as we have it set up. Here’s what it looks like:
First we have a free workbook. If you haven’t downloaded one get started now.
Second we have an online subscription service with 80+ hours of video instructional content. When you join you get an additional online live interactive class once a month and access to our private facebook group to ask questions and get more education. You can subscribe to the Reboot™ Insiders Club here.
Third we have a full series of workbook and dvds. So far we have 700 pages of sequence manuals and 6 dvds (we’re finishing another 3 as you’re reading this) available with detailed step by step instruction. Each workbook goes along with the videos step by step to walk you through complete sequences. These materials really go inside my practice and show you how I’ve been working in the last 15 years. They took me 7 years to create and distill the information to make it as clear and succinct as possible.
We currently have a payment plan and you can purchase that full retail package here. (For paper goods we only ship within the U.S. Alaska and Hawaii.)
These can be started immediately. It’s the quickest and fastest way to get started today!
Beyond that we have ongoing in person group classes. We have classes coming up in Round Rock, Dallas and Houston, Texas as well as Fort Smith, Arkansas. You can register for those classes by scrolling down to the bottom.
Let’s say you want in person private training. Please text me so we can arrange for that. 512 905 2298 I charge $80/hour with a 3 hour minimum for private training. I can also do this via webcam if you need private distance training and will work with you on the time as I don’t require 3 hours for that.
Hopefully that gives you a good start. There are tons of questions and we go over this regularly. I try to make the answers as simple as possible for students and provide the highest quality education in Thai massage at what I believe is also some of the least expensive and highly engaging online presentation. Our subscription service is taking the massage industry by storm. No one has ever seen anyone give away so much and beyond that $7/month is a complete steal.
Get on board the subscription service today. It’s the best deal in our industry right now for education. We’re building to offering CE credit as fast as we can.
Why Reboot™
I had a phone conversation with a colleague and he insisted that I’m driving away part of my target market by insisting that what I do isn’t massage. Legally massage is the manipulation of soft tissue. Legally massage therapists are the ones who can perform this work but to someone who’s already bought and sold the culturally hegemonic kool aid Reboot™ is less massage anything they’ve ever seen. Where’s the table?
My colleague wanted me to focus on the benefits, the features. When you sell it to massage therapists what are they looking for? What problems are they trying to solve?
Massage therapists get the following benefits by using what I teach:
Save your hands
Help clients in chronic pain rapidly
Deep compressions effortlessly
Do propped yoga while you work
Offer a truly unique service clients cannot get elsewhere
More effective next level 21st century work
Make more income offering an amazing service no facility comes close to
Have more fun in session!!
Engage full mobility for your clients and yourself
No hunching over a table
Increased range of motion and capacity to engage more intimately with clients
Help clients with severe menstrual cramps and debilitating low back pain by using advanced abdominal massage
Create a niche service that allows you to film and create tons of social media content
Spend less on cream and oils
Save on laundry since you only need a flat sheet on top of your mat
Make use of your full body including legs and feet to deliver pressure
Accelerate your business growth by having a service you can demonstrate easily
Create a space where you’re breathing fully and exploring your own range of motion while helping people
Work for yourself more easily
A clothed service helps with clients who may not want to undress
Male therapists may be able to open up new markets to clients who don’t want to undress
Meditate while you work
Did I mention that it’s more fun? 🙂
What is Thai Massage?
What Is Thai Massage?
I used to think I knew. At least I thought I had an idea. Over time Thai massage has vaporized in my mind in the way that American history has changed due to revisionist history. When I first studied with my teacher it was just Thai massage sometimes called Thai yoga massage and the yoga was just to let people know it was something like yoga where you stretched the client.
At that time that was enough. My interest in the practice was immediate and I felt a deep longing to travel to Thailand and study more in time. Due to life, finances and work I continued using what I’d been taught over the years and noticed my confusion as to why massage therapists worked as they did. Mat work was easier on my body more pain relieving and effective for clients but I couldn’t for the life of me find work in Austin, Texas. Austin being a progressive hub I was quite confused at the lack of diversity in the bodywork marketplace. Swedish and deep tissue ruled the landscape. In places I interviewed for work they made it very clear that they have no idea what Thai massage was and wouldn’t be offering something consumers weren’t asking for.
In my search for information I could find schools in the U.S. but they didn’t seem to be talking. It was as if they existed in isolation. I did what I always do. I got up and went. I started the US Thai massage group on facebook and brought many of the prominent teachers to myself. Immediately they began arguing with each other and even moreso subtly announcing that I didn’t know anything. This westerner was teaching Thai massage having never been to Thailand.
I produced a free Thai massage workbook that I gave away on my website. I was criticized even more for polluting a sacred tradition with my theoretically errant writings. I’d never presumed to know everything. I just presumed to know more than the students I was teaching. Most of them were completely floored by what I was sharing as it was nothing like anything they’d been taught before. They did massage on a table with the client under a sheet and blanket using oil or cream on bare skin. I was working on clothed clients on a mat using things that looked more like Brazilian jiu jitsu than massage. I had full use of my whole body including legs and feet.
Six years in teaching later I still don’t know what Thai massage is. I teach something called Thai massage but that label only seems to work for people if they’re not interested in lineage. I read articles. I follow the traditionalist camps and listen to their rally cry of tradition and lineage but deep down it doesn’t resonate for me at all. I was never really interested in Thai massage in that way. I was interested in helping people overcome pain. Thai massage was just the vehicle to help them there.
What is Thai massage is still the most searched for keyword term for Thai massage via google. No one knows what it is. Increasingly what I notice is there’s someone as white and as western as I am smiling and telling you he can teach you the Thai secrets for a large sum of money. What is Thai massage? I’m not really certain but I enjoy a good debate and find people fun to watch.
At this stage in my career I’ve written eight hundred pages of some of the most detailed sequence manuals on Thai massage in the western marketplace. I’m biased of course but my materials were writtien with massage therapists in mind. I was helping them transition from the table to the mat, no small undertaking for a table based culture. Saying I don’t know what Thai massage is means I wrote eight hundred pages of what exactly?
My soul. Mostly that’s what’s on those pages. My toil and care for others over the last thirteen or so years is on display. Much like youtube video comments people will have much to say about my being fat. I’ll be told what I do isn’t Thai enough. It’s not this enough or that enough and doesn’t include prayers to Jivaka and the Buddha. If you’ve a keen eye you’ll take something out of context and tell me I’m off hara and not moving correctly. You’ll announce I’m doing it wrong.
At this stage I’ll just sit back drink some scotch ponder my age increasing belly fat and laugh. Frankly, I don’t care much about tradition. I’m a Scots-Irish born man from south Louisiana. My people are the ones you saw during hurricane Katrina on tv and in protests over Alton Sterling in my hometown of Baton Rouge, La. Critics? Oh I’ve got plenty of those. I’ll continue to have them as long as I live.
“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”~Aristotle
What is Thai massage? I’m still not certain. When you dig enough the pieces start to fall apart. Is it Thai? Is it ancient? Is it sacred? Is it for sale?
Your Thai massage is what you make it. Don’t let anyone criticize your practice. We all have opinions. My question to you is what you are doing helping others? Then keep going. Do you ask good questions and self reflect? Then keep going. I’m not as interested in Thai massage as I am in how you treat your neighbors. I help mine. Do you? Is that Thai massage?
What is Thai massage jam ®?
Thai massage jam ® is a community bodywork and massage event I’ve hosted in Austin for four years. During that time we’ve seen thousands of people wander through our event and wonder what was going on. No one has ever seen anything like it. We meet at least once a week in Austin, Texas and hope to open chapters in your city soon.
In our culture a licensed therapist pays someone for a massage. A licensed massage therapist pays an educator for a class to get continuing education. When they wander into Thai massage jam ® and see people all working on each other communally I can sense their confusion. The questions start, “is everyone here licensed?” I’ll look around and say, “those two folks are and everyone else is just part of the community.” Since I’m there to supervise it’s easy to show people techniques and help them with the basic skills needed to work on their friends safely.
The usual barriers break down. We’re not charging for massage and we’re not selling massage education. I teach, share, educate, host and receive work because it’s one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever been a part of. Almost nightly someone will give me a hug and tell me it’s the best night of the week. We’re have regular events in Austin at various facilities including the Lauterstein Conway Massage School.
Our event info is put out through the Austin Thai massage group on facebook and also on our meetup group. We work on each other, network and share great clothed bodywork in a group setting. We’ll see you soon and you can find more information on my social media.
Snapchat? 🙂
What Kind Of Massage Do You Do?
I’ve got lots of folks asking me questions these days and I’ve been formulating an elevator speech. My work has diversified because I’m not just seeing clients, I’m educating and leading the forefront on CEU classes for massage therapists.
Currently I’m getting ready to unleash the following:
A regular pain clinic where clients can receive a 30 minute session while others observe and do yoga therapy.
Classes are coming up in the form of a short course here in Round Rock, and an Intro to Thai massage and Table Thai combo class that’s 5 days. Arkansas and Louisiana are going to receive the same treatment. I’ll post more info and dates when I have it.
So, what do I do? I’m still not sure it has a name. I think it’s the best bodywork I’ve ever seen. It’s not really massage, could be called bodywork but I don’t work on cars. Selling something that doesn’t have a cultural box has been quite the challenge. I will say, my clients get better, whatever we desire to name it.
If you’re in physical pain, contact me. This isn’t what you’re used to when you think massage but it works. When asked for an elevator speech I say, “It’s the best bodywork you’ve never had.”
Free Thai Massage Workbook
