One of the easiest and nicest ways to start moving your Thai massage practice away from a ‚massage-by-numbers’ routine and into a more intuitive one is to start spending more time in the parts of the sequece you like the most and less time in the parts of the sequence you like least.

Say, for example, you enjoy working the back lines, but you’re not the greatest fan of the sitting posture exercises. When it comes to working the back lines, you put more of yourself into it and when you come to the sitting posture, you put less of yourself into it. You connect more with the back and less with the sitting. You develop more of a feeling for the back and less for the sitting postures. The more feeling you develop in your massage, the more intuitive you will become in your treatment work, as you learn to become more guided by your feelings and less by your learnings.

The great thing about spending more time in the parts of the massage sequence you like the most is that your client feels it too. There is an enormous difference between being touched by a therapist who enjoys touching you and a therpaist who has to touch you. The former is a much warmer touch. The connection is stronger. The effect deeper. Not only do you, the therapist, enjoy working the back lines, but your client also feels you enjoying working their back lines. Their body receives the healing benefit of your enjoyment.

In time you will find that you will be able to achieve more in the areas of the sequence you enjoy more and less in the areas you enjoy less. Go with it. A massage therapist who is great on the back lines is better than a massage therapist who is just proficient throughout the whole sequence. There are thousands of proficient therapists out there, but few specialists or great ones.

Enjoy your massage. Enjoy the parts of the massage you like the most. It is a win-win situation. If you give your client a wonderfully long and healing back line routine, they will not complain afterwards that you didn’t spend so much time in the sitting position. All they will say is ‚god, that was great work you did on my back’. You will be remembered for what you did best. And what you do best is what your future reputation will be built on. Word will spread that you are the ‚go-to’ Thai therpaist for back work.

Then, as you work the back more, you will begin to feel the connection between the back and other parts of the body, such as the legs. Your treatment of your clients’ legs will then be informed by your understanding of their back and not from what you learnt at school. Your treatment work has now moved into the intuitive and away from the school learnt.