QuestionHi!
I'm wondering how would you deal with a client whose expectation from a massage treatment is unrealistic and the difference if it were realistic?
I know you would look to put the client straight, for example, if the client was looking to have an injury recovered, you'd have to tell them that it was not possible for it to be healed from just the one massage, but im struggling to think of other points.
Are you able to help?
Thanks
AnswerIt sounds to me like your client is stuck in the DADA syndrome. DADA is Denial, Anger, Depression, and Acceptance. Your client is in the first stage; Denial. Coming from an athletic perspective I totally understand their frustration, but at the same time I'm also a massage therapist so I know that these things take time. All one treatment is going to do is basically tell you how much work needs to be done.
You have to let them know that your goal is to get them as close as you can to back to the way they were before they got injured. Its never going to be the same again, but you can come close. Injuries need time and patience. When a person is injured they don't use that part of their body because it hurts. So they isolate and then it throws their body out of whack. Now what our goal is; is to get the injury as close to normal again as possible. During your treatments you need to work to stretch out the injury and then once you have the full range of motion back to the site, then its safe for you to start giving them light weights to do. Eventually it will get better. For example here is what I say to my clients even if they are not fully injured, but have a complaint about something.
"The first thing that I'm going to tell you is that you ARE NOT going to get better in only one treatment. I know it hurts and it is a pain in your life, but for now that is something that you are just going to have to accept. The treatment protocol that we are going to follow is that we are going to work on the the range of motion that was lost; so we are going to lengthen the muscle and once we have that done we are going to replace the strength that was lost. We will not do them at the same time or start with strength because that will just make it worse. You have to be responsible in the healing process to help yourself out. In other words if I give you stretches to do and I ask you to hold them for 8 seconds and do 3 reps twice a day then I expect you to do it. For me to help you, you need to help me, by helping yourself. We'll start with a treatment every other day and then work down to every 3 or 4 days. The better it gets the less treatments we'll be using. If you don't help yourself in this process then you have to accept that it is just going to go on and it'll bother you."
A little harsh I know, but it seems to get the point across, some people won't do what you ask them to or they'll try to tell you how to do your job. I'm younger than almost 95% of my clients and for this reason I don't tell them how old I am. Yes most people that are older won't do what I ask them, but once I convince them to they start to believe me. I know that age has nothing to do with it, but sometimes if they don't know how old you are then they can't really say that you're too young to understand.
Be truthful and be honest because if you don't lay down the line then they're going to keep complaining. Another thing is that when you get them to do stretches, get them to do them for you first before they leave and have them show you again at the beginning of their next treatment. If they are doing it wrong then you need to correct them.
To help me out to I make sure that I can show the client how to do things properly; I stay in very good shape and am very flexible. I don't give them anything that I can't do myself. Never claim to heal a person, but only to help.
I hope this helps, let me know how it goes and if you need anything else let me know.
Zira
