Hi Lea, welcome to our forum. Regarding your 1000 questions, you are in the right place. As of last count I have answered 1335 forum posts, so I can handle a few more. 

In regards to your question about northern or southern style, I have written an article that sorts all this out. You can read it here:

Why Are There So Many Names For Thai Massage?

Regarding the differences between Thai Massage and Shiatsu, there is a lot of overlap. There are several styles which have lots of similarities, like Thai Massage, Shiatsu, Breema, Tui Na, and yoga therapy - basically all Asian modalities. 

There are differences of course. When talking about Shiatsu, there are also several styles of Shiatsu which differ among themselves. So we have to generalize a bit here. 

Personally I have studied Zen Shiatsu, so I can talk about this based on actual experience. I have also traded many sessions with Shiatsu practitioners. 

First you have to look at this with a bit of historical understanding. Thai Massage has a much more colorful history since it became popular during the Vietnam war as a come-on for sexual services for the US soldiers who spent their vacation time here. Since then Thai Massage has always been offered in a variety of ways, ranging from thinly veiled prostitution to highly effective therapy. And so it is up to this day. Many Thai women have exported the more questionable variety of Thai Massage all over the world, and at the same time there was an explosion in the interest for genuine Thai Massage worldwide.

Shiatsu never had this history. It was always considered a strictly therapeutic modality, at least in the western world. This means that Shiatsu training has generally been more extensive and comprehensive. This also had the effect that it never became as popular as Thai Massage. There is no huge influx of tourists who go to Japan to study Shiatsu. 

Shiatsu is not generally regarded as something exciting, exotic. Although it is an excellent massage modality if done right, interest in it has been declining whereas interest in Thai Massage is going up.

You can very easily confirm this by yourself. Just go to http://www.google.com/trends/. Then type "Shiatsu" in the search bar and you will get a line which has been sloping down for the last decade. Then type "Thai Massage" in the search bar, and you will see the exact opposite, a line which has been sloping upwards for the last decade.

Thai Massage however has become a real tourist attraction in Thailand and there is a lot of shallow and watered down training offered here in Thailand and in the western world as well. In other words there is a wide range of training for Thai Massage and a lot of it is tourist training quality material.

This course, Complete Thai Massage, teaches Thai Massage at the highest standard and with more detail and depth than you will find in the vast majority of Thai Massage schools.

Shiatsu focuses a lot on the meridians and at least Zen Shiatsu uses what is called the "hara diagnosis", meaning that it diagnoses the entire body from several points in the abdomen. These points are not physically related to other areas in the body, but energetically. 

Thai Massage uses the Sen line system which is clearly similar, however the approach of working with the Sen lines is different from the Shiatsu system. Also Thai Massage has no hara diagnosis. Thai Massage has a much bigger repertoire of stretches since it has a closer relationship with yoga than Shiatsu. 

Thai Massage is often called "Applied Yoga". This element is not so present in Shiatsu. There are still many similarities between the two systems, and there are quite a few techniques which are similar or almost identical.

What all this means for your business is that because of the perceived exotic nature of Thai Massage and its growing popularity it is much easier to make a good living with it. It is in high demand all over the world, and most spas are scrambling to find Thai Massage therapists. This is not the case with Shiatsu.

There are other differences between the two systems, but this should give you some idea.

Regarding mats, don't use a very thick and soft mat. It will make it harder for you to keep your balance and it will make good ergonomics more difficult. It is better to use a mat which is comfortable, but firm.

Thanks for your kind words, I really appreciate it.

The "zone" is definitely the best place to be when doing Thai Massage. Your story about working on Jack is really heart-warming. What a great thing it is to have a massage mom!

You definitely need a mat which allows you to always have your knees on a soft surface. The other alternative would be to have a couple of cushions handy which should have a similar consistency as the mat, and you can place those on both sides of the mat. I have done that a lot when I did not have a big enough mat to keep my knees on it all the time. If you have knee issues, you can even go for a softer or more substantial cushion to place your knees on. Just make sure they never end up on a hard surface.

This might not be what you want to hear, but it is the truth. What you are experiencing is a good thing. You are in the fortunate position of being able to work on people with very different sizes and weights. This reflects what you encounter in real life massage therapy. It is best to learn early on that not all techniques work on every body type. That's a big reason why throughout this course I offer many alternative ways of doing something. Thai Massage is definitely not a one-size-fits-all situation.

Working on a 250 pound man is a challenge in any kind of massage therapy if you are much smaller than that. You need to learn early on that in such a case you will need to preserve your energy and strength by

1. Skipping certain techniques
2. Using many more non-hand techniques like elbows, forearms, knees and feet.

For example if someone has very heavy legs, you don't put their leg across yours, but you stand up and work the leg with your feet, for example. It is a bit to early in the course for you to know how to do all that, but I can assure you that you will learn it as you go along.

In the case of your husband, you would cut your stretch repertoire down to maybe less than 50 percent and only use techniques where you have plenty of leverage. The rule is this: The bigger and heavier someone is in relation to your size and weight, the more techniques you will need to eliminate and the more you should use non-stretch techniques where you can effectively work with your forearms, elbows, knees and feet. 

Don't worry about this now, it will all become very clear in future sessions. Just don't try to do every single technique which I show you on your husband. That would be like trying to drive a square peg through a round hole. If I work on a 250 pound person, I don't use all techniques either. I just do what I know I can do comfortably without wearing myself out in the process. And that's something you learn only by first running into obstacles and into your limits, as you have experienced with your husband. So that was a good lesson! 

Put him on a starvation diet to facilitate your Thai Massage practice. Now that sounds like a recipe for harmony in the family. 

Anyway, you will automatically learn more about using different options for different types of people throughout this course since this really is a big issue which is often totally neglected in Thai Massage training. And yes, initially learning Thai Massage is challenging. It is not the easiest modality out there, and there is lots to learn. How otherwise did I come up with 19 different courses as of last count! 

But one thing I can tell you for sure: If you are really good at Thai Massage, you can be amazingly effective therapeutically and you will have very little, if any competition unless you live in Thailand. It will take time and lots of practice and experience, but it will be well worth it.