Hi Ursula,

Welcome to the forum and the Thai Massage course. I am always so happy when my work helps people in their massage practice. You pointed out some of the essence of what I am trying to convey - "gentle, meaningful, intentional movements with good body mechanics." There is just a world of difference between a mechanical Thai Massage session and a healing session. This is one topic that you will see throughout the entire course with even more refinements in later modules.

Glad to have you on board!

That's the good thing about this home study program - even if you get behind, the course will always be there. And if you forget something, you can always go back to a prior module.

The longer you go through the course, the more you will see that there is no way to use all the techniques in one session. They are meant to build up your inventory of possible moves, and then you choose what you want to do on a client based on how much time you have, the needs of the client and your personal preferences.

To have a lot of techniques in your repertoire gives you more confidence and more flexibility to deal with whatever comes up in a session. We don't want to just mechanically follow the same sequence forever with everyone, but we want to work intuitively and creatively.

Of course in the beginning it is useful to practice the sequences shown in the videos as they flow in a natural way, but once you know the techniques well, you can become more creative and adapt, change and modify depending on the situation and the client.

Hi Ursula,

You can certainly modify stretches according to the needs of the client. I do it all the time. However in the situation which you described, my approach would be a little different. If someone has tight hamstrings, and won't be stretched easily due to knee problems, I would not do the stretching for the time being and just focus on working the hamstrings without stretching them. Then I would do a lot of specific knee work to improve that condition and loosen it up. Only then would I introduce some gentle stretching.

Knee issues can cause severe pain if you do too much stretching which affects the knee. In such cases it is more effective to work on the muscles with pressure/leaning/rocking techniques instead of doing the stretches.

There are many such techniques demonstrated in the Complete Thai Massage course. If you ever want to learn more about this type of approach, you can go deeper with some of our special therapy courses which are designed to deal with specific problem areas.

Great, your intuition is at work, and you are feeling the flow. That's the way to do it. The more you feel the flow, the more you experience the magic of it. Sometimes when I am doing a session, a perfect technique for this particular client just comes to me, although I had never done this move before. Generally after the session I cannot even remember how I did it anymore. That's what happens when you focus on breath, energy, intuition and flow. If you just focus on technique, you will get stuck, it feels mechanical, and you won't have the knowing and the confidence that what you are doing is really working at its highest level.

Sure we need to learn the techniques first, but we can never lose sight of where we ultimately want to go with this work. Can you imagine a gifted musician just mechanically following the sheet music notes, or a a talented dancer just following a mechanical sequence? Massage works the same way, there is a soul in it that we have to discover and connect with.

That's why I call my abdominal work "Dancing Hands Abdominal Massage". I think that this is a good description since it really has to feel to you like your hands are dancing on the abdomen, lightly and gracefully. Anything heavy handed will feel terrible on the abdomen. But this takes some time to develop. If you get plenty of feedback from your partner, it will turn into "dancing hands".

Regarding the certificate, yes, they are only issued to the original buyer who demonstrated  participation through regular forum posts as outlined in the course manual.

Now you are hitting a very important learning spot in your training. Instead of just doing the techniques, you notice that you have to develop more sensitivity and intuition for your techniques and for different bodies. That's where the art of it really begins to develop, where the wheat is separated from the chaff.

This is a great place to be, because now you enter a new level of learning. The secret is to learn how to listen with your various body parts instead of just doing something with them. And yes, you can develop such intuitive listening ability in your hands, forearms, elbows, knees and feet.

You will learn more, a lot more, in this course about developing this sensitivity and refining your touch through the concept of the "Anatomy of a Thai Massage Move".