Would you like to know the biggest problem and the biggest secret in Thai Massage?
Our founder Shama Kern has lived in Thailand for over fifteen years, received countless massages, and practiced and taught Thai Massage every day. He knows the answers to both questions. And they can literally make or break a Thai Massage career.
Let us walk you through them.
The Biggest Problem in Thai Massage
Shama lives in Chiang Mai, which happens to have the highest concentration of Thai Massage schools in the world. Those schools are pumping out students by the hundreds every week, and they are almost all teaching the same thing: a sequence of techniques.
When a student finishes one of these trainings, they typically know 100 or 150 techniques. Then they walk away thinking they know Thai Massage. All of their clients get essentially the same sequence they learned in school. And many of them never become successful with their new skills.
Why?
Because mechanically doing the same sequence over and over leaves out the real art of Thai Massage.
Even here in Thailand, the same problem exists. If you get a Thai Massage session, in the majority of cases you receive a standard treatment with a standard sequence of techniques. When you ask for special therapy work on a specific issue, you still get the same kind of session with a few extra minutes thrown in on that area. And this mostly means the therapist is just pressing harder wherever it hurts.
That is not real therapy.
The Biggest Secret in Thai Massage
Now let us tell you the biggest secret. It is a secret because hardly anyone is actually doing it.
Real, effective Thai Massage therapy begins after you know all those 100 techniques you were taught in school.
Most students think that is all there is to Thai Massage. But that is just the beginning. It is only the first step. The real art is knowing how to take those techniques to a higher level by combining them with:
Perfect body posture so your work is sustainable and precise.
The right breathing so your rhythm and pressure come from your whole body, not just your hands.
A high degree of sensitivity so you can read what the client’s body is telling you.
The ability to adjust for different body sizes and weights so your work fits the client in front of you.
Real intuition so you know what to do rather than following a memorized script.
Specific knowledge for specific problems so you can address what the client actually needs.
In other words, you cannot stay a generalist. You have to become a specialist.
Why Hip Therapy Is the Perfect Example
Nothing shows the gap between generalist and specialist Thai Massage more clearly than hip therapy.
Modern sedentary life has made hip issues incredibly common. Most people sit in the same position for most of the day, which means they use only a tiny fraction of the possible range of motion in their hip joints. The muscles around the hip atrophy. They become stiff and painful. They pull the hip out of proper alignment.
The hip joint is a sophisticated mechanism that affects balance, walking, and even the knees and feet. When it stops functioning well, the effects ripple through the entire body.
Now here is where Thai Massage becomes valuable in a way most modalities simply cannot match. Unlike other massage therapies which work mostly with muscle relaxation techniques, Thai Massage has dozens of techniques to give the hip a total workout, restore full range of motion in the joint, and address hip issues from every angle.
But knowing those techniques and knowing how to actually apply them therapeutically are two different things.
The Questions Every Hip Specialist Should Be Able to Answer Yes To
If a client comes to you with hip problems, ask yourself honestly:
Do you know all the essential Thai Massage hip techniques?
Can you assess what kind of hip problem the client actually has?
Can you tell your clients with real confidence that you have the skills to help them?
Can you work on the hips for a solid hour without running out of techniques?
Do you know how to adjust every technique for different sizes and weights of clients?
Do you know how to work effectively on a large client even if you are a small therapist?
If you cannot answer yes to all of those questions, that is the gap between where you are and where a real hip specialist works from.
Why We Built the Thai Hip Therapy Course
This is exactly why we created the Thai Hip Therapy course at Thai Healing Massage Academy.
It is a substantial, sophisticated program built specifically to take you from generalist to specialist in one area of Thai Massage. Six hours of hip training across eleven video modules. A detailed course manual with an index that makes it easy to find any technique.
The course is not just a collection of techniques or another one size fits all sequence. When you go through it, you learn what to do, why to do it, how to identify hip problems, how to deal with them effectively, how to work on different kinds and sizes of clients, how to modify your techniques to fit different situations, and how to communicate with your clients about their hip issues.
Everything Shama teaches in the course is drawn from his fifteen plus years of working with real clients on hip issues in Thailand.
If You Already Own the Complete Thai Massage Course
A question we hear regularly is whether Thai Hip Therapy overlaps with our Complete Thai Massage course. Yes, some of the techniques appear in both. But the difference matters.
The Complete Thai Massage course is our flagship program that teaches the entire Thai Massage system.
The Thai Hip Therapy course goes much deeper on the hip specifically, with many more techniques and much greater detail. Everything you might want to know about Thai hip therapy is organized in one place.
Shama compares it to learning to drive. You may already know how to drive a car. That does not mean you know how to drive a race car. You are still working with the steering wheel, brakes, and clutch, but you are learning to use them at a much more advanced level.
Why This Works as Online Training
Sometimes people ask whether hip therapy can really be learned through video. In many ways it is easier than in a live course.
When a live course is over, that is it. If you cannot remember how to do something a month later, there is no way to go back and look at it again.
With our video training, you can watch every module as many times as you like. Today, next month, or two years from now, at no extra cost. It is a lifetime investment.
What Makes Our Online Training Different From Just Watching Videos
We want to be clear that Thai Healing Massage Academy is not a DVD in the mail.
We are a real online training institute. That means:
The training is interactive. Our forum has thousands of posts where students ask questions and Shama personally answers every one of them.
The lessons are structured to prevent overwhelm. Rather than dumping all 100 plus techniques on you at once, you receive one training video every two days so you have time to practice in between.
You are part of a community. You can follow other students’ progress and communicate with them directly.
We offer certification. The course includes two certification options.
We are NCBTMB approved. Which means you can earn CEUs while you learn.
Support is free and unlimited. Directly from the instructor, for as long as you are a student, even years after enrollment.
The Learn Massage Or Don’t Pay Guarantee
We offer a 14 day satisfaction guarantee on this course. You can go through more than half of the entire program during that time. If you decide it is not the right investment for your Thai Massage career, send us an email and you get all of your money back.
We take the risk. You risk nothing except missing out on the training itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do most Thai Massage therapists never really learn hip therapy? Because most Thai Massage schools teach a general sequence of techniques rather than specialized therapeutic work. Students walk away knowing 100 or 150 techniques and thinking they know Thai Massage, but the real work of becoming a specialist starts after the basics are learned.
What is the difference between a generalist and a specialist in Thai Massage? A generalist runs the same sequence of techniques on every client. A specialist knows how to assess a specific problem, choose the right techniques for it, adjust for the client’s body size and weight, communicate with the client about their condition, and get results. Specialization requires body posture, breathing, sensitivity, and intuition, not just technique memorization.
Why is Thai Massage particularly good for hip issues? Unlike other massage modalities which focus mostly on muscle relaxation, Thai Massage has dozens of techniques that work the hip joint through its full range of motion. This addresses hip issues at the joint level, not just at the muscle level.
Can you really learn Thai hip therapy from video training? Yes, and in some ways it is easier than in-person training. Live courses end and cannot be reviewed. Video training can be watched as many times as needed, over months or years, at no additional cost. Our courses also include interactive forum support directly from the instructor.
Does the Thai Hip Therapy course overlap with the Complete Thai Massage course? There is some overlap in techniques, but the Thai Hip Therapy course goes much deeper on hips specifically. It includes many more techniques, much greater detail, and organizes all hip related knowledge into one program.
What is included in the Thai Hip Therapy course? An introductory video, a detailed course manual with an index, eleven video modules delivering six hours of training, free unlimited instructor support, two certification options, and access to our student forum and interactive training features.
Is there a money back guarantee on the Thai Hip Therapy course? Yes. We offer a 14 day learn massage or don’t pay satisfaction guarantee. You can go through more than half of the entire course during that time and get all of your money back if it is not the right fit.
Become a Real Thai Massage Specialist
The bottom line is simple. Better training leads to better skills. Better skills lead to more clients. And more clients lead to a stronger, more sustainable career.
If you want to move from being one of many generalist Thai Massage therapists to being the specialist your clients seek out for real hip work, this course was built for you.
Our trainings are therapist friendly, easy on your thumbs and hands, and designed to give you the depth of skill that separates a genuine specialist from someone running a memorized sequence.
