Gentle Thai Massage in Relaxation Mode (Video)

Thai Massage became famous mostly because of the many yoga-like stretches that are part of the system. These are indeed quite unique, effective, and helpful.

Thai Massage without stretching

What is less known, but equally important, is that Thai Massage can be done without stretching as well.

Not everyone is capable of being stretched. and not everyone enjoys it. Think of elderly clients, people with certain injuries or operations, or people who just prefer a mostly relaxing treatment.

How do you accommodate such clients? If your Thai Massage repertoire lacks non-stretch techniques, there will be clients whose needs you cannot meet.

There are many elements in the Thai Massage system, and stretches are just one of them.

The three modes of Thai Massage

Keep in mind that there is no strict separation between these modes, and they can be blended in one session.

For example, you could end a rather intense session with gentle relaxation work, or you can alternate between strong techniques and relaxing techniques. But one of these modes can be emphasized in a session if the situation calls for it:

When to use the different modes of Thai Massage

• If your client is a yogi who enjoys intense stretching – that can be done.
• When your client is someone who has a shoulder problem, you can focus mostly on therapeutic shoulder work.
• If your client likes gentle work and loves drifting off into a deeply relaxed state, this can be done as well.

When would you use gentle non-stretch techniques?

Thai Massage is a very flexible system with many applications. It is possible to do most of a session in stretch mode, and it is also possible to do an entire session without any stretches at all. When would you do that?

The question is how you can do that and what techniques you would use for such a session. The video above shows you a few examples of such techniques. There are also many rocking techniques that work perfectly for such scenarios.

There are hundreds of techniques in Thai Massage. To learn more about them, check out our convenient and effective online training programs:

The author, Shama Kern, is the founder of Thai Healing Massage Academy. He has been practicing and teaching Thai Massage for over two decades, and he is the creator of 20 Thai Massage online training courses.