You already know how beneficial massage therapy can be for a wide variety of ailments and conditions. You offer relaxation, pain reduction and therapy to your clients on a daily basis. And when a client calls to book an appointment, whether it’s a new client or one of your regulars, your automatic response is to say, “Yes, of course. What time would be good for you?”

However, there are times when you’re going to have to say “no” to a client, even if they insist that a massage is the only thing that will help them feel better. In your massage classes, you learned about contraindications to massage, but sometimes it’s easy to ignore those when a client is very insistent, or when you’re afraid of losing their business. Just remember that in some cases, massage can actually be detrimental to a client’s health. With some conditions, you can also put yourself at risk of contracting illness or disease.

One of your tasks in providing client education is to inform them of the contraindications to massage so that you can ensure that, if one of these conditions crops up, the client informs you before you begin the massage.

The best way to protect yourself and make sure you and your clients act in an ethical manner is to provide ongoing education. Remind your clients that there are times when massage is not appropriate.

Massage Contraindications

You may want to start with the definition of “contraindication.” “Contra” means against, as in contrary, and indications are signs that tell you what to do one way or the other. Therefore, contraindications are signs or signals indicating that massage should not be performed.