Chair massage – or seated massage – isn’t exactly a new trend.  The ancient Chinese discovered trigger points in the body with healing responses so when the practice spread to India and Japan, the trigger point treatment method included a type of seated massage. Chair massage started catching the world’s attention in the 1980s when an entrepreneur called David Palmer actively promoted it.  His first major break came when Apple Computer hired him to give chair massages to employees.  When that ended, Palmer decided to launch his chair massage business.  It has since become popular, not only because of its simplicity and low overhead costs, but also because of the income potential.  Unlike a massage session, chair massage can be carried out within view of the public. Today, you see massage therapists at work in many public areas:  airports, malls, offices, hospitals, train stations and even in streets.  As Valerie Voner, LMT says, “for many folks, chair massage is their introduction into the healing world of skilled, compassionate touch.” (F+W Publications, 2004).

We looked for articles written by David Palmer, and we singled out this one which might be of special interest to students who are thinking of acquiring a chair massage franchise after graduation.  It’s an enlightening article that deals with fainting incidents of people receiving a massage while seated.  The fainting spells happened so frequently that questions were raised about whether or not chair massage could still be considered a viable practice. David Palmer decided to look into it because chair massage therapists were getting apprehensive.

David Palmer says that a person faints (medical term for fainting is “syncope”) when the vasovagal nerve reflex receives pressure, leading to a sudden drop in blood pressure and a decreased supply of oxygen to the brain.  When these two things happen, the person being massaged on a chair passes out and becomes unconscious.  David Palmer explains it fully in his article which you can read here:  http://www.massagetherapy.com/articles/index.php/article_id/310/Fainting-and-Chair-Massage.  After asking clients about their experiences, he discovered that those who fainted had low blood sugar at the time they were starting to be massaged because they had skipped a meal.  Also, a good number of those who fainted were just recovering from an illness like the flu.  Palmer points to the need for screening clients before therapists administer a massage.  Asking about medications, fainting spells and recent hospitalizations are good ways to screen clients.

Don’t let this piece of news change your mind about specializing in chair massage because there is high income potential in this line of work.  Opportunities are numerous.  Ms. Voner mentions conventions and meeting centers, charity events and schools.  “No matter the profession, just about everyone is willing to try a chair massage…massage of any type is fantastic, but there are many people who do not want to take off their clothes…Chair massage has no added expense, because you do not have to buy oils or use linens to drape,” she says.

While many schools offer chair massage as part of their program (the strokes used for chair massage are learned from Swedish massage, acupressure, stretching, petrissage and effleurage techniques) a few schools offer it as a distinct course or program.  The massage school in Marietta, Georgia – Everest Institute – specifically mentions seated massage as a course offering.  Also, the Potomac Massage Training Institute in Washington, DC offers it as a specialization. If you go to their web site http://www.pmti.org/index.php?id=3 and go to “About Us”, scroll down the page where you will see pictures of chair massage being done.