Consumer Edition

April 2005 | Vol. 6, No. 3
© 2005 American Massage Therapy Association®
All rights reserved.

Hello, e-touch reader!

When You think about receiving massage, a therapist's feet don't usually come to mind. But you may think otherwise after reading this month’s feature article about Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy™ (AOBT). Read on to learn about this unique modality where the therapist delivers the massage entirely with her feet. 

And remember, if you’re looking for a massage therapist, check out AMTA’s Find a Massage Therapist® national locator service.

Enjoy the issue!

~The Editors
E-mail: etouch@amtamassage.org

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BEST FOOT FORWARD MASSAGE THERAPISTS WHO ARE FEELING THE STRAIN ON THEIR BODIES ARE FINDING SANCTUARY IN AOBT

By Valerie A. Danner

Jessica Monson loved practicing massage therapy at her private practice in Denver until the demand of the job began to get the best of her. She didn’t know how she would be able to maintain a long career as a massage therapist.

“My body was killing me,” Monson recalls. Three years ago, she was trying to figure out how she could maintain her current schedule. Massaging six clients a day was taking a toll on her upper body, and a career she loved turned into something she started to dread. As she was walking out of a health food store contemplating her next career move, she came across a billboard showing Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy™ (AOBT), where the therapist gives massage with her feet while using bars positioned on the ceiling to maneuver and balance.

It clicked for Monson right at that moment. “I knew I was going to do well at it,” Monson remembers. Even without having ever received such a massage, she applied for AOBT

Photo courtesy of Ruthie Piper Hardee A demonstration of AOBT in action.

AOBT training, feeling it would be a good way for her to continue practicing massage, while easing the stress on her body. Now, it is the most requested type of massage at her practice, Serenity Now! Massage Therapy, Inc. She says there are no ill effects on her body, and she can give up to eight massages a day by using this modality.

“It changed my life,” Monson says. “Giving it is a relaxation.”

And that's good news for clients interested in getting a deeper massage than they can sometimes get with a therapist's hands.

What Is AOBT?

The word Ashiatsu literally means “foot pressure” (ashi means “foot” and atsu means “pressure”). While the roots of AOBT are certainly Eastern, the modality itself is based on Western philosophy. But to understand how AOBT became what it is today, one has to ask Ruthie Piper Hardee, the founder of the modality. She likens the modality to body surfing. “It is not walking on the back,” she says. “That is not what we do.”

Hardee officially began studying massage in 1990, but as a young girl, she traveled the world with her missionary parents. Her mom was a nurse; her dad was a doctor, and both served as missionaries for more than 15 years. One particular event stands out in Hardee’s mind: “In a public gathering place, there were many padded cots and an assembly line of small Asian women massaging as many as five men at the same time,” she says. “All would hold onto a long, wooden bar spanning the whole ceiling….”

Like Monson, massage began to take a toll on her body. Visions of what she witnessed

Photo courtesy of Ruthie Piper Hardee Massage therapists at a spa receive instruction in AOBT.

witnessed in the Philippines as a child came into view. She found little information about what she was looking for—she wanted to focus on Western science and the deep tissue techniques in which she was already trained. But from 1990 to 1995, she couldn’t find any courses in the United States that were dedicated to Swedish effleurage with feet.

So she took matters into her own “feet” and developed her own technique after months of research, collaboration with other health-care professionals, and plenty of people who were willing to let her work on them.

How It Can Help You

AOBT is ideal for large clients who prefer a deeper massage, who have an indicated condition (see below), or who simply enjoy new and different styles of massage. Many clients prefer the different sensation of feet as opposed to hands. According to Monson, clients with conditions such as chronic low back pain, sciatica, scoliosis, tight or painful hamstrings, tight or painful calves, and chronic upper back pain and fibrosis also can benefit from the modality.

But to be able to practice AOBT, one must complete the training by a certified therapist in the modality. Monson is one of nine therapists who are certified to teach AOBT, and clients should . In 2004, 127 people graduated with the right to call themselves a certified AOBT practitioner.

And if the response at Monson's practice is any indication, AOBT will only get bigger. Most of all, clients are happy with it. “People who receive it don’t want to go back to hand massage.”

~Valerie A. Danner is an associate editor with the American Massage Therapy Association. She can be reached at vdanner@amtamassage.org.

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DID YOU KNOW?

It is contraindicated for the following:
pregnant or trying to get pregnant
acute back pain
breast implants within 9 months
Lasik surgery within 72 hours
varicose veins
osteoporosis
heart conditions
cancer

Source: www.amtamassage.org/news/beforevisit.html