The differences between full body session, focus work, and focus work with full body.

You probably looked at the tittle and are wondering did I just read that correctly.

The answer is yes! You did read that correctly. There is a difference between a full body session, a focus work session, and a focus work with full body session.

A full body session:

Defintion of a full as taught in school: Back: to include shoulders, mid back, and low back. Extremities: Arms, hands, glutes/hips, legs and feet. Front of the body: Neck, scalp, and face, Trunk: chest and abs, Extremities: Arms, hands, legs and feet.

Mostly commonly done once outside of school: Back to include shoulders, mid back, and low back. Extremities: arms, hands, glutes/hips, legs and feet. Face up: Neck, arms, hands, legs and feet. Occassionally chest and scalp maybe included. All of this is dependant on what the client likes and dislikes.

Is a session where there is no areas of the body holding additional tension, pain, or injuries. Some people like some areas of the body massaged more than others like shoulders, hands and feet. With a full body session the therapist will spend equal amounts of time on each part of the body

An example based on a 60 minute session out side of school:

10 minutes on the back and shoulders, 10 minutes each arm and hand ( front and back) 10 minutes each glutes and leg (front and back), 5 minutues on the neck and 5 minutes and the feet. To accomdate the chest, scalp, and face, one would shorten the time on the arms and legs.

Focus work session:

As the name suggests. This is session is where we spend the entire session focused on an area or group of areas depending on the length of time. This session is for those who experience chronic stress, tension, pain, injury, in some cases even after surgery to break up scar tissue. Most common areas are shoulders, back, neck, and glutes/ hips.

Focus work with full body:

This is a combination session of focus work and full body. This session is my most common. The session is designed to spend a a little more time releasing tension, stress, pain, or work on an injury in the areas discussed between the therapist and client. At the same time the client still wants a little bit of massage in non tension holding area. With this session the therapist often shortens the length of time spent on the non tension areas or may skip an area to be able to accomadate the focus work.

An example of this based on a 60 minute session out of school would look like:

20 minutes on the back and shoulders, 10 mintues split between the arms and hands (front and back), 10 minutes split between eack glute and leg ( front and back), 10 minutes on the neck and 10 minutes each foot.

Please keep in mind each person’s needs are different and timing can be adjusted. This is part of the reason why Massage therapist discuss what you the client needs from the session. Each session maybe a little different depending on the focus and needs for that particular time. If there are areas you like having massaged let your therapist know that. With that knowledge the therapist can do more of what you like and less of what you do not like. If there is an area you do not like massaged for any reason please let your therapist know.