Heeling Sole Barefoot Massage

About Jeni

Jeni Spring, Licensed Massage Therapist & Certified Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapist (LMP, LMT, CAOBT, MTI)

I grew up wanting to be an Astronaut. Then an artist. Then a professional ballet dancer... then a colorguard and dance instructor. It's not that none of those worked out... they all did! I'm outta this world like an astronaut. I'm an artist. I've danced with lots of different performing and competitive groups... and I taught colorguards and dance groups. I fell into this career of mine one year when I learned that my dance instructor wasn't using voodoo to help us stay healthy and heal from injuries .... it was massage!

At this point I was still planning on going to Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle to get my BFA in Dance (somehow, I wasn't sure exactly how yet - or what I'd do with that degree to pay off the huge student loan) but I figured somehow that Massage Therapy could get me there. I saw those commercials that made it look like you make a ~fabulous~ $80/hour living the second you become an LMT. (Fabulous, yes, as advertised, no. I realized this way later.) I just figured that I'd go to massage school first, and then once I graduated and had my license, massage could provide me and my hubby the life that surrounds the "Cornish Dance Student." Well about 3 days into massage school - which is about the day that I cracked open my massage theory book - I totally clicked in and realized that I was really supposed to massage. I think all my dance injuries just pointed me towards this new life!

Throughout that year of my massage training, I felt my body wanting to dance during each session. So I did. That led to my belly holding up the clients head or feet, my hip pushing into clients while using my hands and arms, my knee propping itself onto the client for a deeper hold, and eventually led to me finding a deeper creativity in my sessions to bring movement to my bodywork. 

While in my last term of my massage training, we were required to give a researched report on a massage modality that interested us, and I had stumbled upon an article in Massage Magazine about Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy that looked like the therapist was dancing on top of her client holding onto ballet bars in the ceiling! The same week a massage instructor of mine introduced me to her own floor-shiatsu-style barefoot massage creation, which she called "Lucky Feet", and I was lucky enough to receive a session from her. (There's two signs Jeni, do you need something more obvious!?)

Just like most people out there, I used to walk on my dad's back as a kid, I massaged the dog with my feet because I was too tired to use my hands, and as a dancer I always use my toes to pick up things around the house. Using my feet came kind of naturally - I just hadn't thought to actually massage a person with them yet. 

So needless to say, with Yvonne's sample of barefoot massage, and the article I found about Ashi, I was instantly amazed, hooked and my feet were thirsty to massage. It was like "DUH!" I found an Ashiatsu workshop a few weeks later and signed up — that Barefoot Basics workshop in 2003 was the same week I graduated from massage school, so I skipped my graduation ceremony and went to a life changing Ashiatsu workshop on an island near Seattle! (A cherry on top a few weeks after that: I interned as the massage therapist for the student dancers at Cornish AND they let me dance with them in warm up! How perfect did that work out!?) 

So it was dance injuries that got me into massage, and I have always felt that Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy helped me start my massage career on the right foot. I love using gravity and my body weight to give pressure, rather than pushing through my tiny little hands, wrists and arms. Without Ashiatsu I would probably have a pair of aching shoulders and wrists by now, would more than likely have an aching back, and might have burnt out on massage entirely.... but nope, barefoot massage has saved me more than I can count. (Although without massage in general I'd probably be an aching dancer!) 

Ashiatsu allows me to give the Deepest, Most Luxurious Massage on the Planet while dancing my own movement meditation of sorts. Barefoot massage is definitely a career starter, saver, and rejuvenator! When I broke my arm roller skating in January 2010, I was able to start massaging while still in a cast only 3 weeks later simply because I massage with my feet. Without barefoot massage, I would have been out of work for 4-6 months while that bone healed.

I've trained with the founder and leading instructors of both Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy and Fijian Massage, I helped build Barefoot Massage awareness in the Seattle area during my first 5 years of providing massage, and now I'm preachin' the gospel of barefoot massage to Texas as one of Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy's Associate Instructors. If you are a massage therapist, consider using Ashiatsu as your deep tissue modality, it'll change your life, and I can't wait to teach you this barefoot voodoo that I do!

Incase you were wondering, I still dance, but for fun. I love aerial dance, and I've had lots of fun with many other styles and groups that I've performed with. I have even more fun massaging the people I dance with ;) So now I want to "grow up" to be a blue haired yoga instructor. Lets see where that goes!

Posterous theme by Cory Watilo